THE GÜDDI STORY

By Justin Irby, Founder

As a traveling DJ, I’m constantly on the go: bouncing between hotels, airports, coworking spaces, and when I’m back home, my apartment and favorite fitness studios. You’d think these spaces, beautifully designed and built for modern lifestyles, would offer access to the basics that match the needs of the people in that space. But again and again, I ran into the same issue. The essentials weren’t essential. There were no healthy wellness drinks, no elevated hygiene products, no clean snacks. Just the same boring legacy brands, junk chips, and sugary sodas sitting in outdated, dusty machines—if there was even a machine at all.

At home in my apartment, the pain points only continued, especially at the most inconvenient times. I’d run out of olive oil mid-dinner, realize I was out of dog bags on my dog walk, or run out of toilet paper when all the stores were closed and delivery took over 20 minutes with a $20 driver fee. It wasn’t just inconvenient. It was unnecessary friction in my daily life that could easily be avoided. And if I, someone relatively organized and wellness-focused, was dealing with this all the time, I knew millions of others were too.

On top of that, I’ve always had an affinity for great branding. I love discovering new everyday brands that have a story behind them, are made with clean ingredients, and are packaged beautifully. Brands with intention, sustainability, and style.

Finally, the bigger insight came when I started looking around at my peers. Millennials and Gen Z, like myself, are now the dominant demographic living in apartments, using coworking spaces, staying in boutique hotels, and working out in fitness studios. We value immediacy, but we also care deeply about the brands we consume—from what’s in our fridge to what’s in our bag. Yet the infrastructure in the spaces we inhabit hasn’t caught up. Convenience has been stuck in the past. Vending, in particular, hasn’t evolved since the 90s.

That’s exactly why I founded Güddi.

Güddi is my answer to that gap. A smarter, more intentional approach to convenience. We’re not just throwing random products into a box. We’re curating high-quality, better-for-you essentials that reflect the vibe, values, and context of the spaces they live in. Our machines are beautifully designed, tech-forward, and regularly refreshed with new products people usually discover online, not in person. And for our partners, it’s completely turnkey.

We started small, testing what worked, what resonated, and what people actually reached for. Now we’re piloting Güddi in Arizona, my hometown, with plans to expand across the country.

Because I’m not just building a vending business. I’m building a future where the products we need—and the ones we love—are always just a few steps away.

This is what modern convenience should look like. Güddi was built to solve that.