I have always been attracted by the world of business at large, and later on by entrepreneurship. Overtime, I came to realize that what I enjoyed the most was the variety of fields that can be involved: from economics and technology, all the way to psychology. What I find equally interesting have been the human interactions, experiences and perspectives necessary to any sizable business endeavor.
In 2021, I stumbled upon the podcast “How I Build This”, and fell in love with the show not only for the reasons mentioned above but also for the way it was led by its host, Guy Raz.
If you have not heard about it, Guy Raz ( "One of the most popular podcasters in history." according to the New York Times) interviews the founders of successful and established businesses across industries. What I like the most is how Guy presents his guests first as individuals before businessmen or businesswomen; he very often dials back in time to the childhood and early experiences of his guests and keeps some personal elements in the discussion throughout the interview.
Show after show, one hears not only about the very hard work that all founders put into their business but also about their particular and sometimes unique circumstances and how much luck may have played into their respective successes. The podcast is rich in various real-life (business) lessons. I initially started to make note of them for myself but wondered if others might benefit from entry points into the vast library that Guy Raz and his team have created.
Below are notes from my listenings, categorized by various themes. This list is by no means an all-encompassing library of the lessons or insights that one might get from the podcast. For one thing, I have not (yet) listened to all of the podcasts (the podcast will soon have more than 500 recordings!). Additionally, I might have missed some obvious “lessons” or what may have seemed normal/routine to me might be a very important lesson for someone else.
In that regard, should you wish to complement some of the listed sections, feel free to email me at olivier@olariconsulting.com with a one-sentence note regarding your “lesson”, the link to the corresponding show and I may add your recommendation (and listen to the interview if I have not done so :). I will update this post as I keep listening to the podcast.
I purposefully did not provide a link to the very specific section of each podcast when the lesson or insight is discussed but rather a link to the entire interview; listening just to a short excerpt puts too much information out of context in my opinion. My suggestion: listen to the entire interaction between the host and his guest(s)!
I hope those entry points will encourage you to enjoy the show as much as I do.
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Entry points:
On branding
"Finding a brand name is very hard but once you do, you own it" - Expedia and Zillow
The advantage of storytelling via a video - Stacher
Getting the right URL can cost $30,000+ - Boxed
Importance of branding and design on building different successful CPG brands - Sun Bum
On co-founder
To find the right co Founder, keep making progress and eventually the right confounder will come - Coinbase
Strenuous relationship between co-founders might requires some outside help such as therapy - Dang Foods
The importance of having a co-founder to weather the ups and downs of launching and managing a business - Politico and Axios
On early profitability
Profitable from the first month of operations - Samuel Adams
On innovation
" If you wait for customers to tell you what to do, you are too late " - Patagonia
A really helpful exercise to figure one's next strategic move is to answer what one would do, if one was starting over today? - Lyft
Innovation is "1% inspiration and 99% iteration" - Sila Nanotechnologies
On legal
Splitting a story while not infringing on the copyright of each party - Uncle Nearest
The importance of going after knock off - Stasher
Class action lawsuit used by corporation to slow down competition - Vita Coco
Long and successful legal battle for a different brand than the one featured on the show, David Vs Goliath style - Sun Bum
On luck (note: the host always asks to his guest at the end of an interview how much of their success can be attributed to hard work and/or skills, and how much came from luck)
The hard your try, the luckier you get - Back To The Roots
One has to spend a significant amount of time working in its industry to defy the odds - Discovery
Early on success was attributed 70 % to luck and 30% to effort and later on the opposite - Dang Food
One makes his own luck by showing up ; "you can't win the lottery unless you buy a ticket" - Happy Family Organics
Some level of success at all can be attributed to a combination of hard work, persistence, intelligence, but for success resembling anything the scale of Twitch, there is undeniably a huge portion of luck - Twitch
On persistence
Time to get enough traction and to reach profitability - Dude Perfect
" I gave up youth working " - Tate’s Bake Shop
" You don’t stop based on what the clock said, you stop base on the accomplishment of the task " - Radio One
On product-market fit
You never know if you are one fix away to have organic growth kicking in or if it never going to work - Coinbase
Y combinator playbook: “go talk to your customers, get their feedback and improve your product” - Airbnb
Using the local community to test the beta version of a product - TaskRabbit
On not-for profit
On developing a not-for profit organization and relying on philanthropy to grow it - Khan Academy
On putting all the pieces together in complex situations
On raising capital
On story telling
The false narrative - Title Nine
The creation of a brand - Uncle Nearest
How to envision the company we want to create and the steps necessary to make it happens - Boom Supersonic
On work-life balance
A lot of imbalance - Title Nine
Couples working together to launch and to manage their business - Dermalogica, Melissa & Doug, Kate Spade, Barre3, Houzz, Goodreads, Health-Ade Kombucha and Humane