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Apr 1, 2021 · 21m · how-i-built-this

How I Built Resilience: Kara Goldin of Hint

Kara Goldin · 14m spoken Guy Raz · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of NPR's How I Built This: Resilience Edition, Guy Raz speaks with Hint founder and CEO Kara Goldin about creating an unsweetened fruit-infused beverage category and implementing agile operational pivots during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 28% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Guy as informed peer 1.6 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.2 Guy pushing back 0.2
05100:0010:0020:000:00–6:13 · Guy as informed peer 1/10 Announcement: Virtual How I Built This Summit Guy introduces the summit and sets up Kara's origin story. Kara provides a narrative about transitioning from AOL, giving up diet soda, and discovering the challenges of creating an entirely new beverage category.6:14–10:26 · Guy as informed peer 2/10 Self-Financing and Mastering Preservative-Free Bottling Guy brings in context about early self-financing and Bay Area lockdown timelines. Kara recounts bottlers dismissing her preservative-free concept and her hands-on discovery of empty Target shelves in March 2020.10:27–13:51 · Guy as informed peer 1/10 Mid-Show Break and How I Built This Book After the mid-show book promo, Kara explains how domestic supply chains and pre-pandemic automated production lines kept Hint operational as an essential business.13:51–17:25 · Guy as informed peer 2/10 Merchandising on the Retail Front Lines Guy clarifies whether Kara asked workers to return to offices, prompting Kara to clarify she meant store merchandising. Kara details shifting focus to direct-to-consumer sales after tech campus sales evaporated.17:25–20:22 · Guy as informed peer 2/10 Listener Q&A: Navigating Saturated Market Landscapes Guy poses a listener question about entering saturated beverage markets. Kara uses a dynamic puzzle metaphor to describe the necessity of execution and team building.0:00–6:13 · Guest teaching 1/10 Announcement: Virtual How I Built This Summit Guy introduces the summit and sets up Kara's origin story. Kara provides a narrative about transitioning from AOL, giving up diet soda, and discovering the challenges of creating an entirely new beverage category.6:14–10:26 · Guest teaching 2/10 Self-Financing and Mastering Preservative-Free Bottling Guy brings in context about early self-financing and Bay Area lockdown timelines. Kara recounts bottlers dismissing her preservative-free concept and her hands-on discovery of empty Target shelves in March 2020.10:27–13:51 · Guest teaching 2/10 Mid-Show Break and How I Built This Book After the mid-show book promo, Kara explains how domestic supply chains and pre-pandemic automated production lines kept Hint operational as an essential business.13:51–17:25 · Guest teaching 2/10 Merchandising on the Retail Front Lines Guy clarifies whether Kara asked workers to return to offices, prompting Kara to clarify she meant store merchandising. Kara details shifting focus to direct-to-consumer sales after tech campus sales evaporated.17:25–20:22 · Guest teaching 1/10 Listener Q&A: Navigating Saturated Market Landscapes Guy poses a listener question about entering saturated beverage markets. Kara uses a dynamic puzzle metaphor to describe the necessity of execution and team building.0:00–6:13 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Announcement: Virtual How I Built This Summit Guy introduces the summit and sets up Kara's origin story. Kara provides a narrative about transitioning from AOL, giving up diet soda, and discovering the challenges of creating an entirely new beverage category.6:14–10:26 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Self-Financing and Mastering Preservative-Free Bottling Guy brings in context about early self-financing and Bay Area lockdown timelines. Kara recounts bottlers dismissing her preservative-free concept and her hands-on discovery of empty Target shelves in March 2020.10:27–13:51 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Mid-Show Break and How I Built This Book After the mid-show book promo, Kara explains how domestic supply chains and pre-pandemic automated production lines kept Hint operational as an essential business.13:51–17:25 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Merchandising on the Retail Front Lines Guy clarifies whether Kara asked workers to return to offices, prompting Kara to clarify she meant store merchandising. Kara details shifting focus to direct-to-consumer sales after tech campus sales evaporated.17:25–20:22 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Listener Q&A: Navigating Saturated Market Landscapes Guy poses a listener question about entering saturated beverage markets. Kara uses a dynamic puzzle metaphor to describe the necessity of execution and team building.0:00–6:13 · Guy pushing back 0/10 Announcement: Virtual How I Built This Summit Guy introduces the summit and sets up Kara's origin story. Kara provides a narrative about transitioning from AOL, giving up diet soda, and discovering the challenges of creating an entirely new beverage category.6:14–10:26 · Guy pushing back 0/10 Self-Financing and Mastering Preservative-Free Bottling Guy brings in context about early self-financing and Bay Area lockdown timelines. Kara recounts bottlers dismissing her preservative-free concept and her hands-on discovery of empty Target shelves in March 2020.10:27–13:51 · Guy pushing back 0/10 Mid-Show Break and How I Built This Book After the mid-show book promo, Kara explains how domestic supply chains and pre-pandemic automated production lines kept Hint operational as an essential business.13:51–17:25 · Guy pushing back 1/10 Merchandising on the Retail Front Lines Guy clarifies whether Kara asked workers to return to offices, prompting Kara to clarify she meant store merchandising. Kara details shifting focus to direct-to-consumer sales after tech campus sales evaporated.17:25–20:22 · Guy pushing back 0/10 Listener Q&A: Navigating Saturated Market Landscapes Guy poses a listener question about entering saturated beverage markets. Kara uses a dynamic puzzle metaphor to describe the necessity of execution and team building.

speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Guy 65.4% · guest 34.6%0:00 · Guy 65.4% · guest 34.6%3:00 · Guy 0.3% · guest 99.7%3:00 · Guy 0.3% · guest 99.7%6:00 · Guy 34.2% · guest 65.8%6:00 · Guy 34.2% · guest 65.8%9:00 · Guy 43% · guest 57%9:00 · Guy 43% · guest 57%12:00 · Guy 1.7% · guest 98.3%12:00 · Guy 1.7% · guest 98.3%15:00 · Guy 15.6% · guest 84.4%15:00 · Guy 15.6% · guest 84.4%18:00 · Guy 27.7% · guest 72.3%18:00 · Guy 27.7% · guest 72.3%21:00 · Guy 100% · guest 0%21:00 · Guy 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:51 Correcting assumption about office return

Kara quickly rebuts Guy's interpretation that she ordered employees back into an office building during lockdown, clarifying that she meant front-line retail merchandising.

 Hardest push from Guy ▶ 13:51 Guy questioning pandemic employee mandate

Guy interrupts to challenge Kara's statement that she told employees to get to work during shelter-in-place, asking for immediate clarification on what she expected them to do.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 6:50 Exposing beverage industry dogma on preservatives

Kara describes how legacy beverage bottlers dogmatically asserted that real fruit drinks required chemical preservatives, which she disproved by developing an innovative clean process.

 Guy holds their own ▶ 8:05 Guy anchoring the timeline of the Bay Area lockdown

Guy demonstrates detailed local knowledge of the San Francisco lockdown date and commercial impacts to frame Kara's March 2020 operational hurdles.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicGuy as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementGuy pushing backWhy
Announcement: Virtual How I Built This Summit 1100 Guy introduces the summit and sets up Kara's origin story. Kara provides a narrative about transitioning from AOL, giving up diet soda, and discovering the challenges of creating an entirely new beverage category.
Self-Financing and Mastering Preservative-Free Bottling 2200 Guy brings in context about early self-financing and Bay Area lockdown timelines. Kara recounts bottlers dismissing her preservative-free concept and her hands-on discovery of empty Target shelves in March 2020.
Mid-Show Break and How I Built This Book 1200 After the mid-show book promo, Kara explains how domestic supply chains and pre-pandemic automated production lines kept Hint operational as an essential business.
Merchandising on the Retail Front Lines 2211 Guy clarifies whether Kara asked workers to return to offices, prompting Kara to clarify she meant store merchandising. Kara details shifting focus to direct-to-consumer sales after tech campus sales evaporated.
Listener Q&A: Navigating Saturated Market Landscapes 2100 Guy poses a listener question about entering saturated beverage markets. Kara uses a dynamic puzzle metaphor to describe the necessity of execution and team building.

Statements from this episode (5)

Assertion Contradicted
Hint was the first preservative-free commercial beverage using real ingredients
“And so we were the first beverage using real stuff to actually produce a product that didn't have preservatives in it as well.”
Kara Goldin Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 7:44
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hint manufactures and sources entirely in the US without using China
“We do everything in the U.S., A lot of companies buy cans. A lot of the can manufacturers are in China. We don't do any of that. We do everything locally.”
Kara Goldin Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 12:40
Disclosure
Goldin worked retail merchandising routes during early COVID to assess safety
“What did I do? I put my Lululemons on and my hint jacket on, and I went out to stores, and so I started, I went back to my roots of taking on a route in Marin County, where I live, and I started to really look at what is the situation, because if it really, re…”
Kara Goldin Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 14:24
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Google's corporate offices accounted for 15% of Hint's total business
“And obviously, when Google offices closed, that business for us went away. It was about 15% of our overall business.”
Kara Goldin Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 16:27
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hint's direct-to-consumer business tripled between March 2020 and April 2021
“That business tripled for us since last March.”
Kara Goldin Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 17:14
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