Pomelo is an operations consulting firm that helps growing coffee roasters with their people, process and profit.

Luke Waite - Principal Consultant | Speaker

LinkedIn | Instagram | The Lev Co | CV

Luke Waite is the founder and principal consultant of Pomelo Coffee Consulting and the creator of the Core 7, a framework designed to help coffee roasters build lasting success by focusing on the seven most essential areas of their business. His background is marked by turning cafés, cold brew companies, and roasters that are in the red into highly efficient and profitable stable businesses. He is releasing a book on the Core 7 to be released in 2025.

In 2024, he developed and launched Junto, a collaborative peer-to-peer coaching group for owners of coffee roasters. The group is provides a mix of one-on-one and peer-to-peer coaching designed to foster personal and professional growth through learning opportunities, camaraderie, feedback and accountability.

Prior to consulting, Luke worked for four roasters in Chicago—(Metric Coffee, Five & Hoek Coffee, Passion House Coffee Roasters, and Pickwick Coffee Roasters (later acquired by Limitless Coffee). He specializes in three key areas for growing roasters: their people, their processes, and their profit. He believes these elements are essential for improving efficiency and building resilient coffee businesses.

He has deep knowledge of CPG productization, RTD cold brew beverage sales strategy, and a strong understanding of pricing and operational structures for specialty coffee roasters. Beyond Pomelo, he also owns a branding agency, The Lev Co, which focuses on design and strategy for green coffee importers, coffee roasters, and other specialty coffee businesses. Because of his multifaceted experience across cafes, cold brew/RTD beverages, education, sales, operations and design, he approaches client engagements holistically.

Luke also regularly speaks at conferences, on podcasts and to private groups on operations and leadership. Some of his more notable speaking engagements are: Specialty Coffee Expo (‘24, ‘23), Key Holder Coaching ('24), Marketing Should Be Fun ('24), Go Fund Bean (‘23), Coffee Fest Chicago (‘22), the Wilmington Coffee Fest ('24, ‘23) as well as to Cafe Inclusivo a project of Swisscontact (‘22), Keys to The Shop ('22).

His ultimate goal for Pomelo—and the industry as a whole—is for specialty coffee roasters to achieve operational stability so they can make a positive impact in the world.

Want Luke to speak at your next event or to your team?

Schedule a call to work out the details.

Why Pomelo?

Pomelo was born out of the love of bright and sweet coffees that resemble the flavor of a pomelo and a deep desire to build a more equitable coffee supply circle.

What we believe.

There’s a lot wrong in our industry, but our job isn’t to throw up our hands and say “that’s just how it’s always been.” Rather, it is to make it better for the people that follow us.

Our approach is a way of life to us. We care deeply about the people throughout the supply circle, and our desire is to see them flourish, grow and change our industry for the better.

That’s Pomelo - for the good of the people.

  • To help specialty coffee roasters gain stability, sustainability and profitability so they can make a positive impact on the world.

  • To build a future where coffee is a sustainable career for everyone in the supply circle.

  • We’ve got 3…Iterative, Honest & Good.

    Iterative: We approach life and problems from the perspective that having a process helps everyone involved. The best way we’ve found to get better is to iterate on what you have instead of starting from scratch with each new challenge. In other words, remove what isn’t working from the process and hold on to what is working, then rinse and repeat. Continual, sustained growth, is the goal for us and our hope for you.

    Honest: Telling the truth is the minimum. To us, it’s more than that. It’s about being transparent, clear, and open about who we are and what we are about. You know, the way people ought to treat one another. We don’t think there’s anything wrong with honest work, wages, and business. We are about treating folks the same and helping roasters build businesses that do the same. That’s pomelo, honest to a fault.

    Good: Remember that meal you had a while back? You know the one that you can almost taste when you think about it? Maybe it was your mothers spaghetti or a steak, or maybe it was when you were out with that one friend that really gets you and the food just tasted different that night. That’s the kind of good we are talking about. The undeniable kind. It’s got to be good every time, or it’s just not worth it.