Entrepreneurial inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places. For Becca Brown, the seeds of a business idea were planted when the heels of her Champagne-hued prom shoes sank into the grass of her parents’ front yard in 1996.
A decade later, Brown offered her business school classmate an unusual idea for an entrepreneurship project: “Becca turned to me and said, ‘Why is there nothing to stop heels from sinking into the grass?’ ” recalls Monica Ferguson Murphy.
Murphy, who had wobbled on shoe stems herself, knew Becca was on to something. The two pitched the concept of a high heel stabilizer/protector cap for the class. After graduation, they followed up on the offbeat idea.
“The more we thought about it, the more we thought there is a need for this,” Murphy says.
They dived into Internet research and built up resources that enabled them to create a cap prototype, product packaging, and an e-commerce site. “It’s been scary and stressful,” says Murphy, but also successful.
The duo have sold more than 100,000 pairs of their SoleMates brand cap. Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine called the concept “ingenious,” and the founders just signed a national distribution deal with wedding retailer David’s Bridal.
The Mother of Invention
Whatever label you put on it — the “I need-I want” entrepreneurial impetus, or “necessity is the mother of invention” — scores of businesses have begun from a personal need.
“Entrepreneurial activity starts from desire — someone wants to do something — and there is nothing more powerful than someone who wants to solve their own problem,” says Leonard Schlesinger, author of Action Trumps Everything and president of entrepreneurial-focused school Babson College.
Leah Busque thought up the idea for her errand-running firm TaskRabbit after she ran out of dog food for her Labrador retriever, Kobe. Chef Paulette De La Rosa and her mom, Lily,…