Tatcha: Vicky Tsai (July 2020)

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2008, Vicky Tsai walked away from a startup job and set out to rediscover herself on a trip to Japan. In Kyoto, she had an unforgettable meeting with a geisha, and learned about the face creams and blotting papers that the traditional Japanese hostesses had used for centuries. But as she contemplated selling those products in the U.S., experts on both sides of the Pacific told her it would never work. Strapped for money and juggling multiple jobs, Vicky worked out of her parents' garage, pitching her new brand—Tatcha—on QVC and steadily growing it. In 2019, Unilever acquired Tatcha for a reported $500 million.

This episode was produced by Jed Anderson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to how I built this early and ad-free right now.
0:05.7	Join Wonderie Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:10.4	AI might be the most important innovation ever.
0:13.5	It's storming every industry, with literally billions being invested.
0:17.2	So buckle up.
0:18.2	The problem is that AI needs the right data and a lot of speed and processing power.
0:22.9	So how do you compete without costs spiraling out of control?
0:26.6	Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud.
0:29.5	Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or OCI.
0:32.8	OCI is a single platform for your infrastructure, database and application development, with AI embedded across it all,
0:40.2	and Oracle's sovereign cloud helps you address your requirements for location, access, and data residency.
0:46.5	OCI provides blazing fast speeds for AI's demanding workloads, and in the cloud, when you pay by the minute, speed matters,
0:56.0	and of course nobody does data better than Oracle. If you want OCI to help you do more and spend less like Uber, the Premier
1:01.8	League and Oracle Red Bull Racing, take a free test drive at oracle.com slash Wondery. That's
1:07.9	oracle.com slash Wondery. Oracle.com slash Wondery.
1:13.5	If you've shopped online, chances are you bought from a business powered by Shopify.
1:19.0	And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it.
1:21.4	Because Shopify doesn't just make amazing buying experiences for customers.
1:25.6	They're also the experts in helping small businesses grow big.
1:31.1	Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all
1:37.0	e-commerce in the U.S. From household names like Mattel and Jim Shark to brands just getting started.
1:44.1	Tackle all the important tasks in one place from inventory to payments to analytics and more.
	...

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