What If Your Endgame Isn't to Get Bigger? with Mike Draper

Past Due with Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle

Ana Marie Cox, Open Mike Eagle, and Andrew Steven

Performing Arts, Business, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mike Draper, founder of Raygun, the greatest store in the universe, joins us to talk about what it costs to stay in control of something for 21 years. We get into the real math of brick-and-mortar retail, the night he was $800,000 underwater with a hospitalized wife and a newborn at home, and what it actually means to build a business around "enough." Plus, a bonus conversation at http://patreon.com/pastdue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:58.8	What does it look like to build a $15 million company with no investors, no board, no private equity,
1:04.9	just a screen printer, a lease, and a very strong opinion about what goes on his t-shirt?
1:09.9	This week we're talking with Mike Draper, founder of Ray Gunn, the greatest store in the universe,
1:15.1	his words, and also ours.
1:17.3	12 brick and mortar stores a unionized workforce and office six blocks from the hospital
1:22.0	where he was born.
1:24.0	We get into the real math of brick and mortar retail in 2026, why keeping the internet at arm's length might actually be a business strategy, and what happens when you're $800,000 underwater and your wife is in the hospital and payroll is due on Friday?
1:39.1	And why the self-made myth is the thing Mike Draper least wants credit for.
1:45.2	The creative economy is broken, but some people are still making it work.
1:49.3	We're here to find out how. I'm Anna Marie Cox. And I'm open Mike Eagle. And this is past two.
2:00.0	We didn't even get on record, like you're talking with Mike about how cool he is.
2:06.6	Well, you know, we can always do it again.
	...

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