Episodes

Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method and serial entrepreneur behind brands including Welly and Tandy, joins Guy Raz on the Advice Line to help three early-stage founders navigate real business challenges. Aubrey in Franklin, Tennessee seeks mentorship to scale her growing bakery and restaurant group. Maggie from Chicago weighs whether raising outside capital is the right move for her innovative luggage brand, Props Luggage. And Matt in Scottsdale, Arizona looks for a path to get his convertible glove company, FlipMitts, onto retail shelves. Eric shares lessons drawn from decades of building and scaling consumer brands.

How do you turn a side hustle into a retail empire that popularized the untucked shirt? Chris Riccobono, co-founder of UNTUCKit, started the company while working at GE Healthcare, launching with a $150,000 investment and a lot of skepticism. From near-bankruptcy after a $750M acquisition fell through in 2020, UNTUCKit rebounded to more than 80 stores and a growing wholesale business. In this episode, Riccobono explains why an idea everyone laughed at became a category-defining brand — and what it took to survive when success almost slipped away.

Marcia Kilgore joins the Advice Line to guide three early-stage founders through growth challenges. Victor in Fort Worth weighs brick-and-mortar expansion against retail distribution for his Mexican sweets brand. Lydia in Seattle seeks to scale her small-batch botanical skincare line while overcoming fear of failure. Jack in San Francisco wants to maintain customer excitement throughout his custom bike bag brand's purchasing process. Kilgore draws on her experience building Beauty Pie, Bliss, and Soap & Glory to offer candid advice on scaling, risk, and staying true to your brand.

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, discusses how he built the collaborative design platform from a college project into a $20 billion public company. He shares the story of founding Figma with Evan Wallace in 2012, winning a Thiel Fellowship, and the four years of development before launching to the public in 2016. Field explains how Figma's real-time collaboration transformed design workflows and led to a NYSE IPO in 2025.

Guy Raz and Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen tackle the toughest growth questions from three early-stage founders. Jesse Hodge wonders whether to sell or scale his $5 million cold plunge company. Katherine Kervis seeks a path to national grocery distribution for her hot sauce brand without sacrificing ownership. Joe Fontana maps out how to finance 75 Fry the Coop locations without diluting his equity. Perry cuts through the noise with actionable frameworks for knowing when to hold on and when to let go.

Bill and Leigh Keith turned their father's homemade protein bar recipe into Perfect Snacks, building it from a family kitchen operation into a national brand carried in more than 35,000 retail fridges before selling a majority stake to Mondelez International. Growing up as two of thirteen siblings in a traveling bus household, the Keiths learned resilience early. Their story traces how a childhood staple became a refrigerated protein bar phenomenon, the challenges of scaling a family-founded CPG brand, and the decision to bring in a strategic partner while keeping the family at the helm.

Guy Raz teams up with Sir Kensington's co-founder Mark Ramadan to tackle real business challenges from callers on The Advice Line. From competing with a giant like Chipotle 150 feet from your taco shop, to breaking consumer habits in a crowded condiment market, to navigating the messy middle of business growth, Ramadan shares hard-won insights on differentiation, community, and resisting the pressure to scale too fast. This episode is a masterclass in how to build something that lasts by focusing on what makes your business irreplaceably local.

Guy Raz sits down with Vicky Tsai to unpack how a failed startup job, a life-changing trip to Kyoto, and seven years of grinding out of her parents' garage led to a luxury Japanese skincare brand acquired by Unilever for $500 million. The Tatcha founder left Wall Street after 9/11, launched from her parents' home with no salary, and watched her company grow from a single serum sold to a $70 million empire.

Guy Raz brings together three founders and Steve Holmes of goba Sports Group on the Advice Line to tackle real business challenges. Ikechukwu Ogwuegbu of Veii Apparel wants to grow without losing his core identity, Cody Johnson of Grand Tongo needs a year-round plan for a seasonal repellent, and Kenesha Lewis of One More Cocoa is figuring out how to turn an Oprah spotlight into lasting customer relationships. Holmes answers with practical, hard-won advice on distribution, values-driven branding, and building for the long run.

Guy Raz sits down with Calm co-founders Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smith to unpack how two British internet entrepreneurs bet on meditation when investors thought it was a terrible business idea. From the Million Dollar Homepage to Firebox and Moshi Monsters, both founders had already built viral hits before launching Calm in 2012. Despite more than 100 investor rejections, they persisted, eventually turning the app into a nearly $2 billion wellness empire with Sleep Stories and celebrity narrators.

Guy Raz hosts a special mashup episode of How I Built This: The Advice Line, pairing three callers with three veteran founders to tackle scaling questions. Travis Boersma of Dutch Bros Coffee helps Andy from Nashville decide whether a brick-and-mortar burger joint can supercharge his food truck business. Michael Preysman of Everlane advises Tiffany from Cape Cod on breaking into large retailers with her inspirational jewelry brand. Chris Ruder of Spikeball counsels Peter from South Dakota on expanding his ice skating apparel to overseas markets.

Paul Hedrick grew up in Texas and saw an unmet need for high-quality cowboy boots at an accessible price. After being rejected by Harvard Business School and leaving his consulting career, he sketched a boot design in Microsoft Paint and launched Tecovas in 2015 with just $100,000. Today, the Austin-based brand expects over $300 million in sales, operates more than 40 stores, and is opening a flagship in SoHo. Hedrick shares how obsessive product focus, bold retail bets, and a willingness to learn from failure built a western-wear empire.