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.

Taylor Gardner Chaney | Founder/ CEO

My little sister Lindsay was born down syndrome and we’re only 16 months a part, I’ve never known life without her. We’ve always been very close but her transition to adulthood was very difficult. I had so many opportunities at my fingertips – what college did I want to go to? Did I want to travel? What career did I want to have? For my sister, her future looked very different than mine. She didn’t have choice in opportunities. Read more>>

Nish Goel | Entrepreneur, Community Organizer, Ethnogeriatrics Consultant

I had been in corporate America (Great Western, Countrywide, Bank of America, etc..) for over 25 years. Having climbed the corporate ladder to a management position didn’t give me much satisfaction. In fact, the trajectory up didn’t appeal to me, I could see that in order to move further up, it would take politics and a ‘You Fail. I Succeed’ attitude to get promoted. Read more>>

Diane Rojas Olivas | Master Canine Trainer

I was originally in the medical field for a while (7,8 yrs, possibly more ) I decided i needed to earn extra income as my medical full time job was not going to be enough to support me and my 3 children. I started downloading doggy sitter apps and dog walking , within the first 2 years I started investing more and more time into my clients and their pets, even if that meant passing on my 1 hr lunchtime to do drop ins or walks my clients needs were always and still are my number #1 priority. Read more>>