The Co-Founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips on Selling to Pepsi & Building a Jungle Hotel

On this episode of Suite Success, host Katie Cline welcomes Mark Andrus, the co-founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips, whose career path is one of the most unexpected and compelling stories in hospitality and entrepreneurship. Mark never set out to build a beloved consumer packaged goods brand. His original plan was far simpler: run a small food cart in Boston with his partner Stacy and, if everything went well, maybe open a restaurant one day. But when he began baking leftover pita into chips just to keep customers in line, he unknowingly sparked the idea that would shape the next decade of his life. After scaling Stacy’s into a national favorite and selling the company to PepsiCo, Mark didn’t retire or slow down. Instead, he picked up a backpack, set off across Central America and the Caribbean, and discovered 55 acres of untouched coastline on the Samaná Peninsula in the Dominican Republic. Fourteen years, countless setbacks, and a steep learning curve later, that land is now Ocama—a sustainable, design-driven boutique hotel surrounded by dense jungle and panoramic views of Rincon Bay. This conversation is a rare look inside the mind of a founder who has reinvented himself multiple times while staying committed to creativity, flexibility, and following his instincts. Ocama Website: https://ocama.com/ Links: Apple Podcasts - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Spotify - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Suite Success Website - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with Katie⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠