John Creed has been fascinated with hummingbirds since he was a boy spending summers at the family’s cabin in Westcliff, Colorado. Hummingbirds swarmed the deck that was lined with feeders and he was entranced. When he wasn’t watching them, he was learning as much as he could about them—the...
Julie and Aaron Menitoff’s catering business came to a screeching halt when COVID-19 reached the US. All of our traditional celebrations were canceled: weddings; bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras; birthday, graduation and anniversaries parties, as well as fundraising galas, corporate-wide dinners, and conventions.
That left Julie and Aaron in a precarious...
When you grow up in Detroit, it’s hard to escape the influence of cars. So no surprise when four friends got together to brainstorm business ideas and cars were the inspiration.
Donovan Brown and Garrett Mitchell went to high school together and were part of DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of...
When Whitney Gates was young, she loved to go to her uncle’s house and watch him make wine. He used fruits and vegetables, even corn on the cob, rather than grapes, and his wine had more of a “kick” with its higher alcohol content. Whitney was too young to...
Beer on-tap has long been preferred over beer in cans and bottles. It’s crisper, fresher and richer. Now, other beverages served on-tap are increasing in popularity—beverages such as wine, cocktails and coffee. In addition to tasting better, beverages in kegs are easier to deliver, store and serve, and a...
Bananas check off all the boxes: They are delicious, healthy, convenient and, compared to other fruits, inexpensive, while being low in calories, nutritious and filling. They are good for your heart and your digestion and might even help with losing weight.
If you’re like me, your favorite way to eat...
Ashley Young discovered there was a large untapped market in the bridal industry when she was planning her own wedding. She wanted her bridesmaids to look sensational, but found traditional bridal shops did not typically have styles that flatter curvy women nor colors that complement brown and black skin...
Yuki Kinoshita and Noah Silverman were like any college students: They had more to do than there were hours in the day. They were stressed too often. They were exhausted too often. It took watching a Great Dane curled up in his comfy bed in the local coffee shop...
Tracy Slocum and her family love boating on Lake George in upstate New York. They hate to see summer end and try to prolong boating season as far into the fall as they could. But even in early fall, temperatures can drop to 55 degrees and rainy days occur...
Ghia is a non-alcoholic apéritif inspired by the Mediterranean tradition of blending botanical extracts from orange peel and elderflower, and yuzu for an Asian touch, with nervines, medicinal plants that have been used for centuries to decrease stress and increase energy. Nervines include plants such as lemon balm, rosemary,...
At the outset of COVID-19, Google ordered all employees to work from home and stressed the importance of air quality in these new workplaces. Google had done a great job of sealing offices to protect employees from the noxious smoke arising from the many wildfires that wreaked havoc in...
The distinct aroma of autumn is in the air. Leaves turn red and gold and drift to the ground. Only the ivy is blooming. Swarms of birds blacken the sky as they head south. In the Braithwaite home, as in tens of thousands across the US, it’s time to...
It’s a scene right out of Norman Rockwell: father and young son headed to the beach with their buckets and shovels—hand rakes, trowels, spatulas, paintbrushes and . . . a melon baller? It’s great fun, the two bonding as they build a sand castle. And then. Too many toppled...
The Stakt Mat is a multi-purpose fitness mat designed for extra support and comfort. Mostly, we see yoga mats that are necessarily thin so yogis can keep their balance. Stakt is twice as thick yet still light enough to transport easily. Use the mat for more intensive workouts, such...
Braxton Fleming founded Stealth Bros. & Co. to produce fashionable dopp kits to keep safe and discreet the hormone replacement therapy and other medical paraphernalia needed by transgender men.
Dopp kits were first created in the 1920s. Charles Doppelt, a Chicago leathersmith, made toiletry bags for men to keep their...
In the United States alone, 80 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. That’s a lot of wrangling the slippery birds into submission, breast side up, to truss them. That takes wrapping twine around the neck bone, around the wings and pulling it tight underneath the breastplate,...
Remember Keanu Reeves in The Matrix—the long leather coat, the dark glasses, the banana phone! No? Well, maybe your toes start tapping as soon as you hear Bananaphone, your very first most favorite song? No? Surely, you have, at some point in your life, used a banana as a...
Alexiou Gibson founded The Transformation Factory as a continuation of his own personal journey and as part of his mission to provide products, in this case sea moss, that promote physical and emotional health.
Sea moss has been used for thousands of years for its medicinal properties. It became of...
I wonder if Chick-fil-A knows there is a target on its back. Luke Bradbury, founder and CEO of Project Pollo, is determined to shut it down by 2030.
Luke opened his first Project Pollo, a food truck, in September 2020. He had spent his whole career working in executive positions...
While confined to their respective homes due to the coronavirus pandemic, a group of college team managers and former college athletes founded The Players Trunk, an online marketplace for athletes to sell their sports gear, merchandise and collectibles to an enthusiastic audience of college sports fans, from full-fledged collectors...
It was a beautiful sunlit day on the beach in San Diego. Long-time friends, Wes Horbatuck and Greg Orfe, lived to play in the water. Wes’s favorite watersport was surfing, Greg’s kayaking. That’s why they were at the beach. Except it was one of those “change of seasons” days...
Devir Kahan went to his wedding with a pimple on his face. There was his beautiful, flawless bride and there was his pimple. The pimple grew throughout the day (in his mind) and was enshrined forever in hundreds of wedding photos.
Later, he discovered that his friends run into the...
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink! That might be what your favorite canine companion is thinking on your excursions. Rivers, streams, lakes—Petri dishes of parasites, bacteria and chemicals. The ocean—sodium enough to sicken your pal, plus it dehydrates. Communal water bowls—thoughtful, perhaps, but filled with the...
There is always room for a new female superhero. Wonder Woman is off protecting the forests. Storm has her hands full commanding the weather. Mera, Queen of Atlantis, creates and controls all the water on this earth—and that’s a full-time job! So now we have the Food Waste Warrior,...
