I left my Fortune 100 HR career to launch a pumpkin display business. Here's how my cofounder and I scaled it.

Jen Carmichael and Rebecca Paxton, cofounders of My Front Porch.

Manoo Sirivelu for BI Rebecca Paxton and Jen Carmichael left corporate jobs to start My Front Porch in Dallas in 2025.

My Front Porch serves the city of Dallas with unique pumpkin installations each fall season.

The business quickly grew, achieving over $120,000 in sales this year by leveraging social media.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rebecca Paxton, the 35-year-old cofounder and managing partner of My Front Porch , a Dallas pumpkin-display business.

It's been edited for length and clarity.

I was working in corporate America at a Fortune 100 company with my cofounder, Jen Carmichael, when we got the idea for My Front Porch.

We'd worked together in HR for 10 years, but life changes made us realize we needed more flexibility.

One day in 2022, Jen saw her neighbor with a pumpkin display and asked who'd set it up.

Her neighbor's daughter had ordered it for her from a local business.

Jen was interested in ordering a display for her home, but when she went to the website, they were already sold out for the year.

She came to the office and told me about it, and the idea of starting our own business became kind of a joke between us.

We'd be working late nights in the office, talking about how we'd rather be outside decorating.

It sounded so much more fun than going through spreadsheets and complex business problems.