While everyone in the beverage business has heard of Gatorade and Powerade, there always seems to be room for a new contender in the isotonic beverage category. With a new distribution deal - Launch Hydrate has arrived.

You may remember tasting Launch Hydrate as you walked into the 2025 NAMA Show. Josh Rosenberg of Forward Thinkers was side by side with the company’s COO, Dillon Houstoun, serving up Launch Hydrate to grateful convention goers.

In this episode of Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation Podcast, Bob Tullio talks to Houstoun and Rosenberg about the company’s unique formula for success: the beverage, the strategy, why it’s working, where it’s going, and how operators can capitalize by selling the product in workplaces and distributing Launch Hydrate to concessions -- that critical last mile.

One other note of interest: while convenience stores are the typical route to consumers for a beverage, Launch Hydrate is finding momentum in youth sports, winning loyalty with parents (today’s workplace customers) and young athletes (tomorrow’s customers), who are all attracted to a better hydration solution.

It started as a side gig to make some extra money, but after a while, Ryan Harrington realized that he loved the vending business. As it turns out, his investment connected him to love on many levels, including a life partner and co-CEO – his wife Michelle.

In this episode of Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending & OCS Nation podcast, host Bob Tullio brings you a conversation with Ryan Harrington, Founder and CEO of Royal ReFresh in Portland.

You’ll hear about his home-grown approach, utilizing strong community roots to help build his business. He’s expansion-minded – not only in the Northwest, but also in Las Vegas, where his company has now opened a branch.

Harrington enjoys mentoring new operators and is very active in NAMA. He was part of the team that brought you the 2025 NAMA Show.

He’s a very levelheaded guy, but you may have seen his recent LinkedIn post where he got a little fired up about all the bogus online claims about the vending business being the ticket to passive income – an easy route to riches. He knows it’s work. In fact, he got started in vending by investing in one of those business opportunity programs himself, involving Red Bull-branded vending machines. He tells us how he managed to make it work.

A side note: The business opportunity with Red Bull machines had quite an impact on his life. It led him into the convenience services business, which he loves, and it facilitated the connection to his co-CEO and life partner, his wife, Michelle, whom he met at a Red Bull-sponsored event.

The Royal ReFresh story is a good one and especially valuable for the many industry newcomers, who can only hope that their story will be laden with similar success. Harrington offers some suggestions on what it takes to scale a business and keep moving to the next level.

From the discovery of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship in Antarctica, to the theme of the presidential inauguration, “endurance” is a recurring word that hits home for operators when they reflect on what they have dealt with over the years.

The word certainly resonated with Bob Tullio, host of Automatic Merchandiser's Vending & OCS Nation podcast. In this episode, he speaks with numerous industry leaders -- operators and suppliers -- to get their take on endurance.

Fresh off a trip from Antarctica, Tullio tells his story of endurance -- a riveting 37-year ride in the convenience services business that he and his partners still reflect on with amazement.

Lots of industry people are featured and mentioned in this podcast, so don't miss it. Among them, Tom Steuber, Craig Hesch, Mark Kronenberg, Pete Tullio, Jon Fishman, Larry Deagon, Orrin Huebner, C.J. Recher, Carla Balakgie, Jennifer Ridnour, Jim Brinton, Ryan Harrington, Kailin McCauley Genton, Bill McCauley, Justin Fishman, Lance Deagon, Paul Tullio and Arthur Siller.

Don't miss the related article in the June/July issue of Automatic Merchandiser magazine.

Here is a review from my editor, Linda Becker. “It's a humdinger.”