When I was traveling as a backpacker, living on a few dollars a day in North-East Thailand, I learned that indigenous people, although ‘financially poor’, were extremely radiant, happy and seemingly healthy, despite their lack of what we in the West would consider clean living conditions.

I observed them closely and discovered their natural eating habits - living close to nature allowed them to gain the most nutritional benefits from the foods they were eating. On studying this further, I realized that the essential fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6) compounds found in their diet, were missing in most western diets due to the processing of foods for commercial supermarket shelf-life.

Later on, whilst traveling (still as a backpacker) in Canada, I met Dylan who shared with me the many uses of hemp - including the hemp seed which contained a perfect balance of omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids.

I have a pretty decently sized personal following on IG from being a college volleyball player and a short stint as a sideline reporter for ACCN/ ESPN. Companies began reaching out to me asking me to post and I told one company no because their IG and website weren’t very professional and it would do him a disservice because even if I got the traffic there I knew it wouldn’t convert.

Give people recognition and praise for a job well done, even if your co-founder or employee is a friend or spouse… don’t forget they need a little love too!

So he said, “why don’t you run it then?”. I ended up running his socials, doing all his emails, working with suppliers to make new products, creating an ambassador program, editing the website, customer service, and more! Once I posted about my success with this company, more and more companies began reaching out for help! Most companies already had several marketing teams on when I would come on and my ads and other work always outperformed theirs. I realized I brought something the other companies couldn’t- cohesiveness with email, socials, ads, etc.

We are neighbors with one house between us, which makes all of this possible.

In 2016, we were brainstorming about Christmas gifts and decided to make body butter and lip balm for friends and family and split the costs.

We looked up a recipe and gave it a try. We used rosemary and peppermint essential oils and people loved the smell. To be honest, looking at it now, our first attempt was pretty horrid.

In true Hipcooks fashion: I’m not a culinary school graduate — I’m a hack! Here’s my story:

I’m first-generation American (Mom is from Germany and Dad from Argentina). My parents were young foreign students in the US and their friends were the other international students: I was a kid surrounded by people from different nationalities, like Spain, Russia, France, and the UK. I was a child foodie and loved to experience culture through food.

I caught the travel bug early, living in Argentina (studying economics in college), traveling through Europe, and moved to England for graduate school (I have a Master’s in Economics from LSE.) While in school, I cooked my way through a series of London restaurants in the gastro-boom of the ’90s, just for fun. My first job was on the West Coast, as an econometrician at the RAND Corporation.

Both of us were interns and freelance production assistants when we developed the idea for VIPER. We met while interning for Bolthouse Productions in 2014, a popular nightlife company.

We were working as production assistants on the side and were overworked and underpaid but we both had a ton of drive and ambition. One night towards the end of 2015, we bumped into each other while working the same event and were surprised to see the other person working.

In order to get this off the ground, we kept side jobs and pushed all the money back into the company and paying our staff.

There’s a song on repeat in my world and whenever I play it, it reminds me of the time I started my own business and finally left my corporate job.

“I spend too much time thinking about who I'm supposed to be I play by everybody's rules that don't seem right to me

Should I even care? They're all sitting there and everyone's staring at me If I step out in the spotlight maybe I'll be set free

I had a couple of years of experience working for a large corporation back in India. I genuinely felt that I was just a cog in the wheel and that whatever I did had little to no impact in the real world.

We were at a crossroads at that time – filled with constant self-doubt about the career path we wanted to take. We could have easily applied for corporate jobs in the US or in India, but we chose to follow our hearts by continuing to work in our consulting business.

I reached out to a few small businesses I had developed good relationships during my corporate career and started helping them out on developing marketing strategy to scale their businesses and also to instill robust operational efficiencies in their business processes. I realized that I was able to add considerable value to their businesses and that I felt a sense of satisfaction in being able to make their lives better. I soon started consulting for over 20 small businesses in India.

I played college football at the University of Western New Mexico. It was like a full-time job, so after my senior season when football was over and I still had one semester left, I had a lot of time on my hands, which I was not accustomed to. I didn’t like it - I prefer to be busy. So, I decided to walk down to a local travel magazine company a few blocks off campus called Zia Publishing.

I knew I had a talent for design and marketing (I self-taught myself digital design and went to school for marketing), so I walked in and asked if I could intern there in my final semester. They said they didn’t require any design or marketing but they did need a new website. They asked me if I knew how to design and build a website. This was early 2005 and website design and development were still pretty new. I told them, no, but if they gave me a desk, computer, and a couple of months, I’d figure it out. So they did.

Over the next eight weeks, I learned everything I could about website design and development. I designed and built the website two or three times over before I felt confident enough to show the owner, Terry. When I showed her the website, she paused and said, “This is the best website I’ve ever seen. Not only is it beautiful, but it achieves all our needs and goals.” I knew at that moment I had a talent not many people had at the time. I told my Dad I thought there was a business opportunity. He agreed, but the industry was mostly freelance at the time and he was running a successful brokerage company called Traders Network and wanted me to come work with him and test some of the digital marketing and design strategies there first.

I never set out to start a software agency. Growing up I never thought I would be an entrepreneur, or even get into tech.

But when I got to college I decided to take an intro to Computer Science class. My plan at the time was to teach math in the Peace Corps. I didn’t like math enough to be a math major but figured Computer Science would be interesting and involve a lot of math.

Learn what makes you great and where you need help. It will be worth every penny.

In 1991, I had the life-changing opportunity to become a part of Gene’s Nursery, one of the oldest nurseries in Savannah Georgia.

When I had the opportunity to leave my office job and get my hands into soil, I was happy and I was hooked.

Gene’s Nursery has its roots firmly planted in our quaint historic coastal city and it’s passion was the Camellia. Camellias are ornamental shrubs that produce brilliant blossoms during the fall and winter. They are the most unique flowering shrub species found today and are considered the Queen of Ornamental shrubs.

I began my business career with the family in-store sampling business, C.A. Courtesy, in the 1990s, while at the same time attending college at Johnson and Wales University, where I pursued a degree in Web Management & Internet Commerce.

I’ve always had a knack for marketing and technology, and when I left C.A. Courtesy, I was the Vice President of Marketing and Technology.

People don’t remember what you say as much as they remember how they felt when you said it.

In 2015, I started making a gradual exit from my full time job as a speech-language pathologist. Like many other entrepreneurs I know, I was seeking to fill a creative void and just knew I couldn’t thrive long term in a setting where I worked for someone else.

I began pursuing my options, and landed on interior decorating since it had always been an interest of mine and didn’t require further schooling. I took on decorating work for friends and word of mouth clients. When I launched my website that fall, I decided to offer some home decor and hostess gift type products- my first one being Turkish towels, the perfect weekend companion. I wasn’t able to just quit my job and go for it, so I reduced my hours and days as a speech therapist as my side hustle kept growing. I worked my way down to 2 days a week and then eventually justified a full exit from that job (based mostly on my Interior decorating clients & product sales at the time).

I had a knack for taking pictures, so I began marketing my products and services largely through Instagram. I started to focus my efforts on creating content featuring my products through fun and colorful lifestyle photography. Instead of posting a picture of said Turkish towel, I would create a picnic setting and photograph that.

My personal background is in B2B enterprise sales, and at my previous employer, things were going great for the first 2.5 years that I was an employee there. I moved up quickly, was promoted twice, and actually had the opportunity to build out a team. Unfortunately, one day that all changed and I realized that I was deeply unhappy, and after years of trying and failing to start businesses online I thought that maybe it was time for one more go.

Your pot of gold and freedom is out there somewhere, but you will never find it until you start looking for it.

The company I was working for announced that it was being acquired, so I decided to give my old friend Derek a call. Initially, I pitched him on starting a recruitment agency together (both of us had started our careers at an executive search office together). He said that he would think about it, and actually came to me with the idea for an SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency).

Growing up I’ve always had this unique passion for art and all things creative. I was that artsy girl in all the art classes in high school and even took a few art classes in College.

When strangers were noticing my art and asked if I had a website, business card, etc., it really pushed me to start the business.

I never thought I could actually have a “successful career” with art so I majored in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. I worked as an Assistant SLP for 2 years after graduating and worked for a pediatric home health company. I truly enjoyed working with special needs children with language disorders and thought this was my calling. However, after applying to grad school and receiving rejection letters for the grad program, I was completely devastated. I felt like a huge failure and was so discouraged. In response, I started painting again.

As I mentioned, I started Tetra with two friends. I was (and still am) a journalist running a design magazine with an online shop attached, and they were both art and fashion writers, one of whom had previously run her own clothing line. The three of us were at the beach one day and my friends were smoking; I asked where they went to buy good-looking pipes and lighters and such. They laughed heartily and said that no such place existed, and it was a matter of seconds before the bells went off in my head.

I knew design and had e-comm experience, they had a passion for smoking. All three of us had a lot of connections and really good taste — it’s how we each made our living. We mapped out a game plan for Tetra that very day, and launched it to the public only about six months later (taking advantage of our professional connections to get a ton of great press).

Did we have a proper business plan? Err, no, not even close. But all of us had been working in trend-focused industries where we were used to trusting our gut instincts, so that’s what we did. We knew we wanted to be first, so we didn’t have time to be slow and methodical and question things. We slammed on the gas and flew out of the gates.

I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs so it was always something I knew I would go into. My grandfather, for example, built some of the earliest satellite communication technology. Today, our phones can connect to satellites, but back then it required a $10M+ facility. He used entrepreneurship to develop something new and transformational that still impacts our lives today.

With my parents as entrepreneurs, I grew up understanding that lifestyle. Although they worked nights and weekends, they were always able to come to my afternoon soccer games and had significantly more flexibility in their life than most people do. That’s the life I wanted. The ability to pick what you work on, make an impact on the world, and choose when and how you do it.

I truly believe that anyone can become an entrepreneur, which is why I went into Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo instead of going into a Business program. Within the first 6 months of being in Waterloo, I purchased a home to use as a rental property. It was the best investment I’ve ever made for two reasons. The most obvious reason is the financial return. Between rent and appreciation, the house net me over $25K/year for 5 years. The second reason is the gardens.

I always wanted to work for myself. So I was always thinking about business ideas. Not everyone wants to work for themselves and not everyone is suited to the lifestyle, so if you have the dream, make sure you pursue it!

My business started when I was working as a cook at a local reception venue. A bride wanted some local honey wedding favors, which I provided. Doing this made me find a jar supplier, register my home kitchen as a food premise, prepare an invoice, etc.

From here, I began selling honey to the public and then I experimented with other ideas (making jam, personalized wedding favors, etc) before going into skincare. I had quite a few failures in this period!

I’m Debbie, and I’m known online as TheFlooringGirl. I have a home décor blog where I blog about flooring, painting, and home décor. It has now become my full-time job.

My site has over 700,000 pageviews/month. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the key to my success and you can find my SEO ebooks here.

Hey everyone!

Our Founders (+ Milla)

Our Team in Action

My name is Ben Elizer, and I am the Founder and President of Velocity International Group, a full-scale logistics company, offering SameDay delivery, Expediting, Distribution, Fulfillment, andmany Warehousing Services. We offer to consult and some other services as well to help our customers succeed in an ultra-competitive environment. Velocity started with 2 vans and many faces to face conversations. We now have 10+ vehicles, including trucks, and have grown to 25k+ square feet of warehouse space as well to best serve our customers.

Over the past 2 years, our revenue has grown over 300%, which has completely contributed to the great people and culture we have at Velocity. After having to move out of my apartment (because I put everything financially I had into this company), and move back into my mom’s house in my mid 20’s, it was difficult, but just 6 months later we had our first small office and warehouse space. I’m fortunate I had a support system to move back into, or else Velocity might not be here today. The business has grown ever since because of hard work, trust, and relationships. We focus on what is important.

I’m Dan Frist and I own Frontier Label. Frontier Label is a full e-commerce digital label printing company in Greenville, SC. We print labels for companies of all sizes in countless industries.

Hey everyone!

Our Founders (+ Milla)

Our Team in Action