How I Built This with Guy Raz Wondery

In 2010, a tragic personal event changed the trajectory of Nancy Twine's life. Suddenly, her promising job at Goldman Sachs no longer seemed fulfilling; she wanted something more.

Drawing inspiration from the homemade hair treatments she once made with her mom, Nancy created a line of shampoos and conditioners that catered to all textures of hair without using harmful additives. But as a Black entrepreneur pitching beauty products to white, male investors, she had a tough time raising money.

Finally, in 2013, with an investment of $100K, Nancy launched Briogeo and eventually landed it in Sephora. Today the company’s sales revenue is $100M a year.



This episode was produced by Casey Herman, with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Daryth Gales. Our audio engineer was Josh Newell.



You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

Collaboration is the new competition: that was French entrepreneur Lucie Basch’s philosophy when she approached a group of Danish founders who happened to be working on a similar food waste reduction app.

Before long, Lucie and her new co-founders joined forces to create Too Good To Go, an app that enables restaurants and grocery stores to sell leftover items in ‘surprise bags’ at a significantly reduced price. Since launching in 2016, Too Good To Go has raised over $30 million dollars and has expanded to 17 countries, including the U.S.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Lucie talks with Guy about her company’s work to leverage the ‘horizontal power’ of consumers to collectively chip away at global food waste. She also discusses the emergence of social enterprises like hers, that fill the gap between charitable and purely profit-driven organizations.

This episode was produced by Sam Paulson, with music by Sam Paulson and Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by John Isabella, with research help from Lauren Landau Einhorn.

Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.


You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

When Ted Xenohristos and two childhood friends opened their first sit-down Greek restaurant in 2006, they had no idea it would eventually grow into CAVA, a sprawling national chain that serves stuffed pita sandwiches and salads. Raised by Greek immigrants, the three founders understood how to make great food, but were rookies at running a restaurant–maxing out their credit cards, and learning the hard way that you should never write dinner orders on sticky-notes. As the restaurant tried to raise its profile by selling its hummus and tzatziki to grocery stores, it continued to lose money. But eventually the founders decided to hire Brett Schulman as their boss. Brett had invaluable experience in the snack food industry, and predicted that CAVA’s Mediterranean cooking would take off among health-conscious diners. He was right. Today, CAVA is a publicly-traded company with over 280 restaurants across the country.




This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music by Ramtin Arablouei and Sam Paulson.

Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Rommel Wood.

Our engineers were Gilly Moon and Patrick Murray.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Waymo Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov is convinced that his company’s vehicles are better at driving than any human. Dmitri has spent thousands of hours riding in them, and recently Guy had the chance to try one out as well...




This week on How I Built This Lab, Dmitri recounts the decade-plus journey of building Waymo into the world’s first company to operate a fully-autonomous ride hailing service. Plus, how Waymo’s approach differs from Tesla’s, and Dmitri’s take on when we’ll see more AV’s on the roads than human-driven cars (spoiler: sooner than you may think!)




This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. 




It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Chris Maccini. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch. 




You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.




See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Michael Preysman founded Everlane, he knew nothing about fashion–he just wanted to see if he could build an online platform that would generate buzz around anything. He started with a cotton T-shirt, and taught himself every stage of production, from sourcing the fabric, to cutting, dyeing, and finishing. When Michael realized that some luxury brands charged as much as seven times the actual cost of a T-shirt, he decided to sell his for $15, and soon caused a stir by telling the world exactly what it cost to make. Eventually the brand shifted its focus to sustainability and social responsibility, a strategy that invited harsh criticism, especially during the Covid era. Today, Everlane is a multi-million dollar business that has expanded to sweaters, denim, outerwear, and accessories.




This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.

Our audio engineer was Gilly Moon.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When it comes to carbon emissions, there’s a major culprit you might not have heard about: cement. The production of cement emits almost as much carbon dioxide as cars do - but Brimstone CEO and co-founder Cody Finke says they’ve found a way to change that.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Cody explains where all that carbon dioxide is coming from, and how swapping out a key ingredient in the production of cement could take it from carbon-intensive … to carbon-negative.




This episode was produced by Alex Cheng with music by Ramtin Arablouei. 

It was edited by John Isabella with research help from J.C. Howard. Our audio engineer was Patrick Murray. 

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.