Big goals, with soul.
Three stand-out pillars of my leadership philosophy:
Diverse
Cross-functional ideation yields the most robust innovations.
Optimal
De-risk and accelerate business systems to capitalize market opportunities.
Reliable
Clarity and trust create teams that are more than the sum of their parts.
Enabling this leadership philosophy through four core competencies
Emotional Intelligence
Created psychological safety, and systems that reward candor, resulting in increased morale and overall employee retention & productivity.
Team Leadership
Led $50M retail store with 200+ employees and 5,000 hr/week payroll from lowest morale in the district to third highest in just one year.
Full Cycle Innovation
Idea --> Prototype --> Manufacturing Design --> GTM strategy --> Multi-channel launch --> Sales flywheel at Tenderlyrooted
Talent Development
In one role, promoted 13 team members in 12 months. In another, drove employee retention from 30% to 80% in 4 years.
10,000+
Customers Served
18
Countries Worked
£1,000,000+
in less than 10 months, from cold to closed
12
Years Leading
Those who know me say...
"I feel like Kaben's coaching was a tool I was looking for for a long time but wasn't quite sure where to find it."
R. Dowdy
"I used to have so much trouble prioritizing my time. Yet after spending time with Kaben, I feel confident and able to prioritize and follow through on each task."
R. Langtat
"Kaben sees angles I never saw before. He asks questions that no one else is asking, often opening our thinking to novel solutions that are exactly what we were looking for."
S. Lupe
"Being around Kaben helps me think my thoughts more clearly. I know that after talking with him I will have clarity."
J. Beaumont
"Kaben is someone who I know I can trust with the most challenging problems. He can somehow always find an ingenious solution that, afterward, seems so obvious."
G. Martin
"I just wanted a regular job, but Kaben showed me that I can aim a lot higher than that. Now I have a job I love at an income I hadn't imagined."
C. Reed
Breadth of Work
As someone who is a multi-passionate achiever, I have made an impact in a wide array of career paths which has developed many critical skills.
Start-up, FinTech SaaS
At Riskalyze, I learned how to implement and scale software-as-a-service products to maximize revenue and increase positive customer experiences. Gained a deep knowledge of customer success key indicators including MRR, AOV, retention, and churn.
Key to success: Deeply understanding customer needs and deploying solutions rapidly.
Corporate, Executive Team Lead
As the Human Resources Executive Team Lead for a $50M Target retail store, I learned the critical skill of managing people from a diverse background. Additional understanding of HRIS, legal, compliance, and worker rights were important for the role.
Key to Success: Leveraging intrinsic motivation to develop talent, closing critical performance gaps.
Founder, Farm-to-Fork eComm
As the co-founder of Tenderlyrooted, I oversaw the development of the brand from the ground up. Product ideation, design, manufacturing, marketing, sales, customer lifecycle, and finances all fell under my purview. Growing the business alongside my wife from $0 in sales to $400,000 in 2023 has been a great joy.
Key to Success: Strategically identifying market opportunities and training a team of diverse talent to scale the business.
Thought Experiments
Some art is made with oils and some in chiseled stone. My writing is to poetry what sculpting is to watercolor. I use words to pull ideas from the unyielding mass of the unknown and carve them into something practical and useful.
Kindness is my Religion
Half personal reflection, and half moral critique, this short six page essay asks whether kindness can be more than just a virtue, and explores the impact kindness has on how we operate in the world.
The Mettle Test
This 80-page workbook serves as the foundation for men to re-engage the middle of their life with vibrancy, clarity, and passion.
Humulosophy - an ongoing conversation
Beginning with a political manifesto and diving deeply into the economic formulas required for a new society, this essay draws from ancient wisdom, modern economic theory, and political discourse to imagine a new way of living. It is posted here as a Google Doc so your comments can extend the conversation.
Leadership Inputs
Healthy teams change the world. While outcomes are a critical measure of success, the inputs have a much larger affect on the individuals, values, and products.
Insatiable curiosity
I don’t lead from still waters; I lead like a gyroscope --constantly taking in new information while holding a steady internal axis.
My curiosity roams wide: I listen deeply, gather diverse input, and map the edges even as we move forward swiftly.
Directional integrity isn’t rigidity; it’s staying true while integrating what the environment reveals.
Teams can challenge, contribute, and explore because their insight genuinely shapes the path forward.
Relentless clarity
Organizational friction is a function of team trust and clarity of communication.
I track tension the way a hound tracks scent --following weak joints, hidden assumptions, and structural contradictions until the whole system holds strong
Trusted leaders set aside ego, pursue open collaboration, and are consistently reliable. Every person on the team knows how the leader will respond, which sets up confident action far down the pipeline.
Enduring momentum
Momentum becomes sustainable when curiosity and clarity converge into a shared direction.
I design systems, roles, and communication rhythms that create coherence so teams move with confidence instead of friction.
Enduring momentum isn’t speed; it’s the quiet, collective sense that everyone knows where they’re going and how their contribution matters.
It’s movement that lasts through pressure, scale, and change.
Places
A global citizen who sees how powerful unique stories are.
California
Born and raised in Northern California, I left when I was 13 never imagining I'd ever come back. I attended University in Stockton, moved to the suburbs, then moved back to the farm in 2018.
Kenya & Uganda
I attended boarding school in Kenya for 3 years of high school. Then, after college, I moved to Northern Uganda with my wife, Jenn. I did clean water projects and she ran a social entrepreneurship business empowering women.
Den Haag, Delhi, and Beyond
Now based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, my work has taken me to 18 countries on multiple continents. I enjoy sinking into the rhythm, flow, priorities, and diet of my hosts in each place I go.
REACHING MAXIMUM IMPACT
...To go far, walk together.
There is no greater joy than seeing individual team members flourish into the the person that only they can be. This individual development transforms the whole business through self-confidence, clarity, and a significant decrease in ego-centered politicking.
The world is a better place when we center our thoughts and actions on abundance and human flourishing. Our bodies and minds heal, our communities heal, and the Earth itself heals. This creates a nearly unstoppable work force to achieve massive profits and impact on the world. We can chase big goals, with soul. Together.
Education
All this?
Written, produced, arranged, edited by Kaben Kramer.
This is the level of care and excellent I will bring to your team.
More on Tenderlyrooted's story
See the gap, take the leap
In 2018, we went from working in FinTech SaaS to farming walnuts. We walked into an industry that was not positioned for success and knew we had to change the story.
We needed margins, loyalty, and a stand-out brand message. We needed to innovate a positive distruption that could make a lasting impact.
The result was a unique vision for a farmer-originating, flavor-centered snack that was so nutrient dense it could replace potato chips and dinner at the same time.
The proof is in the pudding: we started by investing $5,000 from our savings account in late 2020, and ended 2023 with $400,000 in gross revenue.
Building a new market
After designing an innovative product from the ground up --including manufacturing, regulations, and packaging design-- we had to build a marketplace full of customers to buy the product.
With hard work, an unfading smile, and finding gaps in marketing to step into, we were able to scale from our first customer to over 500 in three months. Now, three years later, we have over 5,000 customers.
Strategically seeing the market need and leading the start-up to engage those gaps with market-facing solutions positioned us to grow from no sales to over 25,000 boxes shipped.
Becoming a leader I'd want to follow
Innovating a new product and building a market don't matter for much unless there is a cohesive and powerful team behind the movement.
Identifying appropriate talent, creating clear roles & responsibilities with simple-yet-robust policy to support the structure was key in our transition from a mom & pop snack company to a high-margin eCommerce platform.
Early on we committed to do the internal growth needed to be leaders we ourselves would want to follow. And we committed to grow excellent teams, full of people smarter than us and with skills and experiences far outside our own. This is the real power of a growing brand.
