Dan MacCombie, the co-founder of Runa, is moving on from the guayusa-based beverage company, he confirmed today.
“After six and a half years with Runa, and knowing I’m turning 30 in two weeks, I’ve literally spent my entire adulthood building this amazing company,” he told BevNET. “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built.”
MacCombie said he’d remain on the company’s board. For the rest of the year, he added, he will continue in “something between a part-time and advisory role,” for a day or two a month, but he plans to travel and figure out new ways to follow a passion for “reimagining the connections between communities and ecosystems.”
His departure — planned and amicable, he said — means an end, at least on a day-to-day level, of a highly-visible partnership between two Brown University friends who started a socially conscious brand that has deep roots in the Amazonian rainforest and Ecuadorean native tribes.
A slightly less visible figure than partner Tyler Gage, the Cleveland native MacCombie shouldered much of the sales and execution role for the two-man crew. Graduating from Brown, the pair settled in Brooklyn, where they quickly joined and contributed to a growing entrepreneurial food and beverage scene.
The growth of the company meant harder challenges for the pair, particularly when it came to managing a harder-to-organize DSD system. Recently, investor MetaBrand Capital installed an interim president, Sambazon veteran Richard Matusow. His 90-day contract over, it is not yet clear if Matusow will continue in a permanent role, but the company has begun working to bring in a senior-level sales executive to replace MacCombie.
MacCombie, meanwhile, made it clear he still backs the company but is excited to move on, allowing he had recently booked tickets for Estonia.
“I’m not quite sure what the next adventure is but I’m looking forward to what it has in store.”