PEOPLE ARE natural innovators. We adapt to our surroundings, solve problems, and work to make our lives and others’ better. For entrepreneurs, this is especially true, and Lynchburg has recently become home to a perfect example of that innovation — NOVU Pops.

Created by Adelin Lucaci, with help from his brother, Brandon, NOVU Pops started as a basement experiment combining caffeine, vitamins, and lollipops. The product has since exploded in its reach, as a minute-long meeting with a CEO led to the product being accepted into Lowe’s stores and, later, several airports. While still in the onboarding process, the brothers are building a new 2000-square-foot facility for production right here in Virginia.

All that budding success didn’t happen by accident. It resulted from a childhood full of learning, months of hard work, and, Adelin said, the guidance of God. Adelin was born in Romania, but he and Brandon grew up in San Francisco, immersed in entrepreneurship. Their mother and father were business owners in Romania, and their father also had a successful construction business in the States.

“Since our mom homeschooled us, and since our dad involved us in the construction work a lot because he knew the value of hard work, we lived like entrepreneurs,” Brandon said. “That’s just the way that our brains are wired.”

Adelin was set to take over his dad’s business. He’d gotten a contractor license and his commercial driver’s license (CDL) and was about ready to start. However, all those plans were upended one Sunday morning when an elder at their church spoke to them about a dream he’d had the night before.

“In that dream, we were in a very specific location, and he didn’t know what it was — what it meant — and he didn’t even want to tell us what it was because he thought it was weird,” Adelin expressed. “When he was describing what he saw — that specific location — I immediately knew what it was. It was a rental property that my parents [owned] in Virginia.”

Taking it as a sign that God wanted them in Virginia, the brothers began making plans. They moved into that rental property with a plan to start a new construction company in Lynchburg as Brandon began school at Liberty University. Then, on the first night in the house, Adelin woke up with the idea of NOVU Pops.

“The first thought when I woke up [was] a whole business — the whole brand — everything. The whole product was in my mind just instantly,” Adelin said. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really, really cool idea.’ And I started to work on it — started getting interested.”

Neither brother had experience in the sweets industry, so Adelin started researching. He converted his basement into a lab, experimenting with making the pops, and contacted a Food and Drug Administration consultant to learn the legalities of making candy.

It took a year and nine months before anything came of the idea — a time Brandon said was fraught with doubt and struggle. NOVU Pops was just one of the hundreds of ideas Adelin had, and there was no guarantee that it would be successful. 

“He’s just battling and wrestling with this concept,” Brandon said. “It’s good, the brand is perfect … it stands for everything that we stand for. Do I even commit to this?” 

Still, he kept working. The brothers did construction jobs on the side to fund Adelin’s research and experimentation, and they went to conferences to network and learn more about entrepreneurship. It was at one of those conferences that everything changed. The Lucaci brothers knew that Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison would attend Liberty University’s CEO Summit as a keynote speaker and were determined to speak to him after the event. However, something drew them to approach during a short intermission instead — If they hadn’t, they would have missed him entirely. Ellison came late and left early. 

“We showed him, ‘We highly respect you — we see what you have done, how you’ve changed businesses and how you have grown them all, and you’re still a strong Christian leader doing it.’” Brandon said. “We appreciated that, so we wanted to ask for his advice — how do we get something like this into Lowe’s, keep our values, and so on.” 

The brothers didn’t even have a pop with them, only some sample packaging, but Ellison pointed them to a Lowe’s event called “Into the Blue: Lowe’s Product Pitch Event.” Though they only spoke briefly, Ellison got them into the currently running finals and chose them as his personal recommendation to win. 

“Why in the world did Mr. Ellison take that risk — risking his reputation to put us as his personal recommendation into the show?” Brandon questioned. “We have no idea why. The only thing that we can think of is it was just the favor of God.” 

The brothers succeeded throughout the event. Lowe’s even changed its policy on selling food to sell NOVU Pop in its stores. Now, NOVU Pops is in the process of entering airports as well. The hard work and dedication of the Lucaci brothers are finally paying off. 

“There’s no such thing as big wins that happen out of nowhere,” Adelin said. “Just try to get 1% better every day. But for somebody to get to the point of accepting that — that takes a long time. I’m just now realizing and accepting and leaning into ‘one percent better every day.’” 

It’s a dream come true, but it also reflects the brothers’ motto and the motto for NOVU Pops: Do good work. No matter what you do or how long it takes, do good work. If you get a little better every day, you never know what might happen. GN