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.

Margarita Kurtova

To be honest, I didn’t “come up” with the idea in one moment — it evolved through every brushstroke, every client project, every decision to trust my vision.

I’ve always been a visual person — deeply drawn to art, emotion, and aesthetics. But I’ve also always had a strategic mind. Even when I was creating illustrations or paintings, I was thinking about how they made people feel, how they communicated a message, how they could move someone. Read More>>

Lisa

Before I started focusing exclusively on elopements and proposals, I spent three years photographing traditional weddings. It was beautiful in many ways, but also often hectic: packed timelines, stressed couples, and a lot of pressure to follow traditions. When COVID hit, all my weddings were canceled. In the middle of that, I was hired to photograph my very first elopement, and that day completely changed how I viewed weddings. Read More>>

 Laura Welty

Mister Tangle was born in the daily chaos of untamed toddler tresses and morning rushes. Between the two of us, we had daughters with the most beautiful — and impossibly tangly — hair. Detangling became a ritual of patience, problem-solving, and a lot of gentle negotiation. It was as if the knots had a personality of their own… and that’s when the idea sparked. What if we turned that frustration into something fun? Read More>>