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.

Jillana Miller | Chef and Co-owner of Miller Butler with my husband Ahmad Butler

Both Ahmad and I have put in many years of work in the service industry. I worked as a private chef in the entertainment industry for about 10 years and he in Hotel management. We connected on our passion for food and service, early on in our relationship. We quickly understood that with our combined experience and gifts we had something special. Read more>>

Chef Rie Sims | Chef

Chef Rie Sims “Growing up in Indonesia and then immigrating to America I realized that my profession in Indonesia as a Movie Director and Producer would not be easy to do here. Also I wanted to start a family with my husband and that profession is difficult to juggle work life balances. Read more>>

Eva Seelye | Adventure, Brand, and Airbnb Commercial Photographer

was gifted my very first camera when I was maybe 8 years old–a little Polaroid iZone–and I was hooked ever since. I began working at my town’s local newspaper in the Marshall Islands and photographed every event I could convince my boss to send me to. Sports, community gatherings, portraits, you name it, I was there with the paper’s DSLR in hand, dreaming of the day I’d have one of my own, but I never thought it could turn into a full-time career. Read more>>

Sal & Jo Carranza | Los Underdogs

In the beginning, we were PTA parents simply wanting to support our kids’ school. Sal always liked to cook and barbecue, so we bought a small hotdog cart to cater at their elementary school to help raise funds. Our original name, Underdogs, came from the fact that we were new to the scene and concept of food vending and that we mainly only sold hotdogs. Read more>>

Marcin Andruszkiewicz | Owner, Founder, General Manager Type Guy

Personally (Marcin here), I had grown up in a family where my parents were immigrants who had started their own construction business, and I had a lot of respect for what they had to go through taking that risk. Especially as people in a foreign land that barely spoke or wrote the language. Read more>> 

Stephanie Russo | Photographer

Ah it was a leap of faith more than it was a methodical process. I knew I loved photography, and knew I couldn’t keep wondering “what if it was my profession” much longer. After putting a two weeks notice in at my 9-5, I allowed myself six months to make a business plan and put words into action. Read more>>

Louie Espitia | home audio engineer

I was inspired to start recording and engineering on my own after working with Jacob Summers in his home studio in Los Angeles. I have always loved music and really enjoyed the recording process when my band was making our first recordings, so after seeing that it was possible to accomplish decent-sounding recordings at home, I decided to start learning on my own in order to be able to make and record music whenever I wanted to. Read more>>