Taste Maker 002: Meet Elias
What They're Building
Tastemakers • Embrace Your Mix
A Tastemaker isn't just someone who decides what's cool. It's a multidimensional person whose unique mix (history, interests, contradictions, ambitions) shapes what they create. Next up in the series: the guy who couldn't find good lemonade, so he built a company instead.
This started as a lemonade stand in 2008. He's been evolving it ever since.
Meet Elias (Elias Carofilis), founder of BUJE. What began as a kid's lemonade stand is now corporate activations, catering, and a brand-new concept called the wellness lounge.
"This started as a lemonade stand in 2008, and I'm on a lifelong journey of constant evolution."
Why he started
No grand thesis, no market research deck. Just one problem that bothered him enough to fix it.
"I couldn't find fresh squeeze lemonade anywhere."
How he describes what he does
"Organized chaos."
Ask him what makes BUJE different, and it comes down to one habit: he doesn't hand clients an off-the-shelf package.
"We tailor our services to the brand client, with catering."
Where his taste comes from
Ask what shaped his taste and you get a short list that says a lot: New York City. Colombia. Love. A diamond in the rough.
"Good taste means diversity."
The part people don't get
"I feel I'm heavily misunderstood."
What keeps him going
"Life experience, plus a mentality of 'this will pass.'"
His advice, no chaser
"You have to be obsessed with the idea enough and say forget everyone who's doubting you, and push through."
Right now, he's cooking up: an expansion beyond a smoothie bar.
He's a Tastemaker because: I know how to take an idea and turn it into a moment.
Drink Buje.