Aug 26, 2019 · 50m · how-i-built-this
Aden + Anais: Raegan Moya-Jones (2019)
Raegan Moya-Jones · 28m spoken Guy Raz · 15m spoken Brian Sonia-Wallace · 1m spoken Prince William · 5s spoken News Anchor · 2s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
This episode of How I Built This chronicles how Australian mother Raegan Moya-Jones turned a search for traditional muslin swaddles into Aden + Anais, a hundred-million-dollar global brand, while examining the high-stakes realities of scaling, private equity control, and personal reinvention.
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 34.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 2.9 Guest disagreement 0.8 Guy pushing back 0.8
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 36:55 Fierce warning against giving up majority control
Moya-Jones passionately calls selling controlling interest the single worst decision of her life and insists founders never surrender control regardless of what institutions promise.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 38:51 Challenging the failure narrativeRaz directly challenges Moya-Jones's framing of being disgraced and fired by arguing that listeners see her as an undeniable victor who created a $100M brand and secured lifelong wealth.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 25:15 Educating the host on female entrepreneur statisticsMoya-Jones educates Raz on the fact that only two percent of female-owned businesses ever reach one million dollars in revenue, catching him completely off guard.
Guy holds their own ▶ 40:00 Raz analyzes founder motivation beyond moneyRaz articulates high-level entrepreneurial insight, explaining why genuine founder motivation is tied to identity and creative ownership rather than monetary rewards.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guy Raz Announces the Live Tour Dates and Guests | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory monologue and audio clip setup by Guy Raz previewing the live tour and the royal baby swaddle story. | |
| Finding Direction in New York and Corporate Sales Success | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Collaborative discussion of Moya-Jones's initial slump in New York and her successful sales career at The Economist. | |
| Discovering the Muslin Blanket Gap and Founding the Company | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Moya-Jones explains the Australian ubiquity of muslin swaddles and how she decided to manufacture them rather than merely distribute. | |
| Finding a Manufacturing Partner and Perfecting Muslin Quality | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Raz asks about sourcing and Moya-Jones describes serendipitously finding a manufacturer at a NYC trade show and learning textile quality by trial and error. | |
| Moonlighting Late Nights and Securing a Target Distribution Deal | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Moya-Jones recounts her late-night work schedule while raising three children and landing all six SKUs into Target. | |
| Recession Capital Strain and the Partnership Buyout Ultimatum | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | The guest details the financial strains during the 2008 recession and the ultimatum received from her co-founder's husband. | |
| Buying Out Claudia and Coping with Lost Friendship | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Raz empathizes with the heartbreak of a ruptured friendship while Moya-Jones reflects on raising money to buy out Claudia's shares. | |
| Reaching One Million in Revenue and Leaving The Economist | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Moya-Jones surprises Raz with statistics about women entrepreneurs breaking $1M in revenue and shares her parting encounter with her boss. | |
| Private Equity Growth and the Royal Baby Global Sensation | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Discussion covers outside capital injection, organic celebrity exposure, and the massive viral spike from Prince George's hospital debut. | |
| Majority Buyout and Scaling to One Hundred Million Dollars | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Moya-Jones describes selling majority ownership to Swander Pace Capital and admits she dislikes the corporate complexity of running a $100M business. | |
| Ousted from Aden and Anais and Warning Founders on Control | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | In a follow-up interview, Moya-Jones candidly explains being ousted from her company. Raz pushes back by reframing her outcome as an undeniable financial victory. | |
| Rebuilding Ambition with St Luna Spirits and Rewriting Her Book | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Moya-Jones discusses starting St. Luna moonshine, moving past resentment, and rewriting the conclusion of her book. | |
| How You Built That: Brian Sonia-Wallace and Rent Poet | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Brief 'How You Built That' profile of Brian Sonia-Wallace and his on-demand typewriter poetry enterprise, Rent Poet. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Moya-Jones: Aden + Anais's trade show manufacturer partner lasted 10 years
“I was out the door, bar one booth, and they ended up becoming my manufacturer for 10 years.”
Moya-Jones: Early Aden + Anais product containers arrived with yellowed fabric
“We had full containers of product that, when they arrived in the U.S., like, the fabric had turned yellow.”
Moya-Jones: Aden + Anais launched with $15,000 initial investment from each founder
“Well, we started, we both started just putting 15,000 dollars in for our first inventory, and that we did the minimum.”
Moya-Jones: Target rolled Aden + Anais into all stores from day one
“And rolled it out into all Target stores from day one.”
Moya-Jones: Co-founder gave 30-day buyout ultimatum after $350k in personal loans
“I think we'd borrowed a 100,000 off Claudia and Mark, and then we borrowed another 250,000 off Mark's Dad, and very long story short, it was more Mark, I think, that was just not comfortable with the fact that in his mind they were funding the business, and it…”
Moya-Jones: Three investors bought 49% of Aden + Anais for ~$500K
“Three other people came into the business and bought 49% of the business for like 500,000 dollars.”
Moya-Jones: Only 2% of women-owned businesses surpass $1M in revenue
“Only two percent of all women owned businesses ever break a million dollar revenue.”
Aden + Anais exceeded $4M revenue in 2009, doubling yearly for 5 years
“We closed 2009 at just over four million, so as soon as I focused on it, you know, a hundred percent, it Change the game. And then we more than doubled every year for the five years after that.”
Moya-Jones: Aden + Anais took on its first private equity firm in 2010
“I took on my first private equity firm in 2010.”
Moya-Jones: Adam Sandler appeared in Us Weekly using Aden + Anais one week after launch
“One week after we went on the market, and when I say went on the market, me walking the product to the stores and handing it to the store owners in LA, Adam Sandler and his wife, who just had their baby, were photographed on Malibu Beach with their baby in a c…”
Prince George broke royal protocol by debuting in an Aden + Anais blanket
“They left the hospital in an Aidan and Danae blanket, which blew my mind having been raised in Australia, because that I would have bet every penny I had on the fact that was never going to happen, because there's royal protocol, and no royal baby has ever com…”
Moya-Jones: Swander Pace Capital bought Aden + Anais in complete buyout
“They bought the whole company. What I did was bought back in as a major shareholder in the company.”
Moya-Jones: Aden + Anais surpassed $100 million in revenue
“Now that we're over a hundred million dollars, it's just very different.”
Moya-Jones: Spreadsheets work at $30M revenue, but fail at $100M
“You know, you can get by with running your business on Excel spreadsheets at thirty million. It doesn't cut it at a hundred.”
Private equity investors fired Moya-Jones from Aden + Anais in 2018
“Well plain and simple, I got fired from my own business, which was pretty heartbreaking. The investors and I just didn't see eye to eye and They didn't think that I was capable of continuing to run the business, and it just became extremely cantankerous and un…”
Moya-Jones: Founders who care about their business should never sell control
“If you are still passionately involved in your business, if you still care, just don't sell the controlling interest to a private equity or a financial institute. Just don't do it. You can sell parts of it, but just don't give away the controlling interest, be…”