How I Built This with Guy Raz

By Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

What's How I Built This with Guy Raz about?

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. How I Built This 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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Cultivating a creative comm...

06.01.2023

“Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with.” - Seth Godin Yearning to find community as a Swiss transplant in New York City, Tina Roth-Eisenberg was so moved by these words that she ...

How I Built This with Guy Raz episodes:

06.01.2023 Cultivating a creative community with Tina Roth-Eisenberg of CreativeMornings “Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with.” - Seth Godin Yearning to find community as a Swiss transplant in New York City, Tina Roth-Eisenberg was so moved by these words that she ...
05.29.2023 Chef and Restaurateur: Thomas Keller Thomas Keller is one of the best—and best known—chefs in America, but it took him 40 years to get there. He took a long, winding path through the culinary arts; from whisking his first hollandaise sauce at the Palm Beach ...
05.25.2023 HIBT Lab! Google: Sundar Pichai (2022) Drive. Docs. Chrome. Maps. Gmail. Android. What do these products have in common? Of course, they’re all Google, but what you may not know is that they all came to fruition under the management of the same person: Sundar Pichai. ...
05.22.2023 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema: Tim and Karrie League In the early 1990’s, Tim League spent $50,000 in savings to lease an abandoned movie theater on the wrong side of the tracks—a shaky experiment that eventually grew into a thriving national chain. As Tim and his wife Karrie built ...
05.18.2023 HIBT Lab! Cotopaxi: Davis Smith 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 ...
05.15.2023 Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez For Monique Rodriguez, hair care was a hobby; she never thought she could build a business. In fact, after high school, Monique followed her mother’s advice to find a solid, recession-proof career, and she went into nursing. However, Monique realized ...
05.11.2023 HIBT Lab! Landed: Alex Lofton Pricey down payments have put homeownership out of reach for many Americans, especially those who don’t have access to intergenerational wealth. This issue is particularly acute in cities, where the salaries of essential workers like educators, healthcare professionals, and municipal ...
05.08.2023 Hinge: Justin McLeod (2021) In 2010, Justin McLeod was in business school, still trying to get over a bad breakup that had happened years before. Determined to solve his own problem and convinced that the best way to meet people was through friends of ...
05.04.2023 HIBT Lab! Babcock Ranch: Syd Kitson What would it take to build America’s first solar-powered town? What about a town that could withstand a direct hit from a hurricane? In the early 2000s, Syd Kitson, a former NFL football player and real estate developer, set out ...
05.02.2023 Wondery Presents - Flipping the Bird: Elon vs Twitter When Elon Musk posted a video of himself arriving at Twitter HQ carrying a white sink along with the message “let that sink in!” It marked the end of a dramatic takeover. Musk had gone from Twitter critic to “Chief ...
05.01.2023 Suitsupply: Fokke de Jong When Fokke de Jong started selling suits out of his dorm room in Amsterdam in the late 90's, he wasn’t planning on becoming the next Tom Ford—he just wanted to supply luxury suits at an affordable price. But he was ...
04.27.2023 HIBT Lab! Hevesh5: Lily Hevesh Lily Hevesh never could have imagined that the videos of domino tricks she started posting for fun at 10 years old would eventually evolve into a thriving business. Fast forward to today and Lily’s YouTube channel, Hevesh5, has almost 4 ...
04.24.2023 Manduka: Peter Sterios Peter Sterios discovered yoga by accident when he was in college, and wound up—also by accident—launching a multimillion-dollar business around it. He used yoga to ease neck strain and loosen his hamstrings, but eventually became a serious practitioner and teacher, ...
04.20.2023 HIBT Lab! Ursa Major: Joe Laurienti Joe Laurienti, a former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineer, launched Ursa Major in 2015 with the idea that 3D printing could revolutionize the production of rocket engines. The timing was right: Russia had invaded Crimea the previous year. American sanctions ...
04.17.2023 Halo Top Ice Cream: Justin Woolverton In one of the most remarkable feats ever performed by a frozen dessert, Halo Top ice cream became the best-selling pint in America just six years after launch. Its founder Justin Woolverton was a frustrated lawyer who developed the recipe ...
04.13.2023 HIBT Lab! New Culture: Matt Gibson and Inja Radman It’s hard not to love cheese: feta, brie, gruyère, parmesan, pepper jack, mozzarella, asiago...it’s all delicious! But there’s a downside — cheese production is quite taxing on the environment, with dairy cows being one of the leading contributors to carbon ...
04.10.2023 Orangetheory Fitness: Ellen Latham Ellen Latham would probably have been happy teaching classes at her popular fitness studio in south Florida until she turned ninety. After being fired from her dream job as a spa director, she’d found stability with her own small business, ...
04.06.2023 HIBT Lab! Nas Company: Nuseir Yassin In 2016, Nuseir Yassin quit his cushy tech job to embark on a journey around the globe. The idea was simple: post a one-minute video every day for 1,000 days to show the world from his perspective. The execution, of ...
04.03.2023 Twilio: Jeff Lawson When Jeff Lawson co-founded Twilio in 2008, he had already been through a series of start-ups. Some succeeded, others fizzled out—but each provided insights that led him to build one of the most extensive communication platforms in business. Fueled by ...
03.30.2023 ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Climeworks: Jan Wurzbacher According to the 2022 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world needs to cut carbon emissions drastically to avoid the worst effects of global warming. But that’s not all. In addition to reducing emissions, we also ...
03.27.2023 Sun Bum: Tom Rinks Tom Rinks not only understands the art of branding, he can explain it with the passion and precision of a master teacher. In 2009, he came up with the look of Sun Bum sunscreen, drawing on influences as disparate as ...
03.23.2023 HIBT Lab! Slutty Vegan: Pinky Cole It’s hard to miss a Slutty Vegan when you’re driving past one. No, we’re not talking about a person… We’re talking about a fast-casual burger chain — and a vegan one at that! Since launching Slutty Vegan in 2017, Pinky ...
03.20.2023 Food52: Amanda Hesser (2021) In the early 1990s, as Amanda Hesser's college friends were interviewing for their first cubicle jobs, she chose a different path; one that led straight into the kitchens of Europe, where she cooked traditional recipes and learned the rhythm of ...
03.16.2023 HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix Allyson Felix is the most decorated American track and field athlete of all time. She’s also a mother. Those two identities came into conflict in 2018 when negotiating a contract renewal with her shoe sponsor, Nike. Ultimately, Allyson broke ties ...
03.13.2023 Xero Shoes: Steven Sashen and Lena Phoenix In 2007, Steven Sashen went on a 5K run in his bare feet, an experience that felt so surprisingly natural that it led him to launch one of the best-known minimalist shoe brands in the world. After reading the best-seller ...
03.09.2023 HIBT Lab! Too Good To Go: Lucie Basch Collaboration is the new competition: that was French entrepreneur Lucie Basch’s philosophy when she approached a group of Danish founders who happened to be working on a similar food waste reduction app. Before long, Lucie and her new co-founders joined ...
03.06.2023 Michael Kors: Michael Kors As a teenager, Michael Kors filled his notebooks with dress designs and doodles of his own initials—casual sketches that would eventually fuel the launch of a global fashion brand. Michael grew up with a love of fashion; by the time ...
03.02.2023 HIBT Lab! The Confess Project: Lorenzo Lewis Barbers have played a central role in the Black community throughout American history. Haircutting was one of the first jobs that Black men were allowed to hold after the Civil War, and barbershops were often a hub for organizing during ...
02.27.2023 Politico & Axios: Jim VandeHei Before Jim VandeHei co-founded the media company Politico, the only thing he’d managed was the night shift at Little Caesar’s pizza in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. An early passion for politics and journalism led him to Washington, D.C., where he became a ...
02.23.2023 HIBT Lab! Boom Supersonic: Blake Scholl Commercial air travel has been stuck below the sound barrier for about 20 years, since the Concorde’s last flight in 2003. While the technology exists to fly about twice as fast as we do now, conventional wisdom in the aerospace ...
02.20.2023 Osprey Packs: Mike Pfotenhauer With a passion for design and a skill for sewing, Mike Pfotenhauer grew a bespoke backpack business into one of the world’s most popular outdoor brands. He got his start in the 1970’s, when it was hard to find a ...
02.16.2023 ICYMI... HIBT Lab! OpenAI: Sam Altman Artificial Intelligence was once the realm of science fiction. But over the last several years, advances in machine learning and deep neural networks have moved us closer to a reality where computers can learn and solve problems independently, the way ...
02.13.2023 The Ringer: Bill Simmons Wherever Bill Simmons is, he’s obsessed with helping his team win. During 14 tumultuous years as a creative force at ESPN, that meant launching a slew of influential projects that blended sports and pop culture—including the documentary series 30 for ...
02.09.2023 HIBT Lab! Biobot Analytics: Mariana Matus and Newsha Ghaeli Biobot Analytics founders Mariana Matus and Newsha Ghaeli first met in a poop lab. Yep, you read that correctly... Their company has been working with government and corporate clients since 2017 to analyze disease levels and other biomarkers in our ...
02.06.2023 Zumiez: Tom Campion Working as a manager for nine years at JCPenney, Tom Campion learned a critical lesson about how to succeed in retail: you have to keep close track of inventory. Tom’s experience navigating the ebb and flow of style, color, and ...
02.02.2023 HIBT Lab! The Sioux Chef: Sean Sherman Chef Sean Sherman is on a mission to revitalize and reimagine Native American cuisine. Growing up on a reservation in South Dakota, Sean ate a lot of highly processed foods provided by the U.S. government. It wasn’t until he started ...
01.30.2023 Chomps: Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali When steaks don’t sell you shift to sticks; that’s how Chomps was born. After several failed ventures—one of which left him bankrupt—Pete Maldonado decided to take another chance on launching a business. He partnered with Rashid Ali to start a ...
01.26.2023 HIBT Lab! Osmo Salt: Nick DiGiovanni Do you know who holds the record for making the world’s largest chicken nugget? How about the world’s largest sushi roll? If you know Nick DiGiovanni, then you know the answer to those questions. Each week, more than 15 million ...
01.23.2023 Tarte Cosmetics: Maureen Kelly Let’s say you had a passion but thought of it only as a hobby; certainly never the seed of a billion-dollar company. Plus, you are studying for a career in something unrelated to business. That’s Maureen Kelly’s story, CEO of ...
01.19.2023 HIBT Lab! Nuro: Dave Ferguson When you think about self-driving cars, you might imagine relaxing in the back seat while a vehicle carries you to your destination. But according to Dave Ferguson, nearly half of all car tips that Americans take don’t actually need any ...
01.16.2023 Complexly: Hank and John Green In 2007, brothers Hank and John Green lived thousands of miles apart, so they started posting video blogs to each other on a strange new platform called YouTube. People began tuning in, and the daily Vlogbrothers posts became an early ...
01.12.2023 ICYMI... HIBT Lab! Malala Fund and Our Place: Shiza Shahid On October 9, 2012, Shiza Shahid’s life changed forever. It was on that day that 15-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, capturing the world’s attention. Before long, 22-year-old Shiza found herself leaving ...
01.09.2023 Health-Ade Kombucha: Daina Trout (2020) In 2012, Daina Trout, her husband Justin, and her best friend Vanessa Dew were sitting around a kitchen table spit-balling possible business ideas. Their biggest contender seemed to be a natural product to treat hair loss. Turns out, it's harder ...
01.05.2023 ICYMI... HIBT Lab! The Financial Diet: Chelsea Fagan Chelsea Fagan got her first credit card when she was a senior in high school. She quickly maxed it out, racking up debt that would burden her through her early twenties. Then, in 2014, Chelsea started a blog as a ...
01.02.2023 Kodiak Cakes: Joel Clark (2020) When he was 8 years old, Joel Clark loaded bags of his mom's whole grain pancake mix into a red wagon to sell door-to-door. By the mid-90s, he and his older brother had upgraded to selling the mix out of ...
12.29.2022 ICYMI... HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright YouTubers Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright – better known as The Sorry Girls – have always had an affinity for production. When they met as film students back in 2010, little did they know that the DIY videos they were ...
12.26.2022 I.R.S. Records: Miles Copeland As a music industry mogul and founder of I.R.S. Records, Miles Copeland prided himself on making deals that were easy to say “yes” to. With a mixture of shrewd business skills, swagger, good taste and great timing, Miles signed or ...
12.22.2022 HIBT Lab! Immunai: Noam Solomon According to the CDC, 6 in 10 adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease like cancer or diabetes. Meanwhile, the process for discovering new drug treatments is critically expensive and inefficient. About 90% of drug candidates fail to gain ...
12.19.2022 Beautyblender: Rea Ann Silva Working as a Hollywood makeup artist in the early 2000s, Rea Ann Silva designed a sponge that reshaped the face of beauty. She'd been looking for a technique to simplify makeup touch-ups without worrying about the smudges or streaks that ...
12.15.2022 HIBT Lab! mitú and SUMA Wealth: Beatriz Acevedo It was a love for Ricky Martin that started it all... Beatriz Acevedo thought that if she could only become a DJ, she could get his attention and marry him. While marriage to Ricky was not in the cards, an ...

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