Thrive was created by co-founders William Staley and Terrance Clark after sharing educational paths steeped in Design for Social Impact and Community. A Pratt Institute Master of Industrial Design thesis project of Staley, the overall concept of Thrive was debuted in Spring of 2007 to learn how design could assist people living in economically distressed places like the Mississippi River Delta Region. After multiple trips to and from Arkansas, and after working with the support of the Pratt Institute Design Incubator the team moved to Helena, Arkansas from Brooklyn, New York to get started in Fall of 2010.

With the continued earned income support of Thrive’s branding services department, The historic progression of program iterations of Thrive Inc. are (listed in order); The Helena Entrepreneur Center; Helena Second Saturdays; Thrive Arts; The Thrive Design Mentorship program; The Thrive Design Apprenticeship program; The Thrive Design After School program; and finally as of the 2021-2022 school year – Thrive’s Creative Leadership Youth Program.