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Peter Sterios

Founder, Manduka · 1 appearance on the record.

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Peter Sterios is an architect, yoga teacher, and entrepreneur. He founded the yoga mat and gear company Manduka in 1997.

11statements → 8claims → 5claims resolved → 80%fully supported → 3.91/5average certainty → 1.18/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

4 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Peter argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Manduka's original yoga mat material was engineered as AstroTurf underlayment
“This mat was engineered as the backing for AstroTurf to be durable and to have a certain amount of stretch, but not too much stretch, and a certain amount of cushion, but not too Soft, not too cushiony. And in the same factory that, that the carpet underlaymen…”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 28:25 Manduka: Peter Sterios

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Peter Sterios on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Peter Sterios said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Manduka's original yoga mat material was engineered as AstroTurf underlayment
“This mat was engineered as the backing for AstroTurf to be durable and to have a certain amount of stretch, but not too much stretch, and a certain amount of cushion, but not too Soft, not too cushiony. And in the same factory that, that the carpet underlaymen…”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 28:25 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Supported
Manduka operated without premium yoga mat competitors for three years
“I mean, for years, first three years, I was the only person in that space.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 41:46 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Disclosure
Manduka's acquirers paid Sterios for two years without ever calling him
“At the end of three years, they stopped communicating with me, and the last two years of my employment with them, they paid me, and they never called me, which is the way it happens, I guess, sometimes.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 1:03:23 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Disclosure
Sterios funded Manduka's first $25,000 order using 0% credit card checks
“And I, we were remodeling our house, 80,000 dollars in debt with credit card debt, and the way I was funding The house remodel was at a time when credit cards had these things called convenience checks, where you could get an advance of 10 to 20,000 dollars fo…”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 32:28 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Disclosure
Sterios seeded Manduka's launch by gifting 75 mats to celebrity teachers
“I gave 75 mats for free to every celebrity yoga teacher I knew.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 38:46 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Supported
Manduka priced its early mats at $65 against a $15 market
“You get them for like 15 bucks. And these were like 60, 65 dollars was the advertised price.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 40:48 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Manduka's first Yoga Journal print ad caused weekly sales to double
“The first week that ad ran, we doubled sales, and then three weeks later, we're still doubling every week our sales, and it got to the point where that first year, I think we were on back order for three months out of 12, just because we couldn't keep up, and …”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 46:50 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Not checkable as stated
German factory required Manduka to finance 100% of inventory before shipping
“In the early days, I had to pay half at the time of order, and half at the shipping date. So basically, I had to pay a hundred percent of that inventory before it even left Germany, or on the day that it left Germany.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 49:09 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Partly supported
Manduka's acquisition closed just one month before the 2008 financial crash
“It took a year. From that moment in the warehouse to the day we signed on the dotted line, and it was unbelievable timing, because a month after we signed, the whole economy collapsed”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 1:00:15 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Manduka operated without a dedicated sales department for six years
“I didn't have a sales department until year six, I think.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 1:05:59 Manduka: Peter Sterios
Assertion Supported
Sterios's napkin-drawn frog logo survived four generations of VC ownership
“I drew that frog on a napkin, and that frog symbol has survived, you know, four venture capital groups, and I'm seeing it in some little village in Spain.”
Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 ▶ 1:08:21 Manduka: Peter Sterios

The other half of the tape: Peter Sterios's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on How I Built This. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 1

Every mention by year

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Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Manduka: Peter Sterios Apr 24, 2023 40m
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