Every day we have a choice. We can support an up and coming podcaster, try a new family-run restaurant, join a boutique gym started by a local fitness champ or we could keep giving away our money to the handful of giants who already control so much of our commerce. Our daily decisions impact the kind world we live in; if we want a world where small businesses are growing and artists and creatives are thriving then we should support them with our time, money and attention. We’re proud to highlight inspiring creatives and entrepreneurs each week in Hidden Gems series. Check out some of our latest local gem features below.
Lee Caldwell
I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Throughout my career, I’ve been drawn to work that helps people grow and move forward. Over the years, I’ve owned businesses in different industries, and each experience has taught me valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, resilience, and relationships. What I’ve learned is that success isn’t just about what you know. Read more>>
Dr Lana Bach-Morrow PhD
As a functional medicine neuroscientist and award winning inventor (at think interfaces.com) – and a creator of THINK system for focus, memory and peak performance, I dedicated my life to helping humanity raise their consciousness, with particular focus on interconnectivity between the brain, mind, body and spiritual aspects. Read more>>
Rosa Santoyo
I was working in the startup tech world while navigating my spiritual path. After a yoga teacher training that led to Tarot exploration that then led to deeper somatic Tantra work… I found myself grasping for something outside of the day-to-day 9-5pm but didn’t know what. I kept myself in the familiar because oof the uncertainty… Read more>>
Tareema Newsone
I’ve always been passionate about creating spaces where people feel connected. After years working in hospitality, luxury living, events, and sales, I moved to Austin from California without knowing many people. The resident events at my apartment became more than something to attend, they gave me a genuine sense of community and showed me how powerful shared experiences can be. Read more>>
Madison Morgan
For a long time, I thought I needed to figure out exactly who I was supposed to be. I spent a lot of time chasing different aesthetics, interests, and ideas of success, thinking one of them would eventually feel like me. Somewhere along the way, I realized I was asking the wrong question. Read more>>
Mad Whit
Music took hold of me when I picked up a guitar around eight years old. By my early 20s, they had embedded myself in Houston’s vibrant underground scene – teaching music, running DIY venues, and curating shows before launching my solo project, Mad Whit, in 2014. Read more>>
Samantha Bates
I’ve always loved art and creating. I used to watch cake boss and ace of cakes, with a dream of being able to do that. After working at heb as a bagger and cart pusher, I showed interest in bakery. They trained me to decorate cakes, and I took outside classes with wilton as well. Read more>>
Alex Kremer
For most of my career, I lived in the world of high-growth technology sales. I spent more than 12 years at companies like Microsoft, Outreach, DocuSign, and Catalyst, hiring, training, and leading over 100 account executives and managers. Read more>>
Subramanian PV
Hi. I am Subramanian PV (PV) and I run a portrait studio, www.posterityportraiture.com What is different about this studio is that I believe that ‘your legacy deserves permanence’ so after I photograph, your portrait is printed in archival quality (read lasting for centuries). It could be printed as a digital pigment ink print or completely by hand as a Platinum Palladium or Carbon Transfer print. Read more>>
Irena Kukh
My roots come from Russian dynasty, German anarchy, and Mongol empire. I am deeply connected to the spirit of my ancestors and I am carrying their legacy in the modern world. My life is a beautiful mixture of love, grief, and chaos. It has been a wild ride and I am here to share it. Read more>>
Sarah Miller
Hospitality has really been the common thread throughout my entire life. I started working in restaurants when I was 15, and what began as an early job quickly became a career I genuinely loved. I spent more than 14 years as the Director of Marketing and Special Events for Black Sheep Lodge and Haymaker. Read more>>
Chris Johnson
This is my bio: Chris Johnson grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before moving to Austin to attend The University of Texas. There he received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 1995, and became a registered Pharmacist in the State of Texas soon after. It didn’t take long for Chris to realize that practicing pharmacy was not what he thought it would be. Read more>>
April Melohn
I’m a military brat who has lived in many awesome places & both coasts. Read more>>
Sianni Dean
My name is Sianni Dean, and I am the founder of Cranky Granny’s Sweet Rolls. I first came up with the idea for Cranky Granny’s when I was 14 years old and officially launched the business in New Jersey at 18. In 2020, I took a leap of faith and moved to Texas to pursue bigger opportunities. Read more>>
Cate Black
We are an architectural photography and videography brand that serves interior designers in the Austin area and throughout Texas. One of the things I love to tell new clients about me and our brand is: I’ve been in the startup phase twice. First, when I established my business after photography school and again when I relocated to Austin in 2013. Read more>>
Ender Martos
My story begins in Mérida, Venezuela, a city cradled by the Andes where the mountain air is crisp, the light shifts minute by minute, and color is a living, breathing presence. Growing up framed by those majestic peaks, I was perpetually obsessed with the geography of line, light, and physical space. Read more>>
Evan Rama
I started building companies while I was a student at UT Austin. I had no network, no funding, and no real idea how to build a startup. I just knew I wanted to create something people genuinely enjoyed. My first company was Kupid, a live college dating show. In the beginning, I couldn’t afford venues, equipment, or marketing. Read more>>
Jessica Van Antoine
I was born and raised in Austin, and although my career has taken me in directions I never could have predicted, the thread running through it has always been a curiosity about what helps people truly heal, change, and come back to themselves. My path into health and wellness began in 2009, when I trained in massage therapy and Asian bodywork. Read more>>
Ysabel LeMay
I had a rather special childhood. I come from a fairly strict family and was raised by two teachers who had a great love for music. My father was a entrepreneur and true dreamer — and that’s where I believe my artistic side and my drive comes from. Read more>>
Sharon George
My path into architecture wasn’t exactly planned. Even though I was the kid who was always drawing floor plans and rearranging furniture, I didn’t actually know what architecture was, and I certainly didn’t know any architects. I come from a family of engineers. I started college studying mathematics until one day I happened to walk past an architecture studio, filled with large drawing boards. Read more>>
Saint Realz
I always had a love for music even before I started creating music. When I was in elementary I would have this music album back when buying physical copies was a big thing. It was like a photo album but for music. In it there was various artists and I would spend hours listening to music; day after day. Read more>>
Lauren Boyle
I’ve always believed that children deserve to be surrounded by curiosity, creativity, kindness, and people who genuinely believe in their potential. After moving to Austin as a teenager, I attended The University of Texas where I graduated with a BA in English and a minors Education and Spanish. I also had the opportunity to study Educational Psychology at the University of Sussex in England. Read more>>
Darwin Fogt
My wife, Martina, and I are both physical therapists by education and trade. She specialized in Women’s Health and I in Sports and Orthopedics. Together, we grew our practice in Los Angeles to nearly a dozen clinics. While we were proud of what we had built, we eventually realized that success had come at the expense of something we deeply valued. Read more>>
Emily Cauthen
Inspired by my Meme’s jewelry box treasures, Bygone Bolos is a way to creatively celebrate pieces from the past by giving them new life in style as a bolo tie, boot bolo or a bag bolo charm! In addition to filling my wardrobe with my Meme’s sparkles over the years, my Granddaddy would sport jewelry from Santa Fe. Read more>>
Femi Yemi-Ese
I grew up as an athlete, playing football and running track for most of my life up until college. My time as a collegiate football player taught me a lot, that’s when I fell in love with how the body adapts to stress and how we can manipulate biological systems to perform better. Read more>>
Elizabeth Chapin
I grew up in Mississippi and started painting portraits in high school. In 2018 I started cutting them off the stretchers, stuffing and sewing them into dimensional free-standing forms supported by internal welded armatures. The impulse came initially from wanting paintings to be relationships. How can paintings undulate and become unruly, be caressed and wrangled. Read more>>
John Conroy
John’s experience as a successful international model helped launch his career as a photographer. His images appeared in advertisements for Neiman Marcus ,Calvin Klein and graced the covers and pages of Men’s Health and GQ magazine. While working as a model ,John was naturally attracted to the creative field of photography. John has worked with a broad spectrum of personalities . Read more>>
Peter Mangan
Attending an arts magnet school in Dallas and going to UT Austin at the end of the hippie era laid the foundation of my art career. I chose San Francisco as the next step. The open minded west coast proved a great place to expand creatively… leading to gallery representation across the USA and an outlet in Europe. Read more>>
Mia Roldan LCSW, LCDC
I grew up in Los Angeles, CA the youngest of four children. After graduating college from UC Berkeley, I got married and a week later moved to Austin, TX. That’s when I began my career as an elementary special education teacher with Austin ISD for 13 years. Read more>>
Joyce LaBaw
I’ve always drawn and doodled. My practical nature led me to a career in mechanical engineering, but creativity kept things fun– painting mythical creatures on my kids’ lunchboxes, crafting cardboard boxes into an 8’ triceratops, papier mache’ing a Death Star pinata, ninja turtle shell and more. After retiring, I took a couple art classes which surprisingly quickly led to a second career as an artist. Read more>>
Mariam Pare
Art has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was born in Morocco and moved to the United States with my family when I was young. I grew up in a creative household and eventually began studying art in college, with plans to build a career as an artist. Read more>>
Don Schiff
I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. Both my parents were music educators and my father a gifted musician on Sax who played for a lot of club gigs and big bands of the time. My father encouraged me to play by bringing home all different kinds of instruments for me to play… Read more>>
Ximena Boyrie
We started playing together in 2015. Ximena (bass+vocals) and Caleb (guitars) met while studying audio at Texas State in San Marcos, and Alex (drums) was a film student at the university, who replied to a Craigslist ad that Caleb posted seeking a drummer. Read more>>
Andrea Murphy
My mother raises paint horses and is an artist. I’ve always been blessed to have their beauty close by, and to see it through my mother’s art. As I watched her draw, win awards, attend prestigious shows, and do the administrative work of being an artist, I was able to see the outward working parts of fine artistry. Read more>>
John Coats
My name is John Coats and I make and sell comic books. My brother James is an artist and I’m a writer, and together we have been self-publishing our own comics for years. Dino Beasts, Ninja IV, and Galaxy Gods are some of our main books. Read more>>
Ginger Slover
I spent much of my career in the solar and finance industries, and while I genuinely enjoyed the work, I found myself wanting a more creative outlet and the opportunity to create something that was entirely my own. I’ve always loved great design, fashion, and timeless pieces, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of creating silk scarves with a distinctly Western perspective. Read more>>
Laura Cohn
If you had told me ten months ago that I would write a sales workbook and be talking about marketing, AI, customer behavior, and sales systems for small business owners, I probably would have looked at you funny. But I can see how one connection led to another and gradually brought me here. Things happen in my life that way. Read more>>
Erika Timko
I am an Austin, Texas based puppeteer, filmmaker, writer, and independent content creator whose work blends practical puppetry, comedy, and DIY filmmaking. As the creator of Beaucoup Askew TV, I’ve spent over a decade producing handcrafted puppet programming that celebrates the wonderfully off kilter. I’m inspired by sketch comedy, creature features, cult cinema, public access tv, and underground art. Read more>>
VNIX
I’m VNIX, an Austin-based recording artist creating cinematic pop and alternative music. My work blends orchestral emotion, reverbed textures, and deeply visual storytelling. I don’t think of my songs as something to simply listen to, but rather, I think of them as worlds to step inside, as immersive emotional experiences. Read more>>
Adam Siegel
I started making videos at 10 and haven’t stopped. I specialize in spearheading projects from initial concept to final distribution. Whether helping a brand launch, scale product growth or maintain a an industry leading creative edge, my focus is usually on human-driven stories. Read more>>
Jesse OBrien
When I first entered the fitness industry, coaching was largely built around workouts and nutrition plans. Assessments were essentially non-existent, and progress was often subjective, and there wasn’t much attention given to the deeper drivers of lasting change, things like a person’s values, identity, behaviors, relationships, or how they actually wanted to experience life. Read more>>
Ann Finkel
I’ve always been an artist, from childhood onward, participating in art competitions, taking museum classes, exploring new mediums, etc. When I started college I thought I needed to do the ‘smart’ thing and get a business degree, with no idea where that would end up taking me. I was pretty miserable and continued to fail classes and take breaks. Read more>>
