We reached out to some of our favorite entrepreneurs and asked them to think back and tell us about how they decided to start a business. Check out their responses below.

Tristan Rumery | Creative Entrepreneur & Brand Specialist

It wasn’t necessarily about THOUGHT at the beginning of the business. It was about a need for a transition during turbulent times. A lot of thought went into developing it. I had been teaching art, design and other subjects for a dozen years when Covid hit. It had been a long time since I was able to make the time to DO instead in TEACH. As the summer of 2020 came, the school was unable to renew a lot of contracts and I was left looking for something new in a crazy time. Read more>>

Frank Zavala | Professional Portrait & Fashion Photographer

Well, I’ve always wanted to start my own business. To be able to own my own brand, being able to see it grow, and to be part of the process with my family has turned that thought into a reality. As my passion for photography grew bigger, so did my desire to turn that passion into a business. Read more>>

Tiara Budiendra | Illustrator & Entrepreneur

It all started when I realized a lot of local Indonesian brands does not have a single element of Indonesian culture on their branding system. Nearly all of them has a western benchmark with English names for each of their products/shade names. Truthfully, nothing wrong with that but it was clearly missing some Indonesian root. I realized in the modern age cosmetic world, sitting side by side with an element of tradition may seem “old” and irrelevant but that’s where I wanted to explore. Read more>> 

Rebecca Carmona | String Artist

Ever since I was little I knew that I always wanted to do two things. Own my own business and help people. I had no clue what to do though and pushed it aside through college until I was pregnant with my first. Then I felt that need to find a way to be home with my son while still bringing in an income. It took me a couple years of trying different things and failing. Until one day I was scrolling on Pinterest and saw this GORGEOUS string art sunflower! Read more>>

Allexia Barros | Professional basketball player & owner of the Underdogs

My thought process behind starting my own business is to give my community something different and empower women. I want to be able to help women’s basketball grow. My everyday goal is to inspire and motivate people on and off the court. With my trainings I can help someone build their game to the next level. Help them build the confidence they never knew they had and just have fun with the game of Basketball. Read more>>

Kailey Gonzalez | Textile Artist & Digital Marketer

Half of my day job is graphic design, but I like to play with other mediums off the clock. During COVID lockdown (like most of us), I had a lot of free time on my hands. That’s when I decided to make rugs—it had been on my bucket list to get into textiles, and after I found punch needle, then tufting, it quickly took off. Read more>>

Fabrice Guerrier | Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer and Founder of Syllble Studios

What was your thought process behind starting your own business? I was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and moved to the U.S when I was 13. My entire life I’ve searched for the perfect tool or process that holds the greatest ability to profoundly transform our societies for the better. I initially had gone the ‘International Relations’ route and when I moved in December 2016 to Washington D.C for work, little did I know there was about to be a seismic shift in the political landscape. Read more>>

Good Mother Gallery | Contemporary Art Gallery Los Angeles

We started Good Mother Gallery in 2014 in Downtown Oakland to provide a space for young emerging artists to showcase their work in a gallery setting. A lot of the time it can be complicated for new artists to navigate the gallery world. Finding a space that will take a chance on their work even if they don’t necessarily have a lot of previous gallery experience can be especially difficult. Read more>>

Wesley Kang | San Gabriel Valley Realtor

I wanted to start my own business, because I thought of it as the only way to unlock an individual’s maximum potential. Not just earning potential, but the potential to explore interests, be creative, and ultimately serve the community. In the last 7 or so years, I’ve gained invaluable experience in understanding how to build a digital brand, working on e-commerce and building websites. In this endeavor, I served others like me by selling more size-inclusive dress shirts. Read more>>

Adriana Gonzalez | SLPA/Small Business Owner

The National Alliance on Mental Illness website states that “over 40 million adults in the U.S.” suffer from anxiety. I am one of those adults. Magic Stitches Company actually started as “Rex’s Creativity”. During this time, I was crocheting pet shoes for my puppy and one of my photos received a lot of attention on social media. I even started an Etsy page for these. At the time, I lived in Northern California and was beginning to suffer from depression. Read more>>

Andre Elijah | Immersive Director

It’s pretty simple: I wanted to work in a nascent industry and set the standard. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of industries and technologies be ruined by people poisoning the well, and I figured I could do my part to grow the audience of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality beyond the sphere of developers and enthusiasts and into the mainstream. Read more>>