She Lost Her Brand When Investors Didn't Share Her Vision. Here's What She Did Next.It's a story with a happy ending.

Denise Mari lost her younger sister (and, later, her mother) to leukemia, and it changed her perspective on everything. "My lifestyle moved to plant-based organic eating, meditation, yoga and mindfulness," she says. She wanted to create a business centered on those qualities, and in 2002 she launchedOrganic Avenuewith her then boyfriend. They sold healthy but yummy bottled juices -- a somewhat new thing at the time.

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