Emily McDermott quit her insurance job and started selling spreadsheet templates on Etsy under the brand PrettyArrow.

Sharetown built its model around exactly this dynamic. Brands with direct-to-consumer furniture and mattress lines generate return volume they cannot handle efficiently at a local level.

Lindsay Scherr Burgess, founder and self-described "Moss Boss" of Green Wallscapes in Florida, built a preserved moss wall business that now ships and installs projects nationally.