# Nick Terzulli of Fellow on inventing Espresso Series One, why home espresso has stagnated for decades, and the physics of heating water on 120V.

- Show: [Go/No-Go](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go)
- Published: 2026-04-14
- Length: 40m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s
- Listen: https://rss.com/podcasts/go-no-go/2735763

## Summary

Nick Terzulli, VP of R&D at Fellow, explains how he designed the Espresso Series One to overcome the thermal and pressure instability inherent in 120V home espresso machines. He details the novel three-stage heating architecture that achieves commercial-level stability with a two-minute heat-up time, a breakthrough for which he holds the sole utility patent. Terzulli also discusses the extreme difficulty of designing coffee burrs from scratch, the role of firmware and OTA updates in building a user community, and his journey from medical device engineering to becoming a barista to understand the craft.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=0) Introduction: Nick Terzulli and Fellow's Mission
- [4:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=246) The 120V Constraint and the Espresso Series One Architecture
- [22:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=1357) Designing Burrs from Scratch: The Hardest Challenge
- [13:28](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=808) Firmware, OTA Updates, and Community Building
- [33:18](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=1998) From Prototype to Production: NPI and Scaling
- [30:46](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/go-no-go/2026-04-14-nick-terzulli-of-fellow-on-inventing-espresso-series-one-why-home-espresso-has-s#t=1846) Cross-Industry Learning and Founder Wellbeing

## Topics

- [Mechanical engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/mechanical-engineering)
- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Fellow (company)
- Espresso Series One (product)
- Ode Brew Grinder (product)
- Stryker (company)
- Dextera (company)
- Aiden Precision Coffee Maker (product)
- Seneso (company)
- PPS (material)

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- [Ep 357: BreezyBox, Antique Tech, and Defusing Killer Robots](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2026-02-13-ep-357-breezybox-antique-tech-and-defusing-killer-robots) (Hackaday Podcast)
- [#040 - Beer as you don’t know it - a startup bringing you the freshest craft beer possible, with Jong-Wook Shin of HOPii, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-10-25-040-beer-as-you-dont-know-it-a-startup-bringing-you-the-freshest-craft-beer-poss) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [Ep 183: Stowaway Science, Cold Basements, and Warm Beers](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2022-08-26-ep-183-stowaway-science-cold-basements-and-warm-beers) (Hackaday Podcast)
- [304: ADC Channel Six](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2019-09-26-304-adc-channel-six) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

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