Summary
Overview
Travis Rosbach shares the origin story of Hydro Flask, detailing his journey from frustrated water bottle consumer to inventor of one of the first double-walled vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottles. Starting with just $17,000 and no engineering background, he reverse-engineered thermos technology, found manufacturers in China, and bootstrapped the company from farmer's markets to international distribution. The story covers his struggles with cash flow, relationship breakdowns, manufacturing challenges, and his eventual exit from the company in 2012, before it was sold for over $200 million in 2016.
Early Entrepreneurial Journey: From Fences to Signs
Travis Rosbach's path to inventing Hydro Flask began with unlikely ventures in Bend, Oregon. After learning the fence business from scratch—hiring workers from a homeless shelter when his first employee was arrested—he built a successful fencing company before burning out. A spontaneous trip to Hawaii led him to abandon fencing and start a sign and banner company in Oahu, where he learned design and manufacturing principles that would later prove crucial. His hands-on approach and willingness to dive into unfamiliar industries set the foundation for his water bottle innovation.
- Started Bend Fencing with zero experience, learning on the job after his first employee got arrested the day before their first project
- Used the name 'Bend Fencing' strategically so customers thought the company had been around forever
- Burned out after two years of 14-hour days, seven days a week, and impulsively decided to move to Hawaii
- Started a sign company in Oahu after attending a trade show in Orlando and learning about printing technology
- The sign business generated a couple hundred thousand dollars annually and taught him design and manufacturing skills
" I called the office and I told her, I said, look, I'm going to kill myself or kill somebody else. I have to get out of here. And it was cold and I was in pain. And I said, either Mexico or Hawaii, but I need to go somewhere warm and I need to go quick. "
" I remember landing in Oahu and as soon as the door opened, I could just feel the aloha and I called her and I said, you can keep the company or you can sell it, but either way, I live here now. "
The Water Bottle Epiphany: Identifying a Market Gap
The idea for Hydro Flask struck Travis during a routine errand in 2007 when he visited a sporting goods store in Hawaii to buy a water bottle. He discovered that Nalgene bottles had been pulled from shelves due to BPA concerns, leaving only two bottles available. After trying alternatives like the aluminum SIG bottle (which dented and had a flaking liner) and Clean Canteen (which couldn't keep drinks at the right temperature), Travis realized no one was making a double-walled vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottle. Drawing inspiration from his grandfather's old thermos, he decided to apply that century-old technology to a modern, reusable water bottle.
- Visited a sporting goods store in Hawaii where all Nalgene bottles had been removed due to BPA concerns, leaving shelves nearly empty
- An employee told him 'nobody else is doing water bottles' after the BPA scare, prompting Travis to spontaneously commit to making them
- Tried a $20 aluminum SIG bottle that dented catastrophically and had a gold liner that flaked off into his water
- Clean Canteen bottles were better but couldn't maintain temperature—too hot after sitting in beach sand, too cold after hiking
- Remembered his grandfather's vacuum-insulated coffee thermos and thought: why not apply that technology to water bottles?
" And the guy takes me back and he shows me this wall that was completely empty. There were only two bottles left on it. And I said, what happened here? And he said, well, the owner's French and she just got back from France. And her dad is a doctor and he says there's this stuff called BPA. "
" My grandpa had an old school coffee thermos, one of the big old heavy thermoses. I remember those. And I thought, well, why can't we take that same technology and make it in a normal sized water bottle that we could actually drink water out of? "
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