MBA alumni Brent Looby, Judson Kauffman, and Ryan Campbell (pictured left to right) started Desert Door, which distills sotol, a desert plant spirit first fermented by Native Americans in Texas over 7,000 years ago. The business builds on the tradition of West Texans making the spirit for the last 250 years.

The idea for the company was developed in an MBA entrepreneurship course. Kauffman, Campbell, and Looby came together for a group project and realized their business idea had real-world potential. In addition to their MBA experience, the trio credits their military experience as helping their business venture.

“The military spends a lot of resources teaching things like time management, stress tolerance, organization, and discipline — all of these are critical for any entrepreneur to be successful,” says Kauffman. “We are certain that without our military experience Desert Door would not be what it is today.” Kauffman was a Navy SEAL, Ryan Campbell was in the U.S. Army, and Brent Looby was in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Desert Door has a distillery in Driftwood, which is the first distillery outside of Mexico to make the liquor from sotol since Prohibition. “We’ve been very fortunate to be able to show our business and offer some guidance to aspiring veteran entrepreneurs,” Kauffman says. “We believe that we’re resurrecting something that Texas history almost forgot.” Read the full story in CultureMap.