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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Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Tw...

12.04.2023

In 2010, a tragic personal event changed the trajectory of Nancy Twine's life. Suddenly, her promising job at Goldman Sachs no longer seemed fulfilling; she wanted something more. Drawing inspiration from the homemade hair treatments she once made with her ...

How I Built This with Guy Raz episodes:

12.04.2023 Briogeo Hair Care: Nancy Twine (2020) In 2010, a tragic personal event changed the trajectory of Nancy Twine's life. Suddenly, her promising job at Goldman Sachs no longer seemed fulfilling; she wanted something more. Drawing inspiration from the homemade hair treatments she once made with her ...
11.30.2023 The surprise that's saving food with Lucie Basch of Too Good To Go (2023) 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 ...
11.27.2023 CAVA: Ted Xenohristos and Brett Schulman When Ted Xenohristos and two childhood friends opened their first sit-down Greek restaurant in 2006, they had no idea it would eventually grow into CAVA, a sprawling national chain that serves stuffed pita sandwiches and salads. Raised by Greek immigrants, ...
11.23.2023 The Future of Driving is Autonomous with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo Waymo Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov is convinced that his company’s vehicles are better at driving than any human. Dmitri has spent thousands of hours riding in them, and recently Guy had the chance to try one out as well... This week ...
11.20.2023 Everlane: Michael Preysman When Michael Preysman founded Everlane, he knew nothing about fashion–he just wanted to see if he could build an online platform that would generate buzz around anything. He started with a cotton T-shirt, and taught himself every stage of production, ...
11.16.2023 Literally unearthing a climate solution with Cody Finke of Brimstone When it comes to carbon emissions, there’s a major culprit you might not have heard about: cement. The production of cement emits almost as much carbon dioxide as cars do - but Brimstone CEO and co-founder Cody Finke says they’ve ...
11.14.2023 Listen Now: Six Trophies with Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion are back! And this time they’re combing through all the NBA news from the past week and handing out six pop culture-themed trophies to six basketball-related activities. Every week, superlatives will reign down on basketball ...
11.13.2023 Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner Priority Bicycles founder Dave Weiner quit his job as a software CEO to pursue a risky idea: building a new kind of bike. In 2014, he started sourcing parts to make his first low-maintenance model, with a rust-proof aluminum frame ...
11.09.2023 When a robot cooks your lunch with Steve Ells of Chipotle and Kernel Steve Ells changed the restaurant industry once when he founded Chipotle in 1993. His idea for fast, freshly prepared food became the model for today’s “fast casual” format. It’s a story he told when he was first on the show ...
11.06.2023 Kona Ice: Tony Lamb Kona Ice founder Tony Lamb had a knack for sales since he was a teenager - a skill that served him well when he decided to sell Hawaiian-style shaved ice in Kentucky, where people had barely heard of it. After ...
11.02.2023 The art of letting go with Vincent and Andrew Kitirattragarn of Dang Foods How does a brand live on after its founders leave the company – especially one that was inspired by their family and their culture? That’s the question Vincent and Andrew Kitirattragarn have had to answer since their original appearance on ...
10.30.2023 Etsy: Rob Kalin Rob Kalin founded Etsy for people like him: makers and hobbyists. In 2005, he was kicking around New York trying to find buyers for his hand-made furniture, when he noticed that other craftspeople had the same need. So he and ...
10.26.2023 Love’s next chapter with Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble The past few years have challenged Whitney Wolfe Herd like never before. The Bumble CEO kept the company afloat as the pandemic halted in-person meetups, then became the youngest female founder ever to take a company public...all while in the ...
10.23.2023 Sir Kensington's: Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan were only college students when they created Sir Kensington’s, a $140-million-dollar condiment brand – with a backstory that’s completely made up. These days, it seems like every brand – every start-up – is trying to ...
10.19.2023 Leading through radical change with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite Back as the show’s first-ever ‘three-peat’ guest is Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite. The events industry has been transformed by the past three years, giving Julia the opportunity to evolve Eventbrite to better serve its key customers — ...
10.16.2023 Herschel Supply Co.: Jamie and Lyndon Cormack Brothers Jamie and Lyndon Cormack founded Herschel Supply Co to sell modern bags with a timeless feel. While working in the sports and apparel industry, they realized they couldn’t find backpacks and totes with the same stylish but simplified vibe ...
10.12.2023 Unlocking the renewable energy revolution with Ramya Swaminathan of Malta Inc. Ramya Swaminathan is the CEO of Malta Inc, a company that spun out of Google’s moonshot factory in 2018 to work on an energy storage solution using the existing power grid. One thing holding the world back from a transition ...
10.09.2023 Freshpet: Scott Morris Freshpet co-founder Scott Morris helped transform pet food by sidestepping traditional kibble and cans, and making slice-and-serve meals that almost looked palatable enough for humans. When Scott and his partners launched the business in 2006, the concept of fresh pet ...
10.05.2023 A biometric smart gun with Kai Kloepfer of Biofire Biofire founder and CEO Kai Kloepfer believes there’s at least one way to decrease gun deaths in America. Early next year, his company will begin shipping the world’s first handgun with an electronic firing system that unlocks instantaneously upon fingerprint ...
10.02.2023 Vuori: Joe Kudla Vuori founder Joe Kudla built a 4-billion-dollar company on a risky idea: that men actually cared about the clothes they worked out in. When Joe launched Vuori in 2015, women’s athleisure brands like Lululemon were exploding, but there wasn’t a ...
09.28.2023 When your dinner is printed with Eshchar Ben-Shitrit of Redefine Meat Redefine Meat co-founder and CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit long had aspirations to lead a company, though he never imagined taking the risk to start his own. But learning about the environmental harms of mass beef production, plus having to answer his ...
09.25.2023 Yasso: Amanda Klane and Drew Harrington Amanda Klane and Drew Harrington are childhood friends, and co-founders of Yasso; they defied the advice of experts by creating a recipe for frozen Greek yogurt treats, and building Yasso into a $200 million dollar brand. When Amanda got the ...
09.21.2023 A climate-resilient ancient grain with Pierre Thiam of Yolélé (2022) Pierre Thiam is a renowned chef, restaurant owner, cookbook author, and co-founder of Yolélé – a company working to introduce the world to fonio, an ancient West African grain built for climate change. But it hasn't been all sunshine and ...
09.18.2023 ARRAY: Filmmaker Ava DuVernay (2021) By her early thirties, Ava DuVernay was already a successful entrepreneur, having founded her own film publicity agency in Los Angeles. But after years of watching other people make films, she started to get an itch to tell her own ...
09.14.2023 Reclaiming food waste with Jasmine Crowe-Houston of Goodr (2022) Millions of Americans don’t have enough to eat — a startling fact considering 40% of the food produced in the U.S. gets thrown away. And a lot of that food… from restaurants, supermarkets, office buildings and more… is perfectly safe ...
09.11.2023 Jack Black Skin Care: Curran and Jeff Dandurand In 1998, Curran Dandurand and a colleague from Mary Kay Cosmetics came up with an unorthodox idea: a premium skincare brand for men. Despite the prevailing wisdom that American men would never want to moisturize and exfoliate - and a ...
09.07.2023 Threading the future of circular fashion with Peter Majeranowski of Circ Over one hundred billion garments will be produced this year, but they don’t have to be. Peter Majeranowski says we have all the clothes we need to make all the clothing we’ll ever need, and his company, Circ, has pioneered ...
09.04.2023 Air Lease Corporation: Steven Udvar-Hazy Before Steven Udvar-Hazy was out of high school, he started working as an airline consultant. You could do that sort of thing back in the 1960’s, if you knew the industry—which indisputably, he did. Born in Communist Hungary, Steven was ...
08.31.2023 When your headphones listen to you with Ramses Alcaide of Neurable Our brain activity can reveal a lot about our physical and mental health. And thanks to Ramses Alcaide and his team at Neurable, we’ll soon be able to glean insights from our brainwaves in our own homes — without ever ...
08.28.2023 Supergoop!: Holly Thaggard (2020) In 2005, the trajectory of Holly Thaggard's life completely changed when a good friend of hers was diagnosed with skin cancer. Holly realized that most people weren't taking sunscreen seriously, so she sidelined her vocation as a harpist to dive ...
08.24.2023 Electrifying aviation with Kyle Clark of BETA Technologies Not only is BETA Technologies completely changing the flying experience with its all-electric aircraft, it’s upending the logistics of shipping altogether... This week on How I Built This Lab, founder and CEO Kyle Clark shares how BETA is building zero-emission, ...
08.21.2023 Kinko’s: Paul Orfalea Kinko’s copy shops were once so ubiquitous that the name became a kind of shorthand for photocopying. Paul Orfalea started the first shop in 1970 in a tiny converted hamburger stand near UC Santa Barbara, called it Kinko’s after his ...
08.17.2023 Making garbage useful with Tom Szaky of TerraCycle Tom Szaky runs a recycling company, but he’d rather live in a world where recycling was obsolete... Today, his company recycles everything from shampoo bottles and makeup containers to snack wrappers and cigarette butts. And through their recent Loop initiative, ...
08.14.2023 Solo Stove: Spencer and Jeff Jan Over a nine-year period, Spencer and Jeff Jan grew Solo Stove from a DIY project into a 9-figure brand. Their original idea was modest: work a four-hour week and earn a passive income from a DTC camping stove, which was ...
08.10.2023 When our phones are just phones with Kai Tang and Joe Hollier of Light Most of us are dependent on our smartphones. In fact, Americans spend an average of three hours a day on these devices — devices that only came into existence relatively recently. Designers Kai Tang and Joe Hollier have long believed ...
08.07.2023 Orgain: Andrew Abraham A life-threatening diagnosis changed the course of Andrew Abraham’s career and led him to found some of the most popular nutritional drinks and powders on the market. After recovering from his illness and attending med school, Andrew noticed that some ...
08.03.2023 Powering cars with solar energy with Steve Fambro of Aptera Motors There’s a new car coming to market that will probably make its owners search out the sunniest spots in the parking lot... Aptera Motors is designing and manufacturing this car: a plug-in electric hybrid that can run up to 40 ...
07.31.2023 The Tetris Company: Henk Rogers Tetris is one of the most popular video games of all time, and Henk Rogers helped make it happen. He first discovered the game at a convention in 1988, and immediately saw how elegant and addictive it was. As a ...
07.27.2023 When AI is your personal tutor with Sal Khan of Khan Academy The COVID-19 pandemic changed education forever. But Sal Khan says an even bigger educational revolution is just around the corner … This week on How I Built This Lab, Sal returns to the show to talk about a new learning ...
07.24.2023 MOD Pizza & Seattle Coffee Company: Scott and Ally Svenson A relentless hunt for their favorite foods and drinks led Scott and Ally Svenson into launching not one but two multi-million dollar businesses. The first came about in 1990s London when they discovered that British coffee meant instant coffee. So, ...
07.20.2023 When trucks drive themselves with Chris Urmson of Aurora Chris Urmson is one of the founding fathers of the autonomous vehicle industry. He participated in three DARPA self-driving vehicle challenges before joining the team that launched Google’s self-driving car project, which later became Waymo. Eventually though, Chris saw an ...
07.17.2023 Grindr: Joel Simkhai On the premise that a smartphone could vastly improve his love life, Joel Simkhai built one of the most popular dating apps in the world. In 2008 he was living in LA and looking for an easy way to meet ...
07.13.2023 Delivering the future in drones with Keller Rinaudo Cliffton of Zipline Keller Rinaudo Cliffton thinks we’re already experiencing the technology of tomorrow, just that it’s not evenly distributed... About a decade ago, Keller transformed his smartphone robot company into Zipline, which today orchestrates on-demand drone deliveries all over the world. Zipline ...
07.10.2023 Mary's Gone Crackers: Mary Waldner While working as a psychologist in the Bay Area helping people with their problems, Mary Waldner discovered one of her own; at the age of 43, she was diagnosed with celiac disease. The foods she’d been eating all her life ...
07.06.2023 When robots recycle with Matanya Horowitz of AMP Robotics Matanya Horowitz is not above dumpster diving in the name of innovation. His company, AMP Robotics, has developed robots to help waste management facilities better sort through incoming trash and separate recyclables. AMP has tested and refined their technology since ...
07.03.2023 The Lip Bar (TLB): Melissa Butler (2020) While working long hours as a Wall Street analyst, Melissa Butler started making lipstick in her kitchen as a hobby. But it soon turned into an obsession, costing thousands of dollars. She was frustrated by the lack of diversity in ...
06.29.2023 Reimagining seafood production with Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck of Wildtype (2022) When Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck met in 2011, they had no intention of starting a business. Aryé was a cardiologist, and Justin was a diplomat who had lived in countries all over the world. But their chance meeting at ...
06.26.2023 Dutch Bros. Coffee: Travis Boersma From a coffee cart parked uneasily in a grocery parking lot, Travis and Dane Boersma grew Dutch Bros into a sprawling chain of 700-plus beverage restaurants. Before they got started in Grants Pass, Oregon, in 1992, Dane had never tried ...
06.22.2023 Reinvesting in our cities with renewable energy with Donnel Baird of BlocPower (2022) When Donnel Baird was a child, his parents would regularly use the oven to heat their Brooklyn apartment -- a dangerous and energy-inefficient practice that’s unfortunately not unique to New York City. As an adult traveling the country with the ...
06.19.2023 Spikeball: Chris Ruder When Chris Ruder set out to revive a ball-and-net game from his childhood, he was pretty sure he would fail. He wasn’t really into sports and had never run a business. But after 15 years, Spikeball has grown into a ...

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