Ryan Nelson: Duct Tape, Zip Ties and a $500K Raise - How He Built Refilled From a Post Gym Problem (Part 1)

Refiled is three years old, and Ryan Nelson is taking on a category that hasn’t evolved in 50 years. Ryan is a Blue Mountains kid who spent a decade in SaaS, had an idea post gym and built the first prototype in his garage with duct tape and zip ties - and now counts Google, Uber, Meta, Netflix, Atlassian and JP Morgan among his clients. In this episode Ryan gets brutally honest about what it actually takes to build a hardware startup from scratch - the $50K bet he made, working until 4am in garages with his co-founder, losing equity in a previous business, pitching the wrong investors for six months, and why he tells his team exactly how much cash runway they have left. If you've ever wondered what it looks like inside a fast-growing hardware startup before the shiny success story, this is it. In This Episode We Cover: - The gym moment that sparked the idea for Refill - and why nothing like it existed despite a $900 billion global beverage industry - How he raised $500K off a duct-tape prototype that wasn't food grade, then $1.9M after building his first 10 machines in a garage - The radical transparency he leads with - including telling his team exactly how many months of runway they have left - Why he resisted the co-founder model for years (including being kicked out of his last business), and what finally changed his mind - His exact cold-calling philosophy for landing enterprise clients like Google and Atlassian - Why 'choose your hard' is the mantra he lives by - and what it means for anyone building something from nothing If you have a question you want answered: 📩 DM us → @topofmind.pod 💌 Email → hello@topofmindpod.com 🎧 Or drop a question in the Spotify Q&A box / YouTube comments Sign up to our emails and get the ideas, events, and tools that’ll keep you inspired, confident, and showing up like the brand you know you can be: https://www.gambitcollective.com.au/lets-chat Top of Mind is an extension of our business Gambit Collective - Australia’s first pay-as-you-go agency for founders and brands ready to be known, respected and experienced. Don’t forget to rate, subscribe, and review – it helps the podcast grow, brings in incredible guests, and unlocks more conversations to help you grow and scale your brand. Follow along on your preferred channels: Refilled on IG: https://www.instagram.com/refilled.official/ Ryan Nelson on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ryannelsonau/ Website: https://www.refilled.com.au Top of Mind on IG: https://www.instagram.com/topofmind.pod/ Top of Mind on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@topofmind.pod Gambit Collective on IG: https://www.instagram.com/gambit.collective Hayley on IG: https://www.instagram.com/hayleywestoby/ Hayley on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayleywestoby/ Hayley on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hayleywestoby