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Scott Tupper launched one successful company, and failed with his second. In both instances, he dove headlong into impact startup culture: pitch competitions, co-working spaces, more advisors than he can remember, grant writing, raising venture capital, you name it. Seven years into being an entrepreneur, he wants to share some of the lessons he’s learned.

Scott is the founder and CEO of Onda Origins, a local coffee business (incubated at Startup Hall) which is inverting the coffee value chain by including farmers in the end sale of their product. He and his brother, Paul, started Onda Origins in 2016, and it thrives to this day, now possessing five retail locations and a growing e-commerce presence. In the midst of launching the company, the brothers also launched a tech startup called Yave, which used blockchain technology to trace cacao and coffee from origins around the world. Yave got into Techstars, but could not weather the storm of COVID-19 due to myriad reasons. Scott is excited to share his perspective through the ups, downs, successes, and failures that he has lived firsthand.