Downtown LA 01.02.2018

Kelly Browne

I was born and raised in Southern California and grew up harvesting vegetables from our family garden and picking fresh fruit off our backyard trees with my six brothers and sisters. Making dinner every night was a family affair in our home and I have countless memories of chopping and peeling and dicing and stirring and sampling foods from all our family recipes in our warm, cozy kitchen. Read more>>

Stephanie Ziemer

I began my career as an art director / set decorator in film and television. It was a good training ground to work with a wide range of budgets, styles and time periods while honing my skills as a designer. My consultations with the Director of Photography made me realize the importance of lighting, what the camera picks up and how to create visual drama. Read more>>

Bobby Tetsch

I’m originally from a small town of less than 10,000 people called Smithfield, VA. I moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago. I have a 4-year-old son and enjoy spending time with my family and participating in outdoors sports when not building my business. I co-founded Elevate Energy Partners in 2015. Read more>>

William Hernandez

As a real estate agent at Keller Williams Los Feliz, I had multiple clients ask me after a sale if I knew of a reputable management company that I could refer them to manage their new property and I saw the opportunity of engaging in a new business so I decided to get my broker’s license and open a property management company. Read more>>

Toushonta Hogan

Toushonta is the creator of Scentsational Soaps, an all-natural skincare line for both men and women. A modern-day Renaissance woman described as always having an entrepreneurial spirit, Hogan graduated from California State University with a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Human Resources. Read more>>

Aaron Jay Young

I moved to LA 9 years ago and had just started experimenting with photography. I met a fellow photographer who hired me to shoot some nights at clubs on the East Side which eventually lead to being hired as the set photographer for Rupaul’s Drag Race. I worked on the show for 3 seasons and their spin-off shows, “Drag U” and “All-Stars.” Read more>>

Evan Shafran

Evan was born in Portland Maine on December 7th, 1982. I started working in the performing arts at the age of 7. Evan is originally from Portland Maine. He moved to New York at the end of the summer of 2001 where he attended Manhattanville College in Purchase New York. He received his degree in Dance Theatre and Sociology and Anthropology. Read more>>

Brian Spence

Growing up in a suburb near the unique architecture of Washington DC, I was always building – block towers, Lego spaceships, and tree forts. My childhood drawings were plans of houses and castles on graph paper. In high school, I signed up for a drafting class and was drawn to the combination of creativity and precision. Read more>>

Alex Lorton and Zach Yungst

Our interest in the growing San Francisco food scene — combined with our own slightly quirky food preferences — sparked the idea that ultimately became Cater2.me. Coming out of college, we started finance and consulting jobs where free catered lunch was a regular, albeit unexciting perk. Read more>>

Sergio Pelayo

Cleaning houses! Yes, I started cleaning houses 5 years ago. My Wife and I we build a cleaning company from zero to now in 2017 with around 15 employees, the only different thing I did from many others is that instead of spending our profits on commodity and other things we decided to invest in our dreams. Read more>>

Robyn Young

My background in branding before starting my business was far from linear. I started in market research for companies like Nike and Target, moved into fashion styling and editorial for luxury publications like Modern Luxury and LA Confidential, then segued into branded content, working on personal brands for celebrities like Tracee Ellis Ross (Blackish), Lauren Conrad and Harry Shum Jr (Glee) as well as large corporations like UCLA. Read more>>

Kevin R. Newman

Kevin began his architecture career in 1980, at Kaufman Meeks a Houston based firm. After five years of being at the Houston office, Newman moved to California to help open the firm’s West Coast Office in the spring of 1985. After 20 years at the firm, Newman along with John Garrison decided to buy -out founder Don Meeks of Meeks + Partners, and rename the firm Newman Garrison + Partners. Read more>>

Eugene Chan

Crew Apparel is a business inspired by chefs. I used to be in the restaurant business, creating and running cool coffee shops, dining concepts and whiskey bars in HK and Asia. There is never a shortage of fine ingredients to create amazing dishes, nor craftsman to build a nice shop, however, we have a hard time finding a uniform that fits our image. Read more>>

Daron Hollowell

Ring The Alarm started in 2014 as a music and culture company dedicated to bringing innovation and beauty into the world in the spirit of collaboration between the artistic community. We are lucky to be a part of and the brands that trust us. We make all sorts of things now that revolve around this idea from ads to records to films to beer. Read more>>

Jason Ostro

I moved to California in 1997 and after a short stay in San Francisco working on the options market floor, I decided to try my luck in the entertainment industry. Starting in 1998 I was enwrapped with all that Los Angeles had to offer and quickly tried to open many doors to attempt to find my passion. Read more>>

Chef Flo

For more than twenty years, Chef Flo cooked meals the way she had learned in her native France. They were heavy on meats, eggs and dairy: rich with butter and creamy sauces. Flo shifted her paradigm when she began to see how certain foods had a positive effect on the health of her autistic daughter, and on Flo herself. Read more>>

Christena Quinn and Mike Santos

Christena: I got started in the restaurant industry at 15 and never looked back. I love the hospitality industry- everything from host, to management, to server, and bartender. I will definitely be in this industry for life. Mike: I started as a dishwasher at 14 and worked my way up through every position I’ve had. I was a server and bartender for many years, and was avoiding management for as long as possible. Read more>>

John Marshall

I have been in the fashion business for 30+ years, went to Otis/Parsons, and worked for various contemporary clothing companies, such as Carol Little, Francine Browner, etc. as a fabric/trim buyer before my textiles sales career began in 1999. I was given the position of West Coast Sales Manager for Solstiss / Bucol where I was employed for several years before opening my sales agency, JM International Group Inc in 2009. Read more>>

Patrick Bertagna

GTX Corp is a pioneer and innovator in Smart, Mobile and Wearable GPS, cellular and BLE tracking and recovery location-based services. Through its proprietary IoT enterprise monitoring platform, GTX offers a complete end-to-end solution of hardware, software and connectivity, backed by an extensive portfolio of patents. Read more>>

Daniel Revah

Recently released after my voluntary service at the Israeli Defense Forces, I came back to Los Angeles to start my life. I had a period of about 2 months without work and adapting to civilian life was difficult, to say the least. Understanding that daily urban life is slowed down and more relaxed had me in a confused state of mind. Read more>>

David Russell

The Mobile Mural Lab was conceived as a public art project responding to a Los Angeles sign ordinance that did not discriminate between commercial signs and fine art murals. The drafted language within the ordinance positioned original hand painted murals on private property to be illegal.  Read more>>

Skylar Funk

I met Merritt Graves in the Environmental Studies program at Pomona College. We studied the problems we and our future generations are facing and will face, and left school with a focus and drive to promote sustainability for the wellbeing of living things like ourselves. Read more>>

Liz Covington

A Minnesota native, I’ve been painting since 2009 and love the glow and luminous quality of watercolors. I started painting to enhance my calligraphy and slowly began painting more and soon completely stopped practicing calligraphy. I’m a member of the El Segundo Art Association and the Pacific Art Guild which have honored me with several local awards.  Read more>>

Brad Lipshy and Amanda Masick

Event Solutions started with one man, Brad Lipshy, and his love for helping people find joy. Starting in catering, Brad fed people more than just amazing food and beverages – he nourished their hearts. It was natural to move from catering food to catering other event needs that would arise at parties. Read more>>

Arno Aghamalian

Solar Optimum President and CEO, Arno Aghamalian, began his industry-changing family business in 2008 and has transformed his vision into California’s premier solar company. Today, his business is now a dynamic, expert-driven enterprise with a knowledgeable workforce empowered to install customers throughout California. Read more>>