Fourteen years ago, Tina Frey, founder and creative director of TF Design, changed course from a successful career in finance to follow her heart in art and design. “I had to forget about all the practical self-limiting beliefs and fears around security,” says the Hong Kong–born ... More

Seven years ago, Erica Liu Williams, founder of gr8nola, was immersed in the world of tech. But an experiment in her kitchen during an annual cleanse with her husband led the Danville, California-based food entrepreneur to the idea for a healthy granola brand. The resulting six ... More

April Gargiulo, founder of Vintner’s Daughter, struggled with her skin her entire life. Acne, discoloration, you name it—and she tried all the luxury products she read about in glossy magazines. She was alarmed to learn that these products had very little active ingredients and a lot ... More

Oakland–based woodworker Aleksandra Zee isn’t intimidated by turning heads when she walks through a lumberyard. “I feel like I’ve gone through such a journey as a female and I don’t have anything to prove, so it takes the pressure off,” says the former Anthropologie display artist, ... More

Interior designer Jeannie Fraise, founder of Lotus Bleu Interior Design Studio and the just-launched Lotus Bleu Market by Jeannie Fraise, travels to such far-flung locations as Turkey, Ethiopia, Oaxaca, and Morocco to source hard-to-find wares for her new 350-square-foot bazaar, situated within her apartment-like Potrero ... More

When paper sculptor Zai Divecha isn’t in her studio in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, she’s carefully analyzing and deconstructing bathroom tiles, intricate metal screens, peeling tree bark, and the shapes and shadows in clouds. “I love anything with patterns, and I snap photos of patterns ... More

When Oakland–based interior designer Chloe Redmond Warner landed her first internship at a design firm, she took it upon herself to redo the company’s entire supply closet. “I replaced all the pens and pencils with my preferred brand and style,” says the founder of More

Rubén Cambero, general manager of the newly revamped MacArthur Place Hotel and Spa in Sonoma, ended up doing the one thing his mother told him not to do: hospitality. “My mother always told me, ‘Do anything you want but hospitality,’ due to the major sacrifices my parents had to make,” ... More

For San Francisco–based eco-renegade and entrepreneur Zem Joaquin, there’s no “typical” day. But she does have a set morning routine. “I drink copious amounts of organic green tea, work out, and then begin running around,” says Joaquin. The Palo Alto native majored in organizational communication while at Pepperdine University and ... More

As a little girl growing up on a farm in Bremen, Ind., Christina Stembel, CEO and founder of Farmgirl Flowers in San Francisco, initially dreamed of becoming an actress. “We had this little TV that had like five channels, and it came in fuzzy, but it was my only real ... More