"The greatest rewards come to those that embrace risk and drive forward with passion to achieve their goal,” says Clayton Christopher.

As the founder and former CEO of Sweet Leaf Tea, Clayton Christopher took the many risks necessary to build a successful, iconic brand from the ground up — a legacy he has continued as the co-founder and CEO of Deep Eddy Vodka.

“I wanted to do something that I was really passionate about,” Christopher says of Sweet Leaf Tea’s humble beginnings. “A product that was really unique… best in class.”

With $14,000 in savings, and an inherent entrepreneurial nature (Christopher says he knew from an early age he would be an entrepreneur), he planted the roots for Sweet Leaf Tea Company, a small operation that has grown into a nationally recognized beverage brand.

“It was the classic startup on a shoestring budget,” Christopher reminisces of the early days. “There were so many times that I thought we were that close to going out of business.” Luckily for Clayton Christopher, his own bootstrap upbringing — fueled by “very humble beginnings” and an entrepreneurial father — gave him the determination to embrace the risks and keep moving forward, no matter how many “nos” he encountered.

“The mantra was ‘No doesn’t mean no,’” he says of the Sweet Leaf spirit that developed in those early years. “'It just means not yet.'”

Such was the case with retailers like Austin-based Whole Foods Market. After over a year of calling on the store, Christopher received a concise message: “We are not interested in your product at this time.” But that didn’t stop him, or his team, from pursuing their distribution dream. Four months later they were able to get into Whole Foods through a distributor.

“That allowed us to get into the rest of the stores throughout the country,” Christopher says of the move that solidified Sweet Leaf Tea as a viable national brand.

After his success with Sweet Leaf Tea, Christopher started a new beverage company from the ground up, this time with a twist. “I knew I wanted to stay in food and beverage,” he says. “Deep Eddy Vodka — the spirits industry —is very similar.”

In just two years, the locally sourced vodka brand is already bigger than Sweet Leaf Tea was after nine years, with representation in 16 states. Over the next five years, Christopher is confident that the Austin-based spirit will be in all 50 states.

"The sweet tea vodka will definitely be the number one selling sweet tea vodka in the market,” he says. “It already is in Texas."

While much of the success of Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka can be attributed to Christopher’s tenacious entrepreneurial spirit, it’s also due in part to the community that surrounds them. "Austin played a huge part of the company's success,” he says of Sweet Leaf Tea. “[It’s] one of the best cities to start a branded company."

Clayton Christopher beat the entrepreneurial odds, successfully launching two brands that show no sign of slowing down or failing. And neither does he.

"If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight times,” Christopher says. “You haven't failed until you've decided you're not going to get back up."

It all started in a 400-square foot kitchen in a bad location, where “the Pac-Man machine grossed more in a day than the restaurant did,” recalls Michael Angelo Renna of the humble beginnings that started a 30-year legacy in frozen food products.

Renna, founder of Michael Angelo’s Gourmet Foods, was a young man without a college degree, helping his mother at the family restaurant when innovation struck.

“I came up with an idea of packaging meals and then taking it to the stores,” he says. For Renna, packaging meals was a way to give his family’s quality food the recognition it deserved — recognition that a tiny restaurant (in a bad location) couldn’t.

Renna worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get Michael Angelo’s off the ground. He would sleep on a bench in the restaurant as he waited for the fresh meals to freeze, then he would load them into his own car and deliver them to markets around town.

“It was always about moving forward,” he says. With determination and elbow grease, Renna transformed the tiny kitchen project into an Austin-based food empire. “Michael Angelo's starts in a little 400 square-foot restaurant and now lives in a 132,000 square foot highly automated… massive big kitchen,” he states proudly.

Though now an empire housed in an industrial kitchen, Michael Angelo’s Gourmet Foods still has family at its center. The meals — Eggplant Parmesan, Meat Lasagna, Chicken Piccata, Calzones — all started with his mother's recipes. She still works on recipes at Michael Angelo’s, and Renna’s brother is also involved in the business.

Renna's Italian heritage also plays an important role in the Michael Angelo’s business model. The meals start with fresh ingredients and processes that are usually overlooked in the frozen food industry. “I have to pick up the ingredients, bring [them] in, produce the meals and send them back out. And I do this all within a day — very unique.”

“As an entrepreneur, you get to create — I created a lot of different things that did not exist in an industry,” Renna says of his innovative production model. Whereas competitor’s products may be packaged months before they hit the shelves, Michael Angelo’s meals travel from the kitchen to the freezer in just a few days. “Everybody else in my industry, they produce long, long runs and put it in warehouses. It's against the way we came to market."

Long hours in kitchens big and small have paid off for Michael Angelo Renna. From scratch, he's built a line of “prepared meals” that, after 30 years, are still bringing a unique approach (and taste) to the frozen food industry.

The Austin Film Festival is different. When Barbara Morgan started the festival in 1994 with her friend Marsha Milam, they did so as entrepreneurs. In other words, they loved film and a festival fed their passion.

"We didn’t even know that the industry needed something like this, we were just doing it. But we didn’t know how much there was a hole for it in the market," explains Morgan.

"We got a call from a producer in the area named Fred Miller and Fred said, 'You know the one area about film that is really not fulfilled in the festival area is the screenwriter.' All of these people desperately wanted to share their craft, get together and talk about it."

That first year, seven Academy Award winners attended the festival, and the idea was off and running. Nineteen years later, the Austin Film Festival, which starts on October 18, has become an iconic Austin and industry event.

Yes, you can see terrific films (eight days worth), but it's the conference that brings the industry veterans and wanna-be's to town. From Ron Howard and Johnny Depp and the youngest of young filmmakers attending Summer Film Camp, the Austin Film Festival, a non-profit organization, seeks to inspire and celebrate the screenwriter.

"We are servicing people who are trying to break into the industry — whether that’s as writers or writer-directors or anyone using the language of film," says Morgan.

Truth be told though, Morgan is the first to admit that the Austin Film Festival's success is owed to more than just movies. "Austin is as much of the Austin Film Festival's success as the writers. Austin is a magic city, and I think it’s magic to people who come here for the festival, and that’s what they go back talking about. They talk about the writers and they talk about the festival and they talk about the city of Austin."

Morgan's entrepreneurial roots grew early. Like many, she was influenced heavily by a parent. "My father was an entrepreneur," she remembers. "He had lots of different businesses, he tried lots of things. He wasn’t risk-averse. He said from the time I can remember hearing his voice, he said, ‘Do what you love.’"

Entrepreneurs may be risk-takers she explains, but the job is not without consequences that any business person should understand. "The biggest thing is not really believing that you’re going to do it all, but knowing that you will have to give some things up," she advises. "Either with your business or with your family, and you have to make those choices knowingly."

As the 19th year begins, Morgan is already looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Austin Film Festival next year. The non-profit still fuels her passion and remains an iconic piece of the Austin cultural landscape.

It all started with a baby stroller. A Peg Perego Pliko P3 Stroller, to be specific.

Brett Hurt, a new father and burgeoning entrepreneur, was reading an online product review of the stroller by a complete stranger in another part of the world and was so convinced by not only the product review — he bought the Pliko P3 — but also by the rhetorical impact and consumer capabilities of the online review format.

Today, Hurt is the CEO of Bazaarvoice, an Austin company that is redefining the way that retailers communicate with their customers largely based on consumer reviews like the one he found that night concerning his potential baby stroller.

To provide some context to the need that Bazaarvoice filled for the market, Hurt explains, "Just seven years ago, only three retailers had reviews on their site. Three."

Hurt was able to capitalize on that market niche and established his company as a product site that will honestly and happily go above and beyond for their clients. Seven years later, their clients include companies like Macy's, Infiniti, Schwan's and Bass Pro Shops, who all enjoy 24/7 coverage for their products and services.

"It's a pretty amazing ride to create a company seven years ago and already have it become a public company," states Hurt. Last quarter, the company's revenue was $31.4 million, which, as the CEO puts it, "is pretty substantial considering our young age as a company."

Achieving the status as an IPO so early out of the gate also allowed Bazaarvoice to acquire former competitors in the online review race, PowerReviews. Since then, the company has combined resources and doubled efforts across the country. "It's really cool to be playing on the same team now," Hurt says.

This fast growth and constant availability is a lot to ask of one's employees, and Hurt recognizes what kind of demand that puts on his team members. Therefore, he has emphasized from the beginning building a strong culture within the company as well.

For anyone who has visited the Bazaarvoice offices off Loop 360, you can attest to the friendly, communal nature of the campus. Break rooms include video game consoles, massage stations, movie theater seating and plenty of free food and drink in the kitchens.

"All I'm trying to do with culture is create an environment where it brings out the best in people," says Hurt. "We want our employees to bring their whole person into work, not just the work persona that says, 'Gosh, it's 5 o'clock... I can be myself again.' All that boils down to bringing out the best in people to drive the performance of the company."

Hurt views the company itself in terms of the human body, and nurturing the soul of the company is as much a priority as taking care of the head, the hands or the feet. Bazaarvoice's mission statement is "to change the world, one authentic conversation at a time." The CEO is a big believer in karma and seeks to better the company through community and global involvement. Generosity is even one of the company's core values.

The primary beneficiary for The Bazaarvoice Foundation is currently Breakthrough Austin, a local nonprofit that locates, funds and tracks low-income Austin students as they become first-generation college graduates. "We think that STEM is a big problem in this country," he states. "These children are ultimately going to create companies like Bazaarvoice in the future, but they have to get the education that matters."

Considering these young future business leaders, Hurt says he can still recall that feeling of trepidation before taking the leap to start the company from scratch in 2005. After all, seven years is not a long time when it comes to building a major national brand like Bazaarvoice.

"There's nothing harder than starting your own business for any career because you ultimately put your ego and everything out there," he reflects. "And if you fail, it's on you as the entrepreneur. That's liberating, empowering and exciting, but it's also incredibly scary too. It's very hard to get started, and you need to stand on the shoulders of many people that have gone before you."

Through those mentors, advisors and cheerleaders, Hurt formed his working definition of what it means to be an entrepreneur.

In his words, "It's someone who is persistent, driven, who has the humility to constantly ask for help and know that they can't do it all alone, who has the ability to rally people to the cause and be on that mission with them. And ultimately all of that results in a beautiful outcome where people have great jobs and you do this all over the world and create a really big impact on society."

In her impressively diverse career, Ingrid Vanderveldt has established herself as a true entrepreneur — and a missionary for the human spirit.

As the first ever Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Dell, Vanderveldt is not only launching her latest business plan, which is a towering feat in itself; the founder of Green Girl Energy, and advisor to SXSW Eco, is also creating a worldwide initiative that will have a long-lasting impact.

“As I looked at my own career path and my own go forward, I was committed to a vision from then forward to empower a billion women by 2020,” she says of the idea that led to her current work with Dell.

The program is a $100 million campaign that matches funding with initiatives to help entrepreneurs fulfill their start-up dreams.

“I shared with [Steve Felice] my vision and my role and commitment to women of the world,” says Vanderveldt, “and together we dreamt up this idea of working together and created the Entrepreneur-in-Residence position.” As EIR at Dell, an unconventional role for a tech company, Vanderveldt will launch her next business endeavor under the guiding hand of the Austin-based technology leader.

“I thought I would launch another green energy company, because those were my last two companies,” she recalls. “But after being engaged with Dell… I built a business plan with my team to create what’s now called the Dell Innovators Credit Fund.”

The program is a $100 million campaign that matches funding with initiatives to help entrepreneurs fulfill their start-up dreams. It’s an endeavor that Vanderveldt, a lifelong entrepreneur, passionately believes in.

Because, as Vanderveldt notes, “any successful entrepreneur that you look at has gone through their own level of failure.” And though she now finds herself in a place where she can be the champion for those carving out their own business dreams, the entrepreneurial road has offered its fair share of bumps and sharp curves for Vanderveldt, too.

“You cannot be a successful entrepreneur without having hit complete rock bottom at some point.”

“I was living out of my car,” she says of an early business venture that she poured her savings into — a venture that is thankfully now just in the "rearview mirror."

As the Dell Innovators Credit Fund initiative takes off to empower the next class of entrepreneurs, Vanderveldt is wasting no time in reaching her goal of empowering women around the world. This September, her sights are set beyond our borders, as she opens her first school for women and girls outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“We will be bringing a school to teach the women and girls down there how to see themselves as leaders, and as visionaries, and as people who can make a difference in their community — and then certainly teach them about entrepreneurship.”

As a girl, Ingrid Vanderveldt thought she would grow up to be a missionary: “I wanted to be in service to people of the world.”

There’s no doubt that she has fulfilled her dreams from childhood; she’s just taken that calling to the next level, and innovated it — if you will — to reflect her natural inclination toward entrepreneurship.

“It’s both a gift and a curse when you have a mind that just pushes like ours will do,” she says.

“I don’t know that there’s ever a point when I’m going to stop. I think I challenge myself to continue to expand in every sense of the word.”