Our community is comprised of some absolutely brilliant entrepreneurs and so we asked a few of them to tell us the story of how they came up with the ideas for their business.

Tatiana Mosquera | Custom Shoe Artist

I initially began Pisos by Tatz as my hobby. I had always been very artistic and painting was one of my greatest passions. While in college I stopped getting messy painting on canvas because I had no space in my apartment. And many of you may ask how I got the idea of painting on shoes. Well, truth be told I had a pair of shoes which I bought at Zara and I would always get multiple compliments on how cool they came out. I would always have to say that I bought them and didn’t paint them! This is when the idea of Pisos by Tatz slowly began, I thought it would be cool to make a nice pair of shoes which I could say I had painted myself. I started with a pair of sharpies in my college apartment painting shoes for my friends and me, and slowly Pisos grew on to what it is today. Today, I strive to create meaningful pieces with my greatest passion. Oh! and the word Pisos means customs shoes a.k.a the coolest shoes out there. Read more>>

Nicole Smithee | Co-founder & CEO of Iridescent Women

At the beginning of 2018, we paused from our busy schedules (with lattes in hand, of course) to sit down and dream together. It was amazing! We highly recommend making space to dream with friends who share similar passions. In our case, our commonality came in the form of championing women. Both of our individual careers had already involved investing in young women. I (Nicole) had worked for a decade and a half in a male-dominated profession while paving a path for other women and taking every opportunity to mentor young female professionals in my field along the way. And I (Alex), after studying theater and working alongside a company of women in fashion, founded an organization in Australia that took what I had seen in these industries and developed a course for high school girls that focused on building confidence and self-worth. But we knew it was time to do more! With the latest wave of extraordinary female empowerment shaping society, we wanted to create a space for women to explore what it really means to live empowered. Read more>>