Howard Schultz
Chairman Emeritus, Starbucks. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executivefounderinvestorauthor@HowardSchultz ↗schultzfamilyfoundation.org ↗
Howard Schultz acquired Starbucks in 1987 and served multiple stints as its chief executive officer, expanding the business into a global coffeehouse chain. He also co-founded the venture capital firm Maveron and has authored several business books.
2shows
2appearances
71statements
31resolved
18supported
1contradicted
58%fully supported
77said about them ↓ Everything Howard Schultz said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Schultz: Starbucks Founders' Early Vision Was Only Expanding to Portland
“And their dream, and nothing against them, their dream at the time was to expand to Portland, Oregon. That was their big idea.”
Schultz: Coffee shops function as a 'third place' between work and home
“I started realizing that this is a third place between home and work. But the beverage was the draw.”
Schultz: Starbucks introduced the caffè latte to Seattle in 1985
“Overnight, we had hundreds of customers every day, and we introduced cafe latte to the city of Seattle, basically.”
Schultz: Growth Is Not a Business Strategy
“And so growth became the strategy of the company, and growth is not a strategy.”
Schultz: Starbucks sold no prepared coffee beverages until around 1985-1986
“Starbucks coffee company from 1971 until around 8586, only sold pounds of coffee. There was no beverage.”
Schultz: Starbucks has only sourced the highest tier of Arabica coffee since 1971
“There's mainly two types of agricultural coffee grown for commercial use. Robusta beans, low-end coffee, primarily in instant coffee, and high-grade Arabica coffee. But even within the Arabica coffee, there's significant segments of quality and integrity, and …”
Schultz: Starbucks' first espresso pilot reached 500 daily customers within a week
“On the corner of Fourth and Spring in Seattle, and it was the sixth Starbucks store, and out of about 1200 square feet, I got a hundred feet, and I designed and opened the coffee bar, worked behind the counter as a barista, and Starbucks probably had two to 30…”
Schultz: Starbucks had 11 stores and 100 employees at end of 1987
“August of 87. We bought the six Starbucks stores. We had the three old Eldranales, and there were two stores under construction. So at the end of the calendar year, we had 11 stores And a hundred employees in 1987.”
Schultz: Gloria Jean's Once Had More Stores Than Starbucks via Franchising
“That was Gloria Jeans out of Chicago. And at one point, I think they had more stores than we did because of the franchising opportunity.”
Schultz: Starbucks uses lowercase employee job titles out of respect
“No, everyone was lowercase from the beginning. Out of respect. Everyone's lowercase.”
Schultz: Starbucks never paid for product placement in movies
“First of all, Starbucks never paid for placement.”
Schultz: Starbucks struggled and lost money in China for nearly a decade
“We struggled in China for almost a decade. Lost money. There was tremendous pressure inside the company of close China.”
Schultz did 100 Starbucks earnings calls as CEO, mostly unscripted
“I did a hundred quarterly conference calls as CEO. A hundred.
That's a lot of earnings prep, because each one of those has, what, two weeks before it of.
The truth is, the majority of those were no script.”
Schultz: Starbucks never had a negative comp month before 2008
“Never had a negative comp month in my history of the company.”
Schultz: Starbucks JV Partners Run Operations While Starbucks Controls Roasting and Design
“Starbucks is responsible for roasting the coffee, for all the recipes which are consistent with Starbucks worldwide, A co design of the store where we're designing the store with the JV or the licensed partner, and they control all the operations.”
Schultz: Starbucks Never Issues Individual Retail Franchises
“There are not, no individual licensed franchises of any kind, unless it's certain real estate that we can't get, that we want access to. Like, a roadway on a highway in Switzerland, or something odd.”
Schultz: Starbucks originally served zero cups of coffee in stores
“No, there was no service of any cup of coffee at any Starbucks So it was just pounds of coffee for home use.”
Schultz pitched 242 prospective investors to raise $1.7M for Il Giornale
“The truth of the matter is that I spoke to 242 people to try and raise 1,700,000 dollars to form Il Dernali.”
Starbucks required Schultz to raise $600K before releasing $200K seed investment
“And Starbucks put a little contract in there, which was, you have to raise 600,000 dollars to use our 200.”
Schultz: Starbucks and Peet's were once a single company
“Many people don't realize that Pete's and Starbucks were one company two years prior to that.”
Schultz: Jerry Baldwin offered Starbucks for $3.8M at one-time sales
“The person who should buy Starbucks is you, and so the price is one-time sales, six stores, 3.8 million dollars, which was You know, it was fantastic news. And I'll give you a 90 day exclusive to try and come back to me with 3.8 million dollars.”
Howard Schultz drinks four to five cups of coffee daily, none after 5 PM
“Probably four or five a day. Yeah. And no, no caffeine after five PM.”
Schultz: Xerox Trainees Made 50 In-Person Cold Calls Daily in 1976
“This was 1976, and at Xerox first I sent you to a sales training school in Leesburg, Virginia, and after that, for six months, all you do is make 50 cold calls a day. But I'm not talking about on a phone. You have to go make a physical cold call. Into an offic…”
The other half of the tape: Howard Schultz's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 70 times in 32 episodes across the shows. 7 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 41Scott Svenson 7Sarah Kauss 7Vicky Tsai 6Daniel Ek 3Ben Gilbert 2Maxine Clark 1Jamie Dimon 1
Statements about Howard Schultz, by other people (7)
Clark: Great merchants aggregate and sell existing products rather than invent them
“I didn't create any of this, I didn't invent any of these parts. The I just brought the parts together, which is what a great merchant does. Like Jeff Bezos didn't write the books. He just put the books together on a platform that you could, we all could buy a…”
Schultz was rejected by 217 of 242 investors for initial $1.6M round
“For the initial 1.6 million that you raised for Il Giornale, you talked to 242 investors, 217 of which said no.”
Errett: Howard Schultz urged Maveron to slow investments in fall 2007
“I will never forget it was the fall of 2007, and we had an investment meeting in Seattle, and he walked in and he said, we need to slow down our investments.”
Gilbert: Approximately 70% of Starbucks drink sales are now iced beverages
“What is it, 70% of drinks are now iced beverages, and it was when you started, zero percent.”
Ek: Starbucks was one of the largest CD retailers in the US
“Starbucks and Howard Schultz was actually one of the biggest retailers of CDs. In the U.S.”
Tsai Presented China Frappuccino Launch to Starbucks Board for Howard Schultz
“Howard was super happy with it and had me present to his board of directors”
Howard Schultz Offered Tsai Any Job at Starbucks to Prevent Her Departure
“Howard Schultz found out, and he called me on my mobile phone and asked me to come in and meet with him. So I went back to his office, and it was the week that my furniture was, you know, already on a truck to San Francisco. And he kept on being like, why? Why…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 63
Acquired 7
2026 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2025 12 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
2024 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2023 11 mentions in 3 episodes 4 per episode
2021 8 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
2020 24 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
- S'well: Sarah Kauss
- Tatcha: Vicky Tsai
- Panera Bread/Au Bon Pain: Ron Shaich (2018)
- How I Built Resilience: Live with Sadie Lincoln
- Kenneth Cole: Kenneth Cole
- How I Built Resilience (Special Edition): Guy Raz
- How I Built Resilience: Live with Tony Xu and Marcia Kilgore
- Sweetgreen: Nicolas Jammet and Jonathan Neman
- 1 more episode that year, every mention in 2020 →
2019 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2017 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Howard's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACQUIREDLEDGER | Chairman Emeritus, Starbucks | 1 | 53 | 59% 13/22 | full record on Acquired → |
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Chairman Emeritus, Starbucks | 1 | 18 | 56% 5/9 | full record on How I Built This → |