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.

Chancelle (Chance) Mafoua | Writer, Filmmaker & Entrepreneur

I decided to start my own business because I wanted to live a life by design free from financial stressors that allowed me to take care of my family and travel more. I knew I was not going to achieve this by working a regular job. Read more>>

Danny Pham | CEO & Founder of QT Nightlife

Prior to starting QT Nightlife, I had worked the nightlife industry under existing companies for about 17 years — right up until the pandemic forced all nightlife to abruptly close. Truthbetold, right before the pandemic, I was contemplating about retiring out of the nightlife industry to focus on my day job in government. Read more>>

Justin Johnson | Digital Content Producer & Brand Owner

I started my own businesses because I needed something that I could be proud of, something that I know for a fact that I have a helping hand in and it’s something that I can show off. I wanted to create from my heart and mind, as I went thru helping everyone with their “passion projects” I was concocting my own. Read more>>

Carolyn Kamii | Publicist, Garden Designer & Yogi

The process started when I realized I was managing the majority of the PR agency’s key accounts and my boss was away quite a bit, leaving me with a lot of decision making and client interface. Clients would comment to her, “Now you can go away more,” implying she had found someone reliable to “handle things” while away. Read more>>

Brandon Wood | Cheesemonger

During Covid times, like many people, i decided to take a look at my life and try to figure out if was happy. Turns out i was not at all. I had been working at WFM for 13 years (10 of the years behind a Cheese Counter) and things at my store had gotten rough and we were stretched pretty thin. Read more>>

Maurice -Nice Williams | Creative Director & Entrepreneur, M. “NiceInHarlem” Williams aka “Nice”

I have a quote “Fashion is A Sport, There are Players and There are fans. Which One Are You?” Once I realize my hobby was my passion, I stepped full on to the court. As a kid growing up in New York I’ve had the opportunity to consume and love a great deal of art in various outlets but what’s better and more fulfilling than producing these products and experiences for the people. Read more>>

Aryn Morris | Event Curator and Teacher

Bestie Brunch was started from a personal need for friends but a constant struggle to find them. I would often go out alone in hopes of making these connections but always fell short. I figured, if I can’t find a place, why not create a safe space for women who need friends to come together and be able to show up alone to aid in the friend making process.  Read more>>

Tiana Vassallo | Dancer

Being a dancer has always been a goal of mine. I remember watching videos of Kaycee Rice and Sean Lew and wanting more than to be like them when I grew up. I trained in all styles of dance from the age of 2 and when I was in grade 7 was when I decided that this is really what I wanted to pursue. Read more>>

Catie Menke | Photographer & Mixed Media Artist

I always wanted to be my own boss and start my own business. Spending so much time in a corporate design firm, I was holding myself back from the opportunity to find out if I could make it. In 2020, I had the space and time to focus on my creative career, so I set a goal for the business and spoke my intentions out into the world. Read more>>

James Musselman | Owner & Barista

The dark secret of the specialty coffee industry is that while most cafes will talk about their commitment to the environment, impacting climate change and improving sustainability they have built the foundation of their business model and profit margins off of a product that is a disaster for the planet— dairy milk. Read more>> 

Andres Karu | Cinematographer

Well for me, it was all about opportunity (in disguise actually). My musical partner and I had a record deal (this was in the 90s when the music business was very different), and based on advice from our manager, we spent the budget of our second album on the purchase of our own recording studio. Read more>>

Rodger Thomason | Design Engineer Consultant

After graduating from UCLA in 1982 with a degree in mechanical engineering, I began my career in the aerospace industry. However, towards the end of the 1980s, the industry experienced a downturn, leading to job losses for many engineers, including myself. These were tough times. Read more>>

Donte Williams | Digital marketer/Digital currency mentor

It honestly started with me having a lot of ambition and just wanting more for me and my family. I never liked having a ceiling and in many routes there are ceilings, but in entrepreneurship there is none. So before i knew what i was going to do i knew i would have my own business at some point. Read more>>

Denise White | Owner & Creative Enthusiast

If I can be honest, I didn’t want to start my own business. You can say I’ve always been a young entrepreneur going as far back to my teenage years braiding hair, not realizing that I was an entrepreneur at that age in those times. So, the thought of becoming a business owner wasn’t even a thought in my mind. Read more>> 

Cristina Medina | Intuitive Tarot Reader

I was laid off from my full-time job earlier in the year. It was a pretty dark period. I turned to energy healers and local clairvoyants, as I have done over the decades, whenever I needed direction or my heart was raw. Read more>>

DeMario “Marquis” Ward | Makeup Artist

My father initially inspired me to start my business, planting the seed of entrepreneurship within me. After he passed away, my motivation wavered. However, my mother and grandmother became the driving forces that pushed me to continue the process, giving me the encouragement and support I needed to persevere. Their belief in my vision and my potential fueled my determination to succeed. Read more>>

Natasha Pavlica | CEO & Founder

Early on, before I had my own company I saw there was a need to help the domestic workforce. We needed and and still need more domestic product development and manufacturing. Read more>>

Victor Arteaga | Yoga/Martial Art Teacher & Sound Alchemist

It’s more than a business to me. It’s a mission, a calling if you will. And the process really aligned itself. I was attending classes and sound baths in my neighborhood, never had I done this before in my life, but I saw the impact it had on me. I dropped a lot of bad habits and saw life differently through these practices. Read more>>

Aditi Wardhan Singh | Founder, Editor & Coach

To answer this question, I need to take you through my journey, which was quite organic. My passion for writing saw me grow from a blogger to a freelance writer, but I saw a space in the market where no one was talking about multicultural living and third-culture life. Read more>>

Jeffrey Nadal | Serial Entrepreneur|

The thought process behind starting my own business was a simple one: I wanted to live life on my terms with my wife. We were starting to plan to have a family & started realizing the reality of our situation. Read more>>

Yejin Park | Fashion Designer

My business, Fruitful and Multiply (FaM), specializes in creating unique keychains and bag charms using a variety of materials such as ropes, ribbons, cords, chains, beads, and charms. The inspiration behind starting my own business was to merge all the things I love into distinctive pieces that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Read more>>

Javin Reid | Designer, Metal Artist & Owner of WestValleyForge

I was a collector of vintage items way before I began selling handmade rings and retro jackets at WestValleyForge. I found old motorcycle jackets at yard sales, cool bomber jackets at thrift stores, and a rarity online on occasion. Read more>>