# Matt Beaton

> Matt Beaton is CEO of Mike's Hot Honey, the Brooklyn-based chili-infused honey brand he built with college friend Mike Kurtz. He joined in 2015 when the company was pulling in $100,000 a year, and grew a one-SKU business into a roughly $40 million operation stocked in more than 30,000 retail stores and 3,000 restaurants. He came out of brand-management jobs at Wrigley and PUR Water and an MBA from Kellogg, and now runs the classic case study for what happens when you refuse to launch a second product.

- **Role:** CEO at Mike's Hot Honey
- **Organizations:** Mike's Hot Honey, PUR Water (Helen of Troy), Wrigley, Univision Communications, Tribune Co. / Hoy
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ciencias Politicas (exchange), University of Buenos Aires, MBA, Marketing / Management & Strategy / Entrepreneurship, Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
- **Known for:** Grew Mike's Hot Honey revenue roughly 6x in his first year as CEO, Scaled a single-product company from ~$100K to ~$40M in annual revenue, Placed the brand in more than 30,000 retail stores and 3,000 restaurants in the U.S.

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Started in sales and business development at Tribune Co. / Hoy
- **2008** — Joined Univision Communications
- **2011** — Started MBA at Kellogg School of Management
- **2012** — Associate Brand Manager at Wrigley
- **2014** — Global Brand Manager at PUR Water
- **2015** — Joined Mike's Hot Honey as CEO and business partner to founder Mike Kurtz
- **2015** — First full year as CEO: revenue grows from ~$100K to ~$600K
- **2021** — Closed Series C funding round
- **2023** — Mike's Hot Honey reaches roughly $40M annual revenue with a single SKU
- **2024** — Company crosses 3,000 restaurant accounts and 30,000 retail doors

## Achievements

- Grew Mike's Hot Honey revenue roughly 6x in his first year as CEO
- Scaled a single-product company from ~$100K to ~$40M in annual revenue
- Placed the brand in more than 30,000 retail stores and 3,000 restaurants in the U.S.
- Raised roughly $14.6M across three institutional funding rounds
- Recruited backers including Fifth Down Capital and Piper Sandler Merchant Banking

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Posted new Mike's Hot Honey creative on LinkedIn - continued brand marketing rollout
- **2024-01** — Publicly discussed the U.S. honey shortage in a Yahoo Finance / CNBC segment

## Links

- Website: https://mikeshothoney.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbeaton/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mikeshothoney
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeshothoney/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikeshothoney

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/matt-beaton
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-09