We often hear the hardest part of starting a business is the idea itself. Truth be told, ideas are all around us and right under our nose. Sometimes the idea comes from solving a personal problem to improving something without needing to re-invent the wheel. Thankfully these 56 entrepreneurs share their ‘aha’ moment on how they personally came up with their unique business ideas. We hope these stories help trigger that light inside your head!
1) I was a Wellness Director at an Assisted Living home, when a senior kept slipping/sliding out of her wheelchair/recliner, my aide jokingly said “we need to put some ‘stick’em’ on her butt!” My wheels started turning and I thought about the non-slip socks. I wanted an item for clients to actually wear, not just apply to a seat. So when the person moved, they were always safe. – Barb Przybylowicz @ Safety Bunns
2) One day, while surfing ESPN.com, I saw a paparazzi photo of Kobe Bryant wearing a pair of sunglasses that I really liked. It took an hour of searching to finally track down the designer shades, only to find out that it was priced well out of range of my entrepreneur-sized budget. I wanted to combine the power of Hollywood with fashion and goodwill, to eventually create a place for people to go to find exactly what their favorite celebs are wearing, and let them purchase these items at a fraction of the price. – Amit Dharmani @ YouCeleb
3) I saw my fellow doctors with their iPhones still trying to use paper billing cards to capture their hospital charges. I found it hard to believe that paper billing cards and forms were still ‘state of the art’ in this day and age. These paper forms often go missing, get damaged and take a long time to be placed into the hands of a physician’s home billing office. How much revenue were physicians losing as a result of this archaic process? I knew I wanted to leverage technology to help improve the way medicine is practiced in this country in a major way. – David LaBorde @ Iconic Data
4) I was out at dinner with my girlfriend at a pizza restaurant near our apartment that is known for incredible Neopolitan pies. We were browsing the menu and debating what to order, when the manager came over and told us about a special, a pie with cheese imported from Italy (that he described as ‘life changing.’) We ordered it, and surprisingly enough, it blew our minds. That’s when it hit me! How many times had I missed ordering something amazing because I didn’t know about it? The world needed a way to know what they should be ordering when it came to food. That’s why I created DishEnvy; so that diners could easily share their thoughts on dishes and find something great everytime they eat out. – Jay Zygmunt @ DishEnvy
5) After receiving 3 speeding tickets in three weeks, I did some research and found out that it’s fairly easy to contest a ticket through the mail in California. I was able to get 2 out of 3 dismissed. After helping out friends and family for a while, I realized that there was a huge need for a company that offered legal assistance for traffic tickets for a low price and money back guarantee and great customer service. – Greg Muender @ TicketKick
6) My clients kept getting their liquid grooming products taken away at the airport because of size restrictions. After doing research, I discovered that there weren’t any TSA restrictions for a solid grooming bar. Therefore, I worked with a manufacturer to reinvent grooming and designed a 3-in-one *shampoo | shower | shave* bar. – Becky Sturm @ 3waybeauty
7) I was working in sales at a department store while putting myself through design school when I noticed a constant problem. Women couldn’t find what they were looking for and when they did, nine times out of ten it didn’t fit. I saw many women walk away discouraged almost having found the right skirt, but it was the wrong color or the wrong size. Therefore, I came across the problem and solved it by allowing women to get what they want by letting them design it themselves. I took it a step further allowing them to submit their measurements so that their design is created in their exact size. I like to call it “ending dressing room disappointment.” – Kristen O’Connell @ No.2 Skirts
8) We were on a vacation in New Hampshire when we realized we would need to throw away several bottles of condiments at the end of our trip. We thought, “wouldn’t it be great if there was one place you could go for the small packets of condiments — better yet, a place to get all of your travel accessories and travel size item needs?” Sure you can go to your local grocery store or pharmacy for some of the items, but they don’t always have the best selection. What if you’ve always used Colgate, and all they have is Crest? Thus, Minimus was born. – Paul Shrater @ Minimus
9) After one too many nights out at a disappointing bar or club and spending way too much money, especially during post-college at NYU and grad school, two friends decided that there had to be a better way to finding out what was going on in any given city at any given time. They wanted to know all their options before heading out for the night to make sure that they were going to the best venue or event for them. – Chris & Gianni @ Hotlist
10) My business partner and I happened to have a knack for inventing simple solutions to life’s little challenges. We were noticing that us and all of our friends, had piles of earrings all over our bedrooms and bathrooms, while our earring trees stood empty and our jewelry boxes were abandoned with a clump of unused jewelry inside. We realized that life was too busy and hectic to hunt for matching earrings every morning, therefore, our brains starting churning and voilá…. the Diva Dangler was born! – Irene & Sharon @ Diva Dangler
11) My husband was grilling some chicken breasts for my friends and I. The flavor of the evening was Jerk, and some people happen to like their chicken “jerkier” than others (i.e., more rub equals more spice and heat.) Once all the chicken came off the grill, arranged on a serving plate, brought upstairs and served to our guests, my husband couldn’t tell which chicken was the spicy one. Wouldn’t you know it, me being a “mild” person; I bit right into the hottest one of all! My husband than said, “someone needs to come up with a way for me to tell what’s what!” And immediately I knew we had something. This was my very spicy light bulb moment. – Leslie Haywood @ Grill Charms
12) I had been practicing Bikram Yoga for 7+ years and over the course of those years, I kept seeing the same problems at every studio I visited across the world. They were struggling with retaining customers, getting paid on time, and training staff on complex software solutions. I researched all the technology solutions out there to help these studios, but couldn’t find anything that was affordable, easy to use and setup, and would make the lives of studio owners easier. I was also frustrated with the limited number of technology options that were affordable to small businesses, such as these studios. This resulted in the last startup acquired, which then I decided to build BizeeBee. – Poornima Vijayashanker @ BizeeBee
13) For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been good at saving money. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate paying full price and love to find a deal. This became especially true when I became a mom in 2009, and quit my job to stay home with my daughter. It was the first time I didn’t have a job or a paycheck coming in, and though I had saved money, I could have easily stayed home for a while, however, I wanted to stretch my savings as long as possible. Therefore, I started watching my dollars even more, coupon-clipping and searching for the best deals to get the biggest bang for my buck. My friends always asked me for my tips and tricks for getting discounts. Since I love to help people, I thought why not create a website to spread the wealth even further? I know many of us are experiencing hard times, and need to watch every penny. So voila. – Melanie Haywood @ Smarty Saver
14) In 2008 a chairman asked me, “what would come up if I Googled you?” I said, “I didn’t have a clue”, so I went home to find out. What amazed me was the difficulty my business contacts would have in finding out the true level of my skills and experience; particularly since I’d been a Public Company Director for nine years. After my research and finding nothing out there that would accurately present all my skills and capabilities – Profiled.com was born! – Steve Wainwright @ Profiled
15) I am a cabinet maker/carpenter who needs sharp tools as all tool users do. I was adequate at sharpening but realized that the new diamond sharpening hones were the way forward, BUT they were very expensive. I had bought a small 6″ x 1″ diamond because it was all I could afford at the time and had managed to sharpen, if not a little difficulty, all my tools. When I was sitting waiting to start a job, I said to myself, “there must be an easier way.” That was my light bulb moment and I grabbed a scrap of wood, drew what I knew, and what I should make. – Gervase Evans @ G Sharp Tools
16) I have always said, you don’t need to ever have an original idea, just recognize a good one. Therefore, when I recognized good ideas (all my businesses were good ideas except for my nightclub), I just copied. HOWEVER, before you copy an already successful idea, make sure the competition isn’t too great in your sales area – whether that’s a single city or the entire world. If the competition is too great, you’re going to have a tough go of it. But if you get in on the ground floor when there isn’t too much competition, it’s fairly easy to rise with the tide. This is when your field gets flooded with competition, making the opportunity move towards selling and moving on to the next entrepreneurial venture….wash, rinse, repeat! – Aimee Elizabeth
17) We had a web design and development company prior to building Piktochart. Since our main qualities were both design and development work, which then brought us to our passionate towards visual attention, psychology and inbound marketing – all the great mix of the co-founders that make us excel at infographics as a very visual presentation tool. Lastly, we conducted a survey of 100 random people to check out what they thought about infographics and why would they pay or not pay for such an app. We found that as there was literally no such app available, the demand was very high. This is what set us off on our journey from discovering an idea to actually building a tangible product. – Ching @ Piktochart
18) I was repeatedly frustrated every time I found my kitchen towels on the floor every time I opened my oven door. This was also compounded when my two young children, Keelan and Skylar, could not help themselves and leave their hand towels on the bathroom floor after each use. I was at my sister’s house one day and saw her 2 year old son grabbing the kitchen towel off the oven door, she exclaimed that he always did that and had to often use safety pins all the time. Consequently with my own experiences and seeing others with the similar problem is what brought me to my “aha” moment! – Cindy Lawyer @ ToweLocs
19) As a High School English teacher, I was always busy making a ton of copies of worksheets, lessons, and tests for my students. With the photo copiers being unreliable at school, I was left with the burden of printing hundreds of paper from my home printer, using my own funds to purchase numerous printer cartridges a month. It was a true peeve of mine and so I started to research different types of cartridges and how I could save some money on this. – Lauren Elward @ Castle Ink
20) My wife and I were shopping at a Costco superstore one day and found a super sized toilet paper case of 96 rolls on sale. I reached down to manhandle it and put it on the shopping cart, and my wife was so embarrassed she said she would meet me outside. It was then that I realized we could sell toilet paper on the internet, which has now led us to selling janitorial supplies. The rest is history! – Victor Hanna @ Betty Mills
21) My name is Benjamin Sann, and I am the Founder & CEO of BestParking.com. Although I am now 23, I started the business in high school at the age of 17 after watching an episode of Seinfeld in which George refused to pay for a parking space. What I saw was a decision to grab at a great opportunity. – Ben Sann @ Best Parking
22) I was the Director of Public Relations for fashion designer Richard Tyler – the “it” designer of the moment. He had lots of celebrity clients like Rod Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. It was there that I had an epiphany: actors and models have agents, so why couldn’t I create a business where I was an agent for fashion designers? I believed if unknown fashion designers want to succeed in their rarified world, they needed an agent in Hollywood. – Susan Ashbrook
23) After getting my Galaxy S2, I found myself struggling to hold and balance the phone with one hand. This including the idea of always having to use two hands to use my phone just didn’t make sense. I started looking for a solution, and when I couldn’t find one, I created a prototype handle/grip for my phone out of elastic. – Mike Schwarz @ HANDeBand
24) We thought it would be cool if our restaurant clients could receive orders through their mobile sites, and so we began to check out how we could feed orders to restaurants. Turns out restaurants love receiving orders through their fax machines (go figure!). We than scoured the internet for a service that would integrate well with our software, but we couldn’t find anything that was close to modern. It was in a moment of naive and ignorance where we came to figure out, “how hard could it be to just build that?” – Howard Avner @ Phaxio
25) We drink a lot of beer and, like a lot of cash-strapped couples, we want to make sure we’re taking advantage of the best deals in our area. We would comb the circulars looking for the best beer deals when SaveOnBrew was born. Why not have a price search engine for advertised beer deals? If this had been around when we were in college, our folks would have saved a ton of money! – Jennifer Davidson @ SaveonBrew
26) We all agreed that our next venture would be to build a product that would “make life easier.” We spent a lot of time reflecting on our last venture and entire careers, thinking about what worked, what failed, what we liked and what we hated about running a business. It was during those discussions when the light bulb moment happened. We all shared how painful the experience was of hiring and how the paper resume was the weak link. Those discussions became the seed of the idea for Unrabble, a new and better alternative to hiring. – Chris Rickborn @ Unrabble
27) After turning forty, I was dismayed by the arm waddle I was developing in spite of daily workouts, yet I still loved a lot of sleeveless fashion. Trust me when I tell you, that even in winter – so many stylish clothes for women are sleeveless! Being an artist and designer, I started designing sleeves to be sewn into these sleeveless clothes I bought. I felt frustrated that this was both expensive and wasn’t very versatile. Then I had a lightbulb moment that I could design independent, interchangeable sleeves to wear with any sleeveless or strapless top or dress! – Ruthann Greenblat @ Sleevey Wonders
28) The idea of the Juppy came to me one day while watching my granddaughters play soccer at a park in Los Angeles. I noticed a mother bending over teaching her child to walk. She looked very uncomfortable and the baby did not look like she was tiring of “walking” any time soon. It was something that I had seen many parents do with their kids; hold the child by the arms and walk them. That’s when I thought, “I wonder if there is a device that can help children learn to walk but is effective, safe and easy to use?” As soon as I got home in Las Vegas, I decided to research this idea. I soon found out that there was nothing out on the market that could do all of these things. – Jeffrey Nash @ Juppy Baby
29) The idea for ‘What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex’ hit me after I’d been thinking about two unrelated situations for a while. First, I’d been stressed about how my first ‘proper’ book, ‘Ideas Man’ hadn’t sold that well, despite taking me five years to write and having great reviews on Amazon. I’d always yearned to write a bestseller and it just wasn’t happening with ‘Ideas Man’. Secondly, I’d been thinking about how two products in the gift market I was working in, were selling surprisingly well. These items were called ‘NOTHING’ – a simple piece of packaging with nothing inside, and a product called ‘AIR GUITAR’, which again, was a piece of packaging with the outline of a guitar molded into the plastic on the front, but zero inside it. Both these ‘items’ selling superbly despite not really being anything apart from a visual joke. So, the idea of selling nothing – coupled with the idea of getting a bestseller – churned around in my mind, and out popped the idea for selling a completely and utterly blank book. – Shed Simove
30) I am the founder of BravoBride.com, an online marketplace for new and used wedding items. I had my ‘aha’ moment when planning my own wedding four years ago. I realized how expensive wedding items were and that they were used only once and for a short time so I began to search for used wedding items online. I wasn’t able to find a website that only focused on preowned wedding items and so I decided to create one. – Susan Shapiro @ BravoBride
31) While vacationing in Hawaii, our infant daughter had a major diaper 9-1-1. As we cruised Oahu’s North Shore looking for a gas station with a diaper changing station, my husband and I had a revelation: lots of families probably had the same frustration and need as we did and we started thinking of a sort of parents’ atlas that would direct parents to restrooms with diaper changing stations, restaurants that were kid friendly, play places and medical facilities. Of course, an atlas is so 1987 and it’s the digital age, so an mobile phone app was born that lets parents “Know Where to Go” to solve their children’s pressing needs. – Jen Sieve-Hicks @ KIDzOUT
32) After a couple of years of using old NY Times cross word puzzles to create games, I received a call from a wealthy Bostonian requesting I produce a hand carved wooden jigsaw puzzle, the man would pay me $300. This unique “out of the blue” request got me thinking, if one man is willing to pay $300 for a unique, hand carved puzzle, then there may be more of a place for my passion in the puzzling world than I knew. I quickly learned how to work a jigsaw and combined my love for puzzles and games with my new talent and Stave Puzzles was born. – Steve Richardson @ Stave Puzzles
33) On a climbing trip in Yosemite, we had gotten above the tree line and got absolutely baked. Reapplication of slimy sunscreen in a dirty environment, and particularly when you’re relying on your grip to scale the rock, becomes quite difficult. We thought that there had to be a commercial solution for adding shade to a helmet. When we got home, we searched finding no available solutions. So, we invented our own and thought if we had the problem, others probably did, too! – Teresa Bryan @ Da Brim
34) While leaving a shopping mall in Texas with my young children, I noticed a car trolling the parking lot. As the car started to approach, it was clear that the man was naked. I had two small children, a purse, a diaper bag, a shopping bag and a stroller. My car keys were in the bottom of my purse, as usual. I just wanted to get my children locked inside my car so I could contact authorities. It was impossible for me to reach my keys quickly. That event stayed with me knowing I couldn’t possibly be the only woman that experienced this aggravation of not being able to get my keys out of my bag. – Kim Mack @ Charming KEYper
35) In April of 2009, my youngest brother passed away. Then 6 months later my oldest brother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and passed away in April of 2010. As I sat in the chapel completely in a daze looking at all the hundreds and hundreds of flower arrangements. Again a year later out of nowhere it came to me and I thought to myself, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to give the family something that wasn’t going to die in a few days, something that could last forever and be a happy reminder of their loved ones?’ At that, I was determined to find that perfect gift. I asked myself what is it that I would really want right now. My answer was simple. I would give anything just to see my brothers one more time. Be able to look into their eyes and tell them how much I love them. – Chiristine Hoffee @ Memories in Crystal
36) I was out having afternoon tea with a girlfriend, and she was talking about her future, trying to figure out what she wanted to do next. I mostly was just listening to her. But the next day, when I was driving to a client meeting, I began to see exactly how I wanted to build my new business, PhotoMint, which teaches photographers marketing and business skills. For some reason, listening to my friend sort out her dreams and goals helped me to crystallize my own. Two days later I had an entire business plan mapped out. – Laura White @ Photomint
37) We were in search of a speaker that could fit easily into a suitcase while traveling. On the road 200 days out of the year and without a solution to our problem, we decided to invent our own portable speakers. Figiting with an old Chinese take-out box, we wondered why we couldn’t create a speaker just as simple. The idea sparked the creation of our small business, OrigAudio, a play off of the Japanese art of origami. – Jason & Mike @ OrigAudio
38) I invented the CushPad after I noticed my girlfriend would repeatedly let my iPad slip off her lap while using it. Not wanting my favorite gadget to break, I went out and bought my own foam cutter and created my own prototype for a product that would keep an iPad in place on uneven surfaces and hence the CushPad was born. Not only does it protect your valuable iPad but makes it more comfortable by lessening the strain on neck and back. – Adam Raby @ Cushpad
39) I invented a maternity support pillow called BellyRest. For 7 months I had been shoving a pillow under my belly every time I rolled over when I was in bed. I could have purchased one of those huge maternity support pillows, but I didn’t want something the size of another human in my bed! So, I kept on moving my pillow, waking up, waking up my husband, getting up to go to the bathroom because I realized I was awake… one day I thought “What if I cut this pillow in half, attached some fabric in the middle and then the pillow would already be there to meet my belly when I rolled over?” It worked. – Kerri Smith @ Bellyrest
40) Late last year, I met my wife at her nail salon so that I could take her out to dinner. During our chat, the salon owner had to get up to take a customer’s payment. The customer tried to hand her a credit card and she had to apologize to the customer, explaining that they only accept cash and checks. The customer wasn’t happy about it. I asked the salon owner why she didn’t accept credit/debit cards. She replied that for low-ticket purchases, it was simply too costly for her business. It made my wonder how many other small businesses don’t accept credit cards, and perhaps more importantly, how many businesses did not survive because they couldn’t afford to accept credit cards? Having been in the online payments space for the last 12 years, I realized there simply *has* to be a better way. – Mike Hoffmeyer @ Paytopia
41) In 2008, we were building apps for the iTunes App Store and quickly realized that while the App Store was a new and powerful way to distribute software to millions of people, it was horrible for customer communication. We felt very strongly that the fact that the app store operators owned the customer relationships was not sustainable in the long run. We wanted to build a powerful set of tools for app makers that would enable them to listen to their customers, to give them a voice to talk with their customers and to enable them to truly develop customer relationships for the long-term. – Robi Ganguly @ Apptentive
42) During my junior year of college at UCLA, I wanted to study abroad in Singapore and had to find a place to store my things. In West LA, storing a couch and boxes would cost over 1,000 bucks, so I stored half my stuff at my friend (and future SpareFoot COO) Mario’s house. Initially, my idea of a person-to-person site where people store items for others, a way for homeowners to make extra cash. While in Singapore, I took a new venture creation class, which was all about raising venture capital for your start-up. Two classes in, I thought, “This is awesome; this is what I want to do.” – Chuck Gordon @ SpareFoot
43) I was looking for some added revenue – investment in the late 1990’s. I currently was in the event industry, planning events and booking entertainment. I saw an ad for a portable toilet company for sale and went to go view the restrooms with my husband. When we arrived it clicked, restrooms primarily designed for women by a woman. The rest is history. – ElizaJ
44) In July 2011, one of the adopted dogs from the rescue I volunteer with got loose and went missing. I pitched in to help the search that was losing ground. Upon doing some basic Googling, I discovered there are already techniques and strategies out there that are proven to work when you’re trying to recover missing pets. I put those techniques into action and we found Bella 3 days later! Eventually, I realized just how much people need help, mostly because of three reasons: 1) people have no idea what to do and don’t realize there are free resources within reach, 2) even when they learn what they need to do, they are often too emotionally overwhelmed to do it, 3) often, people cannot take time away from work or other life commitments to drop everything and search 24/7. – Sarah Sypniewski @ NinjaDog Concepts
45) It took me a long time to come up with my idea even though it was staring me in my face the whole time. I loved to travel and was really good at helping myself and my family and friends earn miles without ever having to step on an airplane. One day it hit me that I should blog about it and charge people to help them earn miles, so I started my site / blog and offered my Concierge Service where for $60, I guide you step by step on how to earn miles. In a couple months, what was once my unpaid passion, is turning in to a serious career. – Parag Raja @ Frequent Flyer University
46) I had my aha moment when I was out running in the heat and passed out from dehydration. I realized I probably needed to carry water with me, but there wasn’t really anything on the market, except the fanny pack, which had to be rinsed out with baking soda every time you used it. I wanted something quick and easy. I came up with swiggies, wrist water bottles. – Julis Austin @ Swiggies
47) I was inspired to design SleepPhones back in 2007 when I was on call for the emergency room. I had a hard time falling back to sleep after being awoken in the night by a phone call. My mind was occupied with patient concerns that kept me awake, so my husband recommended listening to something to lull me to sleep. I didn’t want to disturb him while he slept and earbuds were too uncomfortable, so I tried sewing very thin speakers into a soft fleece headband. It worked, and my husband and I were like, hey, we have something here! – Dr. Wei-Shin Lai @ SleepPhones
48) I was a freelance journalist in-between jobs, and was looking for a new writing outlet. I have two kids, 9 and 11, and they’re fascinated with technology. So I decided to write an interactive, choose-your-own-path book app that would get kids to read. With the app, which can be read on tablets and smartphones, kids press buttons to determine how a story proceeds during critical points in the plot. They reach an ending, then can go back, make new choices and explore a different path. – Julie Laviolette @ Story Bayou
49) We got tired of hearing our son respond “I don’t know” or “nothing” each time we asked him what he did in school that day. But let’s face it, preschoolers aren’t the best communicators. So we decided to investigate ways to improve parent communication at our children’s Montessori school. We found that Montessori educators face a lot of unique challenges in the classroom as they essentially are charting individual learning paths for as many as 30 students at times! These individual learning paths are charted without test-based assessment. Instead, Montessori educators rely on observation to know when and how to help a student progress in various areas. Once we gained an understanding of the challenges educators face in the classroom, we set about developing a software to make their job easier and to tie in parent communication at the same time. – Anita Amos @ Montessori Compass
50) Two dogs, never know where the leashes are, time to go out equals the invention of supercollar®. As a traveler, family and adventure, going anywhere with two dogs seemed to lead to chaos. That’s one of the reasons why our invention, supercollar®, the world’s only dog collar with a built-in leash, was born. – Jane Angelich @ supercollar
51) Looking up at my 2 story rain gutters filled with debris and not comfortable climbing a ladder again and again to clean the gutters, I realized that if the outlet (the hole in the gutter where the gutter
empties into the downspout) was clean, water would flow out of my gutters, even when there is debris in the rest of the gutter. (Conversely, my gutters could be perfectly clean but if the outlet is clogged water will never flow out of my gutters). – Kevin Leahy @ The SpoutOff
52) We had 40 or so people and access to a digital in/out board, but it didn’t work very well. The software wasn’t very intuitive certainly, but the big problem was getting employees to use it. The in/out status was used purely for informational purposes, not salary, so it was entirely optional. Without a top-down mandate, half of the employee’s statuses remained constantly “in”. It was fundamentally broken and me-too software wasn’t going to solve the problem. We needed to completely rethink the way we interact with the in/out board. Then one day while I was playing with my iPhone, it hit me like a lightning bolt: what if we could use the power of a smartphone’s GPS chip to just flip your status automatically for you? Since everyone always carries their phones, smartphone software could immediately solve the problem in a way that requires users to only do what they would do anyways. – Brandon Medenwald @ Simply Made Apps
53) Being diagnosed with cancer completely changes a person’s view on life – at least it did for me. Once I settled into the idea that I had skin cancer and started reading and learning more about it, I realized that I should probably have not been quite so shocked about the diagnosis. Doctors are finding closer and closer links between skin cancer and sun exposure at young age. After feeling pity for myself for a few weeks, I decided to stop crying on the couch and do something about it. Of course, I could not travel back in time to my childhood and keep my own young body safe from the sun, but I realized I could help others avoid the same fate. I said, “Adios” to the corporate world and dove headfirst into making swimwear and clothes that would keep children safe in the sun. And thus was born SwimZip. – Betsy Johnson @ SwimZip
54) I founded FlexJobs while I was pregnant with my first son in response to my frustrating search for flexible work that would fit with my life and growing family. When looking for a home based position, I kept running into scams and too good to be true offers. I quickly became frustrated and this was my “aha” moment — I decided to start a site that was 100% guaranteed as an ad-free, scam-free way to find a job that offered some type of flexibility. – Sara Fell @ FlexJobs
55) One day while I was eating lunch on a park bench, I noticed two young girls playing on the jungle gym. The girls ran over to a woman who was engrossed in a book. I realized that this woman was their nanny and the toddlers were essentially unsupervised. These girls could have easily run off into the busy Manhattan streets or wandered off at the hand of a stranger. I wanted to communicate to the girls’ parents about the substandard care their daughters were receiving. But how? Who were these girls? As a working mother, I knew I would want to be notified if my nanny was being negligent. Thus HowsMyNanny.com was created. – Jill Starishevsky @ Hows My Nanny
56) I was so frustrated with the expense reporting process, I created ABUKAI expenses which eliminates the need to type in any data whatsoever. Just take a photo of your receipt with your smartphone and ABUKAI auto-generates a detailed, comprehensive, accurate expense report. – Phil Schloter @ ABUKAI
