Stay ConnectedGuy 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.
In 2007, brothers Hank and John Green lived thousands of miles apart, so they started posting video blogs to each other on a strange new platform called YouTube. People began tuning in, and the daily Vlogbrothers posts became an early viral hit. Over time, the brothers grew that single channel into a sprawling collection of businesses, including a production studio—Complexly—that makes some of the most entertaining educational content on the internet. They’re also both hugely successful authors; John’s young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars is one of the best-selling books of all time. With every success, Hank says he’s asked himself, “What’s exciting? What’s causing you the most stress? Head in that direction.”
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On October 9, 2012, Shiza Shahid’s life changed forever. It was on that day that 15-year-old Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman, capturing the world’s attention. Before long, 22-year-old Shiza found herself leaving her corporate job to join a recovering Malala and her father in launching the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that advocates for girls’ education across the globe.
Little did Shiza know, this venture was actually just the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey...
This week on How I Built This Lab, Shiza recounts the childhood experiences that forged her commitment to public service and advocacy—ultimately shaping her worldview and leading to her first encounter with Malala. She also discusses her pivot to the for-profit world with Our Place, the cookware company she co-founded in 2019 that’s both profitable and making an impact.
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In 2012, Daina Trout, her husband Justin, and her best friend Vanessa Dew were sitting around a kitchen table spit-balling possible business ideas. Their biggest contender seemed to be a natural product to treat hair loss. Turns out, it's harder than they thought to make one, so they landed on something completely different: a brand of homemade kombucha they called Health-Ade. After nine months of brewing kombucha in their kitchen and selling it at local farmer's markets, the three co-founders quit their jobs to pursue Health-Ade full time. In just seven years, Health-Ade brewed 120,000 bottles of Kombucha every day, and did close to $200 million in retail sales.
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Chelsea Fagan got her first credit card when she was a senior in high school. She quickly maxed it out, racking up debt that would burden her through her early twenties. Then, in 2014, Chelsea started a blog as a way to keep track of her spending habits and get her financial life back on track. She called it “The Financial Diet.”
This week on How I Built This Lab, Guy talks with Chelsea about how she turned that blog into the multimedia personal finance business it is today. Plus, Chelsea shares why she prioritizes employee satisfaction over growth and explains her judicious approach to brand partnerships.
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When he was 8 years old, Joel Clark loaded bags of his mom's whole grain pancake mix into a red wagon to sell door-to-door. By the mid-90s, he and his older brother had upgraded to selling the mix out of a Mazda sedan and calling it Kodiak Cakes. As he tried to scale the business, Joel made some risky business decisions and almost went bankrupt, but eventually got the brand into Target—a major turning point. Today, Kodiak Cakes is one of the best-selling pancake mixes in America.
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YouTubers Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright – better known as The Sorry Girls – have always had an affinity for production. When they met as film students back in 2010, little did they know that the DIY videos they were creating for fun would eventually lead to full-fledged careers co-founding and leading their own media company. But building to where they are now, with over 2 million subscribers and counting, didn’t exactly come with a blueprint…
This week on How I Built This Lab, Kelsey and Becky talk to Guy about pursuing the uncharted territory of a YouTube career, their philosophies on navigating brand deals, and their take on growing a business in the creator economy without compromising on values.
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As a music industry mogul and founder of I.R.S. Records, Miles Copeland prided himself on making deals that were easy to say “yes” to. With a mixture of shrewd business skills, swagger, good taste and great timing, Miles signed or managed some of the most popular bands of the 1980's, including R.E.M., The Go-Go's, and The Police. After getting his start booking little-known British bands in the early 1970's and nearly going bankrupt after a failed tour, Miles eased back into the business by promoting punk groups—who didn’t care that he was broke. He then landed one of the most important deals of his career by convincing A&M Records to take a chance on The Police (whose drummer, Stewart Copeland, was Miles' brother). After I.R.S. dissolved in the mid 1990's, Miles remained a force in entertainment, launching new labels, branching out into world music, and managing Sting’s career until 2001.
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According to the CDC, 6 in 10 adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease like cancer or diabetes. Meanwhile, the process for discovering new drug treatments is critically expensive and inefficient. About 90% of drug candidates fail to gain FDA approval; the average cost to develop a new drug is over $1 billion; and testing can take over 10 years.
Noam Solomon is on a mission to change this. His company, Immunai, is using artificial intelligence to create an atlas of the human immune system.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Guy talks with Noam about how Immunai’s immune system mapping is accelerating the development of new personalized drug therapies. Plus, Noam shares how Immunai’s culture of ‘not knowing’ drives scientific innovation.
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Working as a Hollywood makeup artist in the early 2000s, Rea Ann Silva designed a sponge that reshaped the face of beauty. She'd been looking for a technique to simplify makeup touch-ups without worrying about the smudges or streaks that were easily detected on HDTV. Her solution? A teardrop-shaped sponge—hand-cut from a foam wedge—that could apply makeup from any angle, and absorb just enough water to be extra-efficient. Actors and fellow makeup artists raved about the sponge, so Rea Ann cold-called an industry insider—who almost hung up on her before agreeing to listen to her idea. That call led to a fruitful partnership that helped Rea Ann launch Beautyblender in Hollywood pro shops, then Ulta and Sephora. Today, the bright pink teardrop sponge is at the center of a multi-million-dollar beauty brand, available in over 50 countries.
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It was a love for Ricky Martin that started it all...
Beatriz Acevedo thought that if she could only become a DJ, she could get his attention and marry him. While marriage to Ricky was not in the cards, an illustrious career in radio, TV, and eventually digital media was. Beatriz is now a serial entrepreneur: her first venture, mitú, is published content for a growing young Latino market. Soon after selling mitú in 2020, she launched Suma Wealth to help young Latinos build wealth and navigate the complex American financial system.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Beatriz takes Guy on a journey through her career in media production and her more recent pivot to financial services. She also discusses the importance of a culture-first approach to serving Latino customers, and the interactive and educational approach her new company is taking to close the Latino wealth gap.
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