ITHACA, N.Y. — It started, fittingly, on a run.
Fourteen miles into a long morning run, Cornell track and field teammates Ben Gibson and Mikey Dizon-Bumann had a problem to solve.
Their iced coffee was getting watered down.
For most people, that might have been the end of the conversation. For Ben and Michael, it was the beginning.
The two had already spent plenty of time talking on runs — about coffee, running and what they wanted to do after Cornell. So when they returned from that particular run last September, they started looking for a solution.
Surely, they thought, someone had already figured out how to make coffee ice cubes that wouldn't ruin the drink as they melted.
They looked online. They searched TikTok. They couldn't find what they were looking for.
So they decided to make it themselves.
That decision became Kube & Co., a company built around flavored coffee cubes designed to keep iced coffee from becoming diluted. But while the product may have started with two runners and a shared annoyance, the company that exists today was built by something much bigger: a team.
"It has really been a collective group effort by a lot of people that have helped us out in formal ways and informal ways," shared Gibson. "And it's really been the track team that's done that and everyone's unique skill sets."
For Ben and Michael, that spirit of collaboration began long before Kube & Co.
Michael was already a senior on Cornell's track and field team when Ben arrived as a freshman. As is often the case in a team environment, Michael took on the role of welcoming a new teammate and helping him find his place.
Their academic and professional interests were different, which turned out to be part of what made the partnership work.
Ben's background is in hospitality, including experience as a chef at a Michelin-recognized restaurant. Michael comes from a science background and has experience in food science. Their conversations on runs eventually turned from hypothetical career ideas to a very real question: Could they actually make this coffee idea work?
The first attempts were far from perfect.
They made their own frozen coffee cubes, only to find that they could develop freezer burn, lose flavor or melt with a consistency they didn't like. So they kept experimenting.
One of their track teammates, Katja Jackson, who had experience as a barista, helped with the early formulation. Jackson also hosted pop-up cafes where people could sample the product and provide feedback. Track teammates were among the early testers, but the feedback extended beyond the team, too.
The process became less about two people developing a product and more about a group of friends building something together.
That distinction still matters to Ben and Michael.
Ben describes himself as the person who might show up with seven ideas at once. Michael is more likely to ask whether the numbers and research support one of them.
"We have a productive partnership and we balance each other out super well," Ben said. "And it certainly wouldn't work without either one of us."
That same balance extends to the rest of their team.
Two other Cornell track athletes, Griffin Cords and Wyatt Ricketts, eventually became part of the project, bringing skills that complemented what Ben and Michael could offer. Cords, a mechanical engineer, helped design the company's custom ice cube tray and worked with the manufacturer. Ricketts, who studied UI design, built the website and worked on web analytics.
Suddenly, the company had a designer, an engineer, a food-science mind and a hospitality background — all connected by friendships made through Cornell track and field.
It is one of the things Michael said he appreciates most about Cornell: the ability to look around and find people with entirely different specialties who are willing to help.
"You can just reach out to people as simple as friends that can have these specialties that can really elevate your business, your life, and your friendships too," Michael said.
Cornell's formal resources became part of that equation, too.
The pair entered the Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition, where Kube & Co. became the top-placing undergraduate team and earned the Audience Choice Award. The experience also helped provide funding to continue developing the idea.
Through the Cornell Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, they connected with a mentor who helped them confront one of the company's biggest early challenges.
Their original plan was to sell the coffee cubes frozen through grocery stores. The problem was the frozen supply chain. They learned that pursuing that model would require an investment of roughly $5 million.
Neither founder had $5 million sitting around.
So they went back to work.
That setback ultimately pushed them toward the shelf-stable format they use today, allowing customers to mix the product themselves and freeze the cubes at home. What initially felt like a major roadblock became a turning point.
"We had to think about how we are gonna do this, and is this something that we can still pursue?" Ben said.
The answer was yes.
Cornell's Food Venture Center also provided resources that helped the company navigate food safety procedures, operating protocols and regulatory requirements — details that aren't necessarily visible when looking at the finished product but can make or break a young food business.
Still, the most important part of the process may have been the people.
For Ben, Kube & Co. has become another part of his daily Cornell routine. Between classes and practice, he works on the company, often from the track center, where teammates and friends become an informal sounding board for ideas.
For Michael, who has graduated from Cornell and is balancing training, a full-time job and preparation for medical school, the schedule looks different. Some days are demanding. But when the work starts, it doesn't necessarily feel like work.
"It just feels like we're spending time with friends, building a passion project," Michael said. "Even though the ultimate goal is to make profit, the journey and process has been the most rewarding part and getting to do it with friends just makes it that much better."
In many ways, the process has mirrored the way they approach running, one step at a time and with a supportive team around them.
Neither founder expects everything to happen at once.
The pair spent roughly nine months working before they had a product they could actually sell. There were trademarks to file, money to raise, regulations to navigate and countless small decisions to make.
For Ben, the lesson was simple: keep moving.
"I think that just to remind myself that if you just keep putting in the work and getting a little better, and get a couple things checked off every day, then having the product and being able to sell is eventually possible," he said.
Michael sees the same lesson in training.
"You can't do everything, can't do a mega session and expect to be really good," he said. "It has to be like a daily thing where you get better at maybe 1% better per day."
It is perhaps the most fitting connection between Kube & Co. and the team that helped build it.
The company did not come from one giant breakthrough. It came from a conversation on a run, a bad batch of coffee cubes, another attempt, another teammate offering an idea, another friend filling a skill gap and another day of putting in the work.
Today, Ben and Michael are still figuring out where that work can take them. They hope to expand into retail and cafe partnerships while continuing to grow Kube & Co. beyond its direct-to-consumer roots.
But for Ben, the long-term destination is less important than continuing to build.
His dream is eventually to run a business of his own. And if he gets to do that alongside the teammates and friends who helped bring Kube & Co. to life, all the better.
Because the company may have two founders.
But the story behind it has always been bigger than two people.
It started with a run.
It grew through a team.
And somewhere between the miles, the experiments, the coffee tastings and the late-night work sessions, two Cornell teammates found something they could build together.
