Luis Olmo News Today

"Coquito" is a rum-based cream liqueur with coconut and vanilla — often made at home in Puerto Rico during the Christmas season.

“The infrastructure just isn’t here,” said one of the founders of Papi’s Coquito, which is rebranding, of Rhode Island’s ability to home-grow food and beverage companies.

Here are just a few RIC entrepreneurs who created Rhode Island-based businesses. They run the gamut from fitness to fashion. Some have partnered with others to launch their ventures and others have gone it alone; but none could have achieved what they have without a bold belief in their ideas and in themselves. These are their success stories.

(From left, Travis Escobar, Victor Regino and Luis Olmo) Luis Olmo ’15 and Travis Escobar ’13, along with their business partner Victor Regino, are co-owners of Papi’s Refrescos, the first liquor company in the Ocean State owned by millenial Latinos.  Papi’s Refrescos aims to reflect the lifestyles and cultures of a diverse Latinx community through a variety of traditional beverages, beginning with their first brand, Papi’s Coquito, a coconut-based alcoholic drink.