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How I Built This with Guy Raz

Tempur-Pedic: Bobby Trussell

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.831.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2018

⏱️ 63 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At age 40, Bobby Trussell's promising career in horse racing hit a dead end. With bills to pay and a family to support, he stumbled across a curious product that turned into a lifeline: squishy-squashy memory foam. He jumped at the chance to distribute Swedish memory foam pillows and mattresses to Americans. Tempur-Pedic USA began by selling to chiropractors and specialty stores, providing one of the first alternatives to spring mattresses. Today, the company is one of the largest bedding providers in the world. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Christopher Rannefors created BatBnB: a sleek wooden box that hangs on your house and provides a home for mosquito-eating bats. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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

Hey, it's Guy here, and I just want to let you know that we have a few tickets left for an upcoming live show on December 5th in Los Angeles.

0:35.0

My guest will be Michael Dubin. He's the co-founder of Dollar Shave Club, and he has an amazing story.

0:40.0

He grew this company from nothing to a billion dollar brand in just five years.

0:46.0

Now, if you haven't been to a live show, they are so much fun.

0:49.0

It's a chance to meet me and the team behind how I built this and other HIPT listeners.

0:54.0

So if you're in the LA area on December 5th, you will not want to miss this live show.

1:00.0

Our show is supported by American Express, and to get your tickets, go to nprpresent.org.

1:05.0

And I hope to see you there.

1:11.0

How did you raise the money to start this venture at all?

1:15.0

Well, that's a really good question, because I had to go back to all my basic, same people who had invested with me

1:23.0

in my other horse ventures.

1:26.0

That failed, right?

1:28.0

Yeah, that had failed and gone broke.

1:30.0

So I had to convince them that even though we lost money in something that I knew a lot about,

1:35.0

that we were going to make money in something that I knew nothing about.

1:39.0

From NPR, it's how I built this.

...

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