Martina Matejíčková from Kakaw Co+: When a company grows faster than its processes
Cocoa for adults, former coca growers in Colombia, and an integration packaging plant in Bratislava. Kakaw Co+ is an unconventional product and an unconventional business. In the new episode of the Biznislab podcast, founder Martina Matejíčková talks about how to build a premium brand from a plantation, why a growing company succeeds in delegating but not controlling, and what advice she would give to e-shops that want to go abroad.
Product Repositioning: From Children's Cocoa Drink to Adult Beverage
The cocoa we know from childhood was mostly sugar. Instant cocoa drinks contain about a fifth of defatted and alkalized cocoa powder, the rest is sugar and colorants. Kakaw Co+ offers pure cocoa mass from beans and places it alongside coffee and matcha as a drink for adults.
Behind this repositioning lies an interesting lesson from history. In the 19th century, Dutchman Coenraad van Houten separated cocoa butter from powder and alkalized the powder. "As far as business is concerned, he did an amazing thing because he made two products from one raw material," says Martina. Cocoa butter went into chocolate and cosmetics, and the darker powder could be dosed more economically. The innovation increased the margin, but the nutritional value of cocoa decreased.
Premium Quality is Built Throughout the Chain, Not Just on the Packaging
Kakaw Co+ works only with cocoa of fino de aroma quality. According to Martina, it makes up about 5% of world production. They do not buy cocoa from commodity warehouses, but directly from farmers in Colombia and Peru. Instead of Fair Trade certification, which would cost small farmers money at every link in the chain, they opted for direct trade.
"We have defined protocols at every stage," says Martina. From harvesting through fermentation, drying, and roasting to grinding. She tries to visit each plantation at least once a year and is in daily contact with farmers via WhatsApp. "If we make a mistake at any part, the end customer will feel it in the taste."
The result is a product that costs about as much as a cappuccino in a cocoa shop and roughly one euro per cup at home. The premium price is justified by the entire chain, not just the packaging.
Social Enterprise: The Problem is Not the People, But the Bureaucracy
In Slovakia, the social dimension continues in the integration packaging plant. Each package is weighed and labeled by hand by disadvantaged employees. Based on over eight years of experience, Martina dispels the fears of many employers: "Once set up, they are very grateful and really try to meet the set goals and do their work responsibly."
The real barrier is administration. A colleague spends about three hours a day on the social enterprise agenda, and last year's inspections from all institutions took several months. "Even for me, who studied it, it was not easy to read," admits Martina.
When a Company Grows Faster Than Its Processes
The strongest managerial part of the interview concerns the year 2024. The price of cocoa then skyrocketed on the stock exchange, and the company had to quickly grow in volume to withstand it. "We were growing, but there was no time to create processes. When delegation is uncontrolled, it brings very unpleasant consequences," says Martina.
According to her, delegation was successful, but control was worse. She honestly describes a trap that many owners know: "I believe that when I agree on something and check it for the first two or three months, it works. And then it stops working." She addresses this by bringing in more senior colleagues in sales and production so that not everything has to go through her. She would most like to hand over process control.
Expansion: Practice the Market, Trim the Portfolio, Find Partners
Kakaw Co+ also sells in Prague and is heading to Austria, Poland, China, and Dubai. Based on her experience, Martina recommends these steps to companies and e-shops planning to expand:
- Practice the market before opening an operation. They went to festivals and events in the Czech Republic for years and built a community. "It wasn't like we came there, opened an operation, and said, please, buy from us."
- Trim the portfolio. Kakaw Co+ has 162 products. However, you need to enter a new market with a few main products, otherwise, the customer will get lost.
- Find local partners. "Without the right partners in local markets, you have no chance, even if you have a very good product." She finds contacts on missions and exhibitions organized by the ministry or SARIO, and often Slovaks abroad help as well.
- Don't do copy-paste. "Slovakia is an extremely good training ground for any other market," says Martina. However, the product and service need to be adapted to how the new market works, not bring your habits there.
E-commerce: The Most Dynamic Part of the Business
Online is one of the main sales and marketing channels for Kakaw Co+. Martina openly talks about the declines and complications the company experienced online. She "wishes luck" to small and medium entrepreneurs who manage their campaigns themselves but warns: "It is the most dynamic area... When you have e-commerce, you want sales to grow and be profitable, and that is very challenging today without properly set campaigns."
An owner who deals with production, people, expansion, and another "58 things" finds it difficult to track every change in advertising systems. That's why it's worth managing PPC campaigns in the hands of a team that is fully dedicated to them, in Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other platforms.
AI as a Controller That Never Sleeps
When asked what comes to mind with the words AI and Kakaw Co+, Martina answers without hesitation: "Artificial intelligence helps us a lot in online marketing, and suddenly we are dealing with things that haven't been addressed for years."
AI also addresses the problem from the previous chapter. The control that is difficult to maintain after the first three months can be taken over by an AI agent in marketing and e-commerce. FLUIDUM AI from ui42 connects data from advertising, analytics, e-shop, SEO, and product feeds, monitors them continuously, and alerts to inefficient budget spending, campaign performance drops, or weak points in the purchasing process before anyone asks about it. Kakaw Co+ is among the companies that use it.
Martina also sees a social dimension in AI. Automation is changing production ("large production, which previously had 200 people, now has 5"), but according to her, it doesn't have to be a threat to the disadvantaged. "We want to connect technological progress with these people so that it doesn't exclude them," she says. Properly set AI can help disadvantaged people feel more comfortable at work and perform better.
5 Lessons for Owners of Growing Companies
- The entire chain justifies the premium price. Manage quality from the source and talk about it.
- Build processes before you need them. Growth won't wait for them.
- Delegation without control doesn't work. Set control as a permanent process, not just the first three months of supervision.
- Enter a new market with a few main products and local partners. Not with the entire catalog.
- Let someone who is fully dedicated to campaigns and data monitor them. Whether it's a specialized team or an AI agent that never sleeps.
Listen to the full interview with Martina Matejíčková in the Biznislab podcast. Is your e-shop growing faster than your processes? Contact us. We'll look at your campaigns and data and show you everything FLUIDUM AI can monitor.
The Biznislab podcast is prepared by ui42 in cooperation with the SME daily. Hosted by Martin Krupa.
