Mike Crowder was on track for a management career, but he quickly learned that he was much happier when he was woodworking and watching This Old House on PBS. So after he graduated from college, he began flipping houses and developing his building skills, eventually progressing to designing custom molding and specialized trim. He knew he wanted to open his own business, yet he wasn't entirely sure what form that business would take until he started scrolling through Etsy's wares, looking for carved signs and finding none.

He decided to found MRC Wood Products and create personalized family-name signs to fill that hole in the marketplace. Today, MRC churns out everything from wooden welcome signs to cutting boards to mounted prints. And because woodworking is so important to Mike, each product is sanded and finished by hand.