It wasn’t an entrepreneurship class that inspired Noah Temple to start his coffee and tea social enterprise, he shares; it was his seventh grade history class. Noah – now a senior at Ladue Horton Watkins High School in St. Louis – launched Junior Java Coffee in the fall of 2019...
Gavin Pringle knows firsthand the struggles of navigating school without the right tools. "I was not a successful high school student," he says. "I graduated from my third high school; I had undiagnosed ADHD. I couldn't sit still, couldn't focus on classes." But it wasn’t just about focus—Gavin lacked essential soft skills,...
In Rock Port, Missouri, Mandy Herron turned two acres in her backyard into a blooming business with Flower and Forged Farms, a concept that sprouted from a peaceful moment in her garden. It happened one day in 2019 when she was on bedrest pregnant with her son while her husband...
With two decades of experience in the automotive industry, Kevin Wyas noticed consumers needed an easy and cost-effective way to program their vehicles. So in early 2020, the Springfield, Missouri, entrepreneur launched ECRI, a wireless vehicle calibration device that is compatible with multiple vehicles. The patent-pending technology allows the owner...
Braiding hair for over 20 years, Michelle Byrd’s entrepreneurial journey began out of necessity. She started to braid and style client’s hair to pay for her youngest daughter’s private school tuition. Even though Michelle never envisioned herself starting her own business and just took on a few clients to supplement her...
Byron Brooks received his first video camera when he was 14 and hasn’t looked back, he says, starting his own video production business before he even finished high school. The Harrisonville, Missouri, native – who launched Midwestern Ox Productions in January 2022, just months before he graduated – was initially...
The Rosier family has farmed on the same land in Holt County, Missouri, for nearly a century, Dylan Rosier shares, and now he and his brothers are doing their part to make sure the farm is still thriving for the fifth generation. Starting with Dylan’s great-grandfather in the 1930s, the Rosiers...
Founder of Paytient Brian Whorley, inspired by his time at Boone County Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, created a system that’s helping over a million Americans better manage health care costs, reduce financial anxiety and get the treatments they need. “I wanted to reduce costs as a barrier to care,” Brian...
What started as a side hustle to pay for daycare has turned into a profitable sign-making, home decor and apparel business for Ashley Raetz. The central Missouri entrepreneur started RiOak Design – named after her two daughters, Riley and Oaklee – 12 years ago at her kitchen table and has...
Spectrum Record Lounge is becoming a community cornerstone in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the city’s first and only record store, combining the owners’ love of music and meeting for a drink in one retro spot. “It's a nice symbiotic relationship between the record store and the bar,” says Travis Tyson,...
