We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dave Paco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dave below.

Alright, Dave thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

I was a taxi driver in the city of Denver in the early 2000s. I had many jobs before that, even ran my own small business, but driving a cab was my first experience working as an independent contractor in an industry where I could actually make a decent living. My own small business was a punk rock record label which, although a fun and creative outlet, didn’t have a chance in hell of really making any money. So, working as a cabbie, I was finally able to develop a sense of self-sustainability and learn to rely on my own hustle to generate a living, rather than rely on the paycheck to paycheck model of a standard 9-5 job.

Cab drivers generally rent their taxis from a larger company or corporation. You pay for the car, pay for your gas, maintain a valid license, and the rest is up to you. Fingers crossed you make back the money you spent and then earn some profit for yourself. The better you know the streets, routes, pickup and drop off points, the quicker you can get people in and out of your car, and the more money you can make. It’s like a game. At least I saw it that way. You compete against other taxi drivers, also hunting for fares. You compete against yourself, trying to learn more shortcuts and quick tricks to get more trips and better tips.

I worked the night shift. 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Less traffic, fewer obstructions. As I learned the ropes, I became pretty disciplined in the work routine and was able to stack up a good amount of cash each week, especially on weekend nights. I was working 7 days a week, saving up as much I could. The beauty of renting a cab is that you have no responsibility to show up to work. You work when you want. Rent the car or don’t rent the car. The company doesn’t care. If you don’t rent it someone else will. So I got into the habit of working every waking hour for 3 months or so and then dropping off the car back at the garage, taking the bus home, and then going on a long trip with all the money I’d made. Japan, India, Southeast Asia, South America. Each time I ran out of money, I’d come back home, rent the cab again and get right back to work.

The whole experience taught me a lot about money management, self-reliance, working competitively, even systems development. It wouldn’t be untrue to say that Yellow Cab had a lot to do with getting me to where I am today.

Dave, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is David Rouse, though most of my friends know me as Dave Paco. That name refers to my old record label, Paco Garden Records, active from the mid-1990s through early 2000s in Denver, Colorado. The record label was my introduction to entrepreneurship, but my current project is Off the Bottle Refill Shop, a low-waste lifestyle retail and refillery shop in Downtown Denver.

In-between those two projects I’ve published a couple books, “The Bodyguard Travel Companion Cookbook : A Vegan Food Guide for Mexico and Central America,” and “Walk : A Southbound Descent Over Land from Los Angeles to Tierra del Fuego.” I had my own landscape design company in San Diego and Denver and I am co-owner of a beachside boutique hotel in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico called “Osa Mariposa.”

Off the Bottle is a kind of culmination of all the afore-mentioned projects. I have always been passionate about protecting the environment and all the little creatures of the earth. Traveling the world, I experienced firsthand how the plastic trash problem is destroying our planet. It’s heartbreaking. With Off the Bottle, I drew from both good and bad experiences on the road, like air or water pollution on one hand, and the colorful, vibrant open markets of South America on the other, hoping to create a space that could showcase some of the beauty in the world while offering alternatives to the destructive shopping habits that have become so commonplace in our modern lives.

Off the Bottle Refill Shop offers non-toxic, plant-based, biodegradable home and body products with little to no packaging in the hope of reducing single-use plastic waste. We invite guests to bring their own pre-existing containers to fill and refill, paying only for the amount of product they need or want. In that way we hope to also address the issue of unused product waste. Everything from shampoo to lotions, laundry detergent, cleaning products, olive oil, vinegar, toothpaste and sunscreen – all sold by weight. We also sell accessories to help people along in their low-waste life journey like steel straws, biodegradable scrub brushes, toilet paper and paper towel alternatives, bamboo toothbrushes, etc. We ensure that our products are eco-friendly, vegan, and palm oil-free.

We do have an online store, as well. I was on the fence about this one for a while because I don’t want to contribute more to the carbon footprint by shipping this and that all over the place, but after a good number of customers, visiting from out of state, mentioned that they don’t have any access to some of the products we offer like shampoo and conditioner bars, biodegradable floss, or plastic-free water filtration, we decided to go ahead with the store. However, when we ship we use all repurposed shipping materials. We’ve stockpiled all the boxes and packaging people have used to send us merchandise in order to fulfill our orders using no new material.

It is our mission to continue learning and refining our process to become more and more “zero waste” and eco-friendly. It’s a journey… and it’s exciting to be a part of the worldwide movement to do better, to find a better way.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Dan and I got to talking and little by little became fast friends. We later opened Osa Mariposa Hotelito in Mexico and now Off the Bottle in Denver.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had been working as a landscape designer in San Diego and Denver when Dan called me up one day with the idea to do the refill shop. I wasn’t convinced, at first, but as I got to thinking I believed that it would be possible to achieve more environmental good with the refill shop than with landscaping. When designing yards or gardens, I always tried to steer people toward low-water, drought-resistant options, but the clients didn’t always want what I wanted. I thought we could reach more people and spread a more positive, pro-earth message with the shop.

Of course, the money in retail is not as good, and I now have a family to support, so it’s a bit risky and stressful from the financial viewpoint, but I have creative control and an outlet to share information and help offer daily needs products that are far less damaging to ourselves and our planet. Also, as the climate is getting hotter and drier here in Colorado, and the summer fires are intensifying, it’s getting less pleasant and healthy to do heavy labor outdoors, especially during the prime landscaping season. I think the career change will prove to be the better choice in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.offthebottlerefills.com
• Instagram: @offthebottlerefills
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/offthebottlerefillshop
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/off-the-bottle-refill-shop-denver

Image Credits
Photos by @riverandroot and Dave Paco