There are moments in every founder’s journey when everything feels lost—when years of work can disappear overnight. For Sarah Dusek, one of those moments came when a violent storm flattened her early tented camp near Yellowstone. Tents destroyed. Guests evacuated. A business seemingly wiped out.
That night could have been the end of the story.
Instead, it became the hinge point of one of the most influential hospitality brands of the last decade.
Sarah Dusek is the co‑founder of Under Canvas, one of the largest luxury glamping and outdoor hospitality brands in the United States. But her story isn’t just about scaling a company—it’s about rethinking how hospitality can serve people, protect the planet, and still be profitable. In this episode of The Radical Hospitality Show, Sarah shares the hard‑won lessons behind building, scaling, and exiting a purpose‑driven hospitality brand—and what she’s building next.
An Accidental Hotelier with a Bigger Mission
Sarah did not set out to build a hospitality empire. Early in her career, she worked for nonprofit organizations and aid agencies, spending nearly a decade overseas trying to “save the world.” But over time, she became burned out, disillusioned, and frustrated by how slow systemic change could be.
That frustration led to a pivotal realization: business itself could be a vehicle for impact.
Long before “impact investing” or “B Corps” were common language, Sarah began exploring the idea that companies—if designed intentionally—could solve real problems sustainably. Profit wasn’t the enemy. It was the mechanism that allowed solutions to last.
That mindset would shape everything that followed.
Solving One Problem Leads to an Entire Industry
Under Canvas began with a simple but powerful question:
How can you create access to extraordinary landscapes without destroying them?
Living on a ranch in Montana, Sarah and her husband were surrounded by vast, wild land—beautiful, but economically difficult to sustain. Traditional development felt invasive. Hotels required heavy infrastructure. But tents offered a different possibility.
They imagined a light‑footprint hotel—one that could be assembled, disassembled, and leave the land untouched. A way for people unfamiliar with camping to experience nature comfortably. Not “roughing it,” but honoring the environment through thoughtful design.
What started as “tents in a field” eventually became a repeatable model: luxury canvas accommodations near national parks that combined comfort, simplicity, and awe.
The lesson was foundational:
A great business isn’t built by copying others. It’s built by solving one specific problem well.
When Everything Collapses and You Keep Going
Early success didn’t mean smooth sailing. In the company’s first season near Yellowstone, a powerful storm rolled in without warning. Winds tore through the camp, flattening the tents entirely.
Sarah was on site with her two young children.
She cried. She panicked. She believed it was over.
But help arrived in unexpected ways—from staff, from guests, from people who believed in the mission. That night, the team put the camp back together. Guests slept safely. No refunds were requested.
And the business survived.
That experience shaped Sarah’s philosophy on entrepreneurship:
- Failure is inevitable.
- Crisis doesn’t mean the story is over.
- You’re only at the end when you decide you are.
Resilience, she learned, isn’t about avoiding storms. It’s about building teams and systems strong enough to weather them.
What Makes a Hospitality Brand Scalable
Under Canvas didn’t scale overnight. It scaled because Sarah eventually asked the right questions:
- Is our model repeatable?
- Can this experience be delivered again and again with consistency?
- Are we solving the same core problem every time?
Scaling required three major shifts:
- Hiring operators who knew how to run hotels at a professional level.
- Standardizing systems while preserving the soul and identity of each location.
- Designing with repeatability in mind, not just beauty.
Sarah emphasizes that not every hospitality concept should scale—and that’s okay. But if scale is the goal, a business must be built around replication without erosion of values.
Identity Over Imitation
One of Sarah’s strongest warnings for hospitality entrepreneurs is against imitation.
Just because a concept worked for someone else does not mean it will work for you.
The most successful brands, she argues, have a clear identity. Under Canvas was designed for families, for dog owners, for people who loved nature but not sleeping on the ground. That clarity made the brand magnetic.
“If your business has no identity, your customer will feel it.”
Great hospitality brands are personal. They reflect the founder’s values, lifestyle, and worldview—and invite others who resonate into that world.
From Founder to Investor and Back Again
After exiting Under Canvas, Sarah shifted into investing through Enigma Ventures, a fund supporting women‑led businesses across Southern and Eastern Africa. Having faced capital barriers herself, she wanted to open doors for others.
Her biggest insight as an investor?
People invest in people—not ideas alone.
Execution, integrity, grit, and self‑awareness matter far more than a perfect pitch deck. Too much capital too early, she notes, can actually destroy companies by amplifying broken foundations.
Still, Sarah realized something surprising: she missed being in the arena.
Investing was rewarding, but building is where her heart lives.
Few and Far and the Future of Purpose‑Driven Travel
Today, Sarah is building Few and Far, a luxury travel and outdoor hospitality brand rooted in deep conservation work. Its first lodge, Few and Far Luvhondo in South Africa, sits on a massive wilderness reserve undergoing long‑term ecological restoration.
The goal is ambitious:
- Protect hundreds of thousands of hectares of land
- Create transformative travel experiences
- Sequester massive amounts of carbon
- Prove that conservation and hospitality can thrive together
It’s the natural evolution of everything Sarah has learned—hospitality as a force for good at global scale.
The Takeaway for Hospitality Entrepreneurs
Sarah Dusek’s journey offers a powerful reminder:
- Business is problem‑solving.
- Scale comes from repeatability, not ambition alone.
- Identity matters more than trends.
- Profit enables impact when guided by values.
- The hardest moments often precede the biggest breakthroughs.
And perhaps most importantly:
You’re not at the end of your story—unless you decide you are.
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