Our city is home to so many incredible businesses and so we asked the founders how they came up with the ideas for their businesses and have shared their responses below.

Casey Ritt | Sports Photographer

The launch and popularization of Instagram happened right around the same time as I started pursuing a professional beach volleyball career on the National Volleyball League and the American Volleyball Professionals Tours. There is very little money to be made in such a niche sport, unless you successfully market yourself to sponsors as both an athlete and a person. Read more>>

Robert and Kristin Morano | Creatives

Me and Kristin had been bag designers in the outdoor // Action Sports Industry for over 15 years each at brands Vans, Dakine, etc and had always had the idea of doing our own thing someday. The 2020 year brought a lot of change for most people, throughout that time the brand we were working with shut things down in Hood River, Oregon and we were at a decision point inn our careers. We love hood River and everything about living here so we decided to go all in and start working towards our dream of creating a brand thats manufactured locally, supports the community, and features products created sustainably. Read more>>

Lawrence Dvorak | Owner of dvorak cinema & camera operator/Location sound recordist

Well I got the idea from my business growing up as a skateboard filmmaker and moving and transitioning myself to working in television and film production now. Basically it was combining the two passions that I like filmmaking and skateboarding and my own personal stamp behind it. That’s how I came up with Dvorak cinema LLC which is a production company that is based in Denver Colorado. Read more>>

Stephanie Torres Molinar | Artist, Therapist, & Chingona

The idea for Las Chingonas Tambien Lloran began in the fall of 2021 in the back of an SUV on the way to a concert. My friend/business partner, Laura, and I had occasionally talked about the idea of starting a sticker business to promote mental health in our community, although never with the real intention of actually doing it. For some reason though, during this ride, we were inspired enough to begin the process of thinking through how we could make our idea a reality. Read more>>

Hon. Ken Wise | Justice, 14th Court of Appeals (Texas) & Podcast Host

I have loved Texas history my whole life. I wanted to give something back to the history community and there wasn’t a Texas history podcast. Since I was already an active public speaker I thought I’d give it a try. It has become way bigger and more popular than I could have possibly imagined. Read more>>

Josh Larsen | Outdoorsman

Hunting and fishing has always been my passion. I wanted a way to reach people through outdoor adventures. We now help disabled veterans with outdoor adventures through our outreach program. Read more>>