As a kid my family spent a couple of years as missionaries overseas in west Africa. One fellow missionary, Kari Masson, is now one of the founders of Senegal based company Kayoong. Kayoong is a company that specializes in the crocheted wax print very popular in western African cultures. They employ local widows from the community and provide a place for them to work to become financially independent. What started as a desire to empower Senegalese women and find ways to help them improve their own lives has expanded into a full-blown bustling business with a collaboration with Maison Lesage for Chanel in Paris, France.

Kayoong started when founders, Kari Masson and Danielle Liebenow wanted to find ways to help widows in their local support group make some extra money with their handicrafts to buy new crocheting hooks. They took to facebook and set up a community fundraiser. After a very successful fundraiser the duo realized there was a desire in the market for what they were selling and the story they were telling resonated with people. The nonprofit company now grants emergency funding for health crises, education scholarships, and continues to financially help support the widows it employs. Their website sums up their mission perfectly, “Kayoong Community provides a safety net to a marginalized sector of society. It is a launching point, to help pull widows out of a cycle of poverty and set them on a path to financial independence.”

Alexis de Bernede and Marius Jacob-Gismondi are childhood friends who have had a long-time love affair with art and art collecting. During their early years they started to notice a problem within the art community, “There is, in fact, a lag in time between an artist’s early career and their entrance into the roster of an established gallery. They don’t have a solid network to sell and cannot live on their art; they need somebody whom they trust to help them get started.” Alexis states. Thus, combining their love of art and desire to support and uplift artists, they founded Darmo in 2018. Darmo is a company that advises, supports, and exhibits carefully selected artists’ work on their site and unconventional exhibit locations. “Darmo promotes a deliberately limited number of talents for which they have at heart to make their name and practice emerge.” their website states. The proceeds from exhibitions go directly back to the reinvestment of new pieces. Another interesting aspect of the company is that they do not put their focus on any one particular style but welcome modern, contemporary, and ancient works of art.

These two entrepreneurs took a stale and seemingly archaic business and dusted off the cobwebs of traditional art collecting to create an avenue that feels new and fresh. Their mission and story help to add value and allows them to differentiate themselves from others in the same market. All of this ultimately makes it easier for new talent to emerge and for the art business to truly flourish. 

When most of us think of Jessica Alba we think of the actress from the fantastic four movies and other blockbuster hist and TV shows. Besides being a Golden Globe nominated actress, she is the founder and CEO of a 1.7-billion-dollar company named The Honest Company. The actress turned entrepreneur first had the idea for her company when she herself became a mother and was struggling to find clean nontoxic baby products for her child. She became very frustrated when searching for products labeled “clean”, “green”, and “organic” proved to not be as nontoxic as their advertisings. She then went on a mission to create a company that was more honest and open with its intentions and product ingredients. After teaming up with environmental scientist and ‘Healthy Child Healthy World’ author, Christopher Gavigan, the two did endless research and formed their business plan. After being rejected by investors who saw the project as unpromising, the pair were able to get an investment on their idea. Thus, The Honest Company was officially launched in 2011. What once started out as a company for just baby diapers and wipes now sells a vast array of other products including deodorants, baby feed, vitamins, oils, conditioners, shampoos, laundry detergent, formula dispenser, and everything in between.

I think this story shows how entrepreneurs don’t have to be any one thing. Alba was an actress and Gavigan was a scientist who both turned entrepreneurs and founders of a multibillion-dollar company. Alba found a pain of her own that she was experiencing and decided to create a solution from it. In addition, after being turned away because her idea didn’t “fit her actress image” she persisted and saw her vision through.

Dubbed by Forbes as “the most successful female entrepreneur in American history” Diane Hendricks is worth a whopping 19 billion USD. Diane rose to such success when she and her husband, Ken Hendricks, founded ABC supply in 1982. After four decades the company has become the largest wholesale distributor of roofing, siding, and windows in the country with over 900 branch locations and $18.5 billion in revenue for the year 2022. It all started when Hendricks, a struggling single mother met and married roof contractor Ken Hendricks in the 1970s. Together, they combined their skills and talents to create ABC supply. Since her husband’s passing in 2007 Diane has continued to lead ABC supply. Under her leadership, the company has expanded tremendously and was able to acquire rival businesses Bradco in 2010 and L&W Supply in 2016. In addition to expanding her business she has done exemplary work in giving back and bettering her community of Beloit, Wisconsin. She has spent millions on the economic development of the area, including rebuilding entire blocks and starting up new businesses. Now at 76 years old Diane has earned the title of the number one “self-made woman” five years in a row.

Starting from a very humble background of working on her parent’s dairy farm Diane bootstrapped her way to becoming the incredible businesswoman she is today. She started as someone who knew nothing about the roofing industry but, after marrying Ken Hendricks and combining his expertise, they founded an incredible business together. This concept of creating something from nothing is so important for the entrepreneur and can be quite hard to accomplish successfully.

Benjamin was just 16 years old when he amassed nearly 1 million dollars from his Miami based sneaker reselling company. It all started when Kapelushnik received a nice pair of Nike’s from his mom in middle school. When a classmate asked to buy them off of him, he sold them and used the cash to buy more sneakers to resell. The process continued and the small hobby business steadily grew bigger. He would camp out with friends for Nike releases so that he could be the first to purchase high value, limited edition shoes to them resell for higher prices. With only five pairs of shoes, Kapelushnik moved to selling online. After building connections and networking with footwear stores and online retailers he was able to get some of the most sought-after shoes in bulk.

Now known as “The Sneaker Don” he has the reputation of one of the best and most successful resellers in the country, with such high-profile customers as DJ Khaled, French Montana, Kevin Hart, Drake, and Travis Scott in his repertoire. With an inventory of over 5,000 pairs his motto “Business is Boomin” certainly hits the nail on the head. With Certain shoes selling upwards of $10,000 the business is raking in so much as thousands of dollars per day. Not bad for a kid who just started a business as a side hustle.

I think Benjamin’s story is inspiring because he took something that he was passionate about and combined it with a gap in the marketplace to create a successful business. This story just goes to show that you don’t need to be some genius or come up with a revolutionary idea to be a successful entrepreneur. You simply need to find a gap or a need in the marketplace and figure out how you can provide what is missing to add value in a way that no one else is.