At Elon, a little something extra leads to a new venture

What started as a conversation between friends in Elon University’s dining hall has grown into a startup venture with roots in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Seniors Bernardo Vargas-Lopez, a sport management major from Austin, Texas, and Juan Daniel Chiriboga, an entrepreneurship major from Quito, Ecuador, are developing YAPA, a plant-based energy drink inspired by guayusa, a leaf long used by Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The idea first took shape after the two friends traveled to Ecuador during Thanksgiving break in 2024 and visited the Amazon rainforest.

“We came back from visiting the Amazon forest and were just talking through the trip,” Vargas-Lopez said. “That’s when the idea came out. What if we took one of those plants and built a drink around it?”

From that early conversation, the idea quickly became something more serious. The two students began researching the beverage industry, speaking with community members in Ecuador, gathering feedback from mentors and testing whether the concept could become a real business.

For Chiriboga and Vargas-Lopez, YAPA has become more than a passion project. It has also become a way to explore how entrepreneurship can connect product development, cultural learning and long-term impact.

Building a business from the ground up

As they began shaping the company, the pair focused on a growing interest in cleaner, more transparent beverage options.

“I think the issue we were looking at was the energy drink industry and what a lot of those products contain,” Chiriboga said. “We saw people looking more for clean-label, natural ingredients and more transparency in what they consume.”

That focus helped define YAPA’s early direction. The students describe the drink as plant-based and made without preservatives, with an emphasis on ingredient transparency and product quality.

The company’s name also reflects that approach. In Ecuador, “yapa” refers to a small extra that someone gives you, something unexpected and added with generosity. The students say that the idea shaped both the brand name and the kind of experience they hope to create.

“It’s a little extra you were not expecting,” Chiriboga said. “That is what we want the product to feel like.”

Turning that idea into a business, however, has required far more than product vision. The students have spent months navigating sourcing, formulation, packaging, shipping and compliance, all while balancing the demands of college life.

“The biggest thing is persistence,” Vargas-Lopez said. “We could have stopped a long time ago, but we just kept going.”

They also made an early decision to prioritize product quality, even when that meant making tougher financial choices.

“We decided there were a few strategic points where we would not go for lower quality,” Chiriboga said. “Starting from ingredients and sourcing, we were not going to sacrifice what the product stands for.”

Learning through mentorship and hands-on experience

Both students say their experience in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business helped them approach the company with more confidence and curiosity.

They pointed to classroom experiences and faculty connections as central to how they approached building the company, often working closely with professors including Sean McMahon, professor of entrepreneurship, Elena Kennedy, associate professor of entrepreneurship, and Brittany Mercado, associate professor of management and chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship.

“The ability to communicate clearly with people who know a lot more than we do has been huge,” Vargas-Lopez said. “The Love School of Business does an amazing job of making professors approachable.”

That accessibility changed how they engaged with their coursework and mentors.

“There are professors that I’ve ended up talking to just because I saw them in the hallway,” Vargas-Lopez said. “They’ll come up to you, ask what you’re working on and start giving advice. You don’t feel intimidated asking questions.”

As the idea for YAPA developed, those conversations became more intentional.

“We started staying after class and asking more specific questions,” Chiriboga said. “The professors would connect what we were learning directly to what we were building.”

Faculty feedback also helped refine the venture as it evolved.

“We don’t need people to just cheerlead,” Vargas-Lopez said. “We need people who will tell us what worked, what didn’t and how to improve. That’s what has really helped us move forward.”

Their time studying abroad also played a role in shaping the venture, even as they were in different parts of the world.

“He was in Australia, and I was in Japan,” Chiriboga said. “We couldn’t really work on operations, so the only thing we could do was talk to people.”

Instead of slowing progress, that shift pushed them to focus on learning.

“We talked to people in the jungle, we talked to people at big companies and we talked to mentors in finance,” Vargas-Lopez said. “We were just trying to understand everything we could.”

“We were sponges during that time,” Chiriboga added. “We just gathered as much information as we could.”

Those conversations helped them return with a clearer sense of direction.

“When we came back, we had a better idea of what worked, what didn’t and what problems we needed to solve,” Vargas-Lopez said.

Friendship at the center

At the heart of YAPA is not only a product idea, but also a partnership built on trust.

The two met during their first year at Elon and became close friends before ever becoming business partners, something they say has made navigating the ups and downs of building a company more manageable.

“If I cannot do something right now, I know Juan Daniel can do it, and vice versa,” Vargas-Lopez said. “That trust was built before the business.”

That foundation has shaped how they approach both their work and their time as students.

“We’ve gotten really good at knowing when to talk business and when not to,” Chiriboga said. “If it’s not working time, we try to focus on being friends and being present with other people.”

Living together has only strengthened that balance, allowing them to stay in sync while also setting boundaries.

“It’s not always 50-50 all the time,” Vargas-Lopez said. “But we know we’re in this together, and that makes it easier to handle everything that comes up.”

For Chiriboga, the partnership is one of the most meaningful parts of the experience.

“I couldn’t be more grateful that my best friend is also my business partner,” he said.

As they prepare to graduate, both say some of the biggest milestones are still ahead.

“The biggest one is getting the cans,” Chiriboga said. “That’s when it becomes real, when you can actually hold the product and take that first sip.”

Even so, the process has already reshaped how they think about risk, learning and what it means to build something from scratch.

For other students considering a venture of their own, their advice is simple.

“Don’t be afraid to start,” Chiriboga said. “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.”

Vargas-Lopez added that one of the most valuable lessons has been staying open to what others know.

“Use your resources,” he said. “Ask questions. Learn from every conversation. We haven’t had a single meeting where we didn’t learn something.”