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.

Deborah Carter | Trove Co-Founder

Star was a breathtaking 3-year-old palomino filly destined for a performance career or a life where she simply could realize her inner “Barbie Dream Horse” self — either way, a promising future. But on the way to her destiny, Star started exhibiting a baffling neuromuscular condition, presenting with involuntary and uncontrollable superficial muscle fasciculations, the increasing frequency and severity of which caused this once affectionate filly to become a danger to herself and to her caregivers. In an attempt to help her horse, Trove LLC co-founder Deborah Carter exhausted all veterinary diagnostic and traditional and alternative treatment options, spending untold hours and thousands of dollars with no resolution. With the veterinarians out of ideas, Deborah feared that, absent a miracle, she would have to euthanize her young horse. Read more>>

Joy Kozak | Cosmetologist, Reiki Healer, Tarot Reader

I’ve switched my business name And direction quite a few times. For me, I have to go with what feels authentic. My business started out as mostly waxing, facials and skin care-however the beauty industry is constantly evolving. I had the opportunity in 2019 to move to Southern California-a dream I always had since I was a teenager. It was there where I fell in love with lashing-and became hyper focused on perfecting that craft. When the covid pandemic hit-it was humbling. Since the beauty industry was hit hard, we were all left to pick up the pieces with little to no information when we would be able to start taking services again. For me, I decided to do what I could with what I had-and knew that another change was being born. Enter Gypsea House-where we focus on internal beauty. Read more>>

Marin Toscano | Food Culture Ambassador

I have always been inspired by the way food is woven between community and culture. It was a blessing to grow up in a multicultural family with a mom and dad who passionately taught me recipes passed down by their parents, who immigrated to the East Coast from Syria, Poland, and Sicily. I did not realize how fortunate I was until I went to college and saw that I was among very few students that knew how to cook anything beyond Ramen. I found during my travels that my openness to eating pretty much anything allowed me the ability to connect with people easily, even when we come from disparate backgrounds and cultures. After I graduated college I immediately went to China for almost 2 years as a Fulbright Scholar to do independent research on the connection between TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and the food culture. Read more>>