Reto Kramer

Reto Kramer was born in 1967 in Zürich, Switzerland. Following high school, he studied English with Oxford, Pitman, and First Cambridge certifications completed his sales apprenticeship, and joined the Swiss Army. After military training, he decided to get more involved in computers and joined L.O.W. AG, an entrepreneurial company selling the first IBM-compatible computers. This position involved everything from configuring hard and software to consulting and sales. In these early days of home computers, he also started one of the first BBS Systems, joined FidoNet, and wrote extensive batch programs in MS-DOS 3.1.

When management made some horrible decisions, Reto moved on to Bytics Technology AG, an engineering, design, and simulation company. Here he learned the operating system VMS and connected Schlumberger's CAD software Bravo 3 running on DEC to the Macintosh computers to transfer 3-D designs into 2-D perspectives. Leading the computer support team, he installed and troubleshot customers' networks and infrastructure, fixed defective hardware, and gave seminars about new trends and technologies.

After two years, Reto started to work for Data Quest AG, a company selling Apple Macintosh computers and complete solutions for CAD, desktop publishing, video editing, and 3-D. As a sales manager, he built, led, and supported the sales team, opening new store locations, and gave software lessons in exclusively distributed software like IsoDraw and Cinema 4-D, as well as Video editing using Adobe premiere. Directly involved in Marketing campaigns and catalog productions, he experienced the direct effects of advertisements and improving results firsthand.

After three years, Reto was ready to find a new challenge. This time, he wanted to find out how a massive company works. He got employment with the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) as Authorize Officer, Project manager II, and Webmaster. He learned coding in Cold Fusion in just a few weeks and took on several projects inside the bank's intranet. In less than six months, he built a small team of 3 Programmers and developed a 3-tier ColdFusion and Oracle-based sales reporting tool that received full UBS certification. This solution was fully compliant with all UBS security standards - usually, these solutions take several years to develop and pass the certifications.

After five years, Reto got an opportunity to work for Contronex Inc., a company specializing in exporting computer components in the USA. Using the knowledge learned in the bank, he programmed a complete solution named 'Broker Flow' that took customers' requests, assigned them to suppliers for quotes, and then automatically sent offers to customers.

After a few years as a sales manager, Reto was ready to start his own company K-Plex LLC (which is short for Kramer-Complex), and created and registered the brand name Coastal Scents. Running two servers out of his home, with the packing table in the living room and the warehouse in the garage, he put everything he learned to work. The company became profitable after two years and grew into a multimillion-dollar company shortly after. Using social marketing, the brand instantly found a lot of customers who loved our low prices and high-quality products. The website received the Google Trusted Store Badge in 2016.

Currently, Reto is engineering new products, designing and creating 3D-printed prototypes, and inventing solutions for everyday technology & home automation projects.