The present study aims to identify some of the factors that motivated the interviewees in the decision to become entrepreneurs, verifying whether the situations experienced in the community somehow influenced this motivation. Information related to entrepreneurship rates in Brazil are presented, relating them to unemployment rates, and reflections are made on the difficulty of accessing the labor market and on entrepreneurship as an alternative for generating income. Based on a qualitative methodology, entrepreneurs from Rocinha, a favela located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, were interviewed to understand their motivations for opening a business. The results considered issues such as the perception of entrepreneurship and unemployment in the community, consequences of the pandemic and motivations for the creating businesses.