Episodes

What do you do when the family business you've spent decades building... gets bought out from under you? That’s what happened to Nima and Salma Fotovat. Devastated, the family rebuilt a new company from the ground up. This time they set out with a new idea: build an allergen-free, organic snack brand not just for kids, but their parents. Their new brand: MadeGood. Today, the Canadian brand’s parent company does hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. But getting there meant rebuilding from scratch, fixing 200,000 mislabeled snack bars by hand, and turning a family of co-packers into branding experts. What you'll learn:How owning manufacturing can be a competitive edgeHow they grew a national brand with almost no marketing. Why it can be a winning strategy to say "yes" before you know how Introducing new products: the tension between research and emotion The mindset that can help you rebuild after a devastating setbackTimestamps:6:05 - Growing up in Iran during wartime, and emigrating to Canada 11:55 - Their dad’s new business: “Why are North Americans not eating nougat?” 19:25 - Building the family’s first snack bar brand—and losing it overnight34:20 - The next business: going all in on healthier school snacks42:30 - Fixing a 200,000-bar production error with alcohol wipes 48:30 - Landing MadeGood’s first retail store51:10 - The 100-mile radius marketing strategy 56:50 - The lure of new products: from human treats to dog treats

Today’s callers: Tony in Michigan is considering bringing on partners to run different parts of his brew pub and theater business. Then Monica in London is exploring the best way to reach style-conscious parents with her line of children’s clothes. And Sandy in Colorado is seeking the ideal pricing strategy to bring his adaptive test prep platform to schools nationwide. Thank you to the founders of Hearsay Brewing and Theater, Tres London and Brain Buffs for being a part of our show. If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to our Advice Line episodes with Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation, Sarah LaFleur of M. M LaFleur and Shazi Visram of Happy Family Organics. Jimmy Keeley.

Many founders think the hardest thing about business is finding customers. It's not. It's surviving success. When Lily Kanter and Serena Dugan launched a luxury baby linen business, they had no manufacturing experience, no inventory, and barely any capital. But after their first catalog landed just as a major competitor left the market, orders flooded in almost overnight. The problem? They hadn’t made the products yet. Today, Serena and Lily has grown into one of the best known luxury home goods brands in the country. But getting there was a grind. This is one of the most revealing conversations we've ever had about unplanned opportunities, and the hidden cost of taking outside investment. From financing their first inventory with customer deposits... to walking away from a disastrous investment deal... to nearly losing control of the company they built, this episode is a masterclass in what happens when rapid growth collides with the realities of cash flow. You Will Learn: The clever way Serena & Lily financed its first production runHow one perfectly timed opportunity launched the businessWhy "smart money" isn't always smartHow investor and founder incentives can be completely misalignedThe warning signs hidden inside a term sheetTimestamps:06:11 – Lily's years at Microsoft, and the money that helped launch a business11:55 – Serena repaints an old table and discovers people will pay for her designs 24:21 – “No bunnies, ducks or choo choo trains.” Lily and Serena meet, and decide to sell high-end baby linen: 36:01 – $100,000 in orders... for products that didn't exist yet37:38 – The cash-flow hack that kept the company afloat 46:14 – “They patted us on the head.” Patronizing investors, and a predatory term sheet 51:28 – The financial crisis forces a complete reinvention of the business58:47 – The lawsuit, the boardroom battle, and the investor who nearly brought Serena & Lily down1:03:26 – Why acquisition offers couldn't save the company—and the lesson every founder should hearThis episode was produced by J. C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Katherine Sypher. Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razYoutube → guy_razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.com

Today’s callers: Adrian from California wants to grow his apparel company to complete with big-name athletic brands. Then, Preet from the Rockies looks for strategies to reach seniors and their children with his daily check-in app. And Derek from Virginia considers social media and professional partnerships to advertise his hockey equipment brand. Plus, Chris talks about launching a new athletic apparel brand while continuing to grow UNTUCKit. Thank you to the founders of Eras Shorts, Snug Safety, and Hockey Ninja for being a part of our show. If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to UNTUCKit’s founding story as told by Steve on the show in 2017. Annlie Huang. You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack.

Chuck Surack transformed a mobile recording studio in his mother's Volkswagen bus into Sweetwater, the largest online retailer of musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the United States. By rejecting price competition and instead building every customer relationship around deeply knowledgeable sales engineers, he created a billion-dollar company that still operates from his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Guy Raz sits down with OtterBox founder Curt Richardson on the Advice Line to help three product-driven founders break through scaling and positioning walls. Andy Jeremiah wants to franchise his live game-show business nationally before proving the model remotely. Marissa Valenzuela needs a path to broaden distribution for her fairy-tale inspired teas without losing their narrative charm. Vince Giudice wants proof that premium sustainable baby gear can compete on value, not just ideals. Curt argues that clarity comes before scale, and the brand story has to sell before price or features ever enter the conversation.

After waiting too long to pay his restaurant bill, Aman Narang thought there had to be a better way. His first idea - a mobile payment app - flopped, but that failure revealed a much bigger opportunity. Restaurants were trapped by outdated, expensive point-of-sale systems locked to on-premise servers. So Aman and his co-founders built Toast, a cloud-based operating system for restaurants from scratch. They worked from an unfinished basement, crashed their first launch, survived investor rejection and COVID, and grew Toast into a company that now powers more than 20 percent of U.S. restaurants.

Kenneth Cole joins the advice line to help founders build lasting brands. Matt Jacobs of Pedestrian Project asks how to grow a bootstrapped wellness brand, Levi Case of Swing Sculpt wonders how to price custom golf jewelry, and Emma Fakwade of ISRAELLA KOBLA seeks advice on scaling a made-to-order fashion label. Kenneth shares lessons from 40+ years of Kenneth Cole Productions on storytelling, customer loyalty, and social purpose.

Tom Rinks turned a failed sunscreen concept into a $400 million empire by treating packaging like personality and distribution like performance art. From a fake Cocoa Beach headquarters to an iconic yellow gorilla logo, he engineered desire before most customers ever touched the product. He explains how the "Elvis Principle" of juxtaposed brand traits, a "Trojan Horse" retail strategy, and knowing when to hand off the CEO keys made Sun Bum an acquisition target for SC Johnson.

Jeni Britton returns for an Advice Line special on How I Built This, this time to discuss Floura -- her new fiber-forward food company launched after building Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams into a nationally recognized brand. She reflects on pivoting from ice cream to functional foods, the science behind her 13-gram fiber bars, and why she wants to make fiber accessible without sacrificing taste.

Guy Raz sits down with Krishna Kaliannan to unpack how a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis sparked a personal quest for better breakfast options and ultimately became Catalina Crunch, a high-protein, low-carb cereal brand now doing roughly $200 million in annual sales. Kaliannan talks about baking early batches in his New York City apartment, the challenge of making healthy food taste good enough to compete on grocery store shelves, and the strategic bets that carried the brand from direct-to-consumer experiments to Costco shelves.

On this Advice Line episode, Guy Raz and Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary help three small-business owners tackle scaling challenges. Ann Williams wants to expand her Nashville fine-jewelry brand beyond bangles without losing its personal touch. Felix Colon is ready to grow his family's Martha's Vineyard apiary but struggles with a limited product. Matt Smith shares how he turned personal tragedy into Wandering Soul Beer and asks how to scale without burning out.