Our city is home to so many incredible businesses and so we asked the founders how they came up with the ideas for their businesses and have shared their responses below.

Daniele Bucci | Chef

I’m Italian born and raised, originally from south of Italy, cooking is our culture and I was always close to my parents when they were cooking, and from them, I learned lot of secrets in the kitchen. The best moments were during holidays with relatives and we all brought something homemade to eat, and the Sundays with mom,dad and brothers, where was a tradition to have “Pasta e Ragù della domenica ” (Sunday’s pasta tomato sauce). As I grew up I started having problems with cheese and dairy products, and, almost all Italian dishes has cheese/parmigiano inside, so with my mom I started cooking traditional italian dishes for me dairy free. I started cooking for myself and then I started cooking friends who had the same problem as me for letting them try if was good or not, and everyone told me: “you should get paid because your food is so good”. Read more>>

Kevin Toliver-lyons | Founder: Susan D. Lyons Foundation for Hope

The idea for the Susan D. Lyons Foundation for Hope (SDLF4H) was deeply personal. In 2014, just twelve days after her 67th birthday, my mother, Susan D. Lyons, took her own life. Coping with that loss was a transformative experience that inspired me to create a space where others could process their grief and find healing. Initially, the foundation focused on mental health support, offering free art therapy to help individuals deal with the pain of losing loved ones to suicide. Read more>>

Marc Litt | Realtor & Newsletter/Media Specialist

Being able to adapt the trajectory of my goals has always been one of my strong suits….even though the objective has never changed.
I’ve always been fascinated with Media and its ability to reach the masses. In college, I was a part of the Editorial team for the Student Newspaper. I was pretty darn good at Journalism, digging deep for a scoop, following through with research, interviews, informing the readers. Read more>>