In 2012, I was living in New York City, stressed out, working on our startup Under30CEO.com. I was burned out from the unhealthy lifestyle, working long stressful hours, and partying too much. I was invited on a trip to Iceland and I hadn’t been out of the country as an adult, so I jumped at the opportunity. That experience in Iceland blew my mind! I hiked an active volcano, went ice climbing on a glacier, saw the northern lights, and made friends with people from around the world.

The “aha moment” happened to watch the sunset over the Eyjafjallajökull glacier with my Icelandic mountain guide Siggi. He was trying to attract more people from North America to visit Iceland and I knew we could work together. Jared and I had nearly 500K, monthly readers, at Under30CEO, and we thought it’d be a perfect opportunity to bring our community members on a retreat. Sure enough, in less than two months, we organized a trip to Iceland for entrepreneurs and it was a smashing success. We made life-long friends and the idea caught on.

People started asking us “do we need to be under 30 to attend your trip” or “do we need to own a business to come?” It was a huge decision for us at the time, but we decided to open our doors and become an inclusive community rather than an exclusive one. We started running trips that were open to anyone who wanted to come and have a good time.

The founders are childhood best friends from small-town America (South Carolina). We took different paths after college and approximately 9 years later, reunited in North Carolina. I (Clifton) was recruited from Florida to work for a Mortgage Company in Raleigh, NC and Wesley was already established here (Raleigh) working for a major building materials manufacturer (James Hardie). After the housing crisis, the Mortgage Company went bankrupt and I (Clifton) found myself without a job. I then founded a Residential/Commercial/Cleaning Company (still in operations today, Managed by my wife, Mary Ann) and grew that business from $0 - $500K rapidly.

Surround yourself with POSITIVE people.

Then, Wes and I were talking about the possibility of starting a siding/exterior remodeling company since most of the contractors were retreating after the recession and the ones that remained, didn’t focus on the customer, but rather, only on the transaction.

I originally started MaidThis as a side hustle while I was working at a private equity investment firm. Like many people working the corporate grind, I was fascinated by becoming my own boss.

With any first product or service launch, you’re almost guaranteed to get some aspect of it wrong. You might be priced too low, not be addressing the right target market, or have the package all wrong.

I finally stumbled upon The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris, which turns out is basically the Bible for the digital nomad community, and decided I wanted to experience “location freedom”.

I always had an eye for decor whether it was with my room, home, or anything. I was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, and went to college at the University of New Mexico where I got my bachelor’s in Biology and a minor in Psychology. All along with my schooling, I was following the path to becoming a dentist which I thought was my passion and what I enjoyed. When I graduated high school I wanted to throw myself a big party. So my dad gave me a budget of $3,000 which had to include the venue, DJ, catering, bar, and decor.

I learned that when advertising you have to try different and unique ideas. From this you will learn what will work for your specific clientele, this process is a trial and error.

Of course, you know when you want a real fancy party the venue usually takes most of the budget, as it did. I was left with $200 for decor. I then began talking to decor companies and found that everything I wanted was not going to be possible with that amount. I thought out of the box and began making all my own decor.

In 2012 I was working for a small company as an IT Director, and they tasked me with rebuilding their eCommerce website. As I started looking at available platforms, I found an article by Justin comparing WooCommerce to another platform. He seemed really knowledgeable, so I reached out to him to ask some questions and I ended up bringing him on as a consultant for the project.

We worked really well together and the project had a very successful outcome, so we stayed in touch. A couple of months later we had a chance to work together on a joint consulting project, which led to more consulting for companies that needed help with their eCommerce stores.

You rarely get it right the first time. You make decisions based on the best available information, then you learn from the results and iterate.

My academic background has always been focused on management and strategy, I did economics, a PGDip in European Companies Management, and an MBA in England. Once I finished these studies, I started to work in Barcelona as a product manager for a couple of large companies. These were very well-known and large companies and, although I was in my twenties and I had achieved a relevant position in both companies but, for me, it was a waste of time.

At that time you could not expect to have a minimum influence in companies where all marketing decisions are always made in central offices, always abroad. Unfortunately, Spanish companies produced few goods and they merely buy and sell products manufactured in other countries.

I wanted to see all processes and, above all, feel that my efforts were worth something real and touchable. That’s why I decided that if I wanted to put into action everything I had learned, I should build my own company.

I quit my job in 2017 as a product manager and started travelling to new countries and building products along the way. I had been working on my second micro start-up, ACrypto, back then. It was successful and was generating basic income for me. It was during one of my travel plans to the Philippines, I realised how difficult the whole visa process is. Two months before my trip, I searched on Google and found that it’s visa-free, so I booked my flights and hotel accommodation. I don't know why but I searched for the same thing a week before my travel date and found that what I saw was a Google snippet and it was for Singapore citizens and in fact visa is required for Indian. So I had to rush to the embassy which was not in my city. I ended up talking to multiple visa agencies where every promised different time frames and prices. At the end, there was a holiday in the Philippines and the embassy was closed and I couldn't get my visa and I ended up cancelling the trip.

Soon I realized that you need a visa to get into most of the countries and that, while a few have Visa on Arrival (VOA), most require that you go through their embassy in your home country. I wanted to find the countries I could go to without having to wait three weeks to get a visa, so I did some research. I had to wade through a few blogs and websites, but I eventually found a list with the information I need, and off I went! After a few months, I wanted to travel to another country, but I’d lost the original list I’d found so I had to start my research all over again. Luckily, I found a new site that listed even more countries offering VOA.

A friend of mine told me that when he was researching visa information for Vietnam, he found almost 10 websites with a .gov address, which was really confusing. In my own research, I found that many blogs don’t have links to official embassy websites, which is ultimately unhelpful.

It all started at Heathrow Airport. I was and currently still work at the airport as a security officer in Terminal 5.

When I first started the role I had learned how to develop software, code and also web design. However, I didn’t know what direction of business to pursue with these skills. In the role of a security officer, you interact with the masses of passengers passing through every working day.

It all started at Heathrow Airport. I was and currently still work at the airport as a security officer in Terminal 5.

In August 2016, I was on a steep downward trajectory in my job as a communications director at a nonprofit as a result of philosophical differences with the organization.

It was very uncomfortable, at best. The day before I was to part ways with the organization, I was having my pickup truck worked on at my mechanic shop and needed a ride to pick it up. Having applied the previous night to a communications job at a ride-sharing company, Lyft, I downloaded the app to my phone and hailed a ride.

The man who picked me up was clearly not from our hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Although he had a strong indeterminable accent, he spoke fluent English and we had a great conversation on the way to the mechanic. Turns out the man was from Nepal. When I asked him if he knew anything about the Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek — something my wife and I had placed on our Bucket List years ago — he smiled and said, “I am an Everest Region Sherpa. I’ve guided that trip dozens of times. I actually own a small trekking company in Nepal.” We exchanged numbers and quickly set up a meeting for that weekend so my wife could ask him about the trek.

I have an engineering degree and a corporate marketing background, and worked as a production engineer in Venezuela, specializing in logistics and project management. I also spent four years as a marketing manager in R&D for Proctor and Gamble in Latin America.

Three factors combined to fuel my move to Miami in 2005 and change my career path. First, things were economically tough in Venezuela. Second, I wanted to start a business. And finally, while I’d found weight management to be a lifelong struggle, the corporate lifestyle made it even more difficult. A hectic work schedule basically gives you two options—grab something from the vending machine or hit a fast food joint.

For a long time, I thought that being a good leader meant feigning total strength and confidence. This is a big problem with first-time and even many seasoned entrepreneurs—those negative connotations around the positive concept of vulnerability.

Outsource everything. The classic entrepreneur’s mistake is to try and do everything yourself. When I look back on it I definitely had the funds to outsource more and bootstrap less.

If it wasn't for that struggle I would have never made it to where I am today. I was forced into entrepreneurship because I was not someone people could hire. I always got along with people at interviews and people liked me but I was not hireable due to the mistakes I made in the past surrounding my issues with drugs and alcohol as a teenager.

Embrace the struggle. Good times can make you soft. I appreciate my life now and keep an attitude of gratitude but I never forget where I came from. I never forget not knowing where my next meal would come from or not knowing where I was going to sleep at night. Believe it or not, I have had worse times and been worse places than being homeless but I won't go there here

I got my GED at 16 so I didn’t even finish high school, before starting my business I did take some college classes at a local community college. I wanted to become a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and attend Bastyr University.

I loved learning things but always struggled with the long road of school which held no guarantee of success, just a guarantee of debt.

My journey into entrepreneurship started as an early teenager hustling here and there just to put food in my mouth and fuel in the gas tank. My first real business was a landscaping business I started with a friend that didn't work out. We thought it would be a good idea because he had the work and I had the business mindset of growing and scaling. The opportunity was there but we did not collaborate well. Even with my guidance he did not want to change his habits. This led to us butting heads, ending our business, tainting our friendship, and me $20,000 in debt. After that had failed me I came across a program that taught people how to dropship on eBay for $20 a month. I really liked the idea of this as it gave me the opportunity to work from anywhere and be my own boss which are two things I really wanted. After a few months of hard work, things went well and I paid $500 for the selling on Amazon training. I literally had no idea what I was doing when my Amazon business took off. In a sense, Amazon was my crash course in business. It taught me how to hire and manage employees, how to set up payroll, how to outsource, how to do accounting, how to leverage credit and financing, how to market, how to do advertising. It taught me everything I know about business in the harshest way possible lol

Tracy Powell is a Technology Entrepreneur, Real Estate Developer, and Investor. He invested the first part of his business career in investments working for firms such as Merrill Lynch and First National Bank of Chicago and American Express. As a real estate developer and investor with over 28 years of experience, he specialized in urban real estate development. developing 100’s of units of affordable, market-rate, and elderly housing.

The future of your business relies on what you do today. So be at your best, don't dwell on how difficult the past was, bring the lessons that you learn each day as you walk towards your goal.

Tracy is also the founder of Blue Venture Partners a Software Development and IT consulting firm, and Blue Fund Rewards which is a crowdfunding platform that focuses on raising capital for startup businesses and organizations. He is the President of Ignite Technology and Innovation, a not for profit that focuses on creating technology co-working spaces and programming in under-resourced communities throughout the country.

I graduated with a PhD in chemistry in 2005 and after working in academia for a few years as a nanotechnology researcher, I joined a small angel venture investment firm as a technology analyst.

One option was to get a regular job, or… we could start a brewery.

I participated in the founding of a few angel-backed companies and as the venture fund dried up, I joined one of the portfolio companies as Chief Technology Officer. The company, Amicrobe, Inc. is focused on developing biomaterials to address antibiotic resistance.

In 2014, I was one-half of a partnership working primarily in advertising and marketing. At that time, my partner and I were successful and wanted to explore other verticals. We began working with a client who had a product that we believed was singular and unique throughout the world, and we put forward a significant amount of capital out of our own pockets to try and develop that product, only to reach a point where the deal went south and litigation ensued.

Make plans to do things as a family, and do your best not to let work interfere with those moments, but know that there are going to be times when you will have to sacrifice an outing, a dinner date, a holiday weekend.

In trying to think outside the box and figure out a way to create a similar product, I found myself for the first time in an innovation lab in Tampa, Florida, where I saw a 3D printer in operation for the first time. I couldn’t look away. I realized immediately that 3D printing had the potential to change the world as it became more integrated into daily business activities such as manufacturing. That’s when I decided to leap of faith.

Hello guys, my name is Gary Oberoi and I founded ZZ Day Spa 3.5 years ago. The goal was to make it the most customer-centric day spa in the world.

Our goal was to create a place for customers to not only come and receive a “service” but enjoy an “unforgettable experience.” To that end, we focused all of our efforts.

Hi there!

With a little luck, and a lot of gaming the YouTube algorithm, I was able to experience the viral effects of the internet. It has now been seen by over 25m people through my channel and other media networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbylnMqNLs

My name is Jan Doležal and I founded SmartGuide with the mission to turn tourists into explorers. The SmartGuide app turns every phone into a personal tour guide. It guides travelers using audio, geolocation, and Augmented Reality like a live guide, outside of the crowds, safe from Covid-19.

My name is Pat Mack, and I am the founder and CEO of PVM, Inc. We offer software engineering services related to big data storage and analytics to customers in both the private and public sectors, ranging from local police departments to statewide public safety departments, to federal agencies like the Department of Defense and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With this diversity of clients, we've gotten to work on some pretty exciting projects. They include:

Additionally, we plan to continue to build upon the deep relationships we have with our existing clients—our average length of tenure with a client is seven years.

My name is Eli Halliwell and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Hairstory, a company dedicated to rethinking everything about hair in a world where the old rules no longer apply.

The second bet is that we could enable hairdressers to participate in eCommerce rather than be trounced by it. We have developed a perpetual affiliate model that ensures hairdressers always earn profits whenever their clients buy our products, regardless of where they buy.

Our business was founded in 2015, we’ve been self-funding since raising money from friends, and we are on pace to generate $30mm in sales this year, profitably.