YouSaid · the spoken record

Chet Pipkin

lines on the record: 69
first: 2025-11-13
most recent: 2025-11-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. And by the way, please make sure to check out my newsletter. You can sign up for it for free at guyroz.com or on substack. And of course, if you are working on a business and you'd like to be on this show, send us a one-minute message that tells us a little bit about your business and the questions or issues that you're currently facing because we would love to try and help you solve them. You can send us a voice memo at hibt at id.wondery.com or call us at 1-800-433-1298. Leave a message there and make sure to tell us how to reach you and we'll put all of this information in the podcast description as well. This episode was produced by Catherine Cipher with music composed by Ramtin Arablui. It was edited by Andrea Bruce. Our audio engineer was Cina Lefredo. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung, Carla Estevez, Casey Herman, Carrie Thompson, Christmas.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There were days when I thought nothing could stop us, that this is going to work and this is going to be the most brilliant thing ever. And there were other days that were really, really dark. And I just would hold my head in my hands and say, wow, this is never going to work.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's great to have you. And by the way, if you haven't heard chets original, how I built this episode, please go back and check it out. We will put a link to it in the podcast description in the show notes. And here is one of my favorite moments from that interview”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I think for me, the systems and the approaches that we invented were really appropriate and good for our business. And some of the biggest errors we made was listening to so-called pros tell us at a future point in time that the right way to run a business is fill in the blank. And rather than just staying true to what it was that was working in our own systems and our own Our own DNA. Some of the times when we try to make that shift to the pros, it was actually a huge step back. So I would just keep following the heart and keep following what works and not worry so much about what other people say are the right way to do things.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Awesome. Chet, if you could go back, right, knowing everything you know now back to when you were 21, you were starting Belkin, you were trying to figure this out, and you could give yourself a piece of advice that you now know. What do you think would have been helpful for you to know?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It does. Thinking back, grinding through this, I don't think about it every day. But hearing these people with their own grind going on, it em all comes back. I mean, it's like I'm reliving it right. I'm here in this moment. And I just want to dive into help them because these are solvable things. And I think most of those, maybe all of those, we've had to solve in multiple ways, in multiple times. Yeah, let's just go get it done.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's been a while since you were grinding through some of these issues yourself, but I mean, it kind of must take you back a little bit.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I agree. And I think that given how robust your D2C sales are, that's really the core here. But one thing you could consider doing is trying to find a distributor that works with these corporate wellness programs. And obviously you'd have to cut them in, but that could be an interesting approach, sort of outsource this outreach to wellness programs using your products.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I would explore ways to be able to reward or incentivize people that make things happen for you. So Immediately don't know exactly what that might look like. But something on a referral, or if you're able to make these things happen for us, that this is your reward. I think I'd spend some time thinking about that. But that's where I'd put 99% of my energy.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And everybody's got all these claims. They don't know who is credible and who is not. For me, you have to get the inside voice. Whatever it takes to get those inside voices, that's where I'd focus 99% of my effort.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would be much more, much more on the gorilla side of things. So go where these folks are. If you can get to them. And you can allow them to experience this. So, let's say it was on the sports side, you're going to go to a triatholite event. And somebody's going to be there selling bottled drinks and somebody else is going to be having some kind of power bar. There with a booth with these things, right? And say, hey, you feeling aches or pains, just give this a try. And you start solving that problem for people and they start talking about it inside of the organization. And HR's hearing from them and procurement's hearing from them, that's where you're going to get your breakthroughs. The problem with you doing it, even with the data and everything, there's too many people trying to sell too much stuff.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so our B2B business was often almost as big as the business on the consumer side. Wow. Even the delineation between the two is not that clear, right? I mean, I use my tech at home, I use it at work. Is that a B2B path or is that a consumer path? And with all due respect to that frontal approach through HR and the people that write the POs for this, it's not the way I would do this one.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you can say we have a relationships that are private, but here's the data. We will show you the data from company ACME, whatever, company X. It's a well-known company. You will know it. You'll know their products. You know what they do, but we have a proprietary relationship with them, so we don't talk about, and we would protect you as well. Here's the data we have from them. They have 100 employees, they've reduced their workers' comp claims by 5%. It's saved them $100,000. They only spend a million dollars. They only spend $100,000 in this product, whatever it is. You're going to say that's what you want to do.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, have you been able to show, right? It's not just nice to have perk, but have you been able to show that this could potentially be a cost reduction tool, right? Because Workers Comp claims are high and it costs thousands of dollars, right, per employee if somebody puts a claim in. And I mean, if you can show with data, and I don't know if you've done this, that this can reduce repetitive strain injuries by, I don't know, 5, 10% even, you then turn the product into a cost reduction tool. Like that to me would be the best argument. Have you been able to make that case and make that pitch?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have you been able to connect with HR or procurement officers at any of these places that have been interested in maybe partnering with you?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I think you're both making a great point. A frontal assault is expensive and ineffective. With this kind of sales and market development, the best way to do it is an inside job. So if you can plant these experiences from people on the inside and a firm that's done this in a brilliant fashion in the recent years is Slack. So what Slack does is get people inside of the organization to use it and then people inside of the org are the ones that are fighting and clamoring for the org to adopt it. So if you can get first sum and then a critical mass of people inside the org that are using it and being an evangelist for it on the inside, that look, we're losing all this time to people being down because they're injured. We're incurring all of these costs. This is a lifesaver for me and for us.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I hear government contractors or military contractors, my blood pressure goes up because it's so complex. The RFP process is just so complicated and challenging. And Chad, I'm sure Belkin has been through this many times. So before we tackle the question, any thoughts or any questions that you have for Ryan?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, that's pretty awesome five million. Okay, so let's, before we dive in further, tell me what your question is for us.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Got it. And so since 2016, so you're close to hitting your 10-year mark. Tell me a little bit about your sales. What do you expect to do this year?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Got it. Okay, so it's like pressure. Like you'd go to a masseuse and they would use their fingers and apply pressure to knots in your forearms and things like that. Okay, cool. And how did you come up with this idea? Well, how did this start?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so generally, what kinds of people, I mean, athletes, but is it for, you mentioned your arms, also your calves? It fits over what parts of your body?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, cool. Thanks for calling in, Ryan. Appreciate it. RoleFlex. So tell me, describe what this product is, because it's not a visual medium here. Tell me, yeah, build me a picture.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's bring in our next collar. Hello, you're on the advice line. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Alright, we're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back with another collar and another round of advice. Stay with us, I'm Guy Ross, and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab. Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Raz, and today I'm taking your calls with Chet Pipkin, the founder of Belkin International. Chet, thanks for joining me here. Are you ready to take the next call?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, watching my granddaughter and her teammates, they have a lot of accessories that your boys may not have. And so the way to manage that and to be able to keep track of that, it's a good problem to solve”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but it's really cool. I mean, you know, I'm not, I've got two boys who are athletes, and they just, you know, dump all their crap in a backpack, and then, you know, you find it with like an old candy bar wrapper.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I definitely could. I think I could also consider just a regular small business loan as well, depending on what the interest rate is. I did actually renegotiate my terms with my manufacturer just this last cycle of inventory. So that was a good first step. I'm glad that you guys agreed with that.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm not saying Shopify for any specific reason. There's a lot of, I think Squarespace, a lot of them do it. I'm not endorsing any of them, but they exist. These are places where you can actually take out loans. Have you explored any of that?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yet the other thought I had was if you're constrained financially is, as Chad said, you could potentially work with the manufacturer to see if you could explore different payment terms. Like 30% up front, 70% delivery. There are also other options like taking out some kind of loan, like non-dilutive loans. Are you on Shopify? Is your website using Shopify?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I agree with Guy. It sounds like the problem you have is the problem we're all dying to have. Sales are constrained by a lack of goods. It's a much more fun problem to solve than I can't generate the sales. So I think you need to get creative with the working capital constraint you have. And so you can do that with your supplier if they're willing to undo that. And to keep it there for you, maybe there's another way to solve it where an angel or someone else is willing to fund that supply side for you. You'll need to give up some margin for that, either to the source of supply or to the person who is doing that for you. The cost of doing it that way is probably going to be a lot less than the cost of shipping it air.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's about six weeks if I do air shipping, which is cutting into my margins, but I've been doing that sometimes because I had skinny margins better than no margins. And it's more like nine weeks if I seaship it. Which I would like to do more of, just have it planned out. So I'm just receiving shipments over time versus these like rush airshipped orders.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Going to guess she doesn't order more because she doesn't have the cash. And I can definitely relate to that. And so how does she get more without having the cash? Is your inventory more like bananas or is your inventory more like wine? Is there a lot of risk in the inventory you have?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess, I mean, normally you wouldn't want to drown in unsold inventory. That's not a good recipe. Inventory management is critical for building a successful business. It doesn't sound like Meredith has this problem. It sounds like it's going in the door and out and out the other door. I don't know. I'm just thinking like why wouldn't she just order more than she thinks she needs? What do you think?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some of them I sell out when I put it up on pre sale before I even get the entire shipment. Every time I do a reorder with my manufacturer, who's amazing and to your point, Chet, I think that's a very interesting area for me to explore is like working even more closely with them and kind of how they can help me out there. We've been able to shorten the production time a little bit. But I've been sometimes doubling my orders with the manufacturer as well. And I still can't seem to keep enough in. in my house and stock”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You don't have years of historical data, obviously, because you've just started this, so you're really going to be looking at sell-through rates for like 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. Are you selling out in a specific window? Do you sell out in like three weeks or two weeks? Or do you have any data around that?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's actually Navy Blue and the Carolina Blue are our two biggest hits, but here's the thing that's unpredictable is I do a lot of team sales, which is amazing. I'll have a Division I soccer team, coach reach out and say we'd love to get them for the entire team, which is great, but maybe they'll come in and buy 40 green bags. So green will sell really quickly. And then another team will like we would buy 100 purple bags from you because our school colors are purple and I have to go and get certain color of purple manufactured. So when it comes to the specific colors that I'm making, it's really dependent on the demand that I'm getting from various teams.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have a question for you, Meredith. I mean, what are your biggest sellers? I'm looking at your website now. You've got a bunch of colors here, maybe nine different colors.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A viable financial model for them, but because of the trust we built with them, we were able to get them to build a lot of things for us and to keep them on their books, and they allowed us to pull it off of them as we needed it. We could have never afforded to have had all of that stuff on our own books. So I don't know if you'll be able to build a relationship like that. But if you can, it could be a way to solve your issue.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I really like this. I've got a granddaughter who is an avid volleyball player. I travel with her on all of her away volleyball tournaments. So I watch her and her teammates gear up first just for life. And then they re-gear up for the game and then they re-gear up again for life. So it's easy for me to envision a much more organized way to do that. So really in touch with the problem that you're solving on that side. And I love the problem that you have with the business. We had the same problem at Belkin, not enough cash, no working capital to invest in goods. So the way we solve that issue was we formed a very Very tight alliance with the person that was manufacturing our stuff. And we built a lot of trust with them. And so it wasn't.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Awesome. I want to bring in Chet again. I mean, cool product to solve clearly solving a problem for lots of people. Thoughts about Merlith's question or questions for Meredith?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Wow, that's awesome. Okay, so tell me how you designed this and then you found like a manufacturer overseas to start making them for you.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Cool. Welcome to the show, Meredith. So, designed for women athletes who need to take off their earrings or their jewelry or hair elastics. And instead of it rattling around in a pocket in a backpack, this bag is designed for those accessories.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Stay with us because after the break, we'll talk to another founder working to take their business to the next level. I'm Guy Ross, and you're listening to the advice line right here on how I built this lab. Welcome back to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Ros, and my guest today is Chet Pipkin, founder of Belkin International, and we are taking your calls. Hello, let's bring in our next caller. Hello, Caller.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's really cool. I think it could really, as I say, benefit from just some a few tweaks in the design to make it look really sleek. You know, you think about, and it's possible you guys even have this brand at your lodges, Aesop, Aesop Soaps, even the name. You think of Aesop's fables, the design is so beautiful, their botanicals. I'm not even sure if they're good for the environment or not, but it just has this feeling and this aura around it that when you use it, and I think a lot of people listening would agree, it feels luxurious. I mean, it's expensive too, but it has that feeling. And I think there's something to that.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Daniel, it's an awesome product. Congratulations. The brand's called Earth SUDS. Daniel Mole, thanks for calling in. Good luck.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was looking at neutrogena and banana boat and Hawaiian tropic and said, hey, we can make a beautiful bottle and really design the hell out of this. And I feel like this is a product that could benefit from a redesign, that could really, you really want to, I would suggest you want to think about how do you make this into a product that is really desirable, not just for people who want to do right by the environment, but for people who want something elevated and luxurious, and they get the benefit that it's good for the environment.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Being consistent with your story and your message is going to be virality, any day. This is not having a viral hit, going to an influencer, that could be fun if it works, but being consistent telling the story, speaking about this as much as you can. I'm looking at your website. It seems like you have given some speeches. I think you should keep doing that. But I keep looking at this and I keep going back to three products. Tesla, method soap and suntam lotion. Why did Method Soap work? Of course, it's in a plastic bottle, but it's because they took an environmentally friendly product, which was the soap, and they made it, they elevated it. You know, at the time, it was seventh generation, and those were the brands that they were competing against. Method really broke the mold by making it cool and luxurious. Tesla did the same thing with electric cars. They didn't invent electric cars. They just made them so awesome for people that people went to them. SunBum with suntan lotion.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That makes a lot of sense. A couple questions for you, Daniel. First of all, one of the things, one of the ways you're pitching this is it's convenient, right? You know, I'm looking at your website and says, hair-embodied tablets for life's adventures, but you could do something like, you know, your shampoo now in the same convenient format as a laundry tablet. But again, I'm not convinced that convenience is why people are going to pick this. I travel a lot, and I'm perfectly happy to use the shampoo in the hotels, especially in a nice hotel, just to try it. But here's what I think that you may want to think. First of all,”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I'm curious because you mentioned something that I think we both agree on. This does solve a problem that a lot of people have, whether they're environmentally conscious and they want to be better stewards of the planet, or they just don't want to travel through TSA with a bunch of stuff, right? But I will say they are loyal to their brands of shampoo. So how would you start to get people to think about something like this, which is not a known brand, to try and adopt it?”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, cool. Good question. I want to bring in Chet Pipkin. Chet, cool product, right? I mean, this is kind of awesome.”
2025-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Chet Pipkin of Belkin International · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT