Some stories start in boardrooms. Ours started in a dorm.

We didn’t meet in some fancy business program or a startup accelerator — we met as roommates in the old dorms at the University of Virginia. Between cheap takeout and late-night food debates, we realized we had two things in common: a love for good food and the kind of restless energy that makes people start projects just to see what happens.

Our first idea wasn’t even about food. In 2019, we helped raise over 3,000 meals for the homeless, just two broke students trying to do something that mattered. That spark turned into our first startup — ADHD Connect — a social platform designed to make mental health resources more accessible. We pitched it, built it, and somehow won the E-Cup Concept Competition at UVA.

Then came Burrito Boys — our first food venture. In 2021, every Wednesday, we went door-to-door around Charlottesville selling burritos we made ourselves. We learned two big things that year: (1) people love good food, and (2) it’s a lot harder to knock on a stranger’s door with a burrito than it looks.

After college, we split paths but never the mission.

John stayed close to the kitchen, working everywhere from local spots in Charlottesville to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in New York led by Chef Dan Barber — one of the pioneers of the farm-to-table movement. He also earned a Master’s in Food Business from the Culinary Institute of America, digging deep into the balance between flavor, sustainability, and business.

Panh went global. Through UVA’s Global 3 program, he earned dual master’s degrees in International Business and Strategic Management from top universities including ESADE Business School in Spain. He went on to work as a consultant for the World Bank and the United Nations, helping projects focused on sustainability, trade, and economic development. That experience shaped how he sees systems — and how the food world fits into something much bigger.