meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method returns

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.7 • 31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s callers: Christina from California wonders how to build trust with her fragrance brand formulated without allergens. Then, James, also from California, assesses how he can create more brand awareness for his kids' flip flop company. And Ben from Florida evaluates whether he should raise outside capital for his light-up jewelry products. 

Plus, Eric’s philosophy on identifying strong founders and the brands now that he’s moved from being an entrepreneur to being an investor. 

Thank you to the founders of Havyn, Pidgin Toes, and Reserved for Humans for being a part of our show.

If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298.

And be sure to listen to Method’s founding story as told by Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry on the show in 2018.  

This episode was produced by Noor Gill with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Casey Herman. Our audio engineer was Cena Loffredo.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack.

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

When I started how I built this, there were so many early stage decisions to make.

0:04.0

It was super overwhelming.

0:05.6

When you're starting something new, finding the right tool that simplifies everything can be such a game changer.

0:12.9

And for millions of new businesses, that tool is Shopify.

0:17.2

Shopify is your commerce expert in everything from managing inventory to international shipping and beyond.

0:25.1

Shopify can easily create email and social media campaigns and is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography.

0:37.2

Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing? Sign up for your one pound per month trial today at Shopify.com. UK slash built. Go to Shopify.com. That's Shopify. built. That's Shopify.com.com.uk slash built.

1:02.7

Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges.

1:14.4

Each week, I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on this show who will help

1:19.3

me try to help you.

1:20.5

And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the

1:24.5

next guest on the show.

1:25.8

Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Leave us a one-minute

1:30.7

message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you like help with.

1:35.1

All right, let's get to it. Joining me today is Eric Ryan. He's a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder

1:40.6

of Method, Ollie, Wellie, Tandy, just a whole bunch of incredible brands, and that's not all of them. And this is actually the second time Eric has joined me on the How I Built This Advice line to take your calls. Eric, thank you so much for coming back. Oh, so happy to be back, Guy. Thank you for having me. And of course, if any of you listening haven't heard the original story about how Eric and Adam Lowry built the cleaning products brand method, you got to check it out. It's an awesome story. We will put a link to it in the show notes.

2:08.3

Eric, when you were on an advice line back last summer, we got an update on some of the projects that you had kind of wound down.

2:15.9

Give us a sense of what's going on right now. What are

2:17.9

you up to? You are so busy. You've got all these different things happening at the same time.

2:23.0

Give us an update. Yeah. So I've moved much more into the venture investing space. And I joined

2:29.5

Greycroft. We are launching a new $150 million dedicated consumer fund. We just made our first two investments. So I've officially made the move from entrepreneur to investor. Wow. And how does that feel? I mean, you were on the other side of the table for so long and I probably had some opinions about 70 investors that you talk to. Yeah. What does that, what's that like? You know, it's like when you're an entrepreneur, as we're about to talk to several of them today, you very much feel like a quarterback and you get sacked over and over. So to be on the sidelines and playing coach feels really good where you can say to somebody, get back in the game, you got this. So after years of getting sacked, it's, it's, uh, I'm really enjoying Sarah to

3:08.2

play coach. Tell me a little bit about, I know your philosophy about about building

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Raz | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Raz | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.