My name is Richie Stapler. I am the co-founder of Pura, a tech company in the fragrance industry. Growing up in Centerville, Utah I sought entrepreneurial opportunities doing things such as selling cookie dough door-to-door, walking neighbors' dogs, and watering their plants when they were on vacation.

I credit my parents for encouraging and supporting me from the beginning. I remember an experience I had in junior high where I went on a scouting 50-mile backpacking trip. I had taken a tiny filter bottle to continually fill with dirty stream water. I was impressed that I never got sick as the filter purified the water and made it crystal clear. I told my dad that I thought more people should know about these bottles. He told me that I could buy the bottles wholesale and sell them to people. I jumped at the opportunity. 

From there, my mom taught me to use an Excel spreadsheet to hold inventory and track my revenue. I went around selling to neighbors, targeting scout leaders for their high adventure trips, and encouraging people to buy filter bottles for Christmas gifts. As I got older, I started making purchases from the sales racks of Walmart, Target, and Deseret Industries, and reselling stuff on Ebay. 

When the time came for me to go to college, I received a full-ride track and field scholarship to UVU. I had a great freshman year with my teammates and coaches. But unfortunately, due to a bad knee injury, my running career came to an end. I then served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil. When I came home, I was thrilled to have found such a unique major to pursue. I studied technology management with an emphasis in art and visual communication and a minor in entrepreneurship. Studying these disciplines was the perfect place for me and helped me build a foundation for starting a business.

Utah County has a booming business scene. I loved immersing myself in opportunities to learn business by doing, especially at UVU, which emphasizes engaged learning. In my classes, we went onsite to different companies and interacted with people to learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship first hand. I strategically applied to work at the Entrepreneurship Institute at UVU so I could grow my network and gain experience. My mom had instilled in me a love for art and design, so I was able to work on design projects for the institute’s brand and film their lecture series.

One day in 2014 while filming a lecture, I learned about the concepts called internet of things (IoT) and Smart Home. The idea behind these concepts is taking outdated industries and advancing them with technology. Soon after, while sitting around the dinner table with my wife and her family, I asked them what sort of product or experience they’d like to see advanced by technology. My mother-in-law told me that she would love an app that connected to her HVAC system and made her whole house smell like Anthropologie.

During the 2014-15 school year, my friend Bruno Lima and I would bounce business ideas off of each other. With Bruno’s background in business and the knowledge he was gaining studying manufacturing engineering, we had complementary skill sets. When we were discussing this smart diffuser idea, we both latched onto it and saw the potential. From there, Bruno and I got to work and became the co-founders of Pura.  

Early in the process of building our company, we would go to many public settings and do market research, wanting to validate our concepts and ideas. We reached out to professors at local universities to hire student interns, since we couldn’t afford to pay employees. The interns received college credit in exchange for their participation and work. We entered countless pitch competitions where we were often told to give up, that there was no industry for what we were doing and that we were wasting our time.  We kept entering them anyway and finally won a pitch competition. One of the rewards from that competition was initial free office space at the UVU Business Resource Center. This was huge for us, because up until then we had been working remotely. Having a designated space to work in together rather than our houses was a game changer.  

At the time, we both were going to school full time, I was doing freelance video and any other creative gig I could, Bruno had a full-time job, and we were starting or raising our families and trying to create this business. It was stressful, demanding, and exciting all at once. There were points in the early days where cars were sold, a mortgage refinanced, and we went hundreds of thousands of dollars into credit card debt trying to get the product manufactured. 

We ended up getting in contact with one of the largest fragrance houses in the world and made our first big deal with them. From there we received different samples of fragrances and set them up in different rooms in our houses. Our friends and families walked through the rooms and gave feedback. Finally, after four years, we had our big break: we prepared to sell 500 devices. These devices were meant to last for four months, but we sold them all within two weeks at the Parade of Homes. We made many contacts at the parade and were even able to hire some of our first employees after that.  

Pura has made huge strides over the last several years. We have hired some of the most incredible employees who are experts at what they do. The entire team has worked hard to make the company successful, all while having a very unique company culture. Now, Pura is the largest tech company in the fragrance industry. We have over 130 employees. I am so grateful that Pura is able to supply jobs to so many. The future of Pura is very bright: the team continues to grow along with international opportunities, partnerships, and product lines.    

Smell is one of our five senses, and because of this, it is relatable to just about everyone. It doesn’t matter your age, gender, background, culture, or political beliefs — almost everyone has experiences with their sense of smell.  

If Bruno and I had taken to heart the negative opinions of every credible person that gave us advice on our journey, Pura would not be here today. We are so grateful to our families, our amazing team members, investors, and all of the mentors we have had over the years.

To aspiring entrepreneurs, I’d say: surround yourselves with smart people, take people’s opinions and pieces of advice for what they are, but ultimately trust and follow your gut. Be open to making adjustments and pivots — sometimes you will have to make changes to land on the proper trajectory. It may be one of the hardest things you do, but continue to challenge the status quo and take things to the next level.