{"podcast":{"title":"How I Built This with Guy Raz","slug":"how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","podcast_index_feed_id":714258,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/how-i-built-this","website_url":"https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/?utm_source=rss","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/56/ae/46/57/56ae4657-2aa7-4cfc-8ddf-9be24410d5ed/a42755c24a721ea0aaed99c400150d8e67da266430f4bf312684a4bd64e5a1b2f4be14f56746ce0633855e356d7a41a0973d96be2dd0f1d4a174bbe7f456aa4e.jpeg","author":"Guy Raz | Wondery","episode_count":842,"summary":"Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success. How I Built This is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds. New episodes release on Mondays and Thursdays.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T16:17:51.485190+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258"},"episode":{"title":"iRobot: Colin Angle. How The Roomba Became a Household Icon","slug":"irobot-colin-angle-how-the-roomba-became-a-household-icon","published_at":"2026-04-13T07:10:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/irobot-colin-angle-how-the-roomba-became-a-household-icon","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258","url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/412c1dc3-6528-4197-b34a-8c57fa24d806.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/412c1dc3-6528-4197-b34a-8c57fa24d806.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"Colin Angle didn’t start out trying to clean people’s floors. He started out trying to shape the future–with robots.  In the early days of iRobot, there was no business model. No steady funding. No clear customer. Just a belief that robotic technology would one day make the world a better place.  In the early days, the company built babbling toy dolls for Hasbro, and roving bomb-detectors for the military. But for more than a decade… nothing truly took off.  Until one idea—a robot vacuum—finally did.  With the Roomba, iRobot created a category from scratch, and a product that felt almost like a member of the family. Tens of millions of units sold, and the Roomba became part of popular culture.  But to avoid stagnation, iRobot had to sell to a bigger company. When a lucrative deal with Amazon fell through, the company hit a wall–and never recovered.    This is a story about building a business in survival mode, creating a household icon, and eventually getting bested by forces beyond your control.  What You’ll Learn  How to launch a company when you’re not sure who your customers are Why iRobot engineers underestimated marketing (and paid for it later) How piles of Cheerios helped sell the Roomba How iRobot shored up customer loyalty when the Roomba faltered  Why even a hero product is not enough to sustain a company How competition–and regulation–can unravel a business Timestamps  7:25 - “What have you built?”: The robotics lab job application. 12:25 - iRobot’s early business model: contracts, not consumers. 25:05 - Breaking into the toy market: The doll with a mind of its own. 36:10 - A key cleaning insight: people will pay hundreds—but only if it vacuums. 39:10 - The office Cheerios demo that won a reta…","meta_description":"Colin Angle didn’t start out trying to clean people’s floors. He started out trying to shape the future–with robots. In the early days of iRobot, th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3793,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/episodes/irobot-colin-angle-how-the-roomba-became-a-household-icon/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz-714258/irobot-colin-angle-how-the-roomba-became-a-household-icon.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}