Today we’d like to introduce you to Mateo Salazar and Juan Varela.
Hi Mateo and Juan, thank you for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story really started years ago when Juan was living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He always found something intriguing about the ice business—such a simple, everyday product, but something that so many people and businesses depend on.
Years later, that curiosity led us to our first step into the industry: an ice vending machine. As we learned more about the business, we started noticing a gap in the market. Most traditional ice suppliers were focused on large-volume customers, while smaller businesses, construction sites, events, and customers who only needed smaller quantities of bagged ice were often being overlooked.
That’s when we realized there was an opportunity to do things differently, and Ice Guys Austin started taking shape.
Our backgrounds ended up being a great combination for the business. Mateo comes from an operations background, with experience in logistics, efficiency, and building scalable processes, while Juan comes from hospitality, where customer service and creating strong relationships are everything. Combining those two perspectives gave us what we felt was the right formula: build an efficient operation without losing the personal service that smaller customers deserve.
We started small and very hands-on, doing deliveries ourselves, finding customers, building routes, and learning every part of the business along the way. Since then, we’ve continued growing our customer base, investing in better equipment, and expanding our delivery capabilities.
What started as Juan’s curiosity years ago in Buenos Aires, followed by a single ice vending machine, has grown into Ice Guys Austin. We’re still very hands-on today, and we’re excited to continue growing while staying true to what got us started: making ice delivery simple, reliable, and accessible to customers of all sizes.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road, but that has also been one of the most rewarding parts of building Ice Guys Austin.
One of our biggest challenges has been figuring out how to scale while keeping the economics of the business sustainable. We knew there was demand, but building efficient routes, managing delivery costs, and providing great service whether someone orders a few bags or a much larger quantity has taken a lot of learning and adjusting.
Scaling also requires capital, especially in a business like ours. Growth means investing in trucks, freezers, merchandisers, inventory, and other equipment, and securing the capital to make those investments has definitely been one of our challenges. We’ve had to be disciplined about when and where we invest and find ways to grow without getting too far ahead of ourselves.
Seasonality has been another learning experience. Austin summers can get extremely busy, so we need to have the inventory, equipment, and delivery capacity ready when demand spikes, while still operating efficiently during the slower months.
And like any small business, there are always unexpected challenges—equipment issues, last-minute deliveries, long days, and plenty of things you can only learn by actually doing them.
But each challenge has forced us to become better operators. We’re still learning and adjusting as we grow, and we think that willingness to stay hands-on, adapt, and keep finding solutions has been a big part of getting us to where we are today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
At Ice Guys Austin, we like to say we’re in the ice business, but what we really specialize in is service and reliability.
We provide bagged ice delivery throughout the Austin area to businesses, construction sites, events, hospitality groups, and anyone else who needs a dependable source of ice. One of the things that sets us apart is that we’re willing to serve customers of all sizes. You don’t have to be a huge account ordering hundreds of bags at a time to work with us. That was one of the gaps we saw in the market from the beginning, and it continues to be a big part of who we are.
The two of us also bring very different strengths to the company. Mateo focuses heavily on operations—logistics, route efficiency, systems, equipment, and finding ways to make the business more scalable. Juan comes from a hospitality background and naturally focuses on the customer experience, relationships, sales, and making sure our customers feel taken care of. There’s plenty of overlap between us, but that combination has worked extremely well.
What we’re most proud of is the reputation and relationships we’ve been able to build. We started with one ice vending machine and an idea, and today we’re building a growing delivery operation with customers ranging from small local businesses to larger commercial accounts and projects.
We also take pride in staying accessible. Customers can reach us, we respond quickly, and when something needs to get done, we do everything we can to make it happen. We believe that personal level of service, combined with a strong operational mindset, is what sets Ice Guys Austin apart.
Ultimately, we want Ice Guys to be known as the company you call when you need ice and don’t want to worry about the rest. Whether it’s a few bags or a recurring commercial account, our goal is simple: be reliable, make it easy, and take care of the customer.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of people support us along the way.
Juan and I actually met in school and have known each other for many years, long before Ice Guys Austin existed. That history has been an important part of our partnership. We know each other’s strengths, we trust each other, and we share many of the same values when it comes to how we want to build and run a business.
We also both come from families with strong values around hard work, responsibility, and treating people the right way. Our families have always been an important foundation for both of us, and our spouses in particular have been some of our biggest supporters. Building a business requires long days, weekends, uncertainty, and plenty of sacrifices behind the scenes, and having partners who believe in what we’re building and support us through that process has been incredibly important.
Our customers also deserve a lot of credit. Many of them took a chance on us when we were just getting started, and their trust, referrals, feedback, and continued business have played a major role in our growth.
We’ve also been fortunate to meet other business owners, vendors, partners, friends, and people along the way who have offered advice, made introductions, opened doors, or simply encouraged us to keep going.
Ice Guys Austin may have been started by the two of us, but it certainly hasn’t been built by just the two of us. There is a much bigger group of people behind the scenes who have supported and believed in us, and we’re incredibly grateful for all of them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iceguysaustin.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iceguysatx?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsi=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
