Kevin Hartley, Cambio Roasters
Cambio is Spanish for change, and Kevin Hartley founded Cambio to reimagine a K-cup which is not only recyclable but supports coffee farmers and their families in a meaningful way. Kevin and host John Ray discussed Kevin’s background with Keurig Green Mountain, Cambio’s “triple bottom line” focus of profit, people, and planet, their various coffee blends, and much more. Business Leaders Radio is produced virtually from the Business RadioX® studios in Atlanta.
Cambio Roasters
Through extensive experience and research, Cambio Roasters knows that people love their Keurig® coffee makers, but there are still problems to address. Over 30 million K-Cups® end up in our landfills every day! Beyond that, coffee farmers struggle to have enough food to feed their families at least 6 months of each year. Cambio knew that with our dedication, experience, and big hearts, we could do something to help.
So, from their kitchen table in South Carolina and with their Keurig® coffee maker by their side, they envisioned a brand that was equal parts taste, recyclable, giving, and affordable! A brand that allowed them to give back to others, that shouts design, fun, and respect for the planet and its people. It’s tough to pick the priorities on that list, so they just went for it!
They package the best-tasting, small-batch roasted Arabican coffees from around the world and ship it in 100% recyclable coffee pods. They also respond to every inquiry right away, write hand-written notes to our customers, send them fun “surprises” at different times and offer free perks, just for giving Cambio a try. And, they donate 20% of our profits to Food 4 Farmers, who works with coffee farmers creating programs that help them feed their families during their “thin months.” They deliver affordable pods to your door, and make sure you receive a Welcome Package to say thanks! Who does all that?!
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Kevin Hartley, Founder and CEO, Cambio Roasters
Kevin Hartley is an accomplished C-suite executive with an impressive +25-year career that includes advancement to increasingly demanding leadership roles based on successful P&L management of several large, innovative businesses in a variety of industries. With a solid history of transforming organizations and implementing process improvements, he is as comfortable at driving revenues as he is in building top-performing leadership teams. His successes include founding and growing Green Mountain Energy, Innovation Partners, and Cambio Roasters in addition to driving Kuerig’s market cap from $100M to $14B as a member of the senior leadership team.
Most recently with Cambio Roasters, Kevin served as Founder and CEO for the country’s first 100% recyclable K-Cup brand focused on eliminating the annual waste of over 18B K-Cups. During this time, he led the organization through proof of concept and commercialization and launched the brand in all 50 states. Additionally, he championed a win-win product for consumers and farmers by returning 20% of all profits to coffee producers and their families while driving towards $100M in annual revenue.
Previously, Kevin served as a Chief Innovation Officer for Keurig Green Mountain. This role challenged him to aggressively scale Keurig’s footprint by developing and executing the innovation strategy to rapidly expand into new markets and utilize IoT technologies to drive sales. Accordingly, he built a world-class innovation team, positioned Keurig as the world’s premiere beverage systems company, and delivered $2B+ in top-line revenue by launching Keurig into new and adjacent markets. Also notable, he innovated the new single serve businesses model (Keurig Kold/Keurig Baby) and even earned a $2B+ investment from Coke. As a result, he helped sell Keurig for $14B, a market cap growth of 140X from when he joined the executive team.
Prior to this, Kevin founded Innovation Partners to help Fortune 500 brands such as 3M, Mobil, J&J, M&M Mars, GM, Bank of America, IHG, and others achieve phenomenal in-market results. By creating and executing strategies for marketing, product innovation, research, testing, pilots, and go-to-market launches, he delivered exceptional marketplace success for clients. As a result, he helped launch Heineken Light in North America, clarified BMW’s launch strategy for the MINI Cooper in a new market, and led the strategic research for Dunkin’ Donuts’ new evening food business.
Earlier in his career, Kevin founded, scaled, and successfully sold Green Mountain Energy, one of the nation’s most successful deregulated green-electricity brands, to British Petroleum (BP) for $100M in 1999. While leading this organization, he created and executed the deregulation strategy to drive the successful launch and spinoff of Green Mountain Energy as a separate, deregulated brand from Green Mountain Power. While serving in this role, he rapidly expanded the operational footprint by acquiring customers in deregulated markets such as CA, PA, MA, and TX. As a result, he earned the company a spot on the Inc. 500 list and recognition as nation’s most successful deregulated brand
Kevin launched his career upon obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Vermont. He went on to earn his Master of Business Administration degree in Finance, Strategy, and Marketing.
Questions and Topics
- Why are you attracted to triple bottom line companies, and what are they
- Why did you start Cambio Roasters and what do you think is the opportunity
- What makes Cambio Roasters different from all the other K-Cup brands
- What do you most love about being a business leader
- What are the top three tips you’d give to anyone looking to start and grow a business today
- Tell us about the Keurig and Bob Stiller story
Business Leaders Radio is hosted by John Ray and produced virtually from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta. The show can be found on all the major podcast apps and a full archive can be found here.
