How I Built This partners with Vox Media for ambitious new chapter

Vox Media and Guy Raz, creator and host of one of the world’s most popular business podcasts, How I Built This, today announced a partnership to significantly expand and grow the franchise by adding video production and distribution, doubling publishing volume, launching new live events, and more. After 10 years interviewing the world’s most successful entrepreneurs on How I Built This, Raz—leaning into his own story as a founder and entrepreneur—is acquiring full ownership of the show from NPR and embarking on a new growth chapter in partnership with Vox Media’s best-in-class sales, marketing, distribution, business operations, and experiential infrastructure. 

Beginning later this fall, How I Built This will premiere video episodes on YouTube and social media platforms, and in early 2027, the show will begin publishing twice as many episodes of How I Built This. Vox Media and Raz also plan to once again bring the show to live audiences, and will experiment with new live experiences that build on the show’s strong community of founders, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

“How I Built This was created to inspire anyone—not just start-up founders—to think creatively about their own life and career,” said Raz. “As we mark the first ten years of the show, I can’t think of a better partner than Vox Media to help me build the next chapter. I’m a huge fan of Vox Media’s many talented hosts and creators. I’m so excited to expand the HIBT franchise and to bring even more stories of founders and how they built some of the most iconic businesses and brands in modern times.”

“Over the last decade, Guy has inspired a generation of business leaders through groundbreaking stories of innovation, creativity, leadership, grit, failure, and success,” said Ray Chao, Vox Media’s SVP and GM of Podcasts. “We are honored to partner with a founder and entrepreneur like Guy to grow How I Built This into an enduring franchise that continues to inspire many for decades to come.” 

“Guy has spent a decade building How I Built This into the most trusted and enduring brand in business storytelling, defined by his singular ability to get to the human truth behind every founder’s journey,” said Oren Rosenbaum, Raz’s agent, and partner and co-head of UTA Creators. “This partnership creates a powerful foundation for the franchise’s next chapter as Guy expands that world and brings the show to new audiences and formats.”

Since its launch in 2016, How I Built This has published more than 700 episodes with the world’s best-known entrepreneurs sharing how they built their iconic brands, and amassed hundreds of millions of downloads.  The show is a top 50 U.S. podcast per Edison Research and has won a Webby Award and an Ambie Award for Best Business Podcast and was twice given the iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best Business & Finance Podcast. It has welcomed Richard Branson, Sara Blakely, Howard Schultz, Tory Burch, Jensen Huang, and James Dyson to name just a few.  

Guy Raz is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of podcasting; he has been instrumental in creating some of the most iconic podcasts in the world including the kids science podcast Wow in the World and TED Radio Hour, in addition to How I Built This. He has interviewed more than 20,000 people over a career in broadcasting spanning more than 25 years including presidents, Nobel Prize winners, iconic actors, athletes, musicians and business leaders. Prior to turning to podcasting, he was a foreign correspondent for CNN and NPR where he covered news from more than 50 countries. For his work in broadcasting, he has been awarded the prestigious Edward E. Murrow award and was part of teams that won both the Peabody and DuPont awards. He is also a two-time New York Times bestselling author.

One of the largest U.S. podcast publishers, the Vox Media Podcast Network is home to some of the most influential shows and talent across categories, including journalist Kara Swisher and entrepreneur Scott Galloway (hosts of Pivot), tennis champion Maria Sharapova (host of Pretty Tough), lifestyle icon Ina Garten (host of Happy Hour), former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (host of Stay Tuned), basketball legend Sue Bird (Bird’s Eye View), journalists Sean Rameswaram and Noel King (hosts of Today, Explained), and more.