May 4, 2020 · 1h 5m · how-i-built-this
Cotopaxi: Davis Smith
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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 NPR's 'How I Built This,' host Guy Raz interviews entrepreneur Davis Smith on how his upbringing in Latin America and early business ventures inspired him to create Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear company structured as a benefit corporation dedicated to eradicating global poverty.
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 27.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.1 Guest teaching 1.5 Guest disagreement 0.2 Guy pushing back 1.1
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:23 Davis justifies the pool table venture
Smith candidly counters the implied contradiction between his high-minded social goals and selling pool tables, noting he needed 10 years to learn entrepreneurship fundamentals.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 56:47 Guy challenges supply chain accountabilityRaz directly challenges Smith on how Cotopaxi guarantees ethical labor practices overseas given frequent greenwashing in the industry.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 44:45 Davis explains the risk of B-Corp incorporation from day oneSmith educates Raz on the distinct risk of incorporating as a benefit corporation from inception rather than converting later like legacy brands.
Guy holds their own ▶ 44:35 Guy contextualizes B-Corp examplesRaz demonstrates business expertise by immediately listing established multinational B-Corps like Danone, Method, and Ben & Jerry's to contextualize corporate structures.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NPR Listener Survey Announcement | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory housekeeping and show setup. Guy Raz outlines the show's premise and the B-Corp model in an expository monologue. | |
| Formative Years and Missionary Service in Bolivia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Collaborative biographical interview discussing Smith's early childhood in Latin America and his LDS mission in Bolivia. Raz asks supportive framing questions. | |
| Elevator Pitch and Mentorship from Steve Gibson | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Smith details his pivotal interaction with mentor Steve Gibson in an elevator. The interaction is amiable and storytelling-driven. | |
| First Venture: The Rise of PoolTables.com | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Raz playfully questions the leap from high-minded social goals to selling pool tables online, which Smith candidly acknowledges as a necessary learning step. | |
| Pursuing Higher Education and Selling the Business | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Raz questions the logic of leaving a profitable business to attend business school, contrasting it with unprofitable unicorns like Uber, prompting Smith to explain his long-term value perspective. | |
| Building Baby.com.br in the Brazilian Market | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Discussion of launching Baby.com.br in Brazil. Smith details the market opportunity, academic research, and early fundraising traction. | |
| Brazilian Bureaucracy and a Painful Co-Founder Split | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | Raz directly probes the painful failure in Brazil and co-founder strain with family. Smith reflects openly on management differences and systemic headwinds. | |
| The Memory of Edgar and Cotopaxi's Concept | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Smith shares the emotional backstory of meeting Edgar in Peru and his lingering fears of launching a solo venture without his cousin. | |
| Establishing Cotopaxi as a Benefit Corporation | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz demonstrates clear knowledge of benefit corporations, naming large B-Corps like Danone and Ben & Jerry's, while Smith explains incorporating as a B-Corp from day one. | |
| Supply Chain Ethics and Remnant Fabric Bags | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Smith explains Cotopaxi's remnant fabric initiative and meeting co-founder Stephan Jacob. Raz asks how Smith learned apparel manufacturing without prior experience. | |
| Viral Marketing and the Questival Launch Strategy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Discussion of the Questival launch campaign and llama marketing. Raz tests the Craigslist claim in real time and questions broader distribution beyond Utah. | |
| Evaluating Impact Metrics and Commercial Viability | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | Raz delivers his strongest pushback of the interview, questioning supply chain auditing rigor and investor return potential. Smith addresses ethical oversights and evolution. | |
| Navigating COVID-19 and Reflections on Luck | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Reflections on navigating early pandemic store closures and Raz's signature question on attributing success to skill versus luck. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Smith: Quality of Life Is Determined by Birthplace, Not Superior Merit
“One of the things that I learned from that very early age was that I was not special. I was not better than them or smarter than them or harder working or more ambitious. My life was different simply because of where I was born.”
Davis Smith: PoolTables.com generated $1 million in sales in year one
“We did, yeah, we did a million in sales our first year in business.”
Davis Smith: PoolTables.com reached $6M in revenue and $1M in EBITDA
“We were doing like six million in revenue maybe a million dollars in EBITDA.”
Davis Smith: We sold our pool table business off-market during business school
“We kept running the business from school and then there was a gentleman who owned a handful of domains and businesses, and we didn't even put the business on the market, really. We just reached out to him and said, Hey, we're in business school. We're thinking…”
Davis Smith: Establishing an entity in Brazil took Baby.com.br six months
“It took us six months to get a business license and entity set up.”
Baby.com.br scaled to 400 employees within 18 months of its launch
“I mean, we went to like 400 employees within 18 months of our launch.”
Smith: Cotopaxi was inspired by Warby Parker and TOMS
“It was, I was inspired by Warby Parker, my classmates in school. I was inspired by Tom's shoes and I thought, you know, this is a way I can make a meaningful impact in the world.”
Smith: Kirsten Green led Cotopaxi's first round and wrote the first check
“We had Kirsten Green led our first round. This is an investor that she's backed Warby Parker and Away and Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club, and she believed in us, and she believed in our mission, and so she wrote the first check, and that was the beginning of t…”
Cotopaxi let factory sewers design one-of-a-kind bags using remnant fabric
“We went to them and said, hey, all this remnant material that we see, all this leftover, we want to use it, and we want you guys to design the bags. The only rule is to make no bag alike, and so that's been really fun.”
Davis Smith: Co-founder Stephan Jacob and I never argued in six-plus years
“You know, we've worked together for six and a half years now, and we've never had an argument.”
Cotopaxi's 'Questival' generated 30,000 social media posts on launch day
“We had 30,000 social media posts the day of our launch, of people using our bags, outliving our brand values, and it was a really special way for us to go build the brand.”
Cotopaxi: Over 100,000 people participated in Questival events
“We had over a 100,000 people participate in one of our Questable events.”
Cotopaxi hired an impact lead before its first marketing hire
“We hired a, someone to head up our impact work In the first year of our business, before we even hired someone in marketing, we hired someone in impact.”