55 min
Rich Razgaitis (Co-Founder & CEO of FloWater) The Startup Life
-
- Entrepreneurship
In this episode, we talk to Rich Razgaitis (Co-Founder & CEO of FloWater) as we discuss how he started his company, what he looks for when turning around a company, and his passion to drastically reduce plastic water bottles.
**More On Rich**
Rich “Raz” Razgaitis is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FloWater, where he leads the Denver-based company in its vision to create a new distributed and decentralized water
platform. The company is on a mission to disrupt the drinking water industry by delivering the best-tasting water in the world and eliminate single-use plastic water bottles and packaging
waste.
FloWater has become the beverage of choice for such companies as Google, Red Bull, prAna, Oneill, Play Station, Specialized Bikes, Alaska Airlines and Xponential Fitness, as well as the
Oakland school system. Since the company launched in 2013, its proprietary, new-tech water Refill Stations have saved more than 130 million plastic bottles from the environment and is on
track to save over one billion plastic single-use bottles by 2022.
Razgaitis originated the concept and product development of FloWater and has scaled the brand significantly since its initial distribution in only one state: Today, FloWater Refill Stations
are used daily at over 5,000 hotels, schools, corporations, gyms, retailers and events in nearly 50 states. Razgaitis’ role is focused around financial and business strategy, investor relations,
team hiring and organizational development, product development, and strategic growth partnerships, while overseeing operational execution—from manufacturing to customer
service. He recently secured $15mm in Series B growth funding for FloWater. In 2019, FloWater was recognized as a “Top 500” company on the annual INC 5000 list of fastest-growing growing
privately-held companies in America.
In his career, Razgaitis has been passionate about building brands and teams. Since 2002, he
has served in CEO/president-level roles in several venture capital-backed start-ups, privately
held turnaround, and growth companies, and he brings insight from those experiences to his
work today at FloWater. Razgaitis was the CEO of several consumer-tech companies, including
DealOn, an e-commerce company that developed the Web’s first deal-commerce exchange,
and another, MyTownPerks, which built the first PCI-complaint, the cloud-based loyalty program
for B2B. (Both companies were subsequently acquired.)
Razgaitis has deep experience in the consumer-goods industry, having led personal-care and
nutrition company Univera into fast growth, with revenues doubling from $35 million to $100
million per year. With a specialty in rebuilding brands, Razgaitis also restarted a privately held
consumer company, Blaine Pharmaceuticals, where he led product development and licensing
of a dozen new products and drove commercialization into over 30,000 food and drug stores
nationwide. He started his career in Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson & Johnson and
Eli Lily. Razgaitis grew up in the Midwest and holds a BA in marketing and an MBA in general
business and marketing from Anderson University.
When not working, you can find Razgaitis spending time with his two teenage daughters, where
he gets to refine his ‘dad jokes,’ or studying his Enneagram, volunteering with Defy Ventures,
which focuses on ending mass incarceration and recidivism or riding a motorcycle in the
summer and snowboard in the winter.
Follow Rich on LinkedIn
Visit our website TheStartupLifePodcast.com
Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page
Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear!
Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network.
Written by: Dominic Lawson
Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson
Music Credits:
**Show Theme**
Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald
**Break Theme**
Cielo - Huma-Huma
Sponsors/Partners
Go to Payoff.com/TheStartupL
In this episode, we talk to Rich Razgaitis (Co-Founder & CEO of FloWater) as we discuss how he started his company, what he looks for when turning around a company, and his passion to drastically reduce plastic water bottles.
**More On Rich**
Rich “Raz” Razgaitis is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FloWater, where he leads the Denver-based company in its vision to create a new distributed and decentralized water
platform. The company is on a mission to disrupt the drinking water industry by delivering the best-tasting water in the world and eliminate single-use plastic water bottles and packaging
waste.
FloWater has become the beverage of choice for such companies as Google, Red Bull, prAna, Oneill, Play Station, Specialized Bikes, Alaska Airlines and Xponential Fitness, as well as the
Oakland school system. Since the company launched in 2013, its proprietary, new-tech water Refill Stations have saved more than 130 million plastic bottles from the environment and is on
track to save over one billion plastic single-use bottles by 2022.
Razgaitis originated the concept and product development of FloWater and has scaled the brand significantly since its initial distribution in only one state: Today, FloWater Refill Stations
are used daily at over 5,000 hotels, schools, corporations, gyms, retailers and events in nearly 50 states. Razgaitis’ role is focused around financial and business strategy, investor relations,
team hiring and organizational development, product development, and strategic growth partnerships, while overseeing operational execution—from manufacturing to customer
service. He recently secured $15mm in Series B growth funding for FloWater. In 2019, FloWater was recognized as a “Top 500” company on the annual INC 5000 list of fastest-growing growing
privately-held companies in America.
In his career, Razgaitis has been passionate about building brands and teams. Since 2002, he
has served in CEO/president-level roles in several venture capital-backed start-ups, privately
held turnaround, and growth companies, and he brings insight from those experiences to his
work today at FloWater. Razgaitis was the CEO of several consumer-tech companies, including
DealOn, an e-commerce company that developed the Web’s first deal-commerce exchange,
and another, MyTownPerks, which built the first PCI-complaint, the cloud-based loyalty program
for B2B. (Both companies were subsequently acquired.)
Razgaitis has deep experience in the consumer-goods industry, having led personal-care and
nutrition company Univera into fast growth, with revenues doubling from $35 million to $100
million per year. With a specialty in rebuilding brands, Razgaitis also restarted a privately held
consumer company, Blaine Pharmaceuticals, where he led product development and licensing
of a dozen new products and drove commercialization into over 30,000 food and drug stores
nationwide. He started his career in Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson & Johnson and
Eli Lily. Razgaitis grew up in the Midwest and holds a BA in marketing and an MBA in general
business and marketing from Anderson University.
When not working, you can find Razgaitis spending time with his two teenage daughters, where
he gets to refine his ‘dad jokes,’ or studying his Enneagram, volunteering with Defy Ventures,
which focuses on ending mass incarceration and recidivism or riding a motorcycle in the
summer and snowboard in the winter.
Follow Rich on LinkedIn
Visit our website TheStartupLifePodcast.com
Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page
Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear!
Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network.
Written by: Dominic Lawson
Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson
Music Credits:
**Show Theme**
Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald
**Break Theme**
Cielo - Huma-Huma
Sponsors/Partners
Go to Payoff.com/TheStartupL
55 min