Leslie Magrew is a wife, a mother of four young children, a former ICU nurse, and one of the last to enter the RetailNEXT competition. She is now the winner of the first RetailNEXT competition, a contest for budding entrepreneurs, offering a year of free rent, build out, mentoring and marketing at The Meadows of Lake St. Louis.

Generations Revival, which was started in 2017 in Magrew’s converted garage in Wentzville, Missouri, currently offers DIY workshops including open paint, scheduled and private classes. Magrew, 35, plans to take Generations Revival to the next level and offer what no one else in the area offers: A DIY Bar! Generations Revival provides all the supplies for creating unique home decor and crafts, like candle making, cookie decorating, jewelry stamping, and other Pinterest-inspired and trending experiential ideas starting at $49. 

RetailNEXT organizers compared Magrew to TV “Fixer Upper” Joanna Gaines, and thinks the concept will be successful at The Meadows based on Magrew’s strong customer base and highly engaged social media following. 

Runners-up are Bliss Floral & Gift and Gringo Jake’s, who were favorites with the judges but did not generate as many online votes as Generations Revival. Half Baked Cookie Dough Co., Patterson Family Farms, and Cozy Shop by Argaman & Defiance were also very strong competitors, but did not generate the online votes to overtake the top three. Despite not winning the overall competition, a handful of the semi-finalists and finalists have been contacted by one or more judges for further mentoring and possibly investing in these concepts. Alysia Kerkove, General Manager of The Meadows, said, “We saw many great concepts and I think more than one has the potential to be successful here and quite possibly nationwide. Hopefully, RetailNEXT is the impetus for these entrepreneurs to generate the support to achieve these goals.”