YouSaid · the spoken record

John Stein

lines on the record: 86
first: 2026-02-05
most recent: 2026-02-05
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

“At 12 by 24 room in my basement, there's also a washer and dryer in the same room. And it's ridiculous some of the things that I've done, that I have no business doing in that space, but I'm doing what I can with what I have.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Awesome, Mike. Thanks for calling in. All right, so you have got a woodworking, you do like custom furniture, and these are like tables and cabinets and desks and things like that. And you do everything yourself?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's bring our next caller. Welcome to the advice line. You're on with John Stein. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a line or two about your business, please.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, for sure. All right, we're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with another caller 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 my guest today is John Stein. He's the founder of Betterment, and we are taking your calls. And John, you ready for our next caller?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't use it as much as I thought it would, you know, because it's such a part of the culture there. It's something people do every day. And here, you know, The challenge is making it kind of fit in or adapting it for the art culture in America, right? But he seems to be on a good path.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the Mate category, you got something really interesting here, and you've got a great brand, so good luck, man. Good luck, Dan. Thanks so much for calling in. Heretic Yarba is the brand. Keep us posted.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think you're right to be excited long term about the energy drinks. I just get excited thinking about that and how you could really define a category. But I want to see you funding. That sounds expensive too to get that out there and distribute a packaged product like that. And I think you're being smart by finding near-end ways to fund that through current sales.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we've been working on a couple different coffee shops to have Yebamante, but for somebody to brew it, like a barista just takes too long. So we have a formulator working on a Yerbamante concentrate that would be treated just like a chai. So it would be in a 32 ounce cardboard thing. And if Fabris is making a mate latte or an ice matte or a hot mate, they can do it within seconds rather than four minutes.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then down the road, you want to think about. I love this idea of a concentrate because I'm imagining you would just pour a few drops or a tablespoon into a cup of hot water. Is that how it's going to work?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dan, you have a strong DTC site from what I can see. It looks great. The branding is strong. And you could think about your presence in stores, even if the economics aren't as what you'd want them to be as a little bit of a customer acquisition strategy and like getting it in front of people and then think about the retention and the second order is coming through the website”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, what's also interesting is your name is heretic. It reminds me a little bit of liquid death, which one of the great successes of liquid death is the community that it built around the brand, where you can sell your soul to the devil and in return you get a t-shirt, right? So if you're doing farmers' markets, you really want to capture emails. You want to get people to, like if you have a club or something like that, to kind of create that community around the brand, which I think is going to be really powerful.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think to your question around channels, Dan, I've seen firsthand at betterment and at other companies that I've advised over the years how too many simultaneous growth paths can dilute focus, even if they're all promising and maybe they're all things you want to do in the long run. I think you can sequence things. You can pick a primary lane for this current next chapter or next six months. You decide the term. But as a rule of thumb, I always advise founders to pick one thing and go deep on it personally for a while. So like you as the driving force behind this, like I want you to be hands-on on the channel that you You don't have to try and be perfect at everything, right? On day one. I like the sequ”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so that's really what when people come to us, that's kind of what I'm pitching to them. It's like get away from the energy drinks and all the sugar and start drinking this. This is so much better for you.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I'm looking at your bags, and it says question your caffeine at the top, which I think is interesting, and I think you may want to lean into that just from a branding. I know your question's entirely about branding, but from a branding perspective, it seems like you can really lean into that harder. This is the go-to non-coffee alternative caffeine platform. Maybe it doesn't give you the same jitteriness or acid. I love coffee, but you're right. I mean, there's a lot of acidity. And so it seems like that's something you want to lean into just from a branding perspective on your website, on your packaging, that it's a, let's say, cleaner. I'm conflicted about this word cleaner, but maybe that's the way you kind of frame it, a sort of a cleaner way to get caffeine and a less aggressive way to get caffeine, something like that.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it strikes me that what you sell is a caffeine delivery beverage, right? It's like an alternative caffeine platform. You're calling it Yerba. You don't even call it mate, right? Because people who know about mate know that it requires a gourd and there's a ritual and there's certain temperature and a metal straw. And it seems like you're trying to make this really accessible through it. Just make it.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Your question about channels. If you had to pick one of these channels to be the engine and think about the others as just proof points, which would you want to be the real growth engine for you over the next 12 to 18 months?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I loved it. I loved, you know, I loved the difference of it. I loved the ritual of it. Exactly. There's some ritual around it. And what stands out to me, Dan, is that you're not just selling mate. You're really reframing the category for an American consumer, right? I'm checking out your site as you're talking, and it looks like, I like how you're talking about using a pour over or a French press and things like this, like making it more accessible for this market.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Want to say first, Dan, that I spent a semester in college living in South America, and most of that time I was in Uruguay. And I took up mate drinking there myself. I brought home one of the gourd mate.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, all right, great questions. Johnson, I want to bring you in. Any thoughts or questions for Dan before we tackle his question”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we're at the point now where we have several strong growth paths opening up at once if different channels are loosely business, the energy drinks. We're working on coffee shop concentrate. Each one of them have different potential, but also need different expertise, capital, and timing. How do founders decide what to focus on first and how much to invest in each path without losing focus, slowing momentum, or spreading ourselves too thin?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Alright, it's a particularly interesting product because NGO did a lot of work to educate American consumers on what Year Bamate is because they had to spend like 20 years explaining it. So people, a lot of people know what it is. But how did you get into it?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, cool. Welcome to the show, Dan, Heretic Yearba. So, Yerba Mate, we did Guayaki on this show. It's a pretty big national brand. It is a tea mainly grown like Brazil and Argentina, right?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, for sure. All right, we'll cross our fingers. We don't have a market crash soon. Why don't we take our first call? And maybe we can give some advice that will be helpful and could avoid Anxiety. What do you think? Let's do it. All right, let's go. Let's welcome our first caller to the advice line along with John Stein, founder of Betterment. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and just a little bit about your business, please.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Family footage that my great grandfather and great grandfather were taking on these old 16 millimeter reels. And it's black and white without sound. The incredible thing is life goes on. Here they are at clam bake in 1935. Here they are on vacation in their car. And it's a good reminder that despite the headlines, life goes on. And people continue to find things to do, and there's still markets for great ideas and great products.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I read the Andrew R. Sarkins podcast. Really enjoyed it. And it was a good reminder that for the decade after, things were shaky, but business was still moving. People were still starting things. People had to. I've also been watching old. I got a bunch of old reels that I found at my grandmother's house converted to digital. And I've been watching this footage from the 1930s.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're exactly right. I felt really lucky, and we talked a lot about this on the 2018 episode, to have started when we did. It was a time when maybe other firms weren't entering financial services and when the conditions were right. Right now, I think there are opportunities for people to get started, especially when other people are fearful. And I've been reading about, say, the period of 1929 and the great stock market. Yes, we've all read for.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A question about starting a business in sort of uncertain economic times, because you started this during a downturn. You started this in the financial crisis period, when a lot of people were like, what? You want to start an investment for what are you doing, but actually in many ways it was the right time to start because it was sort of the bottom of the market. And I hear from young people that I'm hearing it again and again, that the idea of starting business seems scary right now. There's so much uncertainty, but I wonder how you sort of think about starting a business during a moment like this where we just don't know what we're heading.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“100%. And I hear fear in a lot of different ways. There's fear of choosing the wrong advisor. There's fear of what that advisor will do once you hire them. There's fear of what's going on in the world, the kind of macro fears that you're talking about. But over the long term, just staying invested in a diversified portfolio is really the best thing that folks like you and me can generally do.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I mean, especially this moment where I think so many people have anxiety about what's going to happen with the markets because it's been kind of an insane year. And a lot of people are worried that the markets are overvalued and that unemployment is going up and that this proliferation of AI is going to maybe increase productivity, but also increase unemployment. And so there's a lot of concern. You're hearing a lot of noise.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly right. And it naturally limits the options that people get to see. And there are great advisor options out there, but they're really hard to find. And with Zoom, you can now see anybody in the country. You can find somebody who's really sympathetic with you, who understands your specific needs and goals. And so we're building the definitive directory of financial advisors. It just, it sounds so obvious. I can't believe it doesn't already exist. And our goal with all of this is to help consumers make really informed, thoughtful choices, and to reward advisors who are doing great work.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I've always loved the early stage and solving hard customer problems. And I feel like I've stumbled into another really challenging one. I've noticed that investing advice has improved a lot over the past decade since BetterMet launched. But how we find those advisors really hasn't changed. It hasn't kept up Today, financial advisor Discovery still runs on referrals, not data. So roughly.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a really, really great offering and service, and congrats. And you're not, of course, she mentioned, you're at the CEO, you left in 2020, but you are still the chairman and you're on the board of directors. All right, so you have built, or you're starting another business. Can you tell us a little bit about this new business that you've been working on?”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Great to have you. Your first on the show, we told the story betterment in 2018. It's an awesome story, and we will drop a link to that episode in the show notes. So check it out if you missed it. The story basically started in 2008 after the financial crisis when you had been working for a firm and you kind of got laid off and had to start again. And basically you pioneered this business model. You wanted to give ordinary investors access to the kind of advice that they would get from a financial advisor, but for a fraction of the fee. And so for people who don't know about veterment, you guys kind of simplified things by using algorithms mixed with Robo and Human Advisors. And I think, John, I just checked, I think today you guys, Betterman manages something like almost $60 billion in asset.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hello and welcome to the advice line on how I built this lab. I'm Guy Ross. This is the place where we help try to solve your business challenges each week. I'm joined by a legendary founder, a former guest on the show, who will help me try to help you. And if you're building something and you need advice, give us a call and you just might be the next guest on the show. Our number is 1-800-433-1298. Leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and the issues or questions that you'd like help with. All right, let's get to it. Joining me this week is Betterment, founder and chair John Stein. John, welcome back to the show.”
2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
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2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
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2026-02-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Jon Stein of Betterment · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT