There are plenty of articles out there that will tell you what skills and qualities you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. I’ve written one myself.
But truthfully, the recipe for success as an entrepreneur is far too nuanced for a single article. Because entrepreneurs come from all walks of life—their different backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs shape the businesses they create.
So, in this article, let’s look at a wide range of entrepreneur success stories—ones that demonstrate the many qualities that make up the business innovators of our times.
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1. Tristan Walker, Founder & CEO of Walker & Company Brands
Imagine being the CEO of a company that had names like John Legend and Magic Johnson on the board. That’s a reality for Tristan Walker, founder and CEO of Walker & Company Brands.
Now owned by Proctor & Gamble, Walker’s brands include Bevel, which offers male grooming products, and Form, hair products for women. Walker & Company’s mission is to “make health and beauty simple for people of color.”
Tristan is a testament to how hard work and dedication can pay off. He graduated valedictorian from Stony Brook University, and got his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Next came an internship at a little company known as Twitter, and he continued to climb from there until he was able to launch his own brands. (That’s a seriously abridged version of Walker’s resume—his LinkedIn profile gives a much more detailed rundown.)
In 2012, Walker founded Code2040, a nonprofit that offers “clear pathways into the industry, and community resources to contend with the imbalanced distribution of power that Black and Latinx people face in the tech industry.”
Walker is also on the board of two other businesses you’ve most certainly heard of: Shake Shack and Foot Locker. This encapsulates one of the core traits of many successful entrepreneurs: They don’t stop building and creating, even once they’ve achieved a major milestone (or three).
2. Cindy Mi, Founder of VIPKid
Cindy Mi’s passion for language began at a young age. Growing up in Habei, China, she began teaching herself English early on. She says she often spent her lunch money on English lessons. By the time she was a teenager, she was tutoring other students.
Mi turned her passion for language into the incredibly successful tutor-matching service VIPKid. Her business connects students from China with teachers in the U.S. and Canada, using unique curricula, live classes, and one-on-one tutoring to help young people improve their English skills.
More recently, the business has expanded into other courses, including Science, Math, and Coding.
3. Mikaila Ulmer, Founder of Me and the Bees Lemonade
Plenty of kids get their first taste of entrepreneurship by setting up a lemonade stand. Mikaila Ulmer of Austin, Texas, took her lemonade business and turned it into a successful company—and she did it all before she graduated college.
Ulmer’s journey as an entrepreneur started when she was only four years old, and was stung by a bee, leading to an early fear of the insect.
However, she began to research the importance of bees, and learned more about the threat they face from environmental factors.
Around the same time, Ulmer updated her great-grandmother’s lemonade recipe and decided to sweeten it with honey, in homage to the bees.
It was a hit, and eventually her local operation grew; now, you can find Me & The Bees Lemonade in more than 1,500 stores in the U.S., including big names like Whole Foods, Kroger, and World Market.
4. Sahil Lavingia, Founder of Gumroad
Sahil Lavingia is a good example of a successful entrepreneur who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty as he grew his business. He built the very first version of Gumroad on his own in a single weekend in 2011—and he was only 19 years old.
If you haven’t used it before, Gumroad is an online marketplace that lets creators—writers, musicians, visual artists, designers—sell their products directly to consumers. He was inspired to create the product because he recognized how many hurdles creators had to go through to get their work to people who wanted to purchase it.
Just a year after creating Gumroad, while he was still the only employee, Lavingia announced a $1.1 million seed round from a group of investors, followed by a $7 million Series A round just three months later.
In an interview with The Proof, Lavingia said he sees prolificness and curiosity as two of the most important traits when he is looking for people to work with:
Someone who will grow at a faster rate than almost anyone else,” he said. “…These people are not just content with what they are currently making, but always on the journey of making better and better things.”
5. Leah Solivan, Founder of TaskRabbit
Maybe you’ve used TaskRabbit to get help cleaning your house, or setting up a piece of furniture, or running to the store for some last-minute goods. If so, you have Leah Solivan to thank.
Solivan got her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from Sweet Briar College in 2001, which eventually led her to a job as an engineer with IBM.
She came up with the idea for TaskRabbit in 2008 during a casual conversation with her then-husband, according to an interview in Business Insider.
The couple realized they were out of dog food, and began discussing how nice it would be to have a service where they could hire someone to run that errand for them. Four months later, Busque left her job at IBM to build the first version of the site.
Today, TaskRabbit is available in countries around the world, and though Solivan stepped down as CEO in April of 2016, she still serves as executive chairwoman for the company that was, at one time, just her side hustle.
6. Dustin Moskovitz, Founder of Asana
If the name Dustin Moskovitz sounds familiar, you may remember him as one of the key players in the founding of Facebook (or Meta). In fact, he played such a significant role that he was depicted in the movie “The Social Network.”
But what many people don’t know is that Dustin left Facebook to start his own company—and that company became a household name in its own right. His second venture, the organizational tool Asana, has more than 100,000 customers worldwide.
Moskovitz is also a major player in the philanthropy world. He and his wife co-founded the company Good Ventures, which partnered with the charity-measuring site GiveWell.
Together, those two companies created the Open Philanthropy Project, which recommended over $650 million in grants in 2022. Their goal is to double this number by 2025.
7. Jessica O. Matthews, Founder of Uncharted
Jessica O. Matthews was a junior in college at Harvard University when she came up with an idea that would change the course of her life.
She attended a family member’s wedding in Nigeria, and was distressed when the electricity went out, meaning they had to run a diesel generator, which can be quite dangerous.
This experience led to Matthews creating the Soccket, originally as part of an assignment for an engineering class. This special soccer ball can store kinetic energy as it’s used, so as people play with the ball, they are also generating a power source.
Matthews went on to found Uncharted Power with her classmate, Julia Silverman. The company expanded well beyond the soccer ball, and is now focused on creating power-generating sources out of everyday objects like turnstiles, shopping carts, sidewalks, speedbumps, and more.
Matthews initially used Kickstarter to get funding for her project, but later raised millions through investments. In 2016, she started a non-profit called the Harlem Tech Fund, which gives support and technology training to Harlem residents and small businesses.
8. Melanie Perkins, Co-Founder of Canva
If you’ve ever created a social media post, presentation, or resume using Canva, you can thank Melanie Perkins. But before she built the design tool used by millions, she was a teenager in Perth, Australia, developing her entrepreneurial spirit by selling handmade scarves at local markets.
Perkins’ journey to creating Canva began during her college years. While working as a graphic design tutor, she noticed how much her students struggled with complex design software. That observation sparked an idea: What if design tools could be as intuitive as using social media?
But having a good idea isn’t enough—you need others to believe in it too. Perkins pitched to over 100 investors and faced rejection each time.
“The normal thing to do after your 100th ‘no’ would be to stop,” Perkins told Entrepreneur, “but you just have to persevere. I’d continuously pour my energy into things that I could refine and fix, trying to find people who believed in my vision and would come along for the ride.”
Her persistence paid off. Today, Canva is valued at billions of dollars and used in 190 countries. (In fact, Perkins was just named one of the two youngest Australian billionaires.) The founder maintains her hands-on approach—she still starts every morning by checking Canva’s social media to see what users are creating and what they need to improve their experience.
9. Sonia Yang, Co-Founder of Treet
Sometimes the biggest business ideas come from seeing a problem that needs solving. For Sonia Yang, that moment came during the 2020 California wildfires, when the San Francisco sky turned an apocalyptic orange. Despite having a coveted software engineering position at Airbnb, Yang knew she wanted to work on something with broader impact.
That opportunity came in 2021 when she co-founded Treet, a company that helps fashion brands break into the secondhand clothing market. The platform lets retailers create their own resale marketplaces, so customers can buy pre-owned pieces directly from brands instead of through peer-to-peer sites.
Not only does this company provide a useful resale tool for sellers, but it also cuts down on the waste produced within the fashion industry.
“These transactions are going to happen whether you like it or not,” Yang says, “so why not lean into it? Own those customers and be a part of a more sustainable future.”
Her tech background proved invaluable—Yang’s experience as a software engineer at Airbnb taught her how to scale platforms and reach target markets effectively. Today, more than 200 companies use Treet’s platform, including major brands like Girlfriend Collective and Tecovas, and the company has raised over $16.4 million in funding. As one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2025, Yang is proving that you can build a successful business while also making the future more sustainable.
There’s no single recipe for success when it comes to being an entrepreneur
So what do you need? A good idea, perseverance, vision, and perhaps a bit of luck.
The next time you’re wondering if you have what it takes to launch a business, remember these entrepreneur success stories and keep pushing ahead.
