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

Tatcha: Vicky Tsai

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.831.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2020

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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. Last year, Unilever acquired Tatcha for a reported $500 million, and Vicky remains confident the company will continue to thrive during the economic crisis. 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, really quick before we get to this brand new episode of How I Built This, we have a book coming out.

0:33.0

It's designed as a roadmap for building an idea into a real business, and it includes hundreds of stories and lessons from some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs in the world.

0:44.0

You can pre-order the book by looking up How I Built This wherever you get your books, or by visiting gyros.com.

0:51.0

Okay, onto the show.

0:53.0

We ran out of money over and over and over again.

1:00.0

I couldn't afford a salary, my partner couldn't afford a salary.

1:03.0

I couldn't afford rent anymore, and my parents had bought a place near the airport at that point, and they let me move into there.

1:13.0

And we had this really, really incredible high-end clientele, and I was working on my mom's crush.

1:23.0

From NPR, it's How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

1:38.0

I'm Guy Raaz, and on today's show, I'll trip to Japan in a meeting with a Gasia-inspired Vicky Tsai to launch Tacha, a line of skincare products that almost nobody thought was a good idea until everybody did.

1:55.0

So, as you've heard on this show, really good ideas often come from solving a problem that you and other people have.

2:15.0

And of course, you can spend years solving that particular problem in just the right way, obsessing over countless designs, doing mountains of research to find the perfect fit between what you made and what the market wants.

2:31.0

But sometimes, ideas just sort of reveal themselves, even when you're not looking, and that can often happen when you're visiting a different country.

2:41.0

Like Gordon and Carol Siegel, who came across Scandinavian furniture on their honeymoon and went on to build Creighton Barrel, or Susan Griffin Black, who encountered lavender oil on a visit to Covent Garden in London, and came up with the Body Care Company EO Products, or Blake Mikoski, whose trip to Argentina exposed him to a type of espadrille shoe that he'd recreate as Tom's.

3:07.0

And for Vicky's side, our guest today, the pivotal trip for her was to Kyoto, Japan, in 2008.

3:15.0

She went there to kind of decompress after leaving a job that left her feeling pretty bad about herself.

...

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 2025.