Risk is the most common topic that comes up in our conversations with entrepreneurs and so each week we ask entrepreneurs to talk to us on the record about how they think about risk.

Alessia & Iacopo Lugoboni – Di Luigi | Co Founders | Lazy Dancer Tips

When we started Lazy Dancer Tips we didn’t know anything about business, branding, marketing, sales, etc. We also didn’t have much capital to invest so we started very lean. To test the waters around our niche we launched a YouTube channel and started uploading valuable content that was evergreen with the hope to raise enough interest and give validation to the project. It took us less than 1 year to realise that 10 thousand people following our channel weren’t just subscribing by chance. Read more>>

Melanie Granfors | Owner, Dog Devoted Vintage

This is such a great question! I thrive on challenges and change in my life. I’ve always taken risks– both personally and professionally. I’m not a “physical” risk taker. You won’t see me rock climbing or sky jumping. But when it comes to career or life decisions and an interesting opportunity arises; details be damned. I’m going for it. Read more>>

Melissa Parker & Easton Bajsec | Owners of Scisters Salon and Apothecary, San Diego’s 1st Zero Waste Salon

No innovator has ever been successful without taking risks on some level. Our biggest risk was when we chose to stop selling a major professional product line to begin Element, our zero waste beauty product line, and open the first zero waste salon without a model of a successful and established one. We have learned that doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest, Read more>>

Jimmy Dendrinos | Founder of NFT Concerts

Personally, I have always pushed myself to choose the path of most excitement, even if it is a bit risky. When it comes to risk, my outlook is that I would rather deal with the consequences of a risk gone bad than live in fear and risk regret. While I hesitate to put my physical safety at risk (you won’t find me base-jumping), I will jump at the opportunities to try something new, travel to new places, and meet new people. Read more>>

Julie Nguyen | Photographer

Everything in life is a risk. We take risks the moment we wake up without even realizing it. Spring 2020 was the year I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Child and Adolescent Development it was also the year the pandemic hit. Becoming a teacher has always been my goal and dream career but when the pandemic hit, everything changed. I wasn’t so sure anymore and found myself lost and stuck somewhere I’ve never felt before. Someone special to me gifted me a camera and I decided to take a risk, pause what I had been working on and shoot my shot. Read more>>

Cassidy Austin | Fine Artist & Entrepreneur

Only once you remove the ego can you truly take risks. Without risks, you can never really grow or succeed, for the opposite is complacency. This is what drives me. This is why I wake up every day with a sense of purpose: to face whatever challenges come my way. I know that if I want something bad enough, then I have to be willing to risk everything for it. Read more>>

Gena Haidar | Cafe Owner

Risk taking is often underrated, a true underdog to many situations. For me, risk taking is not synonymous to irresponsibility or recklessness but a foundational opportunity to face fears, helping me become adaptable and resilient to life’s surprises. Taking risks really is also an opportunity to honor my past as well as my parents who risked their lives to make a better life for me by immigrating to the United States from Lebanon. Risk taking presents itself in many ways and in my case it was to explore and fulfill the idea of having my own business. Read more>>

Alejandro Torres | Chef

Taking risk has always been the difference of making what I want in life, since making a residence chage or starting my own business. If you want change you need to go all in, that´s never easy but the gratification is always enormous. Read more>>