Hydro Flask: Travis Rosbach. How a thirsty surfer changed the water bottle industry

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the idea that changes your life… starts with something as ordinary as being thirsty?

In 2007, Travis Rosbach walked into a sporting goods store looking for a water bottle—and stumbled onto a problem no one had solved. Plastic, BPA-lined bottles dominated the market. Metal alternatives leaked, dented, or couldn’t keep drinks cold enough.

Travis’s solution? A double-walled, vacuum-insulated, stainless steel bottle. His expertise? Non-existent.

This is the improbable story of how Hydro Flask was built—from scavenging metal parts in China, to selling bottles at outdoor markets, to getting into Whole Foods by sheer timing and luck, to a last-minute investor who walked in on the day Travis planned to shut the company down.

Hydro Flask would go on to become one of the most recognizable and popular bottles in the country.

This is the story behind it.

What You'll Learn

How paying attention to trends can lead to new business ideas
How a novice learns the ropes by obsessively comparing existing products
How the lessons from past ventures can fuel future success
Why perseverance and timing can be just as important as know-how

Timestamps:

05:46 - Building a fence, and a first business: “I had no clue.”
09:33 - A one-way trip to Hawaii : The surprising detour that leads Travis to his biggest invention
15:13 - How Travis gets inspired—then obsessed—after trying to buy a water bottle
22:08 - Searching for a manufacturer: a here-goes-nothing trip to China
31:58 - The first prototype: two colors, sharp edges
35:43 - Bootstrapping Hydro Flask: moving in with mom, storing bottles in grandpa’s garage
37:14 - Farmer’s markets, ice tests and the first buyers
52:27 - The crisis that almost kills the company
56:30 - An eleventh-hour visitor: “I might want to invest”
58:34 - Leaving the company he built: why Travis walked away
1:06:07 - Small Business Spotlight

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Claire Murashima.

Follow How I Built This:

Instagram → @howibuiltthis

X → @HowIBuiltThis

Facebook → How I Built This

Follow Guy Raz:

Instagram → @guy.raz

Youtube → guy_raz

X → @guyraz

Substack → guyraz.substack.com

Website → guyraz.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wonderly Plus subscribers can listen to how I built this early and ad-free right now.
0:05.7	Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.2	Startups move fast, and with AI, they're shipping even faster and attracting enterprise buyers sooner.
0:18.0	But big deals bring even bigger security and compliance requirements.
0:22.9	With AI changing regulations and buyers' expectations, Vanta knows what's needed and when.
0:30.0	And they've built the fastest, easiest path to get you there. That's why serious startups get
0:35.9	secure early with Vanta. My listeners can get $1,000
0:40.7	off at Vanta.com slash hibt. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash h-I-B-T for $1,000 off.
0:53.7	The origins of this podcast were once just a dream. That dream did. H-I-B-T for $1,000 off.
0:57.5	The origins of this podcast were once just a dream.
1:02.0	That dream turned into the podcast and business you're listening to today.
1:07.9	Taking your business to the next level is a dream lots of a share, but too often it remains just a dream.
1:09.3	We hold ourselves back thinking, what if I don't have the
1:11.9	skills? What if I can't do it alone? Turn those what ifs into why nots and help your business
1:18.8	soar with Shopify. Turn those what ifs into why nots and keep giving those big dreams the best
1:27.0	shot with Shopify.
1:28.4	Sign up for your one pound per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com.
1:34.1	com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.co.uk.uk built.
1:52.4	We ran out of money.
1:56.4	I had about 10 employees at that point.
1:59.8	And so I write this letter that says, you know, dear employees,
2:03.3	I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to close down the business. And Friday morning, I call
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Raz | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Raz | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.