Accelerate Your Growth

Develop profitable growth strategies and implement solutions with a “Player-Coach” interim or fractional senior operating leader.

Move Faster
New Ideas
Candid Advice
Complement Skills

Flexibility
Save Money
Expanded Network
Tackle Your Constant “Firsts”

Peter Kaye, Founder and Principal of PK Growth Partners

Hi, I’m Peter Kaye, Principal of PK Growth Partners. I specialize in interim and fractional operating roles — including Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Growth Officer, Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Executive Officer.

I have a distinctive combination of operating experience with entrepreneurial, mission-driven businesses — such as Honest Tea, the No Kid Hungry campaign, NuTek Natural Ingredients, Hungry Harvest — and a foundation of global best practices from Nestle, Danone, Coca-Cola, and Diageo.

These best practices have enabled me to deliver a strong track record of results across revenue, profit, and brand. I founded PK Growth Partners based on the need for experienced operating leadership as a flexible experienced resource to meet the ever-changing growth needs of entrepreneurial businesses. As a “player-coach” I provide many benefits to your business in an interim or fractional role:

Move Faster. You’re impatient. Recruiting takes time. An interim leader gives you a quick start.
New Ideas. Fresh thinking from other companies and industries boosts creative solutions.
Candid Advice. You typically don’t get from an insider.
Complement Skills. Strengthen your team with an experienced leader.
Save Money. Just pay for the time and expertise you need.
Expanded Network. Ability to connect to a robust network built over many years.
Tackle Your Constant “Firsts.” Leaders of new businesses face non-stop “firsts”. Unless you have faced them all, having someone with who has is invaluable to achieve stronger results as you increase your agility and avoid costly, time-consuming mistakes.

Values: Creativity, Collaboration, Pragmatism, Results

Let's Talk!

As an Interim or Fractional Chief Marketing or Growth Officer, PK Growth Partners utilizes best practices from world-class organizations, and direct operating experience, to drive growth by strengthening strategy and execution across the fundamental drivers of growth through marketing: Product, Price, Place (omni-channel), and Promotion (advertising and communications).

How this work is done depends on the stage of business development and resources available. Some examples of key activities using proven best practices are below:

Best Practice Growth Driving Services

Jump Start!

Accelerate your strategic planning with an immersive review of current business situation, plans, and teams. Identify new initiatives needed to drive growth; what should stop as it is off-strategy, ineffective, or unimportant; what should continue with adjustments to improve.

1/3/5 Year Growth Plans

The day-to-day pressures of running your business makes longer-term planning hard to make time for, though is critical to “see the forest for the trees.”

Marketing Plan in a Day

With proper pre-work and the right people in the room, in a well-facilitated one-day work-session you can have a strong high-level marketing plan to then fine-tune, operationalize and estimate budget required.

Zag! Brand Strategy

Ensure your brand is positioned for radical differentiation to stand out, get noticed, build trial, repeat, and loyalty. Create a relevant, compelling, and differentiated Brand Strategy that includes Target Consumer Definition, Brand Essence, Positioning, and Portfolio architecture.

Visual Identity as Your 24/7 Salesperson

Lead efforts to brief, manage, and launch or re-launch your brand’s visual identify, designed to support your brand strategy, stand out from the competition, and communicate clearly and effectively in just a few seconds.

Breakthrough Brand-Building

Breaking through to reach your audience with impact gets more and more challenging. Breakthrough brand-building requires a strong, compelling creative brief to focus ideation among internal team members and/or external agency partners; lead ideation; facilitate to select and implement the best ideas.

Customer Insights

Use internal direct data and new customer research as needed: identify current customers and perceptions; and why they love you or not; who is your desired customer and what are the lifestyle, attitudes, behaviors that describe who they are with a focus on psychographics over demographics. Leverage digital tools for fast and efficient learning.

Agency Selection

Source, brief, and lead new marketing partners across creative, advertising, pr, social media, influencers, e-commerce, and more.

Investor Presentation

Tell your business and brand story in a compelling, concise manner, which is even more important with today’s intense competition for fundraising.

Team Leadership

Build your team with the right internal and external players to drive growth for you businesses’ stage of development. Set performance objectives, manage team, coach, and mentor.

Network Access

Tap into 30+ years of business connections and unparalleled Harvard Business School alumni network.

Let's Talk!

Track record of Creating and Executing Profitable Growth Strategies:

As VP/Chief Marketing Officer, increased revenue over 58% from $71M to $112M and brand awareness 2X. Huge national earned media for “National Honesty Index” social experiment. Launched our first paid ad campaign “Refreshingly Honest.” Created high impact “Great Recycle” Times Square event. Launched 50+ new products. Increased social media engagement by 5X.
As Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer for Share Our Strength, the organization that runs the No Kid Hungry, increased revenue over 57% from $53M to $84M. Led team to secure new large scale strategic corporate partnerships, accelerate digitally-driven performance marketing, execute 65+ culinary events, and launch leading edge CRM system.
As Chief Revenue Officer, achieved highest-ever AOV, an increase of +13% for this early stage farm-to-doorstep food recovery DTC e-commerce business. Led “Jobs to be Done” research and insights which drove significant new product innovation. Expanded B2B business development efforts. Led successful B Corporation Certification application.
As Chief Marketing Officer, increased revenue over 2X for this VC-backed “better-for-you” ingredient business. Created irreverent “Practice Safe Salt" digital media campaign. Won Rabobank award for “Emerging Leader in Innovation.”
Acting Chief Marketing Officer for this leading brand of therapeutic sports tape. Strengthened marketing plan including Olympic athlete activation plan and innovation strategy; advised board on digital and broadcast media plan alternatives.
Acting as Chief Growth Officer for this early-stage natural outdoor lifestyle brand, developed strategy to expand aggressively beyond DTC/Amazon into retail. Included channel and account analysis, prioritization and buyer outreach. Secured customer meetings. Strong growth in distribution and sales.
Acting Global Business Director for this Digital Business Transformation firm. Focused on the Agribusiness sector. Conducted research, developed insights, strategy and prospect outreach.
Strategic Advisor for this nonprofit best known for providing livestock to small-scale farmers in developing countries. Assessed current situation and strategic plans. Recommended top 10 growth opportunities. Advised on corporate partner fundraising strategy and outreach.
Advisory Board Member for Merryfield. New app featuring rewards for shopping “better-for-you” brands. Early concept guidance and partner outreach.
Advisory Board Member for Halfday, a new generation of gut-healthy iced tea. Classic favorites elevated with prebiotic functionality.

TESTIMONIALS

“(As CMO) Peter was able to aggressively drive our brand’s growth while keeping our tactics and our budget scrappy!”

“Peter was able to aggressively drive our brand’s growth while keeping our tactics and our budget scrappy! He was a collaborative team member and fit in well with the mission-driven ethos that was central to the Honest brand.”
Seth Goldman, Former Co-Founder and TeaEO of Honest Tea; Current Co-Founder & Chief Change Agent of Eat the Change; and Chair of the Board for Beyond Meat

Read More
"As our Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Peter’s industry knowledge and deep operating experience allowed us to build the marketing side of our company with a clear, long-term vision. From strategic planning to handling day-to-day tasks, he seamlessly navigated the dynamic demands of our growing startup."

Peter has made outstanding contributions as Quebracho Empanadas’ Chief Marketing Officer.
Starting in early 2024, we engaged Peter as a fractional CMO with a focus for him on defining our brand and marketing strategy. His impact was significant, multifaceted and immediate.
Peter’s industry knowledge and deep operating experience allowed us to build the marketing side of our company with a clear, long-term vision. From strategic planning to handling day-to-day tasks, he seamlessly navigated the dynamic demands of our growing startup. This spanned strategic and creative guidance on our packaging redesign, evaluating sponsorship opportunities, being a helpful coach for my first time at Expo West, and partnering with me in Whole Foods customer meetings as well as with investor prospects.
But beyond his professional expertise, it is Peter’s demeanor that truly sets him apart. His kindness, empathetic approach, and experienced understanding of the challenges faced by startups assured us that we had found the perfect partner for our long-term aspirations.
As a first-time founder, I have valued Peter’s guidance and recommendations, again and again. Without reservation, I wholeheartedly recommend Peter for other interim and fractional leadership roles focused on building strong growth plans. I am confident that Peter will seamlessly integrate into any team, bringing his expertise and passion to the table
Belén Rodríguez, Founder and CEO, Quebracho Argentinian Empanadas

Read More
“Peter thrives at developing and bringing to life new ideas and campaigns … delivered double-digit revenue growth, beating our aggressive plans every year…”

“I strongly recommend working with Peter to help drive growth in your business.
We welcomed the new and distinctive lens Peter brought to our revenue and marketing efforts at Share our Strength and the No Kid Hungry campaign. Leveraging his depth of business-building experience and strategic thinking strengths, Peter consistently sought to measurably improve our results.
Working closely with me and my co-founding sister, Peter was a key part of our Executive Leadership team and worked closely with our Board of Directors. I always enjoyed and looked forward to working with Peter as he thrives at developing and bringing to life new ideas and campaigns in a collegial and inspiring way.
With a clear passion for our mission, Peter and his team delivered double-digit revenue growth, beating our aggressive plans every year which provided meaningful added resources to help feed hungry kids. ”
Billy Shore, Founder, Executive Chair, and Former CEO of Share Our Strength (non-profit that runs the No Kid Hungry campaign)

Read More
“Hiring Peter was like upgrading from a regular bike to an ebike — suddenly we were going twice as fast uphill with half the effort!"

“Hiring Peter was like upgrading from a regular bike to an ebike — suddenly we were going twice as fast uphill with half the effort!
Peter has incredible ability to onboard himself into the nuances of a business and its position in the market. His sharp insights, keen assessment of the most important jobs to be done, and clear thinking about the best way to go about those jobs reflects his decades of experience working with teams of all sizes and in all types of situations.
In a few short months, Peter changed the way we were looking at Agni's future and helped us focus on the right marketing initiatives and finding the right financing partners for our next steps. He is also humble, kind, and a true delight to spend time with.
I would highly recommend working with Peter to accelerate your growth and progress.”
Astrid Schanz-Garbassi, Co-Founder and CEO of Agni (early stage food as medicine brand for women’s health)

Read More
“(As our Fractional CMO) Peter learned the business quickly and was able to impact not only our strategy but our short-term results as well."

“At KT Tape we hired Peter as an Interim CMO after evaluating a number of candidates. We were looking for fresh strategic thinking and analysis of the business to help refine our go to market strategy while accelerating our already robust growth history.
Peter learned the business quickly and was able to impact not only our strategy but our short-term results as well. He took leadership of the marketing team and focused them on strategy implementation, project management and instilled a higher-level sense of urgency.
Importantly, his coaching and leadership by example style resulted in greater cross functional collaboration and teamwork.
Peter truly partnered with me on strategy, tactical planning and in working with the Board as well as the investors in our business. His analytical capabilities and his ability to translate insights into actionable plans were invaluable as we developed our strategic and annual plans.
His best practice experiences with large CPG companies like Diageo and Coca Cola clearly were complemented by his entrepreneurial experience with Honest Tea to create a balanced, tempered approach for a high growth business.
In summary, Peter was a valuable asset to our business and to me as CEO and I look forward to working with him again in the near future. “
Greg Venner, former CEO & President of KT Tape (sporting goods)

Read More
“Peter developed a rigorous and practical business plan to launch a new Founding Farmers eCommerce venture.”

“Peter developed a rigorous and practical business plan to launch a new Founding Farmers eCommerce venture. His work was broad in scope and based in strong research. Peter’s proactive and collaborative style enabled us to evolve a rough initial idea to now become a reality. I look forward to future opportunities to work with him.”
Dan Simons, Founder and Co-Owner at Farmers Restaurant Group

Read More
“Peter masterfully led us to create an inspiring brand strategy which we are now bringing to life in all our communications."

“I can highly recommend Peter to anyone wanting to define a bold new strategic direction for their brand. He masterfully led us to create an inspiring brand strategy which we are now bringing to life in all our communications. Like a great teacher, Peter guided us ‘non-marketers’ to understand and use his for-profit best practice brand strategy frameworks. ”
Berenice Pernalete, Director of Innovation at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School

Read More
"Peter helped build and implement our sales strategy, quickly created momentum, and we are now proudly on a sustainable sales trajectory."

“Murphy’s Naturals manufactures natural mosquito repellents for families and outdoor enthusiasts.
Historically, our sales strategy has included trade shows and pursuing leads primarily for independent retailers and the occasional national chain. After hiring a VP of Sales to cultivate a national sales strategy, at the referral of an investor/advisor, Murphy’s engaged Peter Kaye to accelerate the building and implementation of our sales strategy.
Peter quickly stepped-in and learned the brand. He was instrumental in identifying the CPG channels where Murphy’s could thrive.
From there Peter assisted in the development of a ranking system to identify priority targets within the channels to help focus our sales energies. This included leaning into his network of professionals to introduce our brand and quickly secure key meetings for sales discussions. Peter researched and cold called companies where Murphy’s could thrive.
With Peter’s guidance and participation our company was quickly able to create momentum and we’re proudly on a sustainable sales trajectory meeting annual expansion year over year.”
Kriss Freeman, Vice President of Customer Development at Murphy’s Naturals (natural mosquito repellents)

Read More
"Thank you for all the excellent work you completed with our Marketing Team (as interim Chief Transformation Officer) ... it was eye opening for them to see a different perspective and method of working through strategy."

"Thank you for all the excellent work you completed with our Marketing team. I appreciate the guidance and development work that you provided to the group. I think it was eye opening for them to see a different perspective and method of working through strategy."
Confidential, VP of Data Management & Analytics Operations, Mid-sized established B2B business

Read More