Jul 17, 2017 · 42m · how-i-built-this
Aden + Anais: Raegan Moya-Jones
Raegan Moya-Jones · 24m spoken Guy Raz · 11m spoken Sam Boyd · 1m spoken Jesse Thorn · 9s spoken Prince William · 6s 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 How I Built This, host Guy Raz interviews Raegan Moya-Jones, who transformed aden + anais from a moonlit side project into a hundred-million-dollar global baby brand by introducing Australian muslin swaddle blankets to the American market.
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 32.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 1.2 Guest teaching 1.6 Guest disagreement 0.5 Guy pushing back 0.3
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 25:38 Rebutting former boss's lack of faith
Raegan recounts confronting the skepticism of her former boss who claimed she had no entrepreneurial instincts, highlighting her drive to prove doubters wrong.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 4:24 Probing potential depression from boredomGuy presses Raegan on whether her initial couch-bound lifestyle in New York was genuine clinical depression resulting from total boredom.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:15 Differentiating muslin gauze from ordinary fabricRaegan corrects Guy's cheesecloth comparison by breaking down muslin's functional uses as a burp cloth, crib sheet, nursing cover, and stroller drape.
Guy holds their own ▶ 21:39 Host analyzes founder partnership breakdownsGuy synthesizes the common structural pitfall in startups where capital imbalances undermine initial utopian co-founder friendships.
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 West Coast Live Tour | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz delivers the live tour announcement and introductory narrative hook, accompanied by a brief teaser snippet where Raegan mentions the 2 percent female-founded revenue metric. | |
| Relocating to New York and Working at The Economist | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz asks if Raegan was depressed from boredom after moving to New York, which she mildly clarifies by stating she had simply fallen into a rut before starting at The Economist. | |
| Discovering the Muslin Swaddle Blanket Gap | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Raegan explains the cultural ubiquity and multi-functional versatility of muslin swaddles in Australia compared to their complete absence in the United States market. | |
| Partnering with Claudia and Founding the Company | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Raegan details partnering with Claudia, rejecting a simple distribution model to build their own brand, and stumbling upon their long-term Chinese manufacturer at a trade show's final booth. | |
| Balancing Family Life and a Secret Night Business | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Moya-Jones describes her grueling night routine after her children went to sleep, landing Target as an early retail partner, and the initial financial strain that began dividing the founders. | |
| Mid-Show Break and Sponsor Interlude | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Guy and Raegan explore the painful dissolution of her partnership with Claudia, reflecting on how financial tension frequently derails co-founder friendships. | |
| Crossing One Million Dollars and Quitting Corporate Life | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Raegan recounts hitting the one-million-dollar milestone to quit The Economist and describes her vindication after an ex-boss claimed she had no entrepreneurial talent. | |
| Scaling with Private Equity and Celebrity Spotlights | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Moya-Jones discusses bringing on private equity to manage severe inventory shortages alongside immediate organic celebrity press in weekly tabloids. | |
| The Prince George Royal Swaddle Phenomenon | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Raegan recounts the global frenzy after Prince George appeared in an Aden + Anais swaddle, candidly assessing her own strengths as a startup builder rather than a corporate scale manager. | |
| How You Built That: Sam Boyd and Guided Imports | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Guy introduces Sam Boyd in the How You Built That segment, following Boyd's journey from studying in China to founding Guided Imports. | |
| Episode Sign-Off, Production Credits, and Listener Submissions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz wraps up the episode with production credits, submission links, and network promotional spots. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Moya-Jones: Muslin Swaddle Blankets Did Not Exist in the US Market
“It was mind-blowing to me when I went looking for them in the U.S., That they didn't actually exist.”
Moya-Jones Spent Three Years Developing aden + anais Before Launching
“So you had the idea in 2003 when Anae was born, and it took to 2006 to actually work out how to make it and get it to market.”
Last-Booth Trade Show Vendor Became aden + anais Manufacturer for 10 Years
“I was Out the door, bar one booth, and they ended up becoming my manufacturer for 10 years.”
Early aden + anais Cargo Containers Arrived With Yellowed Fabric
“We had full containers of product that, when they arrived in the US, like, the fabric had turned yellow.”
Moya-Jones Built aden + anais From 8:30 PM to 3:30 AM Nightly
“At 8:30, that's when I would start my day of working on Aidan and Anae, and I would do that until, you know, 3:30 every morning.”
Target Accepted All Six SKUs and Rolled Them Out Nationwide Immediately
“And Target took all six. And rolled it out into all Target stores from day one.”
Co-Founder Issued 30-Day Ultimatum to Buy Out or Dissolve aden + anais
“And it just got to the point where, you know, I got a demand of, you've got 30 days to come up with this to buy us out. If you can't do that, we have the right to pay you the same, and if we can't come to an agreement, we're going to dissolve it.”
Three Investors Bought a 49% Stake in aden + anais for $500,000
“So 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 Reach $1M in Revenue
“Well, I had read a lot of literature about women entrepreneurs, and I had learned the statistic that only two percent of all women-owned businesses ever break a million dollar revenue.”
aden + anais Reached $4M in 2009, Doubling Annually For Five Years
“We closed 2009 at just over four million, so as soon as I focused on it, you know, a hundred percent, it changed the game, and then we more than doubled every year for the five years after that.”
Adam Sandler Photographed With aden + anais Blanket One Week After Launch
“Adam Sandler and his wife, who just had their baby, were photographed on Malibu Beach with their baby in a carrier with an Aiden and Anae blanket draped over the front of the baby, and it was a full-page picture in Us Weekly. So we had celebrity press from a w…”
Prince George Swaddle Photo Crashed the aden + anais Website Twice
“Our website crashed twice, we sold out of that around the world, people were coveting it to the point where they were paying three times the value of the, it was insane.”
The aden + anais Royal Baby Pattern Was Already Eight Years Old
“That particular design Had been on the market for eight years when the royal baby came out in it.”
Moya-Jones Sold to Private Equity and Re-Invested as a Major Shareholder
“They bought the whole company. What I did was bought back in as a major shareholder in the company.”