How I Built This with Guy Raz
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 release on Mondays and Thursdays. Listen to How I Built This on the Wondery App or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/how-i-built-this now. Get your How I Built This merch at WonderyShop.com/HowIBuiltThis.
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Recent Episodes
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This Advice Line episode features Ring founder Jamie Siminoff and Bull & Branch co-founder Scott Tannen, high school friends who reunited to provide business advice. Three founders call in with diverse challenges: a Canadian organic cotton clothing brand considering investment, a UV-protective clothing startup seeking market positioning, and a binoculars company looking to expand beyond outdoor channels. The discussion centers on bootstrapping versus taking investment, finding the right customer positioning, and building businesses that stay true to their mission.
- The Advisors: High School Friends to Business Moguls
- Q4 Quinn: The Investment Dilemma for Organic Cotton Brand
(September 2020) Khan Academy: Sal Khan. From Tutoring His Cousins to Teaching the World For Free
Dec 08, 2025Summary Preview
Sal Khan shares the remarkable story of how tutoring his cousin in math led to the creation of Khan Academy, now a free online learning platform used by millions worldwide. Starting from simple phone calls and Yahoo Instant Messenger sessions in 2004, Khan eventually quit his lucrative hedge fund job to pursue his vision full-time as a nonprofit. Despite months of financial stress and uncertainty, unexpected support from philanthropists like Ann Doerr and Bill Gates helped transform Khan Academy into a global educational resource. Khan discusses the challenges of scaling while maintaining quality, his decision to remain nonprofit despite lucrative for-profit opportunities, and his belief in making world-class education freely accessible to anyone, anywhere.
- Early Life and Education in Louisiana
- From MIT to Wall Street Success
Advice Line with Jane Wurwand of Dermalogica (2024)
Dec 04, 2025Summary Preview
Jane Wurwand, co-founder of Dermalogica, joins Guy Raz on the How I Built This Advice Line to counsel three entrepreneurs building consumer brands. She emphasizes the enduring importance of education, community-building, and focusing deeply on a niche market before expanding. The episode features calls from founders seeking guidance on scaling sustainably, shifting consumer mindsets, and deciding when to expand product lines.
- Jane Wurwand's Journey and Philosophy
- Chunky Vegan: Scaling Premium Baby Food
Meridith Baer Home: Meridith Baer. She Started Over at 50 and Put Home Staging on the Map.
Dec 01, 2025Summary Preview
Meredith Baer, a frustrated screenwriter at age 50, accidentally discovered home staging when her tastefully furnished rental sold immediately after the landlord showed it. This chance event led her to build Meredith Baer Home into one of the largest staging companies in America. Her story spans a remarkable life including growing up in San Quentin prison, giving up a child for adoption, modeling in cigarette ads, writing screenplays, dating Patrick Stewart, and ultimately finding her true calling in transforming empty houses into sellable homes through the art of staging.
- Growing Up in San Quentin Prison
- Teen Pregnancy and Early Adulthood Trauma
Advice Line with Bill Creelman of Spindrift
Nov 27, 2025Summary Preview
Bill Creelman, founder and chair of Spindrift, joins Guy Raz to advise three early-stage beverage and apparel entrepreneurs facing critical scaling decisions. The conversation explores maintaining product authenticity while managing costs, hiring strategically with limited resources, and knowing when to simplify business operations to unlock growth. Creelman shares hard-won wisdom from building Spindrift over 15 years, including the risky decision to cut half his revenue by dropping a sweetened product line to focus solely on unsweetened sparkling water.
- Donna's Pickle Beer: Authenticity vs. Scalability
- Kona Brand Flannels: The Hiring Dilemma for Solo Founders
Summary Preview
Travis Rosbach shares the origin story of Hydro Flask, detailing his journey from frustrated water bottle consumer to inventor of one of the first double-walled vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottles. Starting with just $17,000 and no engineering background, he reverse-engineered thermos technology, found manufacturers in China, and bootstrapped the company from farmer's markets to international distribution. The story covers his struggles with cash flow, relationship breakdowns, manufacturing challenges, and his eventual exit from the company in 2012, before it was sold for over $200 million in 2016.
- Early Entrepreneurial Journey: From Fences to Signs
- The Water Bottle Epiphany: Identifying a Market Gap
Advice Line with Anthony Casalena of Squarespace
Nov 20, 2025Processing failed
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Ben Francis, founder of Gymshark, shares his journey from a 19-year-old college student selling supplements from his bedroom to building one of the world's most influential fitness brands. Starting with just a £3.50 domain name and a sewing machine, Ben leveraged early YouTube influencers, focused on physique-accentuating gym wear, and bootstrapped his way to nearly a billion dollars in revenue—all while learning leadership, operations, and business strategy on the fly.
- The First Breakthrough: Body Power Conference 2013
- Early Days: From Supplements to Apparel
Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International
Nov 13, 2025Summary Preview
In this Advice Line episode, Guy Raz is joined by Chet Pipkin, founder of Belkin International, to help three entrepreneurs tackle their business challenges. They advise Daniel Mall of Earth Suds on getting consumers to adopt dissolvable shampoo tablets, Meredith Hudson of Sideline Bags on managing inventory constraints while experiencing rapid growth, and Ryan Hellriegel of Rolflex on breaking into B2B markets for therapeutic massage tools. Chet emphasizes guerrilla marketing tactics, building strong supplier relationships, and staying true to what works rather than following conventional wisdom.
- Introduction and Chet Pipkin's Background
- Earth Suds: Getting Consumers to Adopt Dissolvable Shampoo Tablets
Summary Preview
Tom Hale founded Backroads in 1979 after waking up in the middle of the night with an epiphany to lead bike tours while working an unfulfilling job in Las Vegas. Starting with just four guests on a camping trip through Death Valley, he built the company into one of the world's largest active travel companies, offering thousands of trips in over 60 countries annually. Despite facing setbacks including a van accident, bike theft, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19, Tom grew Backroads organically without outside investors, maintaining it as a family-owned business with approximately 1,300 employees.
- The Midnight Epiphany and Starting Backroads
- The First Trips and Early Challenges
Advice Line with Tariq Farid of Edible Arrangements
Nov 06, 2025Summary Preview
Guy Raz hosts The Advice Line with Tariq Fareed, founder of Edible Arrangements, who helps entrepreneurs solve business challenges. The episode features three callers: Jake DeLeon from Fila Manila seeking advice on educating consumers about Filipino cuisine products, Heather Thorkelson from Minimal Impact Cruises asking about branding for sustainable Arctic expeditions, and Ryan Burkhardt from Kong Screen Printing looking to scale from $3M to $5M without losing company culture. Tariq shares insights from his 25-year journey building Edible Arrangements and his daughter's recent takeover as CEO.
- Introduction and Tariq Fareed's Update
- Addressing the 'Granny Brand' Perception