A dad can’t find a bakery to make a birthday cake that can accommodate his daughter’s allergy-related needs. Two freelancers realize they need a way to organize all of their client contracts and can’t find software that adequately handles their use case. Necessity is often hailed as the mother of innovation – but not all ideas come from necessity. Unfortunately, in our experience, often media coverage of the ideas that powered amazing businesses and projects often stops at a very superficial level. The founders noticed a need and boom – idea. Often the ideation process has a much longer, more complex story and so we’ve asked some entrepreneurs and creatives we admire to go into detail about their ideation stories.

Cedric Furlow

I’ve always loved music. That’s been my calm me down, pick me up for forever. When work was scarce I felt the one thing I was really good at was being a DJ. Read more>>

John Light

Our company Evans Coolant makes and sells waterless engine coolant. All the other products out there are water-based since the beginning, since 1860. Read more>>

Aleah Tucker

I came up with the idea for Indie Earth with absolutely no intention of opening a store. Truthfully, my family and I were chatting about an empty storefront in the center of downtown Buffalo. Read more>>

Leila Ellis-Nelson

In 2015 Leila was asked by Dr. Chukwuemeka Ikegwuonu to visit his student group on the campus of Arizona State University specifically focused on improving Black male outcomes in post-secondary institutions. Read more>>

Ashleigh Leon

The Side Garage, was born one night at the kitchen counter. A year and a half prior, I had left a position at a screen print shop feeling burnt out. Read more>>

Kiswanna Battle

It all started with a personal experience. I had a family member who was diagnosed with down syndrome. I have witnessed others in my community or in my church with learning difficulties. Read more>>

Sara Figueroa

Hound House Coffee began as a way to continue supporting Hound Rescue after our family adopted several rescue hounds. We realized we could combine our love for coffee with our passion for helping animals by selling premium roasted coffee beans and donating 20% of profits to Hound Rescue. Read more>>

BLK in Bloom

BLK in Bloom was conceived by Brandi Neloms, Alexia Harris, and Ka’Ress Boykin from a shared vision of fostering unity and prosperity for Black women. Read more>>

Maddie Pellman

I was visiting my sister in Seattle and we were having dinner with family friends. During dinner, we ended up talking about the Yellowstone Superintendent and I was enthralled. Read more>>

Elizabeth Alderson

My business is Travelling Yoga Teacher, I am a yoga teacher and I am also a Birth Doula. I started my business when I moved to Colorado in my late 20’s. Read more>>

Tristan Edwards

The year 2020 was a very up and down year due to Covid. The job i was employed at shutdown several times that year because of how quickly Covid had spread. Read more>>

Chelsea Gastelum

The Busy Bee Garden Co-op is an all volunteer organization installing native pollinator gardens around Lemon Grove, so it doesn’t function the same way as a business. Read more>>

Emily Graf

I have been drawn to birthwork and supporting birthing women for a long time. My mom is a midwife, and I grew up in the warm circle of her “witchy” friends, other midwives and women’s healthcare providers who supported each other with warm meals, friendship, and laughter. Read more>>

Erick Cruz

Drawing was something I was always able to do. I spent a lot of time sketching, starting at a young age with popular cartoon and video game characters, and then moving on to portraiture around the high school years. Read more>>

Arthur Oniah

I came up with the tag line #PerseveranceAndGrowth in 2019. Through much prayer and meditation, I identified my life’s work as a continuum of personal development and achievement. Read more>>

Peric Fang

The idea for Pinto Gallery was sparked when I collected my first Takashi Murakami print from the Broad Museum in Los Angeles and noticed a significant purchase price difference between Japan and the United States. Read more>>

Andrea Trent

I began my playwrighting journey writing skits for our youth group at church. At the time I didn’t really think too much about this skill. When I returned to Washington DC after college, my mom who was president of the Women’s Ministry at our church, thought we should use theater as a means to teach the youth at our church about black history. Read more>>

Cassie Walker Johnson

While I have been a full time real estate agent for nearly 20 years, I have always had a passion for brand marketing and keeping my creative juices flourishing. Read more>>

Yuliya Bekyrska

Thank you for your interest in my moss foraging business! Let me take you on a journey of how this idea came to be. As someone who has always had a deep love for plants and nature, my journey began with a simple hobby of creating terrariums and miniature gardens. Read more>>

Karla M. Tomanelli

Photography has always been a creative outlet for me to express myself artistically… I would always have a disposable camera or a point and shoot in hand wherever I went– mainly just to capture candid moments with friends and family. Read more>>

Latrice Thomas

The genesis of Imajine Me, a nonprofit for teen parents, is deeply rooted in my personal journey and the challenges I faced as a teen parent yourself. Read more>>

Queen BluePrint®️

My journey to founding the Money Mindset Clinic™️ is deeply personal and rooted in the challenges my family faced while I was growing up. Read more>>