How I Built This with Guy Raz
About this creator
How I Built This with Guy Raz shares founder stories, company-building lessons, and practical insights from entrepreneurs behind iconic businesses.
Why they're in the library
Included for practical lessons from founder stories, company-building decisions, and candid reflections from entrepreneurs behind iconic businesses.
Showing 222 digests for How I Built This with Guy Raz.
How Danielle Walker built a food brand from an autoimmune diagnosis
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 18, 2024
Origin stories
9
Customer discovery
6
- Cutting grains reduced her colitis symptoms 75–80% in two days.
- A blog for friends became a New York Times bestselling cookbook.
- Diet and medication work together — not as opposites.
Mark Rober: from NASA engineer to YouTube entrepreneur and CrunchLabs founder
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 15, 2024
Case studies
9
Deep work & focus
6
- Why a decade of free YouTube videos created instant sellout demand for a product
- Refusing to scale saved the channel — hiring kills creative heart
- NASA door engineer to 50M subscribers: luck matters more than hustle alone
AI strategy & adoption
Podcast
Shane Legg on AGI, DeepMind, and the risks of machine intelligence
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 11, 2024
AI strategy & adoption
9
Founder interviews
8
Resilience & grit
5
- Legg predicted 50% chance of AGI by 2028 — back in 2001.
- Supercomputers already have a million-times the brain's physical parameters.
- Safety can't be left to a few insiders — society must engage.
How Rhett and Link built Mythical Entertainment from YouTube comedy
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 8, 2024
Origin stories
10
Business models
7
Bootstrapping
6
- Two engineers quit stable jobs to do comedy for campus ministry.
- Three failed TV deals before betting everything on a daily YouTube show.
- A 2014 algorithm change turned consistency into an overnight empire.
Blue Ocean Strategy: creating markets instead of competing in them
How I Built This with Guy Raz
April 4, 2024
Business models
9
Competitive analysis
7
- Benchmarking competitors accelerates commoditisation — creation beats competition
- Non-disruptive innovation builds new markets without displacing any existing industry
- Never outsource your eyes: direct observation is how founders find real opportunities
Isaac Larian: Building MGA Entertainment and Taking on Barbie
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 25, 2024
Case studies
10
Business models
9
Resilience & grit
8
- Bet the house on Bratz when Toys R Us cancelled — and won
- A decade of Mattel litigation nearly destroyed the company and the founder
- LOL Surprise was born from watching kids unbox iPhones on YouTube
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
How character skills and hidden potential drive achievement
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 21, 2024
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
8
Delegation
6
- Character skills learned at five predict income decades later
- Imposter syndrome is often a sign of hidden potential, not failure
- Team narcissism kills collective performance — one knucklehead is the limit
AI tools & automation
Podcast
Humane AI Pin: building a screenless, wearable personal AI companion
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 14, 2024
AI tools & automation
9
Product-market fit
6
Business models
5
- Apple's iPhone designers built a wearable to cure screen addiction.
- Your AI pin remembers your life and acts at the speed of thought.
- No wake word, hardware LED transparency, user-owned data only.
Magic Spoon and Exo: building two food startups from crickets to cereal
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 12, 2024
Case studies
10
Pivoting
8
Product-market fit
6
- Exo's cricket bars hit a ceiling mainstream consumers wouldn't cross.
- Cereal: an $11B nostalgic category with zero real innovation in 25 years.
- Allulose — a natural sugar that doesn't spike blood sugar — made Magic Spoon possible.
Founder interviews
Podcast
How ICON is using 3D printing to make homes faster and cheaper
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 1, 2024
Founder interviews
10
MVP & prototyping
7
Automation & tools
6
- Concrete's lifetime carbon footprint beats stick-built homes, despite production emissions.
- Only robots running 24/7 can house a billion people within a generation.
- Noise ordinances — not the technology — are now ICON's biggest cost barrier.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Jim Koch on building enduring drinks brands through creative risk-taking
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 25, 2024
Founder interviews
9
Product-market fit
8
Niche selection
6
- Great products find the wrong audience first — then reveal the right one
- The 'fourth category' beyond beer, wine, spirits is Boston Beer's blue ocean
- Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard each took decades of failure before succeeding
Founder interviews
Podcast
Allyson and Wes Felix build Saysh, shoes designed for women's feet
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 11, 2024
Founder interviews
9
Business models
7
MVP & prototyping
6
- Women's athletic shoes are built from men's foot molds — not women's
- Nike cut Allyson's pay 70% after she became the world's most decorated track athlete
- A maternity returns policy and women-first design set Saysh apart
How Tope Awotona built Calendly from personal frustration and near-bankruptcy
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 8, 2024
Case studies
9
Product-market fit
7
- Emptied his 401k and maxed credit cards to fund a $200k prototype
- Ran out of money before billing was built — accidental free launch drove viral growth
- Every Calendly link sent converts the recipient into a new user
How Paige Mycoskie built Aviator Nation from a sewing machine to $130M
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 1, 2024
Origin stories
9
MVP & prototyping
6
- Zero investment, no influencers: $27M to $130M through COVID virality
- Why keeping manufacturing in California is a strategic moat
- Turning down hundreds of millions to stay in full control
How chef Pierre Thiam brought fonio from West Africa to US stores
How I Built This with Guy Raz
September 21, 2023
Origin stories
10
Niche selection
6
- Fonio grows with minimal water and regenerates soil — colonization nearly erased it
- A custom milling machine cut waste from 50% to zero and scaled output 48x
- One chef's in-store cooking demos drove fonio from one shelf to 2,000 US stores