Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Fritz.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Some times ‘bad’ things in life spawn our biggest breakthroughs.
Here’s my story about how I got into cold water immersion and came up with the idea for Cold Plunge Coffee.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve met people from all walks of life who are obsessed with cold plunging—whether you call it cold water immersion, ice baths, or something else. Mine may have started when I was a kid. I always loved water—whether it was the ocean, the pool, or swim team—but I hated the cold. I grew up in Tennessee, where we weren’t exactly diving into frozen lakes.
That changed around early 2011. I was living in New York City, in the West Village, on Sixth Avenue and 10th Street. It was a beautiful, historic area, and I lived in a rundown, pre-war walk-up with three roommates and a lofted bed. One winter day, the hot water heater broke. Days went by, and eventually, our landlord offered a rent discount (about $100 each) if we just let him leave it until our lease ended. Being broke and scrappy, we took the deal.
So began a week of bitterly cold showers—truly ice cold. We couldn’t wash dishes and very soon realized that we were probably on the bad end of the deal. But, I noticed something… I felt really good. My energy, mood, and focus was different. I was up early and optimistic. The only thing that had changed were those freezing cold showers. That’s when I was hooked.
After that, I never missed a chance for a plunge—whether it was an alpine lake after a hike, the Oregon coast in winter, or a spa with a cold pool. But cold plunges were always inconsistent. They were hard to find, expensive, or inconvenient. It was easy to find an excuse to skip them.
When I started thinking about Cold Plunge Coffee, I asked myself: What do I love, and what problem can I solve? I’d always loved coffee and had a long-standing dream of being in the coffee world. I realized I could combine my passions—coffee and cold plunging—into one experience.
The idea was simple: Make cold plunging convenient, accessible, affordable, and pair it with really good coffee. Creating a ‘plunge shop’ (two words I just made up) or plunge only experience was intentional. When you let your body naturally warm up, regulating back to your core temperature —without a hot tub, steam room, or sauna—you get a longer dopamine release and a better metabolic/physiological effect.
So I set out to build the world’s first cold bath café. I coined the idea to pair a traditional walk up Milano style espresso bar with cold plunges on-site. A space where people could talk about their experience while warming up, full of energy, community, and shared discomfort turned into strength.
Two years after founding the company, here we are in our very own flagship HQ in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting Cold Plunge Coffee from nothing wasn’t just about pouring lattes and filling tubs—it was about building a vision brick by brick, from the ground up. It all started in Seattle, which was an unbelievable place to learn the coffee business. I dove deep into the specialty coffee scene, forming my first long-term partnerships through friends of friends and becoming Hyacinth Coffee Roaster’s first wholesale account—a relationship that still powers our espresso today. I didn’t know what else to do than to just start and so that’s what I did. I was brewing and bottling cold brew and selling it from the back of my Subaru in parks and beaches all around town, rain or shine. I got sales and great feedback some days, other days I just startled and annoyed the traditionally reserved Seattleites around town, but it was something to build on.
From there, I launched a mobile cold plunge pop-up, showing up at yoga studios, CrossFit gyms, races, and events, slowly introducing people to the magic of combining movement, breath, coffee, and cold water. That hustle evolved into a full-time residency at a vintage shop in Ballard, while I also grew a citywide coffee delivery service and started wholesaling my cold brew to some of Seattle’s most popular cafes.
Community was everything. I helped run a cold plunge meetup at Alki Beach that now has 100s of active members plunging every Sunday. I’d bring the party free coffee and it was super fun talking to plunge enthusiasts and picking their brain on my idea. I networked relentlessly, building relationships across commercial real estate, media, suppliers, and attending every industry event I could.
But despite all that momentum, navigating Seattle’s brutal real estate market was a struggle. I had multiple LOIs fall through at the last minute after months of negotiations. It was a grind—and it was heartbreaking. So I made the call to move Cold Plunge Coffee to Salt Lake City. I hit the ground running after taking some serious bruises (that helped me learn!) and now, after years of scrappiness, pivots, and deep breaths in freezing water, we’re here.
From cold brews in the trunk of my Subaru to a full-service brick and mortar plunge café—this journey’s been anything but warm and cozy. But it’s been worth every chill and the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Before founding Cold Plunge Coffee, I spent nearly a decade building a career on Wall Street—honing my skills in high-stakes environments, learning how capital flows, businesses scale, and markets behave under pressure. It was a crash course in grit, discipline, and execution.
After years in New York, I moved to Seattle to explore the fast-moving world of tech, where I worked with growth-focused startups and innovative teams. That shift taught me how to think lean, iterate fast, and build systems from the ground up.
Ultimately, those two worlds—finance and tech—gave me the foundation to launch Cold Plunge Coffee, combining operational rigor with creative agility to bring a completely new wellness experience to life.
How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happiest is building something from nothing—watching an idea take shape through grit, creativity, and persistence. There’s a deep sense of fulfillment that comes from being hands-on in every part of a project, from sketching out a vision to watching people walk through the doors of something you created. It’s not always easy—the highs are incredibly high, and the lows can be crushing—but the journey of entrepreneurship is one I wouldn’t trade. Every challenge becomes an opportunity to problem-solve, to grow, and to create something meaningful that didn’t exist before.
What fuels me day to day is the chance to constantly learn. Starting Cold Plunge Coffee has brought me into conversation with people across industries I never imagined collaborating with—from architects and green coffee importers to plumbers, designers, city planners, and digital marketers. Each interaction is a masterclass in a different discipline, and I’m endlessly inspired by the people who are masters of their craft. Getting to be a small part of each of those ecosystems keeps me energized and reminds me that creativity isn’t just about art or design—it’s about how we solve problems, connect people, and make ideas real.
Pricing:
- Coffee prices vary
- Pop in plunges are $25
- Memberships start around $99 for unlimited plunging and daily coffees
Contact Info:
- Website: https://coldplungecoffee.com
- Instagram: coldplungecoffee
- Facebook: coldplungecoffee
- LinkedIn: coldplungecoffee
- Twitter: coldplungecoffe
- Youtube: coldplungecoffee
