Why these executives left the field of robotics to fizz things up at one of the nation's fastest growing beverage startups

Bevi—creator of a smart water dispenser—has just assembled an executive team hailing from Boston's most prominent robotics companies to take its product to the next level.

Bevi seeks to 'unbottle' the beverage industry with smart water dispensers that allow users to create a variety of custom drinks on demand, from pure water to flavored seltzers, without the use of disposable containers. Founded in 2013, Bevi now provides water to thousands of different locations, including the offices at Netflix, GE, Apple, and Boston Consulting Group, and partners with some of the largest food service companies in the world. The new management team at Bevi is tasked with continuing to rapidly scale, while spearheading new product development.

Bob Doucette, previous VP of Global Operations and Logistics at Amazon Robotics, is now Bevi's Chief Operating Officer. Doucette brings extensive experience from startups and multi-billion dollar enterprises as he focuses on scaling Bevi's operations, from hardware development to supply chain and service operations. Doucette elaborates, "I left Amazon for Bevi as I was excited about Bevi's environmental mission, its founding team, and the customer traction Bevi had already gained. For me, Bevi presents an outstanding opportunity to leverage my previous experience in scaling tech startups (like Kiva Systems, which was acquired by Amazon), and help lead Bevi operations through a period of hypergrowth."

Doucette will work closely with Bevi's new VP of Hardware Engineering, Thomas Allen, a former engineering leader at Boston Dynamics, the company famous for backflipping robots. Allen left behind robotic dogs to join Bevi because he saw an opportunity to lead a growing team that's making a real difference in the world with a product that people love. He explains, "Rarely do you see a company with an environmental mission at its core that also has the mass market appeal that Bevi does. It's very exciting to me to continue innovating and working through technical challenges."

Other recent executive hires include Bevi's new VP of Sales, Todd Johnston, previous Director of Sales for join.me at LogMeIn, and Chad Kelly, VP of Finance and former head of finance at real estate tech company, Placester.

Co-Founder and CEO Sean Grundy anticipates a new series of innovative initiatives with these skilled executives at the helm: "We recruited executives out of the world's most innovative robotics companies to take our product to the next level. Over the next few years, we will enable users to create a much wider variety of custom beverages, developing new ways to personalize drinks at the point-of-use. We will also integrate our IoT and machine-learning platform more tightly into our supply chain and operations. Our mission from the beginning has been to build a new beverage supply chain, without disposable containers and bottling plants. In hiring these talented leaders, we're taking a big step towards our goal."

About Bevi

Bevi is a rapidly growing startup that brings customizable, healthy hydration to offices and other commercial spaces across the US and Canada. Founded in 2013, Bevi's smart water coolers have helped eliminate the waste generated by over 35 million plastic bottles. With offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco, Bevi is constantly growing its flavor offerings and adding new customization capabilities to its smart water dispenser. Bevi is actively growing its engineering and supply chain teams; explore current openings here.