It takes a lot more than an idea to build a business, but there can’t be a business without the idea. So we asked folks who’ve built wonderful businesses to tell us about how they came up with the idea in the first place.

Meghan Jaskinia | Conscious Eating Coach

My business, Healthy and Happy with Ease, and the Conscious Eating Approach came from my own experience with a negative relationship with food and body image. I struggled with disordered eating, vicious diet cycling, and emotional and mental challenges because of it. It made me blindly go through life for too long. At the point I was fighting for my health due to a spinal cord lesion, I knew I needed to make a change. I began to eat in a way that allowed me to FEEL my best. I discovered what foods were healthier for me and what foods I should limit. I stopped being fearful of food because I took back the control of figuring out what truly worked for me instead of relying on someone else to tell me what to eat. Read more>>

Mike Glasscock | Vintage Store Owner & Designer

I have always had a passion, an eye and a love for all things design. With a background in graphic design, I have looked at other industries for inspiration and influence, whether that be interior, architecture, fashion or furniture. Styling my own home with vintage items I have collected over the years and always new furniture to love. My home got pretty full and I decided to part ways with some, just selling on Facebook Marketplace and Instagram. That turned into a side hobby/hussle, realizing there was a nitch of people after the same things I was. Read more>>

Alex Pappas, Robert Blakely N/A | Owners

Both Robert and I have worked in different roles in the cannabis industry. We found a common problem in edible consumption. Most people do not know that cannabinoids are fat soluble. Meaning you need some sort of fat in your body to help ingest the cannabinoids efficiently. During my time working in dispensaries I have countless stories of people who had the idea if they ate an edible on an empty stomach they would get a better buzz. I assumed this idea came from consuming alcohol on an empty stomach giving you a stronger buzz. Read more>>

Ashe Thorne | Queer Metal Artist and Entrepreneur

I learned to Blacksmith at CU Boulder in 2013 and immediatly fell in love with it. As I became more involved in learning the skills for this trade, I began to notice that it was an incredibly cis- gendered, caucasian, and male dominated field. I would attend the yearly Rocky Mountian Smiths conference and I was often the only female blacksmith attending. I have also worked in commercial metal/fabrication shops since 2016 and the same mono culture was and still is prevalent there as well. As a BIPOC queer person it could be alienating at the best times and abusive at the worst times. Read more>>

Asia Pena | Mompreneur & Business Owner

In the year 2000, I nicknamed my grandma ‘Nana Snaps’ because she would snap her fingers at me with the intention to make my current actions more hastily. My Nana was a railroad worker and a single mother of two with the dream of living a more family-oriented lifestyle. Through her continuous search for some kind of path that reflected a brighter future, she found a co-worker with similar intentions who informed her about the vending industry. Read more>>