This series aims to shed light on lesser known, yet groundbreaking technological advancements in the industry sector. In each interview, we delve into a specific company’s contributions to reshaping the industrial landscape.
Interview with Daniel Wachter, the CEO of Chromatic Technologies Inc. – CTI.
First, briefly tell us about you and your role in the company.
I joined CTI in July 2020 as a shareholder and CCO, focusing on the scalability of the business first, with the understanding that I would become CEO when the time was right, which I became officially in January 2024.
How did everything start for CTI? What was the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey –tell us about the company history and key milestones?
The company started 31 years ago when Lyle Small founded it out of a Cornell’s lab. He had the idea of a color-changing chemistry. Initially, his proprietary technology was used on checks and coupons, which he further pursued driven by his entrepreneurial spirit. A key milestone was when he secured an engagement with Molson Coors, contributing CTI technology to Coors Light’s packaging. This was a multi-year process, first developing the chemistry and launching in the UK, then in Canada, and finally bringing it to the USA. Today, most people in the USA recognize the Coors Light Mountain on the beverage can and bottle label turning blue when the beer is cold, but don’t know it is from CTI in Colorado Springs. Though CTI’s application is well known and in-market for 17 years, the company itself remained largely unknown.
I was offered the opportunity to join CTI because Lyle felt frustrated about not being able to scale the business significantly beyond Coors Light. He still believed in its scalability and searched for someone who could get this done. At the beginning of the pandemic, we initiated conversations and eventually agreed that I would join CTI as a shareholder and CCO to explore and realize the business’s global scalability. Since then, we have transformed the company completely, especially in terms of its go-to-market strategy. It has been an upside-down transformation of the business and its organization to scale both the top line and bottom lines.
What is the company’s vision and mission and what are some key market challenges it tries to resolve and address?
Overall, our mission is to improve lives through innovative chemistry that alerts, protects, and surprises. What that means is that our technology enhances everyday experiences and boosts brands interaction with consumers by amplifying consumer participation. Or as one of our Board Members, former CMO of Coors Light, Lee Buxton, stated: We make packaging talk to consumers. We can do this triggered by temperature, UV light, and other factors. For example, with Coors Light, we created a unique consumer experience that enhances brand loyalty and ultimately increases purchase intent and top line revenue. And beyond our concept tests research, we have market performance data from Nielsen IQ showing that our technology positively impacts brand sales by enhancing consumer engagement through visually changing packaging and engaging them in very unique ways.
Another commercial example of our technologies’ added value is in roofing. We recently launched our technology in the USA and Canada with Sika USA. When roofers weld Sika’s PVC membranes during the roofing job, our thermochromic technology visually indicates a good seal, ensuring quality and preventing leaks. Sika launched this technology at the International Roofing Convention in Las Vegas in February 2024, and we are currently in discussions for launching this globally as well as on other roofing membranes.
So, while we focus heavily on CPG Food- and Beverages (F&B) packaging, we are also developing markets in roofing, high-pressure processing (HPP) of food, indicators for baby care and pet care products, expanding into pharma packaging and -labeling, and in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) cold chain. We have a variety of applications across different industries.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in developing and implementing your technologies, and how do you overcome them?
The challenges differ across markets such as Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Food & Beverage (F&B), and others.
The biggest obstacle in the CPG and F&B industry was changing our go-to-market strategy. Initially, CTI has been targeting packaging- and printing companies with our chromatic technology as a special printable ink value proposition. However, we realized that we also needed to target brand owners, like Coors Light, and decision-makers responsible for packaging innovation and -design. Therefore, we started to reach out to brand owners directly to help them understand how our technology can engage their consumers and boost their brand experience and ultimately sales. Nowadays, our holistic strategy involves presenting our solutions to brand owners as well as their creative design agencies while continuing to work with our packaging & printing partners.
In markets where we didn’t yet have established applications, like roofing, we collaborate closely with brand owners like Sika and act as innovation partner to their R&D- and Business Development teams. For example, our roofing membrane technology with Sika helps roofers ensure a good seal of the roofing membrane. This collaboration required years of collaborative development and validation to prove the technology’s effectiveness and value. The key to overcoming these challenges is a combination of innovation, collaboration, and persistence through trial and error. It takes a lot of endurance to achieve such success.
What advice would you give to other companies looking to innovate and differentiate their brands in today’s competitive market?
The biggest thing is to have an open mind. It’s not always obvious what needs to be done to break out of established habits or how things are done today. What I have experienced is that some companies are more open to challenging the status quo than others. Those who do are willing to move incredibly fast, develop, and gain a competitive edge. They are not afraid to fail because trying new things inherently involves failure.
Another challenge we often face is the question of affordability and cost. We focus on the added value, how can we quantify and qualify it, and how this monetizes for all stakeholders. Often, we find ways to make it work and justify the investment. Don’t let cost be a barrier at first. Try to qualify and quantify the added value. Assess how this value justifies the cost and demonstrate how continuous improvement will enhance effectiveness and value while simultaneously reducing costs.
How does competition look like in your industry – are you competing with like-minded competitors or are you competing with different technologies / brand enhancing solutions?
A little bit of all those things. In some areas, such as products that glow in the dark, we have direct product competitors while we have measurable competitive advantages in both effect quality and productivity. In other chromatic technologies, we have very few or even no direct competitors. Our unique, proprietary technologies set us apart. We believe our technology is unique and difficult to replicate consistently and reliably. At the same time, we also realize that we don’t know what we don’t know, so there is no room for complacency, especially the more successful we get in scaling our business and doing this successfully globally. Therefore, we are continuously screening the market, as there are certainly other technologies out there that enhance packaging and serve a similar purpose of surprising and engaging consumers.
How does your innovation process and pipeline look – do you have exciting projects in the pipeline (no expectation for details)?
Yes. We have had some incredible commercial success with our technology, including partnerships with Congo Brands, The Coca-Cola Company, and General Mills. There are quite a few exciting applications coming up in the second half of the year that I can’t discuss in detail yet. The commercial roofing that I just discussed is a great innovation and in full swing after being launched in North America. We are also working in baby care on a wetness indicator for diapers; unfortunately, I cannot disclose details at this stage.
We have developed a hybrid combination of thermochromic and photochromic technologies in one ink system. For example, a beverage container that changes color when cooled indoors will change color when exposed to outdoor light. This will offer a variety of colors for the consumer and is expected to hit the market in the next couple of months. As the beverage is consumed, the container will change colors, revealing messages, reacting to different stimuli, and creating an engaging experience.
There is a common baseline for our chromatic technologies, dyes. In our cancer project venture, a start-up called “Lahjavida”, Lyle and our R&D team have developed dyes that can bond to cancer cells. We are using these cancer cell-bonding dyes as transportation vehicles for FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs. The dyes, combined with the chemo drugs, deliver the drugs directly to the cancer tumors, where these drugs are supposed to be effective, while the drugs remain non-toxic while traveling to the cancer cells. Studies on mice have proven their effectiveness and safety. Once the dye bonds to the cancer cells, it releases the cancer drugs effectively. This project is a long-term endeavor, expected to take 5 to 10+ years, and we are thrilled to announce results of the currently active mice study in October; stay tuned!
Lahjavida owns the intellectual property and is conducting these mouse studies. Obviously, this is a very different technology under a different company that Lyle owns, driven by his ambition and mission to find more efficient ways for cancer treatment.
Lyle started this venture about 10 years ago, funding it through CTI and finding initial investors. As my leadership team and I scale our first venture, CTI, we spun off the cancer venture into its own company, with Lyle leading as CEO moving forward.
What is your approach with talent and how to you build a high-performance team culture to stay ahead of the competition game?
This is a big question. For a long time, Lyle tried to scale the business by focusing on increasing sales, but it became clear that growth requires more than just sales – it needs strategy as well as a different skillset and growth mindset of our team. We had to define better what we do, and most importantly, what we don’t and foster a growth mindset and place the right people in the right roles and then enable, encourage and empower them.
This transition started with the leadership team. We put a strong leadership team for CTI together, including a CFO, COO, and a newly hired CMO with an excellent CPG background. Lastly, we just hired a new CTO to complete the leadership transition.
In alignment with our senior leadership’s appetite to engage in entrepreneurial spirit, we ensure that they have the space and authority they need. This approach is very motivating. Our mission to improve lives is a strong purpose that resonates with our team, offering not just a challenging and rewarding job from a content and financial perspective but also a meaningful purpose.
The broader purpose behind CTI, including enabling cancer research, is a powerful motivator. This strong purpose helps attract and retain our team. We share R&D resources between the cancer research project and CTI, further integrating our missions and fostering a cohesive team culture.
Tell us how with your role and CTI and your personal life do you keep your work-life balance and keep your energy high to lead the company?
Living in Colorado helps a lot because it is beautiful outdoors. I work hard and play hard. My current role is one of the more intellectually challenging jobs I’ve had due to the variety of things that need to be transformed and developed. For work-life balance, I work hard during the week and take the weekends off. I enjoy snowboarding, cycling, and hiking.
I’ve learned that the more intellectually challenging something is, like scaling CTI globally, the more I need other intellectual stimuli. This is why I keep engaged on the Board of Symphony Orchestras; in 2023, I left the Board of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to join the one of the Colorado Symphony in Denver. Also, I serve on the Board of Advisors of Diesco, a privately held beverage business which is vertically integrated into packaging, and which operates in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia.
I learn a lot from these roles. Additionally, through my engagement with Altix and being invested in other start-ups, I gain diverse perspectives and prevent myself from becoming too insular.
In general, I like to travel to meet customers and get exposed to other businesses to learn. And at the same time, I make sure to take my vacation days because I need breaks to recharge.
About CTI:
CTI is a privately held innovation engine that helps brands grow by improving consumers’ lives through chemistry that alerts, protects, and surprises. In Beverage & Food, CTI’s technologies generate brand differentiation & value enabling unique consumer activation & interaction, increasing purchase intent, and lifting brands’ sales and market share. CTI ‘s printable temperature sensors offer unique value in ecommerce cold chain, medical devices, and pharma, and ultimately at the point-of-use and -care. CTI targets and serves brands, converters and printers in food & beverage, pharmaceuticals and medical devices and other industries. We help these businesses innovate and differentiate by offering unique value to their customers that truly matters.
