After emigrating from Nigeria to the US to attend college, Tope Awotona worked as a door-to-door salesman and eventually set out to become a tech entrepreneur. He launched a series of e-commerce businesses that quickly fizzled when he realized he had no passion for them. But then he landed on an idea he was truly excited about: designing software that would minimize the hassle and headache of scheduling meetings. In 2013, he cashed in his 401k and went into debt to build Calendly, a scheduling service reportedly doing over $100 million in revenue.

This episode was produced by Rachel Faulkner-White, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Daryth Gayles.

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A special look back at some of our favorite How I Built This Lab episodes of 2023. Hear how Pinky Cole built the vegan fast food chain Slutty Vegan after a devastating fire destroyed her first restaurant. Then, Nuseir Yassin turns a 1000-day social media travelog into a multi-dimensional business called The Nas Company. And finally, Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble, returns to the show to talk with Guy about the future of dating.

Stay tuned for fresh episodes in 2024. Happy New Year! 

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella.

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In 2006, Paige Mycoskie walked into one of the most exclusive boutiques in LA, wearing her handmade clothes and hoping to get a meeting with the buyer. And why not? On the street, people seemed to love her boldly striped shirts and sweats, always asking “Where can I get that?” whenever she wore them. Three years later, Paige opened her first store in Venice Beach, and then she relied on word of mouth – and shrewd negotiating tactics with landlords – to launch more new locations. Despite early struggles with managing her team and a costly scam, Paige grew Aviator Nation into a multi-million dollar brand - that still makes all its clothes in California.

This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Rommel Wood.

Our engineer was Josephine Nyounai.

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Rivian’s all-electric vehicles have been in high demand thanks to their unique look and handy features. But soon after hitting the market, a series of supply chain snarls led to a backlog of orders and a retreat by key investors. Undeterred, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has focused on ramping up production and has big plans for the company’s future — including the release of a new mid-size SUV in 2026.

This week on How I Built This Lab, how Rivian continues to shape the rapidly evolving electric vehicle market. Plus, Rivian’s plans to expand charging infrastructure across the U.S. and RJ’s strategies for leading through challenging times. 

And don’t forget to check out Rivian’s origin story from September 2022.

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

It was edited by John Isabella with research by Katherine Sypher. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

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KiwiCo founder Sandra Oh Lin took an after-school pastime and turned it into a multi-million-dollar business. After quitting a high-powered job in tech, she dived into doing after-school projects with her kids, like making puppets out of Styrofoam or combining baking soda and vinegar to see what happens. When she discovered that other parents liked these projects too, she decided to create a subscription box company that sent out science and crafts kits every month. She gathered kids in her garage to test-market her ideas, and pitched her plan over and over to investors in Silicon Valley, where her car was “the only minivan in the parking lot.”  Today KiwiCo is the leading subscription box for kids, and has shipped over 50 million crates worldwide.

This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. 

It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Carla Esteves. Our audio engineer was Josephine Nyounai. 

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Our modern way of life requires more resources than ever before — resources that are becoming increasingly scarce and environmentally taxing to extract. 

Intuitive Machines co-founder and CEO Steve Altemus believes a solution to this problem could be waiting in the cosmos.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Steve breaks down the logistics and economics of sending the first-ever commercial spacecraft to the moon. Plus, an overview of today’s newfound global space race, and how Steve embraces failure as part of working on hard technological problems.

This episode was produced by Carla Esteves with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by John Isabella with research by Carla Esteves. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

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In 2000, Luis von Ahn was starting his PhD in computer science when he attended a talk and happened to learn about one of Yahoo's biggest problems: automated bots were signing up for millions of free Yahoo email accounts, and generating tons of spam. Luis' idea to solve this problem became CAPTCHA, the squiggly letters we type into a website to prove we're human. He gave away that idea for free, but years later, that same idea had evolved into a new way to monetize language learning on the web, and became Duolingo. Today, Duolingo is a publicly-traded company with a market cap of $9 billion.

This episode was produced by Casey Herman, with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant.

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Warby Parker co-CEOs Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa broke their scrappy startup into the eyewear industry in 2010—putting legacy manufacturers on notice by offering stylish glasses at much lower prices. But having since gone public and facing pressure from digital landlords and changing technology, Warby Parker now faces a new set of challenges and unknowns...

This week on How I Built This Lab, Neil and Dave share insights on leading a public for-profit company with a social mission. Plus, why brick and mortar is essential to the business, despite starting as a direct-to-consumer brand, and how artificial intelligence will change eyecare as we know it.

Also, check out Warby Parker’s founding story told by Neil and Dave in December 2016.

This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Kerry Thompson. Our audio engineer was Patrick Murray.

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When Hernan Lopez founded Wondery in 2016, podcasts were just starting to go mainstream. Five years later, his team had scored a number of hit shows and sold to Amazon for a reported $300 million. Not bad for an immigrant from Argentina who moved to the U.S. in his late 20s with “terrible” English skills.  

Before launching Wondery, Hernan worked his way up in television, eventually becoming CEO of Fox International Channels. But despite his experience and connections, he struggled to attract investors and break through in an emerging industry. After the success of shows like Dirty John, Wondery began to take off, and today it’s one of the largest podcast networks in the world, with hundreds of shows in comedy, crime, sports, history and business—including this one! 

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Alex Cheng.

Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Maggie Luthar.

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Andrew Lacy is the co-founder and CEO of Prenuvo, a company offering full body scans that have the potential to detect disease early and before symptoms. 

When Andrew was introduced to radiologist Rajpaul Attariwala, he had already built and sold two tech companies. So after stepping out of Attariwala’s MRI machine, Andrew saw the same opportunity he’d seen years earlier in the iPhone… 

This week on How I Built This Lab, how Prenuvo is working to change the health care industry one scan at a time. Plus, Andrew responds to medical establishment criticism and outlines the problems in health care that Prenuvo helps solve.  

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

It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Alex Cheng. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch. 

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at [email protected].

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