We were lucky to catch up with Ricardo Garcia recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ricardo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

At Coffee Kreis we aim to replace single-use plastics and replace the end-of-life concept of used coffee grounds, diverging from corporate/industry standards and reusing a material that has been usually considered at waste. We collect used coffee grounds and transform them into sustainable and reusable everyday consumer products, such as coffee cups.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an entrepreneur, coffee lover and passionate for sustainability. These combination led me to start with Coffee Kreis after seeing where coffee usually ended up after brewing it. 99% of used coffee grounds are treated as waste, being thrown into the landfills where they start to decompose along with many other residues and generating methane emissions in our environment. I asked myself, what if this waste is not really meant to be waste? Is there something better than drinking coffee on a cup made of coffee? And Coffee Kreis was born, with a goal to reduce single-use plastics and excessive coffee waste via sustainable and reusable everyday consumer products, such as coffee cups.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

During the pandemic I founded Toddler Box, a children’s clothing ecommerce business. I was furloughed from my job at the time and found myself with too much time to start working on something of my own. After analyzing many options, opted to start a store with nice and affordable clothing for kids due to the ecommerce boom. I worked twice as hard to get up to speed on the industry and learn a bunch of tings I didn’t know. The business grew in a few months, and when it started to generate some profit, I got my old job back, which left me with less time to invest in my business. That is when I decided to sell the store online. Fortunately, the store was built in Shopify, and they have a marketplace to buy or sell stores. Few months after listing it, we got an offer and decided to sell. It was not an easy choice, but is important to understand when is time to let go.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Daniela in high school in our hometown Barranquilla, Colombia. We know each other since then, where we started as friends, then got into a relationship and now got married. She is my complement, not only in life as we have different personalities and think very differently, but also in business. She is experienced in areas where I am not, and viceversa, which helps us be successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.coffeekreis.com
• Instagram: @coffeekreis
• Facebook: @coffeekreis
• Linkedin: @coffeekreis
• Twitter: @coffeekreis
• Youtube: @coffeekreis