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.
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Niklas Zennström built Kazaa and Skype from peer-to-peer technology
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 17, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Pivoting
7
Fundraising & VC
6
- The same peer-to-peer insight powered both free music and free calls
- Skype sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, two years after near-bankruptcy
- Evading RIAA lawsuits across two continents shaped every business decision
Founder interviews
Podcast
Rent the Runway's Jen Hyman advises founders on scaling and fundraising
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 13, 2025
Founder interviews
9
Growth hacking
6
Pricing strategy
5
- Low ego is a founder's single biggest competitive advantage
- Beauty brands die on acquisition costs — repeat revenue is everything
- 50% labor cost signals you need new products, not better pricing
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Mark Lawrence built SpotHero into North America's largest digital parking platform
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 10, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Pivoting
8
Business models
7
- Staying in one city while rivals blitzscaled 50 was the winning move.
- SpotHero's board voted to pivot to valet — Lawrence said no, and was right.
- Covid wiped 98% of bookings; the company came back 3.5x larger.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Zumba co-founder Alberto Perlman advises three early-stage founders
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 6, 2025
Founder interviews
9
Niche selection
6
Fundraising & VC
5
- Crowdfunding raises double as marketing — choose them for awareness, not just cash.
- Leaning deeper into a niche beats chasing broader appeal too early.
- The impact-vs-effort matrix: say no to small custom deals, yes to conglomerates.
How Max Levchin built PayPal from a Palm Pilot crypto idea
How I Built This with Guy Raz
March 3, 2025
Origin stories
10
Pivoting
8
Fundraising & VC
7
- A Palm Pilot encryption startup nobody wanted became PayPal by accident.
- eBay sellers, not product strategy, drove PayPal from 17 to 1M users.
- Having nothing to lose is a founder's most underrated competitive advantage.
Advice Line: How Herschel's co-founder helps three early-stage founders with marketing
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 27, 2025
Branding
9
Growth hacking
7
- Premium products fail without premium brand signals to match.
- Boutique hotels and consignment stores beat DTC for tactile goods.
- Trade shows remain the fastest path to out-of-state wholesale buyers.
How Barry Turner built Lenny & Larry's into a protein snack brand
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 24, 2025
Case studies
10
Bootstrapping
8
Iteration & feedback loops
6
- From $13.20 first invoice to $94M revenue with no outside funding
- Why selling too early cost him six years and nearly killed the brand
- The 'better bad' insight: most consumers won't go extreme, just slightly better
Founder advice on funding, scrappy marketing, and gender bias
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 20, 2025
Growth hacking
8
Founder interviews
7
Fundraising & VC
7
- Affiliate programs and targeted press outreach beat expensive PR agencies.
- Being a female founder in a male category is a pitch advantage, not a liability.
- Financial investors can work if you hire the right operators with the capital.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day: building a premium cleaning brand from scratch
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 17, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Niche selection
7
Bootstrapping
6
- Why deliberately knocking off your own brand can be a survival strategy
- Pulling yourself out of Target before they throw you out — and getting back in
- Obsession beats intelligence: the difference between Mrs. Meyer's and a pajama brand
Founder interviews
Podcast
Dutch Bros founder Travis Boersma advises early-stage founders
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 13, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Pivoting
8
Growth hacking
7
- Delivery apps can consume 50% of a restaurant's margin
- Corporate catering and word-of-mouth beat paid acquisition early on
- Adapt or die: Dutch Bros' core lesson from 30 years of growth
How Michelle Wahler bootstrapped Beyond Yoga to a $400M exit
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 10, 2025
Case studies
10
Bootstrapping
8
Business models
7
- Wholesale treated as paid marketing, not a compromise.
- Refusing investors preserved the values that drove the acquisition.
- A single fabric discovery — ignored as too expensive — became the brand's signature.
Founder interviews
Podcast
How I Built This Advice Line: Vicky Tsai of Tatcha on brand, community, and self-doubt
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 6, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Niche selection
8
Community building
6
- Retailers come to you once your community is already on fire.
- Entering retail too early can become a fundraising-killing scarlet letter.
- Self-doubt is dead weight — ditch 'can I?' and commit to 'I will'.
How Dogfish Head turned weird beer into a $300M craft brand
How I Built This with Guy Raz
February 3, 2025
Case studies
10
Business models
6
MVP & prototyping
5
- Brewing outside German purity laws was the core differentiation strategy.
- Continual hop additions — inspired by a cooking show — created the 90-minute IPA.
- Staying too small for big chains, too big to stay local forced the $300M merger.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Joe Gebbia of Airbnb advises three early-stage founders
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 30, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Bootstrapping
7
Branding
6
- Why raising from strength beats raising from desperation
- Return to Amazon early — don't be picky about where customers buy
- Latino craft beer founder finds funding via mission-driven networking
Founder interviews
Podcast
Michael Rubin: from ski shops to Fanatics' $25 billion empire
How I Built This with Guy Raz
January 27, 2025
Founder interviews
10
Business models
8
Pivoting
7
- School failure and being last picked drove him to win in business
- Fanatics grew from $250M to $6.7B by going vertically integrated
- Entered sports betting as the underdog — and loves it