Feb 10, 2025 · 56m · how-i-built-this
Beyond Yoga: Michelle Wahler
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This, Beyond Yoga co-founder Michelle Wahler details how she bootstrapped an inclusive activewear startup into a premium lifestyle brand, navigating recessions and industry disruption before orchestrating a $400 million acquisition by Levi Strauss & Co.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 30.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.5 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 0.1 Guy pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 40:00 Refusing low-tier retail volume
Michelle firmly pushes back against internal pressures to chase immediate million-dollar sales at Kohl's or QVC, insisting that protecting brand positioning was more critical than rapid downstream expansion.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 21:48 Challenging wholesale strategyGuy challenges Michelle on pursuing wholesale distribution from day one, emphasizing the heavy discounts and loss of merchandising control that typically deter modern apparel startups.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 24:55 Masterclass in fabric shrinkage testingMichelle educates Guy on technical garment production, detailing how a North Carolina mill manager taught her to use Sharpie markers on 20-inch fabric swatches to measure post-dye shrinkage.
Guy holds their own ▶ 5:46 Guy validates local DC record store heritageGuy demonstrates authentic local market expertise by immediately recognizing Kemp Mill Records from his time living in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood Influences: Family Dynamics and Retail Disruption | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy demonstrates direct personal knowledge of the DC-area retail landscape when Michelle mentions Kemp Mill Records. Michelle shares personal family background regarding her father's business contraction and mother's body image struggles in a warm, collaborative tone. | |
| Early Career in Graphic Design and Launching Unsweetened | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Guy briefly interrupts to clarify whether Michelle's initial t-shirt project was intended as a business. Michelle explains how Unsweetened grew organically while she worked in graphic design at People Magazine. | |
| Relocating to California and Partnering with Jodi Guber | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Guy guides the chronological narrative of Michelle moving to California and meeting Jodi Guber. Michelle details the serendipitous moment she offered to fix technical design sketches overnight. | |
| Launching Beyond Yoga and Achieving Early Wholesale Success | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Guy brings up Jodi's father Peter Guber's Hollywood and sports portfolio, while gently pressing on how equity and roles were initially structured. Michelle adds notable film credits and explains how early responsibilities expanded. | |
| Wholesale Strategy, Production Lessons, and the 2008 Downturn | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | Guy questions the counterintuitive wholesale-first strategy given its margin and control downsides. Michelle reframes wholesale as paid marketing and schools the host on technical fabric shrinkage testing learned on the fly. | |
| Mid-Roll Break: Teasing Opportunity and Growth | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Guy contextualizes the meteoric rise of Lululemon and asks whether Michelle worried about staying small. Michelle explains how Beyond Yoga capitalized on Lululemon's sheer pant recall by fulfilling urgent Equinox orders. | |
| Sourcing Signature Spacedye Fabric and Assembling an Elite Team | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Guy asks technical details about Spacedye fabric and why competitors had not used it. Michelle educates on the expensive dual-yarn weaving process and how she recruited experienced talent without paying top-of-market salaries. | |
| Mid-Roll Break: Teasing the Levi's Acquisition | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Guy highlights LA manufacturing dynamics and probes whether failing to secure VC validation in 2017 was disheartening. Michelle articulates why she rejected downstream wholesale channels like QVC and turned away investors demanding control. | |
| Navigating the Pandemic and the $400 Million Levi's Acquisition | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Guy outlines the onset of the pandemic and the subsequent Levi's acquisition. Michelle explains her decisive policy against forcing inventory onto closed yoga studios and sharing direct industry advice with Levi's CFO. | |
| Stepping Down, Founder Reflection, and Future Ambitions | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Guy asks his standard reflection questions about stepping down and the interplay of luck versus hard work. Michelle shares candid post-transition experiences and explains how preparation positioned them to be lucky. |
Statements from this episode (12)
Beyond Yoga generated over $1 million in its first shipping year
“We did over a million dollars in our first year of shipping.”
Wahler: Wholesale distribution is marketing that brands get paid for
“I think of wholesale as marketing that you get paid for. So anytime somebody goes into a yoga studio and sees your product, they're discovering you.”
Wahler: Beyond Yoga pioneered active layering and transitional clothing
“So we were among the first to do this active layering and transition clothing.”
Beyond Yoga reached $4.5 million before a $1 million drop in 2009
“So in 2006, that was the first year we were shipping. We did 1.1 million. Then the next year we did around 2.2. Then the next year we did, I think we were around 4.5. Then the global financial crisis happened and everything kind of bottomed out all, you know, …”
Wahler rejected outside investment and acquisition offers to bootstrap Beyond Yoga
“We were just reinvesting every dollar back into the business. We never took on any additional outside investment. We had a lot of people offer to invest, and a lot of people offered to buy us at different points and we just turned everybody down, and we worked…”
Wahler credits Lululemon with normalizing the $100 pair of leggings
“I always looked at Lululemon as an inspiration and as the, you know, the company that made it ok for women to buy a hundred dollar pair of leggings. And I felt like they paved the way, and I'm grateful to them for that.”
Lululemon's sheer pant recall allowed Beyond Yoga to capture Equinox floor space
“I remember when they had the whole, you know, sheer pant debacle. I don't know if you remember that, but that was a moment, because at the time, I think we were the number two brand carried on. Equinox. But Lulu was, you know, the lion's share of the space. We…”
Beyond Yoga saw continuous double-digit growth after launching its Spacedye fabric
“I know that we had double digit growth, you know, pretty much from that point on, and so we never had a, I think we ever had a down year from that point on.”
Beyond Yoga's COO was essentially the company's only white male employee
“Jesse was pretty much the only white male in our company for the majority of the time that we were in existence.”
Mass retail expansion is easy, but maintaining high-end brand equity is hard
“I think it's very easy to go quickly downstream, and it's much harder to continue to build a really clean, high-end, profitable business.”