David Habib, 31

David Habib wasn’t feeling his best. He was working his first job out of school at Deloitte in the Washington, D.C., area and was far from the home cooking he’d grown up with, choosing to eat out or eat store bought over the fresher route he was used to. 

It was during this phase of his life he conceived of the idea of Yo Mama’s Foods, a packaged goods company focused on pasta sauces, salad dressings and condiments created only using “ingredients that mom has in her pantry.” When he returned to Clearwater to set out as an entrepreneur in January 2017, he was on the path to being the head of an eight-figure business with 20 employees.

Photo by Mark Wemple