Walter Morriën (1982) is a passionate entrepreneur. In late 2016, together with his university friend Corné van Drogenbroek, he founded De Koffiejongens. The spark? He ran out of coffee pods. Since launching the subscription service for sustainable coffee capsules, he—and the thousands of customers of De Koffiejongens—never runs out of coffee again.
Background
After completing his Master’s in Strategy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Walter began his corporate career in 2009. Despite interesting roles in marketing, product management, and proposition development at companies such as ING and Ziggo, he found his energy was limited in the corporate world. This changed when he started planning his own venture at the end of 2016.
De Koffiejongens
With no prior background in coffee or e-commerce, but a conviction that the coffee market could be smarter, he launched De Koffiejongens in 2017. As founder and CEO, Walter ensures sustainable and responsible choices throughout the company. From the beginning, he was surprised that coffee pods were made from plastic or aluminum—and decided it could be done better. The result: compostable capsules. Sustainability runs through the business: deliveries are made on foot or by bike, packaging is done by people previously distant from the labor market, and office lunches are vegetarian. These choices form the foundation of De Koffiejongens’ success, and the company now serves tens of thousands of loyal customers.
Notable Marketing
When the largest competitor introduced biodegradable capsules, Walter did the unexpected: congratulated them with a full-page ad in national newspapers and sent them a cake. While others might have seen this as a threat, he turned it into an opportunity to surprise. Another attention-grabbing initiative was the controversial “men’s surcharge”: if men earn 14% more than women, they could also pay 14% more for their coffee.
