Advice Line with Steve Ells of Chipotle
4/9/202643 min
Today’s callers: Rebecca from Australia wants to make her small-batch spirits stand out in a crowded market. Then, Sri from England wonders how to balance commercial and humanitarian interests for her heated mats. And John from Pennsylvania hopes to reach younger customers with his Italian wines despite declining alcohol consumption.
Plus, Steve talks about the evolving role of robots in food service—and how he hopes to find his next rocketship in a fresh take on the sandwich shop.
Thank you to the founders of Streaky Bay Distillers, Mat Zero, and Cantina Di Rosina for being a part of our show.
If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298.
And be sure to listen to Chipotle’s founding story as told by Steve on the show in 2017.
This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez.
You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy's free newsletter at guyraz.com and on Substack.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Guy Raz· Host0:29
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to the Advice Line on How I Built This Lab. I'm Guy Raz. 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 one-eight hundred-four three three-one two nine eight. 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 today is Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle. Steve, welcome back to the show. Uh, thanks for coming back on.
Steve Ells· Guest1:14
Guy, it's great to be here again. Good to see you.
Guy Raz· Host1:16
Uh, Steve, you've been on the show twice, uh, the first time way back in twenty seventeen when you told us, of course, the origin story of Chipotle, how you were working in a high-end restaurant in San Francisco, and basically you had this idea