Most of us have heard of The Honest Company.  But did you know it was co-founded by the well-known actress, Jessica Alba?  This company is centered around creating a plethora of non-toxic household and beauty products.  It began primarily as a subscription service for diapers and baby wipes, but is now worth over 1 billion dollars.

The Honest Company offers the essential products every family uses, but these products are safe, affordable, chemical-free, and environmentally friendly.  It’s business format is unique; however, because it provides families with subscription boxes filled with 5 of the  needed household items for babies each month for the monthly cost of $35.95.  This format makes them incredibly successful.

It’s convenient and practical, safe and affordable and it was all inspired by Alba’s own struggle with finding good natural products when she had a newborn baby in the house.  Even the products that marketed themselves as “green” were only marginally so and this sparked an idea to fill this very common need for safer products.  And so Alba, with a few other people, started The Honest Company in 2011.  They started out small, poured much of their own funds into it, and worked tirelessly.  Now they sell a multitude of common baby products.

In addition to their hard work, Alba has recognized how immensely her media presence as helped her business succeed.  Because her name was already well-known, she had a ready fan base to advertise this company to.  This, however, is not without its drawbacks. Many people thought she was simply using the company to make more money and did not recognize the company’s integrity and excellence.  Nevertheless, The Honest Company has formed a name for itself and has even taken on charitable missions so that those who are less fortunate can also receive toxic-free products.

While the Honest Company primarily operates with an online storefront, they have also partnered with stores like Target in order to get their products on the shelves and make their name more commonly known.  By making these new changes, The Honest Company continues to grow and improve–catering to a broader audience.

Lastly, innovation can even be seen in their office space which is not traditionally designed and is created in a way that fosters healthy lifestyles–such as a kitchen stocked with snacks and meal supplies.

Airbnbs have become so wide-spread and frequently used that the idea seems commonplace to us.  And yet, this innovation was born in the not too distant past.  The founders of Airbnb include Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia.  It started when Gebbia and Chesky, rooming together, couldn’t afford the month’s rent.  So they made their loft into a bed and breakfast.  As absurd as it sounds, they bought a couple of air mattresses and allowed guests to stay for $80 a night.  Soon they realized they had a massive opportunity on their hands and they set about to put it into action.  Through much rejection, planning, and re-planning, they got their idea off the ground.  Time after time, investors struggled to see how air mattresses on the floors of people’s houses could make a profit, but, eventually, one investor saw the potential. And now, several years down the line, it’s a highly successful business.  However, the journey to success doesn’t come without a few bumps in the road.  They’ve faced the struggles of liabilities as guests trash the houses they stay in and landlords restrict renters from using their homes as airbnbs.  However, they have addressed the problems as they occur and have pivoted when necessary; thus, allowing the business to survive and even thrive.

I find this company inspiring because its a rather simple idea and yet strikingly innovative.  No one had ever done anything quite like it, and now they’ve created a booming, vibrant industry.  Furthermore, I greatly admire their perseverance and passion in the project.  Despite the countless obstacles and rejections, they persisted.  This displays a truly remarkable innovative spirit.  Furthermore, Airbnb in specific, highlights the importance of teamwork and group collaboration when it comes to innovation.  These three men each brought something unique to the table and together they created a business that combines practicality with adventure, and accessibility/good rates with aesthetics and experience. Overall, there is much to be learned from a company like Airbnb.

The question, “what would Jesus do?” has long been tossed around by Christians when they’re trying to push someone to act or respond in a Christ-like manner.  However, for a long time, it remained simply a question.  But a company has marketed an answer–He Would Love First.

This statement is centered around Romans 5:8 which proclaims, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  The heart of this company is to create the conversation starters that leads to proclamations of the Gospel.  They sell the classic wristbands with the letters H.W.L.F. printed on them.  However, they also carry sweatshirts, T-shirts, and hats.  In all, every piece of merchandise carries a Biblical message.  Furthermore, with every purchase is included a free bracelet in order to bless someone and also to equip every customer with an extra evangelism tool.  Lastly, underneath their customer care is an option to submit prayer requests and their website also holds a page for you to share your testimony and/or evangelism story.  All of this further cements this business’s mission to build and advance the Kingdom of God.

I find this business, entirely run by a young group of entrepreneurs, to be inspiring on many accounts.  First, I am fascinated by how it fulfills a need by literally answering a question and furthering the conversation.  Second, I greatly appreciate the many redemptive elements laced throughout the mission of He Would Love First.  Third, I value how this business doesn’t just end with a statement and a profit, but it leads to a community of people striving to build each other up in Christ and push each other to proclaim the gospel more boldly.  He Would Love First continues to innovate and develop new products and opportunities for their community; thus, displaying what a successful model of redemptive entrepreneurship looks like.

You may have heard of Rifle Paper Company before.  It’s a quite successful stationary and home store with a large online presence. However, you may not know the artist and entrepreneur behind the designs.

Her name is Anna Bond and she started the company in 2009 with her husband Nathan.  Rifle Paper Co. started with as a two person mission but has now grown to housing over 150 employees.  But what sparked this idea?  It began when Anna found her love for a bold color palette and designing stationary while creating invitations for her own wedding and events for friends.  This planted a desire to launch a brand with a color palette that was unlike anything else in the industry.  The aesthetic of Rifle Paper Company is founded on striking jewel tones, whimsical designs, intricate patterns, and a myriad of flowers due to both the beauty they display and the sentiment they provide.

Thus, Anna, a former illustrator, and Nathan, a former musician, merged their creativity and founded a business centered around providing quality, accessible, and unique products. What started as simply a business that sold bright and colorful stationary has now expanded to offering unique apparel and lifestyle products.  And they do it all with the mission to bring a little more color into the world.

This mission to add a little more color to the world of stationary and home products has opened the doors for many partnerships.  Their unique products immediately sparked interest and are now sold in well-known stores such as Anthropologie, pottery barn, and Liberty of London.

I find Anna Bond’s vision and entrepreneurial endeavors fascinating because she masterfully pares the enchanting fairytale patterns and color palettes that children immediately love with the refinement and class of what older women would purchase, thus creating beautiful products suitable for any age.  Furthermore, I appreciate how she beautifies practical items such as address books, umbrellas, and even tech accessories.  She takes items that people need and adds a captivating touch to them by making them lovely and colorful in addition to being practical.  You can check out her products here!

Nichole Kirk is an inspiring example of a young women who employed an entrepreneurial idea to advance the Kingdom of God.  However, the circumstances around how she became an entrepreneur were surprising even to her.  Nichole was on the path to become a school counselor when she decided to sell bracelets that she had recently started making in order to help a friend raise money for a mission trip.  What was meant to be a small, temporary hobby planted the seed for a much bigger mission.  In just 48 hours after listing the bracelets, Nichole had raised $1000 in profit.  The following day, she received another order for the exact same amount. This success could not be ignored.  Nichole felt God guiding these circumstances to open and show her a new door that He wanted her to walk through.  These circumstances sparked a dream and this dream led to a jewelry business, named Dear Heart Company, founded on a ministry-minded mission.

Dear Heart Company sells handcrafted jewelry and lifestyle goods on an online store front.  Their business and products are driven by the desire to create small products that will have massive impacts.  Every piece of jewelry is intentionally designed to represent a Biblical theme and/or verse so that the one who wears it may be continually reminded of the truth and while also having a ready opportunity to start a conversation about Jesus through something as simple as a necklace.  Furthermore, a portion of their profits goes to supporting missionaries, adoptions, and those in need of financial assistance.

This company stands on the truth that the God of the Bible is alive and moving and this business is therefore committed to being a vessel for the work of God.  Their products are intended to inspire, equip, teach, and serve.  Dear Heart Company is committed to creating a community of women on a mission and they accomplish this by intentionally creating beautiful products that point to the Creator of all Beauty.  It is inspiring and exciting to witness their innovative approach and join in their heartfelt mission.  You can check out their products here!

In 2015, Katie Guiliano had an idea.  She took her old, dilapidated Bible and made it beautiful once again by rebinding it and painting the cover.  She wanted to exterior of the Bible to reflect the joy and beauty of the inside, and this project birthed a ministry.  Her passion was to create beautiful Bibles that excite and inspire people to actually open up their Bibles and study them with fresh eyes and new hearts.

So, in 2015, she started a company called Hosanna Revival.  What began as an Etsy shop grew into its own online site which has now grown into a vibrant movement and community. In 2016, Katie and her team moved beyond just hand-painted Bibles to working with manufactures to create cloth bound Bibles with beautiful printed covers.  They have now grown to selling not only Bibles but journals, planners, stickers, devotionals and so much more.  Even so, every product remained steeped with strong Biblical messages and missions.

Hosanna Revival is exemplary in their quality of beautiful, intentional products.  While there are similar products on the market, Hosanna Revival has succeeded in being the best at offering affordable, easily attainable yet stunning Bibles.  They are driven by the desire to be vessels for revival and the work they have done to engage and foster community is truly inspiring.  Their business model is interesting because they are ever pursuing the need to inspire and equip Believers in new ways.  Their mission is to recognize and heal more brokenness with beauty and opportunity through their products and community.  Because of this, their ministry is set apart by its simplicity.  They’re simply trying to connect people to the Bible in new ways and excite them about the Bible through different avenues.  They’re not creating religious “self-help” books or unnecessary merchandise.  Rather, they’re simply all about casting beautiful truth in renewed, beautiful light.

You can check out their company here: Hosanna Revival | Beautiful Bibles, Prayer Journals, Planners & More