Kyle O'Malley
- Co-Founder -
First and Foremost, Cheers to You.
If you're reading this, hopefully with a mug of Kamiak Coffee in hand, I want to say thank you. Thank you for supporting a wild idea, a dream, and a small business built by hardworking, American entrepreneurship and people who love what they do. As a supporter cruising around our website and wanting to get to know me, you are the driving force that enables us to do what we love.
In return, I hope you enjoy our products as much as I do and our coffee can provide a better morning, a better pick-me-up, a better product than anything out there on the market, and the fuel to propel your daily ambitions. Cheers to that.
A Life of Coffee & Ambition.
I first discovered specialty-coffee way back in 2010. I was just 15 years old, but I stumbled into something I immediately fell in love with. I knew right then and there, I found something worth exploring at a time when the rise of craft coffee was just beginning. Lucky for me, I happened to discover what amazing coffee is and can be early on in life. The burlap bags from across the world, the amazing machinery, smells of great coffee being roasted, the opportunity to uplift farmers across the world in developing countries - all of it consumed me. Most importantly, I realized at a young age what it means to create a great product, in an industry where many large competitors focus on quantity instead of quality. I spent the formative years of my youth going all in on coffee. Learning the trade, business model, practice, and industry along the way by working with a prominent specialty-coffee roaster. That critical exposure and experience to coffee would later serve me well when the chance to start this venture came about.
Fast forward a few years, I attended Washington State University (Go Cougs), earning two business degrees in Finance & Entrepreneurship. It was here where the question 'if you could do anything, what would you do any why' came about, and my answer was always coffee. I thought it just might be possible to start a coffee roasting company in the PNW, rooted in providing better product through higher standards in sourcing & roasting practices, avoiding any of the unneeded coffee-snobbery that plagues our industry, and being affordable to the common customer.
Kamiak Coffee Company became that solution.
Starting a Company.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
Starting a business from the ground up, bootstrapped, and with zero existing customer base was and is a mountain of a challenge. Not too many business books or gurus would have advised that. Looking back the fact that we jumped all in was insane, but that all-in mentality forced us to work harder and smarter. We had to wear every hat in a business. We had to learn how to code and build an e-commerce website. We had to build this from ground zero with plenty of failures, lessons, laughs, and wins along the way.
What really carried us in the beginning was a diehard focus to one thing: Roasting amazing coffee. Word-of-mouth became our best ally and slowly, but surely - things grew organically. We eventually found ourselves shipping coffee to every state in the US filling the homes of diehard fans with the best coffee the industry has to offer. To this day, we are still 110% product focused. Matched with an amazing team of people here at Kamiak to support our wholesale and online customers - we've experienced customer loyalty unmatched in our industry.
One particular wholesale client, Café Artista, took an early bet on us as we were gearing to start the company. That team believed in us, our product, and I am not certain where we'd be today if it wasn't for their early trust in our company. That partnership was the foundation for the countless wholesale clients we serve today - from major universities, grocery stores, hospitals, cafe's, offices, non-profits, and everything in-between. I owe a special shout to all of our wholesale folks for entrusting us with the partnerships we hold so dearly today.
Looking back - putting the product first, serving our customer with everything we had, and a love of our craft built this from nothing.
Life Now.
Happily married to my high-school sweetheart, proud Golden Retriever dad, current member in the US military, and your friendly neighborhood coffee-nerd. I am just your average dude who loves coffee, the outdoors, anything active or in the gym, the next challenge, and all things entrepreneurship. To say I am blessed is an understatement.
As I watch Kamiak Coffee grow from wild garage idea to full-blown operation, I can't wait to see what is just around the corner. Taking this company from local, to regional, to national with customers from coast-to-coast enjoying our product daily is a dream come true. To all of you that trust us with your coffee needs - I can't tell you thank you for your support enough. Cheers to you!
If you ever have an idea on what you'd like to see Kamiak Coffee do or a way we can improve, send an email to info@kamiakcoffeeco.com. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
A Final Note.
None of what you see here, the smell of a fresh Kamiak delivery in your mailbox, what you enjoy when you drink Kamiak Coffee, and everything-in-between would be possible without the Kamiak Team that supports this growing operation.
I am lucky enough to have found something I love, and I get to do it with people I love. When you find yourself working in an environment where everyone enjoys the craft of it all, and prides themselves on the product we create - you've hit the pinnacle. Cheers to all of you that work tirelessly to make this adventure go on.
Drink Differently.
"What's your favorite coffee?"
I love talking coffee and I also get asked this question every time someone finds out what I do.
With that said, my go-to coffee changes all the time. I love a natural processed, single-origin from Nicaragua. A fruit-bomb from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. An espresso blend like our Cascade Blend for the best Americano you've ever had, or even cold brew. A prerequisite for any coffee that leaves our warehouse is simple: We have to love it. So I happen to genuinely love all our coffee.
If I had to pick just one though, my go-to is our Grand Teton Blend. This is our highest-selling product and for good reason: it is a bitter-free dark roasted coffee.
It took us years of research, countless trial and error, and endless tweaking to perfect this dark roast. I could drink this coffee every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy with that... But life is also made to be adventurous so I try and change up what I drink just about everyday.