Josh Quinn and his wife, Niki, were running a wholesale accessories brand in Los Angeles when they came to Columbus to write a business plan for their first shop on the east coast. One gallery hop later, Josh and Niki decided to make Columbus their permanent home where they opened Tigertree, a community-centric retail business.

Gary Jones spent his entire life seeing successful men wearing perfectly tailored suits, so when he took his high school senior pictures he knew he had to wear a suit. After receiving an amazing response, he was invited to his first fashion show to be a model and everything built from there.

When a donor’s passion for a cause and an organization’s pursuit of a mission are in mutually fulfilling alignment, outcomes of significance can happen. That’s where Plentiful, an advising consultancy comes in. Carey Schmitt tells her story and why she is so passionate about charitable giving.

Artina’s founder came to Ohio from Greece to give his sister away in her wedding when he fell in love with his wife and decided to stay. After years of running the business, Matina Zenios took over and is the leader now of Artina Promotional Products, one of the largest promotional product firms in the United States. A second generation, family oriented, woman-owned business, Artina has maintained an outstanding reputation in their more than 50-year history.

After graduating from Yale, Karen Hough became a professional actor and improviser, performing with Second City in Chicago. Since Chicago, Karen worked as an actor in New York, then at a tech startup where she had to improvise to succeed. Now, she runs ImrpovEdge, one of the top 1% of women-owned businesses in the United States, where she trains business leaders and teams looking to gain a business edge.

Loke Shao Xun and his team of talented artists turn anyone’s photos, stories, or dreams into gorgeous works of art through an online marketplace. In Loke’s words “if you can dream it we can paint it.” The idea for patron art came to Loke after his grandfather passed away and he found there was no easy way to contact an artist to commission a painting. Since then, PatronArt has made that connection easily so ideas and artists can connect with ease.

After many years in the creative marketing and advertising industry, Catherine Lang-Cline realized that there simply had to be a better way to find talent and find work as a freelancer. This is when she and her business partner, Kristen Harris, founded Portfolio Creative, a recruiting and staffing company that specializes in only the marketing and advertising industry. Since 2005, Catherine has been bridging the gap between talented creatives and companies in need of marketing help.

After graduating from Capital University, Stefan Thomas started his legal career at a big firm. He found some success but decided he wanted to try practicing independently. After a while he and his business partner Ashley Ingram decided to merge their practices to create the Thomas Ingram Law Group in 2016.

It may be a challenge to run a business with your spouse, but Brandon and Aimee Harper knew they needed to bring Liege waffles Columbus as soon as they took their first bite. Belgian Iron is a young and growing specialty waffle and coffee shop located in the Short North. With unique toppings and high quality ingredients, the Harpers have already found success.

Corey Favor is working to build the Columbus community of entrepreneurs and creatives by hosting an annual multi-day conference that centers around creatives of color. Creative control fest aims for the mutual exchange of resources in art design tech and more.

While [gath•er] might just seem like a trendy community rental space in Delaware, Stacy Stultz had a much bigger idea in mind when she started her own business. Stacy believes in the power of connection and she hopes to help cultivate relationships by creating a destination where the community of Delaware can come together to connect and collaborate.

The idea of the suit shop Pursuit was born in class at Ohio State while Nate Demars was studying to earn his MBA. In 2015 Nate moved into the Short North and since then, he has catapulted his businesses success, opening a second location in Cincinnati and partnering with the Columbus Crew and the US Men’s Curling Team.

Kevin Crowley worked in the restaurant business his whole adult life, and his dream was always to own his own restaurant. After meeting his wife at Ohio State while he was getting his MBA, he decided Columbus was the perfect place to open up shop. Lox Bagel Shop to be exact, where he makes hand rolled, boiled and baked bagels and bagel sandwiches using only the best ingredients.

Lindsay Fork became a business owner after buying La Jeune Mariee in 2008 and after growing the business rapidly she opened another bridal shop in 2011 called LUXERedux, where the bride can walk away with a dress the same day she goes in. 8 years later, Lindsay and her businesses continue to flourish in the Columbus market.

Cameron Mitchell finished nearly dead last in his high school class, 592 of 599. His first job ever was in 1980 as a dish washer at a local restaurant earning $2.65 an hour. He now owns a $300 million empire with 55 restaurants across the country offering everything from fine dining to steakhouses to gastropubs.

Working in economic development for 15 years and then real estate for 5, Graham Allison was searching for more economic incentives to help his clients in 2017, when he learned about the new Opportunity Zones. Since then, he has become an expert in his field to the point that Graham was even a speaker at the Opportunity Zone Expo in Los Angeles on January 25. Even though his business is just one year old, he is sure it will continue to grow rapidly.