From Each Solution, a New Challenge

here do great business ideas come from? Sometimes, out of previous business ideas. That’s what happened to Dawn Dickson, who went from selling shoes to reinventing the vending machine. It began in 2011 when she launched Flat Out of Heels, roll-up ballet flats that women can carry as a backup to less could be improved upon—and launched a new kind of machine called a PopShop in 2020, just as demand for socially distant shopping was soaring. Here’s how she did it.