Hamdi Ulukaya
Founder, Chairman & CEO, Chobani. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveinvestor@hamdiulukaya ↗LinkedIn ↗chobani.com ↗Wikipedia ↗Instagram ↗
Hamdi Ulukaya founded Chobani in 2005 after acquiring a closed Kraft plant in upstate New York, scaling it into the leading Greek yogurt brand in the United States. He also established the Tent Partnership for Refugees and acquired historic San Francisco craft brewery Anchor Brewing Company in 2024 through his family office.
1shows
2appearances
48statements
12resolved
11supported
1contradicted
92%fully supported
28said about them ↓ Everything Hamdi Ulukaya said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Ulukaya reveals Chobani was nearly forced into bankruptcy after Idaho recall
“You're about to File bankruptcy. Exactly. I've never talked about this anywhere before. It wasn't that damaging. But what it is, is the banks got really nervous, and they wanted their loan to be paid back. And that loan was used to build a factory supported by…”
Investors Demanded Near-Majority Equity and Ulukaya's Ouster During Chobani Crisis
“A time came, and I remember the gentleman called me, and he said, here's the amount that you will get, here is the, you know, percentage of the company that you have to give away, which is what was almost majority at that time, and you will be out of the compa…”
Ulukaya offered his factory as collateral to secure supermarket shelf space
“I personally said, if it doesn't sell, I will give you the factory.”
Chobani hired refugees and provided translators to overcome manufacturing labor shortages
“I called the refugee center, and I said, what is the problem? And she said these are people who have a right to work, legally settled, and they don't speak the language, they don't have, you know, transportation, or people don't want to touch it because it's a…”
Ulukaya: Chobani Was One Night From Bankruptcy Before Lender Intervened
“One night before, before we filed, the banker called and said, Hamdi, we hear that you're going to do this. It's going to make us look so bad. I think they were also acting, acting really out of ordinary at that time, forcing me to do something. And he says, w…”
Ulukaya: Pre-Chobani American yogurt was ten times worse than Turkish yogurt
“But compared to what it was here, the yogurt was 10 times worse. It was literally horrible. Like, it was awful stuff.”
Ulukaya: Chobani targeted mass supermarket retail instead of natural food channels
“So I did not have huge interest on natural channels. I wanted this product to be in a mass channels where ordinary people shop.”
Ulukaya: Chobani offered its factory as collateral to secure ShopRite distribution
“I personally said, if it doesn't sell, I will give you the factory.”
Ulukaya: Rejected Multibillion-Dollar Acquisition Offers For Chobani Multiple Times
“I have offered this huge amount of money, and there's endless what you can do with this money. And I said no to it. And I said no a few times.”
Ulukaya: Chobani reached $1B in sales in five years with zero outside capital
“Because we literally went from zero to billion in sales in five years without taking a penny from outside in that factory.”
Ulukaya: Chobani's success is driven entirely by social and community impact
“I can prove the only reason Chobani is extremely successful, if it is, is because of those angles.”
Ulukaya: Making slightly better versions of terrible existing products offers endless opportunity
“Given there were domestic feta being made here, the problem was it was horrible. Like, literally awful. Like, it was so bad. And say, okay, people are buying this stuff, so if you make it a little bit better, you know, it's endless. So, this is no-brainer.”
American yogurt was awful and ten times worse than Turkish yogurt
“But compared to what it was here, the yogurt was 10 times worse. It was literally horrible. Like, it was awful stuff.”
Ulukaya: Chobani prioritized mainstream grocery stores over specialty natural channels
“I did not have huge interest on natural channels. I wanted this product to be in a mass channels where ordinary people shop.”
Ulukaya: Chobani launched into supermarkets priced below manufacturing cost
“And then I priced it below my cost at the time.”
Ulukaya: Chobani ran on QuickBooks until reaching $600M in revenue
“You know, at that time, you know, not only two hundred and fifty million, until six hundred million dollars, I run that company on QuickBooks.”
Chobani generated $1 billion in five years with zero outside capital
“And everything, everything in Chobani was Internally finance. We never had a an outside investors. So I had over a billion in sales in, in five years, and making really, really good margins, good profits.”
Big Food corporations will inevitably try to buy you or copy you
“You build something, the big food is going to come with two things. One do you want to sell? And in that is a hidden another, you know, information. If you don't sell, I'll make the same thing.”
Ulukaya: Chobani received multi-billion dollar acquisition offers from Big Food
“And they did come, and they said, what about selling? And the numbers were with billions.”
Ulukaya would expand Chobani in slower stages if done over
“I would have been more prepared than I would have done in In stages, I wouldn't do it in as fast. I would be more cautious. I would put more, you know, team members in place and make some changes.”
Ulukaya: Existing US Domestic Feta Was Horrible, Creating an Endless Opportunity
“The problem was it was horrible. Like literally awful. Like it was so bad. And say, okay, people are buying this stuff. So if you make it a little bit better, you know, it's endless. So this is no brainer.”
Ulukaya: Bulk Diner Feta Is Low-Margin and Prioritizes Volume Over Quality
“Soon enough I realized that this is not... This is not a huge margin thing. You know, you have large manufacturers, even though their product is pretty awful, you have these large manufacturers out of Wisconsin that make millions of pounds. They ship it all ar…”
Ulukaya: Eye-Catching Packaging Secures Initial Trial While Quality Drives Conversion
“My view was,
I spent so much time making this yogurt and I think it's one of the best that I've made, and people will not, you know, see the difference if I put them in the same cups, so if I can catch their eye, have them to try it once, the yogurt will finis…”
The other half of the tape: Hamdi Ulukaya's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 27 times in 11 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Todd Carmichael 13Guy Raz 13J.P. Iberti 1
Statements about Hamdi Ulukaya, by other people (1)
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya bought out La Colombe's initial private equity backer
“In order for that to happen, you need to take out this VC.
And he said, great, let's meet him.
And we met him, and he did.
And they had no problem with it?
They were like, sure, we'll sell.
That's fine.
Yeah, they doubled their money in a couple months.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 27
2026 12 mentions in 1 episode
2023 12 mentions in 9 episodes 1 per episode
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- The art of letting go with Vincent and Andrew Kitirattragarn of Dang Foods
- Etsy: Rob Kalin
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- Sir Kensington's: Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan
- Leading through radical change with Julia Hartz of Eventbrite
- 1 more episode that year, every mention in 2023 →
2020 3 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Hamdi's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder, Chairman & CEO, Chobani | 2 | 48 | 92% 11/12 | full record on How I Built This → |