Belkin International: Chet Pipkin

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chet Pipkin was the kind of kid who loved to take things apart and put them back together. As a young man in the early 1980s, he started hanging out in mom-and-pop computer shops, where he realized he could meet a growing need by selling the cables that connect computers to printers. That simple idea became the main ingredient in Chet's secret sauce: instead of making his own computers, he would make the accessories needed to make them work. Belkin International eventually grew into a massive manufacturer of electronic goods — last year, it sold to a subsidiary of Foxconn for more than $800 million. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Clay McCabe decided to rebrand his dad's zipper repair business into Zipper Rescue, a repair kit that helps people fix their broken zippers at home. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	So before we start the show, I just want to let you know that we've just released a bunch more tickets for our live show in Portland on Thursday, May 16th.
0:36.0	I'll be joined live on stage by Seth Tibbet, the creator of Toeferky.
0:40.0	So if you haven't gotten tickets, there is still a chance to grab some.
0:44.0	Our live show with Seth is supported by American Express.
0:47.0	And to get tickets, go to nprpresents.org and I hope to see you in Portland.
0:52.0	There were days when I thought nothing could stop us.
0:59.0	That this is going to work and this is going to be the most brilliant thing ever.
1:04.0	And there were other days that were really, really dark.
1:08.0	And I just would hold my head in my hands and say, wow, this is never going to work.
1:16.0	From NPR, it's how I built this.
1:22.0	A show of innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:33.0	I'm Guy Ross and on today's show, how a kid in California watched the PC revolution unfold in front of him
1:40.0	and saw the chance to make his fortune with computer cables.
1:51.0	So if you're a regular listener, you know how much I love the Gold Rush story
1:56.0	because there's a simple elegance to it.
1:58.0	All those people going to mine for gold needed tents and jeans and pickaxes and shovels
	...

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