YouSaid · the spoken record

Perry Chen

lines on the record: 78
first: 2025-06-12
most recent: 2025-06-12
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

“And then with any of these cases, selling it in whole, maybe selling a controlling stake, and then you keep some stock if a buyer is willing to do that, or bringing in somebody who kind of will lead operations and lets you kind of slide down to what you want. And maybe you'll have a little space to work on what might be next for you. Imagine those scenarios, what are you really gonna need? What do you really want? And maybe that comes in a few forums that could come in an acquisition form, it could come in the form of somebody who's coming on as more of a business partner.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And no shade to Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, who's no longer involved in the company, but he's a fit guy, but he certainly doesn't look like a Lululemon model. And I think if Chip was listening to this right now, he would agree. So you don't necessarily have to look like that. But I do think Jessie, you have answered Perry's question. I think that you really want to move on. I mean, it sounds to me like you're ready for the next challenge. It sounds to me like you want to try something new. I do think it's worth exploring either a sale or trying to find somebody willing to take a risk in exchange for significant ownership to see what they can do with this brand.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think that it really has to come from what you want. There is no better question than just keep asking yourself. It's not an easy question. You know, some people got into their business and they're trying to really, they want to get into the optimal window for sale to sell it and they're willing to stay in the business as long as that takes because that's why they got into the business. Other people, it seems like yourself, you were just like, look, I'm into this seems like better than what I'm doing economically and I'll just see where this takes me. And now you're kind of maybe you seem to have success. You bootstrapped it, it sounds like. I'd say that, you know, for an imposter, you sure seem like you know what you're doing.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I like that idea of finding a CEO to come in who maybe has done this before is scaled kind of to the next level because I always feel like there's some silver bullet that everyone knows that I don't and I'm just out there trying to find it and if we got the right person in there they would you know triple our revenue overnight. And maybe that's true. Maybe it isn't. But I do feel that there probably is someone better suited to take us there.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You just have itchy feet. I mean, you've been doing this, it's been fun, but you'd rather move on. I mean, there are a couple of options. I mean, option one is, again, to sort of go the dollar shave club route or the halo top route is just to find a buyer. There are these websites where you can post your company as a target for acquisition range, I think is one of them. The other is to find a professional or quote-unquote professional CEO, give them significant equity, and say, look, here are the metrics. If you can get our business up to X dollars or X revenue, and we can sell it for X, Y, or Z based on these metrics, you get this, this, this, or that, that could also be an interesting thing to do, which would enable you to kind of step away from the day-to-day running the business. But of course, you would give up some equity to somebody who you had confidence in.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think there's two parts to that. One is the imposter syndrome part. I mean, I'm not the face of health and wellness. I love my beer and my pizza. I'm not this ultra biohacker kind of guy that most of the coal plunging community is. So there's some of that of just, you know, am I the right person to lead it when I don't know that I totally fit our target demographic perfectly? And then the other component is kind of what you're saying that I think starting Mata, pivoting to coal plunging, like all of that was so fun. I think running the business, trying to scale it kind of operating it, I've not enjoyed to the same level that I enjoy starting something. So I do kind of have an itch to go start something else entirely.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want to just like dive a little bit deeper into the kind of you were saying a little bit of as potential imposter syndrome how much of that is that you're just like you want to do right by the the business and you don't want to obviously start to get into areas where you're not you may not be the right person for that and how much of that might be that you're kind of getting a feeling that like look that's not who I am or where I want to be spending my time You're really like I'd be happy to let somebody kind of come in here and knows what they're doing and you could focus on the things that you want to focus on.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think that's one thing about it is that we love it. We would love the community. We love the culture. It's a lot of people who care about their health, who are willing to do the hard thing of cold plunging, which builds resilience. So we're still having a lot of fun with it, which is another factor that kind of plays into our decisions to sell or to take on money or kind of what's next.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Makes me think of two episodes, many episodes of the show. One is Therabody. Theragon was their sort of hero product, and Jason Worsland found somebody to partner with him who kind of became the CEO. And they turned that into a sort of a lifestyle brand, right? And then the other one that I think of is some of these brands like SoloStove. Again, very successful product. The co-founders hit a certain level and they brought in a sort of a quote-unquote professional CEO to really build the company with the idea of selling it in two or three years. So some interesting ideas. Quick question for you. How did you, I mean, you've got some great momentum, and I should mention the benefits of coal plunging are well known on your metabolism.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we turn down a credible offer last year. At the time, we felt like it was too low. And I think as time's gone on, I've maybe realized the offer was better than I originally thought. It's a tough industry. I mean, we essentially sell one SKU that people buy one time. So it's hard to sustain a business with that model. So, you know, we really need to launch new products or be a part of a catalog of other products who sell gym equipment and other kind of wellness modalities.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's a good question. I think I've felt a lot of Maybe where I feel like I'm towards the edge of my rope, or I've taken it as far as I can go, and now I feel just this pressure or maybe some imposter syndrome of like, man, I'm not the face of this health and wellness company. I'm not sure if I can take it to the next step. It might be better in someone else's hands. And I'm kind of wrestling through some of that just insecurities I need to push through to keep growing the company or is that indicative of, you know, maybe it really is a good time to go of some control and get. Get some more outside perspective.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we're a little over three years in and have had a lot of fun building this. I get to do this with my brother. But lately we've been getting approached by people interested in potentially buying ModTub or investing in ModTub. So looking for advice to know if and when is the right time to go down one of those paths.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Amazing. Okay, lots of questions for you, but before we get to Perry, bring them in. Tell me what your question is for us today.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's one thing that makes this different from a lot of coal plunges out there today. A lot of them are bought and resold or dropshipped from overseas, but we make these ourselves. We designed it. My brother and I would tinker in my garage every Friday, trying different fittings, different pumps, different tubs. And eventually landed on the design we have today.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so you switch from hot tubs to coal plungers. It makes a lot of sense because it's a hot trend, and I think we'll become more than just a trend. Did you design these tubs?”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so we launched ModTeb in February of 22, and it started from the side business in my garage refurbishing used hot tubs. It was a random thing I got into. My wife and I bought our first house and we wanted a hot tub, but we were poor, so we bought this junky old hot tub off Craigslist. I just really enjoyed working on it. I enjoyed fixing it. I've been refurbishing it in my garage. Led us to start mod tub originally as a new hot tub company, so we would a dealer essentially selling new hot tubs. That business was very hard and we had a very tough year, but we saw the rise of cold plunge. And because of all I knew about hot tubs, we were able to make our own coal plunge out of my garage. And I kind of took off from there.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All right, let's talk about a little bit about how you started this business. Tell me the background, the quick background story.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Awesome. Jesse, welcome to the show. Thanks for calling in Mod Tub. Okay, so these are like a round hot tub. Like, what does it look like?”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hey, what's up, guys? I'm Perry. My name is Jesse Hodge from Dallas, Texas, and I'm the co-founder of ModTeb. ModTeb manufactures and sells coal plunges direct to consumer in these coal plunges keep the water cold and clean with no need for ice.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. All right. Well, Perry, why don't we go ahead and take our first caller? You ready? All right, hello, caller. Welcome to the advice line you're on with Perry Chen, co-founder of Kickstarter. Tell us your name, where you're calling from, and a little bit about your business.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One, there's people that have existing audiences that they can start the promotion on. If your audience is much smaller, you're trying to tap into things that have existing communities. If you're doing a documentary film on a subject, let's say on autism, you may not have a built-in audience as a filmmaker or that may be limited, but you can go try to promote that in communities online where people gather around that topic. So whatever that is, whatever area of what you're doing, I think that You're really trying to think to try to understand how big is my audience here. You're probably trying to think is like, what communities exist that I can go to and say, hey, I'm doing something that might already interest you.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Perry, before we get to the callers, I suspect that many today are going to have questions about raising money, right? Just to fund a business. And I'm just curious, I mean, what are some of the projects that do really well on Kickstarter? Like, what is the pitch that people make that attracts more capital”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so it's like each of these radical changes that we are going through, I think as long as it continues to open up opportunity for people, not just close up opportunity, I think then that's just normal change. We are just experiencing it in like such a condensed, rapid fashion.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think, okay, this is my sort of back of the envelope guy in the corner of the bar's theory, but I think we are on the cusp of a different era, like we're leaving the industrial age and we're entering, or maybe we've already entered it, but with AI, it's a completely new age. And I think that in the not too distant future, it's going to be difficult to discern what is AI generated and what's human generated in certain creative spaces, music and books, even podcasts, even what I'm doing now. I want to get your take on building a business around being creative because that's really what Kickstarter initially enabled people to do. Do you think that the future of earning a living by being creative is under threat?”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and it's great to be back. And I was chairman last time I came. Now I'm off the board completely. I went from CEO, stayed on as chairman for many years, then was just a board member, brought on a new chairman, and then really as of about six months ago, I am now liberated. And so after that, after I left a CEO, I went into the art world and I did some shows with some galleries and even a few things at museums. But I have since returned to music my first love. And so the music stuff is kind of still, it's under wraps. But it's been going really well, and this is now where I put my energy.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Alright, so you are first on how I built this back in 2017. And if you guys haven't heard that episode, of course, we will put a link in the episode description. Perry got the idea for Kickstarter when he tried to put on a concert in New Orleans in the early 2000s, and he thought, hey, wouldn't it be great if we could fund this event in advance? Well, that idea never panned out, but after almost a decade of kind of refining it, Perry built a platform that today has funded more than a quarter of a million projects, Perry, it is such an awesome story. And before we get to our callers today, can you give us an update on what you're doing these days? I know the last time you were on the show, this was back during the pandemic, you were no longer the CEO of Kickstarter. You were the chairman of the board. Tell us a little bit about what's going on in your life right now.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's get to it. Joining me this week is Perry Chan. He's the co founder of Kickstarter. Perry, it's great to have you back on the show.”
2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
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2025-06-12 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Advice Line with Perry Chen of Kickstarter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT