Mordechai’s company, Blurrd, is injecting bold design and personality into an industry that’s been buttoned-up for too long. He’s building a brand in his vision, his way.

Matt Wampler started out cleaning grease traps, and now he’s helping restaurants move from gut-feel guessing to predictive analytics—think “How many plain bagels do I need today?” answered with data instead of intuition.

Chris Heffernan saw the writing on the wall when food delivery went mainstream, and pivoted to a smarter niche: scheduled catering orders for corporate clients. His platform now spans North America and pays out millions to drivers.

After years of traveling in an Airstream, chasing contracts across the country, and living off-grid to survive the early days of COVID… the mountains pulled them in.

So did the business opportunity.

“You can’t compare us to anyone else. That’s by design.”

Today, Every Mile Creative is a full-service photo and video company serving brands that want to stand out—and they’re doing it by building unforgettable content in unforgettable places.

They don’t just shoot cool footage on glaciers and helicopters. They help brands translate values into visuals—and they’ve curated every piece of the business to attract only the right clients.

Tyler Johnson wasn’t looking to start a company—he was just looking for a golf bag small enough for his toddler.

It didn’t exist. So he built it.

Matt Foster didn’t grow up fixing boats. But after five unanswered service calls, he realized the marine industry was broken—and built Motorboat Mechanics to fix it. What started with a scrappy Facebook ad is now a multi-city mobile repair company scaling through marinas, systems, and word-of-mouth trust.

For Ally, taking Well-Oiled full-time wasn’t an impulsive leap—it was a calculated move.

“I’m not the ‘jump and figure it out’ type. I needed to make sure we had something sustainable,” she says. “But by early 2023, I was working 50 hours a week at my job and another 30 on Well-Oiled. I hit a wall.”

She gave the team an ultimatum: “Either we go all in, or we scale back.” The decision was clear. By March 2023, she left her job and became the first full-time employee at Well-Oiled.

Jared Kugel was living on crackers and jelly when everyone told him to quit. Today, his company Tire Agent has sold over 2 million tires—and he’s just getting started. No tech background. No hype. Just obsession, grit, and a refusal to back down.

Alisha Chranya didn’t wait for the “perfect moment” to start her business. 

Instead, she made the leap when most people would’ve hesitated—leaving behind a steady job in New York with nothing but a big idea and a belief that it could work. “I didn’t have investors or a huge budget. I just had an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone, and I knew I had to try,” she says.

Tiffany Slowinski went from school counselor to running seven media publications across New Jersey—after spotting a Facebook ad on maternity leave. No sales background, no biz degree—just instincts, grit, and a refusal to settle. Now she’s scaling fast, hiring smarter, and building a business her daughters are already learning from.

Alessandro Bogliari grew up in Milan, the son of small business owners, and never worked a traditional job. Today, he runs a fully bootstrapped global agency with 60+ people and 8-figure revenue- all without raising a dollar. He’s not building to impress investors- he’s building something real, sustainable, and human-first.

Jaime Salcedo is a full-time firefighter, longtime tattoo artist, and now founder of Painless Picasso—a natural pain relief brand already in 50+ shops across the U.S. He built it in his kitchen after a shoulder injury sidelined him, then scaled it by listening to what customers actually needed. No investors. No shortcuts. Just grit, integrity, and a whole lot of fire (no literally, he fights them)

Josh Goldblum grew Bluecadet out of his Philly row house- until he got evicted for running a studio out of his living room. He fought it in court. Lost. But the business kept growing, and that scrappy setup became the foundation for an Emmy-winning, globally recognized creative agency.

Sameer Ranjan launched Catenate years before the world was ready for it. He built a behavioral science platform to measure soft skills—then waited as the market caught up. Now, in the age of AI, everyone’s asking the question he’s been answering all along: what makes a human uniquely valuable at work?

Oliver King thought he was building software. What he built instead was something way more valuable.

After churn wiped out his early traction, he stopped following the product playbook and got dangerously close to his customers. Now he runs a lean, profitable business helping other builders figure out how to sell—and stay sane doing it.

“The ones who stayed? They kept asking me to be more hands-on. So I leaned into that.”

This one’s for anyone who’s ever had to start over smarter.

Michael Hoffman didn’t set out to build a video tech company. He just kept listening to what customers actually needed.

When they wanted more video, he built the tool. When they wanted him to run it for them, he said yes—even though it broke the original model. That mindset turned Gather Voices into a growing, customer-led business rooted in real stories.

“We didn’t want to be a service business. But our customers needed that version of the solution. So we made it work.”

This one’s for anyone who’s ever built the right thing by throwing out the roadmap.

“It felt like pulling the ripcord,” John says. “There’s something exhilarating—and terrifying—about officially starting your own business.”

John’s journey to entrepreneurship wasn’t the typical lemonade-stand-as-a-kid story. Growing up in a suburban home with a doctor father and a self-employed massage therapist mother, he was surrounded by hard work but not necessarily the entrepreneurial grind.