HopCat and its 100 craft beers on tap has added to the bar scene since its East Lansing opening last week.

“We have all craft, no crap,” said Sellers, 45, with a chuckle.

Both locations of HopCat have a recycling program. The Grand Rapids location has managed to cut landfill waste by 90 percent since it was implemented two years ago, Sellers said.

“We throw our trash into three bins — compost, recycling and landfill,” he said. “We’re able to recycle and compost almost everything.”

Sellers is one of the many faces of East Lansing working to help the city run and thrive, but some might not know the entrepreneur is no stranger to the college town.

When Sellers began his undergraduate studies at MSU in 1986, he pursued an English degree.

“The only thing I liked to do was play the piano and the guitar,” Sellers said.

Sellers left MSU his junior year, packed his bags and headed to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he dropped out after a year.

With music still in his heart, Sellers moved to Los Angeles to start a band. He remained there for two and a half years before returning to East Lansing.

He became a Spartan again and graduated with an accounting degree in 1998. He was hired straight out of college at General Electric Capital Corp. in Chicago, a city he lived in for nine and a half years.

During his time in Chicago, Sellers began his own investment fund, Sellers Capital LLC.

Sellers moved back to his hometown of Grand Rapids in 2007 and opened the Grand Rapids HopCat in January 2008. He retired in 2009.

“I just moved from a big city (and) there was nothing that interesting in Grand Rapids,” Sellers said. “I decided to start a bar that I could go to myself. I wasn’t trying to make money, it was more like a hobby.”

“We had a line down the block since we opened, and it never slowed down,” he said.

Years later, Sellers spotted the perfect location in East Lansing to introduce the bar, and business has never been better.

“It’s blown me away,” he said. “Our first five days (here), we did more business than HopCat Grand Rapids has ever done in a full week.”

While he doesn’t brew beer himself, his passion for the beverage stems from his travel bug.

Sellers said he’s been to hundreds of breweries across the world during his visits to 48 states and 22 countries.

“One of the most important things that people can do is travel internationally and see the world,” said Sellers, who plans to visit Australia and Indonesia soon. “You’ve got to see the world.”

He advises students to pursue their passions as opposed to just a big paycheck.

“Do what you love,” he said. “Don’t worry about money. If you’re good at it, the money will come.”