It takes a lot more than an idea to build a business, but there can’t be a business without the idea. So we asked folks who’ve built wonderful businesses to tell us about how they came up with the idea in the first place.

Kirsten Evans | Co-Owner of Sample Library Company INLETAUDIO

Thomas and I met while we were studying composition at university in the UK. Since then we have not only become business partners but also partner, living together in LA! As a composer of music for media you inevitably use a wide variety of music software to create your music and so everyday we are using sample libraries to create sounds for our soundtracks. Read more>>

Evelyn Seubert | Co-Founder and President, International Youth Media Summit

I was in my second year of teaching high school film production when the planes started hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The world changed forever. Within hours, we saw the hate and violence that was directed at people of certain ethnic backgrounds, and I thought, “We have to do something about this”.  Read more>>

Shaunna Costicov-McCombe | Executive Director & Grey Wolf Advocate

I started The Big Bad Project, a 501(c)(3) to reduce and eliminate barriers to environmental and conservation education. I have always been a strong advocate for grey wolves, they were my favorite animal growing up and, as I got older, I recognized the significance they have in the environments they reside in. Read more>>

Andrés Taboada | Writer/Director

Back in 2009, I went on my first road trip to Baja. We drove from LA all the way down La Paz. I fell in love with it, the people, the food, the beautifully empty landscape. It became my go-to travel destination whenever I could afford it. Years later, my family and I spent Thanksgiving in La Misión, a small border town between Rosarito and Ensenada. Read more>> 

Kadda Sheekoff | Humanitarian & Entrepreneur

My name is Kadda Sheekoff, the CEO and founder of Kadda Sheekoff INFO. I grew up in a small town in Haiti called Haut-Coq Chante, At the age of eleven, my family immigrated from Jacmel, Haiti to the United States. Read more>>