Are you thinking about starting a business? If so, we think you’ll enjoy reading about how these seasoned entrepreneurs thought about the question when they were in your shoes.

Sky Daniels | Writer and Podcast Host

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been interested in the paranormal and unexplained. I distinctly remember writing an essay in elementary school about how I wanted to investigate ghosts and the paranormal for a living while all the other kids were writing about more practical things they wanted to be when they got older. I have also always loved to write, whether it was short stories or essays. Earlier this year, I had a blog that was doing quite well where I wrote about yoga, holistic medicine, recipes, and spirituality. It was something I was doing for fun, but deciding what to write about every week became a bit of a chore, so I decided to take a leap and start over with something new. Read more>>

Meredith Raffel | Meredith Raffel is the Founder and Executive Director of The Arts Alliance.

I am the founder and executive director of my organization called The Arts Alliance. I founded the organization because I saw a huge void in my community. At the time, I was living in the fastest growing community in the state of Ohio and there was no organized arts organization here. There was nowhere for talented individuals to share their work, and no reason for the community to gather for any arts programming. Read more>>

Ben Petersen | Creator of Knife Schtuff

I’m a glutton for punishment! 4 a.m. hikes in the snow? Yes please. Backpacking into wild canyons? Count me in. Waterskiing at 6 a.m.? Let’s do it. Work a 60 hour week for my employer? Of course! Stay late and make it happen? Sure thing. Applying a “full send” mentality to a corporate job means I accomplished really cool things, but I found myself fraying at the edges. I was building castles in someone else’s sandbox at my own expense. I figured I could put similar effort into my own ideas and build my own sandbox. I could start to create the world I wanted to see. Read more>>

Dean Reitz | Digital Illustrator & Designer

I recently returned to higher education after five and a half years in corporate space planning to pursue a degree in Industrial Design. With my previous degree and experience in graphic design, I thought this would be a great opportunity to continue creating and reaching new people while building an audience as I progress in my education. For as long as I can remember, my dream has always been to run my own design studio. I want to be unrestricted in what I can create, the products or clients I can work with, Read more>>

Casey Banker | DJ

My thought process around starting my own DJ company was to find better client fits for my services while at the same time not giving up so much of the return to DJ agencies. I started off working for a large DJ agency and I soon realized that the majority of the fee went to the booking agency. It was alarming to see so many of the DJ’s doing most of the leg work and not being rewarded more. Read more>>

Ryan Stephen Holly | Writer, Director, Producer

My thought process behind starting my business Ocean Exile was born out of rebellion. I wanted to rebel against the way traditional production companies are run. I yearned to plant the seeds necessary to grow a sustainable creative collective. Creativity and originality are some of my major passions, and through my Hollywood experiences I learned traditional business models revolved around safe formulas and familiar intellectual properties instead of the creative community I craved to cultivate. Read more>>

Zee Crain | Frontwoman, Songwriter, and Multi-Instrumentalist in Wicked Vixen

I started playing music at a very young age. I was about 4 years old when I picked up a violin for the first time. I always had a love for music, but it wasn’t until I became a teenager, and lived through some really tough years, that I decided that music was it for me. I was listening to music nonstop and would lock myself in my room and practice for hours. The thing about music is that it was an escape – a way to block out the world and a way to find others who I resonated with. When I discovered classic rock and Led Zeppelin, that music to me had so much substance and was full of emotion (not just lyrically). Read more>>

Sarah Peck | Doctor of Physical Therapy and Trifecta Co-owner

When Trifecta was started I wanted to change the way people think about Physical Therapy by offering tailored, one-on-one treatment of the whole person. Our clinic offers a full hour of hands on, high quality care to efficiently get patients back to the things they love as quickly as possible. There are no lines, no waiting rooms, no technicians, no insurance co-pays, no authorization requirements and no required referrals.. It is healthcare reimaged. I had worked in traditional PT clinics and wanted to be able to care for patients differently. Trifecta is committed to helping patients achieve their goals. Read more>>

Kasey Gates | Videographer

After so many years of part-time video work with a full-time chef work I got tired of having a boss and just wanted to work on my own time and be my own boss. I wanted to make money through creating rather than breaking my back for 50 hours a week. Read more>>

Christine FitzGerald | Ayurvedic Enthusiast & co-founder of Homecooked Hygge

We both are passionate about Ayurveda, and helping others learn more about this ancient, healing wisdom. During a time when most of us are operating at high-speeds and often do not make time to prioritize our health, it’s easy to grab whatever food is closest and most convenient. Unfortunately that often means fast or highly-processed food. We may not all have time to prepare nutrient-dense scratch-cooked food, but we know our bodies need it! Read more>>

Spencer Walker | Pennant Maker & Designer

I have always been a collector of vintage goods and particularly partial to felt pennant flags. During the pandemic, my hotel management job went away, so I began drawing them for fun to pass the time. As time went on I started posting them online and some people were interested in them. Slowly I began designing and hand-making my own original felt pennants. I never really had the goal of starting my own business. However, due to circumstance I had no other choice but to try and monetize my new found hobby. Read more>>

Ari Hunniford | Founder, Zen Seeker

When starting my own journey into spirituality I was blessed with a group of friends who I could talk to about the emotions, messiness, and awkward moments that inevitably came up. As I shared more openly to others outside my core group about my own journey I heard one thing over and over again, “ME TOO! I just wish I had someone to talk to about this. Nobody gets what I’m going through. I thought I was alone.” It was clear that there are so many people who don’t have a support system around spirituality. Thus Awkwardly Zen was created as a safe space for EVERYONE to awkwardly be themselves while exploring their spiritual paths. Read more>>

Kristen Schnake | Fitness + Nutrition Coach

Freedom. First of all, freedom to set my schedule and design my day and build my business so that I will not burn out, can maintain balance, and can serve my clients longterm. Secondly, freedom to best help clients by serving them with fitness & nutrition programming that is in line with the most recent research and also backed with years of experience. Read more>>

David Abookire | Licensed Massage Therapist and Founder of Boulder Therapeutics, Inc.

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As a child I had paper routes, shoveled snow from driveways, cut lawns and started a car cleaning business. I worked in corporate America for a few years then decided to set out on my own. I did some backcountry guiding and also taught myself HTML coding and designed websites for a few companies, but all along I wanted to do something that helped people. Read more>>

Ian Terry | Owner of DoomWood Outfitters

In the Spring of 2022 I caught Covid and was having one of those wildly high fevers and for some reason I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. Perfect time to make a plan, right? I’d always been a fan of metal/hardcore/punk music and I also love hiking/the outdoors. I decided to combine these two loves and DoomWood Outfitters was born. I wanted to create something that was not only very cool, Read more>>

Jeremiah Warren | Author and entrepreneur

Working 40-60 how a week every week with barely anytime for myself and family became tedious. I knew I had what it takes to run my own business and live the life that I wanted so I went for it. Read more>>

Gleb Tchertkov | Wormhole COO

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even think of Wormhole as a business for the first few years. The first few events were just a small group of friends listening to bass music on a tiny PA during happy hour at a beer garden so it didn’t seem like anything serious. All we wanted was to listen to dope music with our friends. A lot of the music that we were listening to wasn’t being played anywhere in the Bay Area so part of the motivation was to showcase these sounds. We didn’t realize how much of a market there was for the weirder more psychedelic side of bass music! Read more>>

Vicki Nichols Goldstein | Founder | Inland Ocean Coalition

I have always loved the ocean and tried to do my part to protect it. Since I was a child, I felt connected to the ocean as I played in the surf, rode the waves, and enjoyed the bounty of the sea. As I got older, I recognized that the ocean wasn’t invincible – there was numerous problems with pollution and overfishing to name a few. I went on to get my Masters’s degree at Yale in ocean policy and found career opportunities to connect my ocean protection passion with my work. After moving to Colorado with my husband who was hired to be a facility member at CU, I realized that if I was to follow my passion, Read more>>

Lisa Trope | Somatic Experiencing Practioner- in training. Embodied Dance Facilitator. (not a dentist)

I decided to start a business because I personally spent years suffering through figuring out how to feel better in my body and mind. I spent years struggling and playing guessing games at how I could improve my mental health and spent most of my twenties on both an anti-depressant and medication for ADD. I am fully supportive of medication when it is the right avenue to support someone with their mental health. Read more>>

Dr. Michelle Stauffer | Physical Therapist & Health Wellness Coach

As a member of the queer community and a worker of the healthcare system in the US, I saw firsthand the unequal and discriminatory service the queer community received. I knew there was something I could do to help this. I had to really understand the trauma and disproportionate care my fellow queers were experiencing in the healthcare system. I realized it sometimes isn’t the provider, but the other consumers of the healthcare system in the same facility. Read more>>

Ardis Strieby | Volunteer Member of the Evergreen Friendship Circle/Circle Liaison

I am part of the Evergreen Friendship Circle, a volunteer group of women in our 60s and 70s who support impoverished women in Guatemalan through the nonprofit organization, Friendship Bridge. We decided, 10 years ago, to start sewing Swittens and selling them to raise funds to help support our clients in Guatemala. Swittens are mittens made from used wool sweaters that we cut apart and sew together to make the mittens. We have branched out to make other items from the wool scraps that have been left. Some of the other items are: Christmas Stocking, (Swockings), fingerless gloves, head bands, hats, pins, coin purses, etc. Read more>>

Eryn Murphy | Native Plant Landscape Designer

I love helping people feel more connected to “nature” – to ecologies, to plants, to birds and bees and the other nonhumans who live around us. I used to organize retreats in the wilderness that gave people time to sink into the land. But there was always a missing link when it came to my own front yard, to my relationship with the land right outside my door. I have a background in permaculture design and landscaping, but I was never really jazzed by either, because both are about designing outdoor spaces for human uses. I didn’t know how to steward landscapes for the good of the ecosystem. Read more>>

Maritza Galvan | Founder of Petrichor

Petrichor was born of the union of two dreams. When I was a child, I always dreamed of the idea of creating something with my hands, something that came out of my mind. 4 years ago, I moved to the states, and I was trying to have a more sustainable lifestyle, and all the personal care part had been difficult, it was hard to find products that I loved and were effective. That was the moment when I decided to learn how to formulate my own products and after sharing them with family and friends, they encouraged me to share them with the world. Read more>>

Misty Pate | Ecommerce Antique and Vintage Dealer

I closed my brick and mortar antique shop after 4 years and needed a way to sell the excess of inventory that I had. I had a small Youtube channel and figured that I could try doing a live sale/chat to sell my inventory to my viewers. They enjoy to see the process of me buying the items from flea markets, garage sales, antique malls, and thrift stores and then bringing them to a live sale that is heavily chat driven. It has grown faster than I even anticipated. Read more>>

Kim Randall | Registered Nurse

In 2004 I moved to Colorado from Washington State with my special needs daughter. I quickly learned there were several agencies offering numerous resources for special needs children, but unfortunately these agencies did not communicate amongst themselves. I felt stuck, unable to navigate the services my daughter desperately needed to live and thrive. I decided at that time, I was going to create a new system. Read more>>

Lori Manzer | CEO/Creative Director, Georgie & Lou

My mom was an avid pickleball player in Palm Desert. While visiting she took me along and I learned to play. I noticed right away that everyone had adorable clothing, but people were using old grocery bags, cruise bags and their huge tennis bags. Water bottles were rolling everywhere and no one could find their keys at the end. I started looking for fashionable, function bags and the combination was just not available. I knew pretty quickly what I needed to do. Design a bag! Read more>>

Kaylan Sharp | Registered Nurse, Postpartum Doula, Lactation and Childbirth Educator

I am a RN and postpartum doula. I am dedicated to supporting families in pregnancy and postpartum. I also am a mom to 4 young children. The thought process behind starting my own business was to be able to offer this service to families while also being able to care for my own family. Read more>>

Chad Phelps | Designer and Owner

We each come from similar, yet very different backgrounds in regards to religion and trauma. Each of us have struggled with mental illness and coming together to create designs was a way we could each heal a little. We figured that if we were struggling with the various, seemingly conflicting identities within ourselves, others were too. We have found belonging in embracing the chaos of our various identities and want others to feel comfortable doing the same. Read more>>

Jessie Shay | Consultant & Social Work Doctoral Student

I started Creating Agency, my business, to serve the community in a unique way. I saw a niche where I knew I could make a difference. It began with me working to better the lives of queer youth in Denver, and it has now turned into the process of me going back to school to get my Doctorate of Social Work. I continue to work with the queer community in Denver by co-facilitating the Youth PRIDE Coalition. I am also diving into the work of getting my doctorate and continuing to focus on Creating Agency for folks in the community. Read more>>

Emily Stock | Herbalist

When I started my business, it was pure creative expression. I wanted to make as many herbal preparations as I could, so I initially started selling products just to fuel my own passion. To me, herbalism has always been something that I knew I could study forever and not be satiated, so I feel really lucky to be able to spend my days working with herbs. Read more>>

Kevin Lind | Co Owner & Operator of The Back Nine @The Walnut Room

The beauty of The Back Nine is its location, specifically being connected to and part owned by The Walnut Room. The Walnut room opened in 2005, in 2016 long time Walnut Room General Manager, Leslie Munson, and executive chef, Jonah Munson purchased the restaurant. In 2021, after the Covid-19 pandemic, small music venues were facing an uphill battle. I (Kevin Lind, friend and longtime beer representative) approached the two with the idea to open a visual golf venue. The idea behind the Back Nine @The Walnut Room, truly stemmed from the fact that only a few indoor golf concepts existed in Colorado, let alone any with a full kitchen. The Walnut Room is a true staple in RiNo, and The Back Nine is no different, we are a neighborhood virtual golf venue focusing on golf, pizza and beer. Read more>>

Taylor Wesely | Registered Dietitian

After working impatient in the hospital setting for awhile and during Covid, I developed a strong desire to be on the otherside of healthcare, a more preventative one. While I did enjoy seeing sick patients who needed medical nutrition therapy to help their disease/injury, I wanted to become a practioner that could help prevent that disease in the first place- and that’s how Radiate Nutrition was born. At Radiate Nutrition, we help busy people completely change their wellness habits in nutrition, activity, sleep and more to support health longterm. With our whole person approach, we help our clients radiate from within so that they can live their fullest lives. Read more>>

Kasey Paul | Founder of Daisy Box

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Even as a young kid, I was hustling babysitting services and girl scouts as soon as my parents would let me. And that led me to having many jobs, throughout my teen years and into adulthood. And while I always knew in the back of my head that I wanted to build something myself, the fear of not having income and also just societal expectations of going to college, getting a degree, getting a good job and getting a better job, really weighed on me. I was afraid to fail. Read more>>

Erin Bradley | Speaker, coach, author and real estate professional

I’ve always had a bit of ‘wanderlust.’ During college, I spent a semester in Ireland, and after I graduated, I wasn’t quite ready to get a traditional job. So I spent a summer bartending on Cape Cod, did a cross country road trip, kayaked the coast of Mexico for a month, then spent 2 years in Barcelona, teaching English. One thing was for sure, I wanted a job that allowed for freedom and flexibility, and the ability to travel when and where I wanted. Since going 100% commission in 2007, there’s been no turning back! Read more>>

Elite Wellness | CEO & Chiropractor

I was fired from my first job as a chiropractor, and at that point in time it seemed much easier to start a practice than to find another job. It was my vision to open my own practice, but I thought I had a couple more years to plan it out, instead this gift of freedom to build my own practice was given to me sooner than expected. Read more>>