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DuPage entrepreneurs spotlight AAPI Heritage Month, cite supply and workforce challenges
Summary
At a May 2025 DuPage County Economic Development Committee meeting, entrepreneurs Melissa Villanueva of BrewPoint Coffee and Larry Blackburn of DataTelligent described their business origins, growth plans and challenges including rising coffee costs, supply-chain steps and remote-workforce recruitment.
DuPage County Economic Development Committee members heard May 2025 from two local business owners marking AAPI Heritage Month: Melissa Villanueva, owner of BrewPoint Coffee, and Larry Blackburn, chief executive of DataTelligent.
Melissa Villanueva said BrewPoint began after finding a coffee shop on Craigslist and has grown into what she described as “a multimillion dollar coffee company with 3 coffee shops” and a manufacturing arm. Villanueva said BrewPoint’s locations are all in Elmhurst, including a 4,000-square-foot event space and a shop inside the Elmhurst Public Library. She said the business has raised about $700,000 in grants to support scaling while preserving majority ownership and its identity as women- and minority-owned. “My name is Melissa Villanueva. I’m the owner of BrewPoint Coffee,” she told the committee.
Villanueva said commodity coffee prices and trade factors are squeezing margins; she described a shift in green-bean pricing from roughly $1.80 per pound a few years ago to “over $4 a pound” now and cited tariffs and weather impacts in Brazil and Vietnam. To stabilize supply she said BrewPoint has formed long-term contracts with a majority-women-owned supplier in Costa Rica and is pursuing a multichannel strategy—cafés, distribution and ecommerce—while testing whether franchising or licensing would support scaling to a stated revenue target over the next three years.
Larry Blackburn described founding DataTelligent in 2019 and said the company found demand during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping higher-education institutions use existing data to improve enrollment and retention. “Good morning, everybody. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about my story, as a business owner in DuPage County,” Blackburn said. He outlined advantages of a largely remote, low-overhead model and said DataTelligent employs about 20 people across several states and has worked with more than 50 customers nationwide. Blackburn said one of his strategic efforts is hiring students to provide on-the-job experience; several former student employees stayed after graduation.
Both presenters referenced local entrepreneurship supports. Villanueva said she serves as entrepreneur-in-residence for Innovation DuPage and organizes events called Makers and Shakers that draw 150–200 entrepreneurs; Blackburn said he and Villanueva have collaborated with Innovation DuPage and that he helps facilitate an upcoming industry-insight session on health-care workforce topics.
Committee members asked operational questions: one member asked whether BrewPoint supplies nearby small coffee shops; Villanueva said she is exploring broader B2B sales but cited equipment, training and maintenance as margin pressures. Member Galassi asked whether hotels or events would have won business without the county’s transportation grants (asked during a separate presentation); a later presenter said in some cases the grants were decisive, a point committee members tied to local workforce and visitor-economy strategies.
The presentations closed with brief member appreciation and an invitation to the committee’s June industry-insight session on health-care workforce issues.
