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.

Patrick Joven | Artist/Illustrator & Nursing Student

The creation of BioCreative Arts was the product of my childhood love for drawing and my educational experiences. I would say that the start of my journey began in elementary school science class where we were learning about the different systems of the human body and were tasked with creating a human shaped packet with a drawing for each system on the different pages. At that moment, I found my passion for drawing and my favorite subject. As I grew older, I always had the impression that there was no future in being an artist or making a career as a creative; Read more>>

Jenny Hughes | Trauma Psychologist and Founder of The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective

As a trauma therapist myself, I know how difficult and yet how rewarding this work is. So many trauma therapists either work in private practice, and can feel very isolated, or work in agencies that are not very supportive of the therapists’ self-care needs. I created the BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective to meet these unmet needs of trauma therapists in a space where community members have a shared understanding of what it’s like to do trauma work. Read more>>

Ava and Sophia Paley | Dancers who started www.Donate2Dance.org

Over four years ago we asked our mom for new tap shoes.. it was fall and dance classes were starting soon and our feet had grown over the summer. She was confused because she thought she had just recently bought us new shoes. Instead of marching over to Capezio she decided to make us clean out our closets to see what was lurking. One hour late, we were sitting in what felt like a volcano of too-small leotards, tight-fitting tap shoes, old costumes from recitals and worn out ballet slippers. We realized at that moment that instead of throwing all of these little treasure away, that we should do “something good” with it all. Read more>>