Office Hours with Craig Dubitsky

Craig is the founder and CEO of happy® coffee. Along with his co-founder Robert Downey, Jr., happy launched in early 2024 with a mission to elevate the every day, and within 6 months saw its beautifully designed products achieved over 50,000 individual points of distribution across 10,000 retail doors, including Target, Walmart, Kroger, CVS, Sprouts, Harris Teeter and HEB. The brand’s complete range—from ground, whole bean, happy pods (k-cups) and ready-to-drink options are also available online at Amazon.com and via the company’s website. Priding itself on using only the best, selectively sourced green beans produced by thoughtful growers and opting for a slow roasting process to protect the finest of flavor, happy not only delivers a seriously delicious™ cup of coffee but they care about the person drinking it. In an effort to de-stigmatize mental health, happy partnered with NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, with a dedication to building better lives for millions of Americans. Think of it as coffee with a conscience.

Prior to happy, Craig was the founder of hello® products, and former Chief Innovation Strategist of Colgate-Palmolive. hello, the world’s first naturally friendly™ oral care brand, was acquired by Colgate in January of 2020. hello became the fastest-growing oral care brand in North America, with products available in over 55,000 food, drug, and mass retailers. hello was named by Inc Magazine as one of the Best Places to Work, as well as “One of the 25 Companies That Are Changing the World.” Dubitsky himself was named to Advertising Age’s Creativity 50, the publication’s annual list of the most influential and innovative creative thinkers, and one of the 100 Most Inspirational Marketers in the World by The Internationalist.

Prior to hello, Craig was a co-founder and creative lead at eos (makers of the ubiquitous lip sphere), a founding board member at transformational household cleaning brand method, and a strategic advisor to Seventh Generation, Boots, and various private equity funds.

Craig is an inductee in the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) Hall of Fame, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson, and serves as an Advisory Council Member at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship at The Simon School of Business at The University of Rochester. Craig loves people, design, brand, packaging and people. Yes, he said people twice.

Office Hours are currently full but you can add your name to the waitlist here!