Davis Smith has spent the last nine years building the outdoor gear and clothing brand, Cotopaxi. The company’s slogan, Gear for Good, encapsulates everything about the way they do business, from using recycled and remnant materials to donating a portion of their revenue to nonprofits that fight poverty. It’s a story that Davis told when he was first on How I Built This in 2020.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Davis returns to give Guy an update on how Cotopaxi weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioned to a remote-first workplace. Plus, why Davis is stepping down from his role as CEO to pursue another passion: serving his church for three years as a mission leader in Brazil. 

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini and edited by John Isabella, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was Katherine Silva.

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HIBT Lab! Cotopaxi: Davis Smith

Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success.&nbsp;How I Built This&nbsp;is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds. New episodes on Mondays and Thursdays for free. Listen 1-week early and to all episodes ad-free with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Get your How I Built This merch at WonderyShop.com/HowIBuiltThis 


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Growing up, Danielle Walker’s family often convened for big meals prepared by her Italian grandmother, Grandma Marge. Back then, Danielle enjoyed a wide variety of food without restriction; but she began experiencing severe abdominal pain in her 20s that ultimately led her to totally transform her diet—cutting grains, lactose, sugar and more. 

As Danielle found relief in this approach—and realized that others with similar ailments could as well—she began compiling her recipes in an online blog called Against All Grain. Before long, the self-taught chef became a bestselling cookbook author, more recently branching out with her own product lines and cooking courses. 

This week on How I Built This Lab, Danielle talks with Guy about being an ‘accidental entrepreneur’ as she chronicles her journey to building a multifaceted business centered around healthy eating. Plus, Danielle shares her advice for other creators looking to build an audience and discusses food’s potential to help millions suffering from autoimmune diseases.

This episode was produced by Katherine Sypher with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Sam Paulson. Our audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

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Healing through food with Danielle Walker of Against All Grain (2022)

As one of the most successful creators on YouTube, Mark Rober doesn’t see what he does as a business. Instead, it’s a way to celebrate science in the most joyful way possible. While working as an engineer at NASA, he made his YouTube debut with a tutorial on how to make a gory Halloween costume with two iPads and a lot of duct tape. Over time, his videos became more elaborate, including a belly flop into a pool full of Jello, and a demo of a glitter-fart bomb to get revenge on porch pirates. Within a few years, Mark was teaching online science classes and selling subscription boxes for kids. Today, his YouTube channel has 5.5 billion views, 48 million subscribers…and–astonishingly, given that audience–less than 150 videos. 




This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.




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CrunchLabs: Mark Rober

For decades, Shane Legg has anticipated the arrival of “artificial general intelligence” or AGI. 

In other words: an artificial agent that can do all the kinds of cognitive tasks that people can typically do, and possibly more...

Now as the Chief AGI Scientist and a co-founder of Google DeepMind, he stands by that prediction and is calling on the world to prepare. 

This week on How I Built This Lab, Shane’s path to becoming an early AI expert and the work he and his team are doing to prepare for the technological revolution ahead. 




This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Carla Esteves. Our audio engineer was Cena Loffredo.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI is smarter than you think with Shane Legg of Google DeepMind

Best friends Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal started out as “comedians for Christ,” and grew their partnership into one of the most successful YouTube platforms in existence. During college they created silly videos and songs for Christian events, and later built a following on YouTube before most people knew what it was. After struggling to find stardom in Hollywood, they continued to build a presence on YouTube: sampling punishingly hot peppers, writing ear-wormy songs about random things, showing off glasses that turned the world upside down. Nowadays, their entertainment company, Mythical, reports over 75 million subscribers and 25 billion lifetime views.

This episode was produced and researched by Katherine Sypher with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by Neva Grant.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mythical: Rhett and Link

From Wondery, Business Wars is a podcast about the biggest corporate rivalries. In the newest season, host David Brown tracks the power struggles and philosophical differences within OpenAI that culminated in Sam Altman’s shocking firing, the chaos that followed, and what it means not just for OpenAI, but for the future of artificial intelligence safety overall.

Follow Business Wars on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Business Wars early and ad-free right now on Wondery plus. Wondery.fm/IFD_BW

For more deep dive and daily business content listen on Wondery– the destination for business podcasts. With shows like How I Built This, Business Wars, The Best One Yet, Business Movers and many more, Wondery means business.

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HIBT Lab! Cotopaxi: Davis Smith

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