Bobbi Brown and other founders share their advice for starting your own company

Now might be the perfect time to launch that business you've been dreaming about.

Americans filed more than 3 million applications to start businesses in the first six months of 2026, up 16.5% from a year earlier, according to US Census Bureau data. The uptick comes as AI lowers the barriers to entrepreneurship, and shifting job requirements and recurring layoffs make some traditional careers feel less secure.

Deepali Vyas, CEO and founder of Vyas Media, told Business Insider that more opportunities are opening up for people to build businesses.

"Twenty years ago, you probably needed employees and designers and marketers," Vyas said. "Today, AI can do much of that first draft work."

Business Insider spoke to the founders of Jones Road Beauty, PopSockets, Olipop, OpenFarm, and Preply about how they built their companies and grew their brands. This is the advice they had for entrepreneurs:

After leaving her namesake beauty brand in 2016, Bobbi Brown spent several years experimenting with new ventures, from a supplement company to a Lord & Taylor concept store. Those experiences eventually led her to launch her second act: Jones Road Beauty, a clean makeup brand built on the same philosophy that made her first company successful: that makeup should be simple and natural.

"I don't want to be like other makeup brands. I never did," Brown told Business Insider.

Brown said one of the biggest lessons she's learned is to listen to customers and act on their feedback. Jones Road expanded its bestselling Miracle Balm line after hearing from shoppers in stores, via emails, and in DMs.

Rather than chasing competitors, Brown said entrepreneurs should trust their instincts.

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"My advice, and what I do, is put my head down, not try to look what everyone else is doing, and just do what I think is right for Jones Road," Brown said.

David Barnett didn't set out to build a global accessories brand for iPhones. While teaching philosophy at the University of Colorado, he glued buttons from his shirt to the back of his phone so he could wrap his tangled headset around it. After a couple of years of tinkering with prototypes, he launched PopSockets from his garage in Boulder, Colorado, in 2014.