Pressure Makes Diamonds – Nick Terzulli's journey into making incredible things

In this episode, we sit down with Nick Terzulli, VP of R&D at Fellow. Nick shares how his curiosity and persistence pulled him deeper into coffee culture—as a barista and a tinkerer, and eventually as the engineer behind Fellow’s iconic product, including the new Espresso Series 1. We dig into how engineering and coffee intersect, from the mysteries of burr geometry to challenges in espresso machine stability. At the heart of Nick’s story is a lesson in following passion over paycheck, learning by doing, and embracing failure as part of innovation. It’s a conversation about curiosity, persistence, and the joy of creating products that shape people’s daily coffee rituals. 🔖 Chapters – 00:00 intro 02:02 Nick’s background 11:46 Where the interest came from 14:05 Early career in coffee 20:18 The move to Fellow 25:28 Grinder rabithole 38:34 Espresso Series 1 52:58 What makes things happen 01:00:28 Seeing hard work pay off 🔗 Links – Fellow: Espresso Series 1 https://fellowproducts.com/products/espresso-series-1 Cat & Cloud: Instagram www.instagram.com/catcloudcoffee/ Webstore www.catandcloud.com/ Chris Baca’s Personal Blog: www.chrisbaca.com/ We are Cat & Cloud Coffee. Started by three friends trying to pursue their passions with the mission to inspire connection by creating memorable experiences, and we created this podcast to continue forming those connections inside and out of our cafes. The Cat & Cloud podcast was created as a space for us to share our experiences in the coffee industry and starting a business. Each week we sit down to talk about new challenges as business owners, how we utilize our mission and values to make decisions, and answer questions from our listening community. If you’re looking to expand your coffee knowledge, get some advice for your own small business, or just like the vibes, give us a listen! Enjoy!