Hydro Flask: Travis Rosbach. How a thirsty surfer changed the water bottle industry
Travis Rosbach explains how dissatisfaction with existing reusable bottles led him to create Hydro Flask, a double-wall vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottle. He describes his path through earlier businesses in fencing and sign-making, the technical and logistical challenges of developing manufacturing in China, and the scrappy early days selling bottles at markets and into retailers. The episode follows the company's rapid growth, financing crises, the arrival of an outside investor, and Travis's eventual decision to leave Hydro Flask.
Every Business I Tried Before Making My First Million
Sam walks through roughly ten different companies and side projects he tried before making his first million at around age 31, sharing how much money each made and what he learned from them. The conversation covers early hustles like flipping sports equipment, running a hot dog stand, selling white whiskey online, organizing an Anti-MBA book club, building a roommate-matching app, launching niche products like poison ivy treatment, and eventually creating The Hustle and this podcast. Along the way, Sam and Sean discuss developing money-making skills, scrappiness, project selection, risk reduction, and how entrepreneurship is largely about enduring uncertainty and fear over many years.
Gymshark: Ben Francis. From pizza delivery to billion-dollar fitness brand.
Ben Francis tells the story of how he went from a student delivering pizzas and building websites to founding Gymshark, a global gymwear brand. He explains how Gymshark began as a dropship supplement site before pivoting into apparel, leveraged early YouTube fitness influencers, and grew rapidly while remaining bootstrapped. Ben also describes bringing in experienced operators, learning each function of the business, navigating a co-founder split, and eventually returning as CEO to lead Gymshark as a multi-hundred-million pound company with global reach.
Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International
This Advice Line episode of How I Built This Lab features Belkin founder Chet Pipkin helping three early-stage entrepreneurs work through practical business challenges. They discuss adoption and positioning for dissolvable shampoo tablets, inventory and cash-flow planning for a fast-selling sports accessory, and how a massage tool company can expand into B2B and corporate wellness markets. Throughout, Chet shares lessons from building Belkin around solving real problems, managing capital constraints, and relying on grassroots demand instead of top-down sales pushes.
Backroads: Tom Hale. How a desk worker became a trailblazer in active travel
Guy Raz interviews Tom Hale, founder and CEO of Backroads, about how he turned a spontaneous idea into one of the largest active travel companies in the world. Hale describes leaving an unfulfilling environmental planning job, bootstrapping bike trips through U.S. national parks and later internationally, and building a logistics- and people-intensive business without outside capital. He also explains how Backroads survived major shocks like 9/11, the Great Recession, and COVID-19 while expanding beyond bike tours into hiking and multi-adventure travel.
Advice Line with John Zimmer of Lyft
Host Guy Raz speaks with Lyft co-founder John Zimmer about his transition out of day-to-day leadership, the emotional and mental health challenges of stepping away, and his interest in building new, mission-driven consumer businesses. Together they take calls from three founders: a UK inventor of a soap-mixing showerhead seeking to scale to the U.S., a rucking gear entrepreneur struggling with inventory financing and tariffs, and a craft chocolate maker wrestling with work-life balance and long-term employee ownership. The episode focuses on practical advice around focus, financing, go-to-market tests, and personal sustainability for founders.
Pressbox and Tide Cleaners: Vijen Patel. The $1.99 Gamble That Built a National Brand
Host Guy Raz interviews entrepreneur Vijan Patel about founding Pressbox, a dry cleaning and laundry startup built around 24/7 locker access in residential buildings. Patel explains how he and co-founder Drew McKenna bootstrapped the company, focused relentlessly on unit economics and quality, and expanded across multiple U.S. cities before being acquired by Procter & Gamble and folded into Tide Cleaners. He also describes the burnout of running a 24/7 service business, the competitive battles with venture-backed rivals and P&G itself, and his current focus on investing in "boring" but essential, asset-heavy businesses through his fund, the 81 Collection.