Ideas aren’t everything, execution matters greatly, but starting often requires an idea and so we asked folks to think back and tell us the story of how they came up with the idea for their businesses. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite stories below.

Sherise Miller | Entrepreneur

It has taken a lot of brainstorming to get here. I enjoy crafting and I love surprising people. During the pandemic, I started making memorial shadow boxes with my daughter and giving them as gifts. It became too much for her and she often expressed wanting to make things for happier occasions. I racked my brain with hundreds of ideas before finally coming up with the concept of Krates and Things. Read more>>

Jaydine Royes | Luxury Picnic & Intimate Events

It actually was never an intentional plan or idea! My best friend’s birthday was coming up. She had always talked about wanting to have a picnic party like they do on Pinterest. I took it upon myself to make that vision come to life! I invited four of our closest friends and got to work. My partner at the time helped me obtain some wooden pallets that we could use as picnic tables. Most Items like blankets and throw pillows were already household items we never used, in addition I went to a couple stores like goodwill, tjmax, and grabbed table wear / cute decor, nothing fancy. I really just put a couple things I found together. I was eighteen at the time I didn’t really have the budget to go extravagant but made do! Read more>>

Darin Roche | Founder

Authentic Ginger was inspired by my four children, now aged 8, 10, 13, 24. Our 3 youngest are girls and we have our son who is now on his own! Our three girls were drawing one day in our living room, mystical creatures that they ended up borrowing a horn from one, or an arm from another, or a face from another to create these interesting designs. What came out of these designs by then 3-7 year olds were creations that made you think, for example, our eldest daughter drew a mix between a unicorn and a dinosaur, the result – magical! We thought it would be neat to have these custom, imaginable designs on apparel and sell them to small boutiques around our city. Read more>>

Rose & Dguerson Joseph | Entrepreneurs

My husband and I are a very ambitious and driven pair. Unplug and Unwind is our second business together. In 2020, during covid our other business halted as everything was shut down with no insight on where things would reopen. We have always loved smell goods for our home ranging from candles to room sprays. We especially loved to use them after cooking and cleaning. For those who are from the Caribbean can surely relate, after cooking the smell of the spices and the food would permeate the house and at times even after cleaning the smell still stuck around. Read more>>

Brittany Renaud | Registered Nurse & Founder/CEO The Pampered Patient

I have been a Registered Nurse for the past 15 years. My work has mainly encompassed being in the hospital at the bedside. While I enjoyed the work I did, I always knew my role would eventually evolve and I would branch off and begin my own business. Healthcare can be tricky. You have an influx of patients who come into the hospital to seek care. Often times for chronic conditions. I started noticing a revolving door of patients who come in for what I like to call a “tune up” for an acute condition that is more than likely related to the chronic condition they already have. Read more>>

Matty O’Brennan | Songwrighter/Guitarist of The Chodes

We kinda just tripped and fell into it, We had to cover a slot in a festival last minute, we throughly together a band got drunk and just learned a bunch of misfits covers, We showed up and when they asked what our band name was we just laughed and said “we are The Fuckin’ Chodes”. We wanted to just have fun, play on stage and go home, Turns out it was more fun than we thought and started actually writing songs. Read more>>