In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Josh Clifford, the founder of FreeWater, which aims to be the world’s first free beverage company and eventually a free supermarket. The conversation begins with Clifford sharing a personal story about volunteering with refugees in Europe, where he launched a nonprofit and met his future wife, highlighting the value of meaningful deeds. He then explains FreeWater’s business model: a freemium approach to physical products, offering free water funded by data and advertising, mirroring the free‑service models of platforms like Facebook and YouTube, with a longer‑term vision of a free supermarket. Clifford discusses related ad‑supported concepts such as Germany’s ad‑watch‑for‑metro tickets and a Netflix‑style “AdBuddy” idea. He offers general business advice—keep grinding despite relocations and startup challenges— and reflects on personal happiness, emphasizing travel, finding work that interests you, and maintaining a supportive marriage. Clifford cites Jim Cramer’s “Sane Investing for an Insane World” as his favorite book, noting the stability of commodities and how that insight inspired his projects. His favorite quote, “The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of rocks; we just found metal,” underscores his belief that change, even when resisted, should be embraced. The episode concludes with a call‑to‑action directing listeners to the rough website freeboxwater.com for more information.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with the support you need to finish your book. Best part is, after you finish your book, they take care of the entire publishing and marketing process 100% for you. So if you want to become a successful author, make sure to check out authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Josh Clifford with us. He's the founder of FreeWater, the world's first free beverage company. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks, Tyler. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Grateful to have you on. So, Josh, the first question we ask on the show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Underlying valuable message. You know, a few years back, I was doing a trip around the world and I decided to volunteer with all the refugees that were passing through Europe. It was— I do nice things all the time, but it was definitely the nicest thing I've ever done. And well, when I launched my own nonprofit organization in Eastern Europe, I actually met my wife a week later volunteering with another organization. So I would say it was the most meaningful experience for my life because it was the nicest deed I'd ever did. And I ended up with my wife through it.
So, and then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, that's a good question. So think about everything that's going on right now in your life personally. Everything costs money. If it's for free, maybe a Facebook or YouTube, or maybe even LinkedIn, it's really not for free because it's an exchange. It's an exchange for data, it's exchange for advertising. And so I'm trying, my partners and I are trying to do the same thing, but in the physical world. So our company will be the first company to use that same business model, but to give you a freemium physical product starting with water. And then once we knock out water, we would like to open the world's first free supermarket.
Ah, yes. You know, have you seen— there's actually a show on Netflix that's pretty new. Have you seen it? You know what I'm talking about?
No.
No? Okay, you need to check out this show. I can't remember the name of it.
What's it called?
I wish I could tell you. I can't remember the name of it, but it's a show, and what they do in the show is that you can basically like go around and get free stuff in the show. Like, basically, this person will come with you. They call it an ad buddy. And the person will come with you and they'll basically just tell you about all these advertisements throughout the whole day. But they'll buy your meals and like buy your train tickets and all that stuff. But they're sitting next to you basically pitching you things the whole day.
Okay, that's interesting. I mean, I won't be able to supply people with an ad buddy. No, no, no.
I know, I know. Yeah, I know.
But it's a cool concept.
Yeah, right. I thought it was interesting.
You know, in Germany and other countries in Europe, people right now have the option you can pay for the metro, or you could select and watch 4 commercials and watch that, and then you get your $2 ticket for free. So it's—
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, it's kind of similar but different. But yeah, but the AdBuddy sounds cool.
Yeah. So the next one I got for you, man, is what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Just keep grinding, I guess. I'm in the middle of that too. I'm actually— since I started this project, I've already had to move my wife and I to a new country, and I'm about to move us to a new city and new country. Well, my wife, because she has a visa, but we're just moving the business to Silicon Valley. So now that I just got back in California, it feels like, holy crap, we're starting over again. But we're really, we're really not. But you just got to keep grinding.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Go on more vacations.
Sorry, go ahead. No, that's it.
I mean, I love to travel, and but it seems the more that I travel, the better my life tends to become. So I wish I would just mix in a few more vacations in there.
And then in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness for me personally would be just to find, find something that interests you and to keep working on it. I have a lot of friends that just have great jobs, but they just work just purely out of making money and they don't seem so happy with everything else going on in their life. And so when I'm happy with myself, Everything else is going good, especially my marriage. So it's just to keep— find something, a hobby or a startup or a job that truly interests you and just to keep going, you know.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
The best book I ever read was probably— it's an older book. It's Jim Cramer, Sane Investing for an Insane World. I actually read it when I was a young teenager. And the best thing that I really learned about it, or didn't learn about it, is how commodities are always a safe play. And so I'm— they had always said if the stock market is doing well or doing horrible, you could always, you know, a can of Coke is always 50 cents in a good economy or a bad economy. So just, you could invest in something that's a safer play like that. And that's actually how I came up with these projects. I'm trying to kind of change that safe play into something different.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote and why? Okay. Recently, I was told that we were going to make Coca-Cola very upset. And a lot of people actually say, like, do you ever worry because we're about to We're about to make the world's first free store. And so there's going to be a lot of industries that are unhappy with us. But my favorite quote I recently heard was, the Stone Age didn't end because you ran out of rocks. We just found metal. And so you just, you know, people, certain people are always going to dislike change. So you just kind of have to As long as change is positive, you just got to kind of run with it, you know?
Absolutely, man. Well, listen, dude, thank you so much for hopping on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is where can our audience best find you? I'm sure they're very eager to learn more about the free beverages.
We just put up a rough website at freeboxwater.com, but just check, check it out at freeboxwater.com. And if you have any questions, Shoot me an email and I'll get right back to you.
All right, perfect, man. Thank you again.
No, thank you. Thanks for having me, Tyler Wagner.
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