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I request a

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see there was nobody was

2:32

next to me so I

2:35

was watching People magazine and

2:37

we hit the lift off

2:40

speed 165 mile per hour

2:42

and my portion of the

2:44

plane was up in the

2:46

air and then here's this

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what the heck is

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that? Obviously, something really

2:56

bad happened. Welcome

3:04

to How I Built This, a show

3:06

about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists,

3:09

and the stories

3:11

behind the movements

3:13

they built. I'm Guy Ross and on

3:15

the show today how William Wong

3:18

lost his first business, almost

3:20

lost his life, and then

3:22

built one of the best-selling

3:25

television brands in the country,

3:27

Visio. There

3:36

are a number of ways to

3:38

break into a crowded market. One

3:40

of them is through branding. You

3:43

differentiate by creating a culture around

3:45

the product, kind of like how

3:47

liquid death managed to break into

3:50

the $300 billion bottled water category.

3:52

Another way is to just price

3:54

your product so comparatively low that

3:57

consumers notice. So for example, Perry's

3:59

razors. which were designed to compete

4:01

against more expensive brands like

4:03

Gillette. And this is the

4:05

playbook that William Wong used, not

4:08

once, but twice. The first

4:10

time was in the 1990s,

4:12

when he built a company that

4:14

made cheap, high-quality computer monitors.

4:16

Even though big players like

4:18

IBM dominated the category, William managed

4:21

to undercut their price and

4:23

build a pretty significant business.

4:25

That is, until the bottom fell

4:27

out, and the company went

4:29

broke. But that didn't stop him

4:31

from trying again. The next time

4:34

was with flat screen TVs.

4:36

In the early 2000s, a

4:38

flat screen TV would set you

4:40

back $13,000 to $15,000. But

4:42

William believed that with the right

4:45

efficiencies, he could build a flat

4:47

screen TV and sell it

4:49

for under $3,000. His brand

4:51

was called Visio and within just

4:54

a few years he built

4:56

it into a massive business that

4:58

now sells smart TVs soundbars and

5:00

targeted ads on its own

5:02

platform. In 2024 Visio was

5:04

acquired by Walmart for 2.3 billion

5:07

dollars and if all of

5:09

that weren't enough of a story

5:11

as you will hear when William

5:14

was already reeling from debt

5:16

incurred when his first business

5:18

failed He experienced something even more

5:20

catastrophic. A plane crash. In

5:22

the year 2000, he survived a

5:24

horrific accident during a typhoon, which

5:27

killed scores of his fellow

5:29

passengers. He flew safely home

5:31

a few days later and then

5:33

started the company that would

5:35

become bizio. William Wong was born

5:38

in the early 1960s in Taiwan.

5:40

When he was 14, his

5:42

family settled in Southern California,

5:44

where adjusting to American life was

5:47

hard. For starters, William... barely

5:49

spoke any English. It's hard. I

5:51

know friend, I and don't know

5:53

anybody's tough as a kid.

5:55

You know, I want to

5:57

try out sports. I had no

6:00

idea how to do it.

6:02

And of course, I failed. You

6:04

know, just difficult. Were there a

6:07

lot of Chinese kids around

6:09

when you were growing up?

6:11

No. No, I have 78 came

6:13

to a Huntington Beach and

6:15

a little upscale neighborhood. Now very

6:17

upscale, but back in 78 was

6:20

I think middle class, but

6:22

you grew up, you know,

6:24

complete outsider. But I imagine that

6:26

your parents had high expectations

6:28

for you because they made a

6:31

big sacrifice to come to the

6:33

United States and to start

6:35

over. Is that fair to

6:37

say that they expected a lot

6:39

out of you? Well, having

6:41

good Chinese parents, of course they

6:44

want me to get a PhD

6:46

or something. Yeah. I was

6:48

always an expectation. So in

6:50

high school, because it does connect.

6:53

you know, for a couple

6:55

years. My GPA was, it's okay,

6:57

you know, my mass is pretty

7:00

good. Of course, my English

7:02

was poor and I think

7:04

my GPA in high school was

7:06

like 3.3. But respectable, respectable.

7:08

Yeah, so my GPA wasn't good

7:10

enough for a Stanford, Berkeley, but

7:13

somehow I did, I got

7:15

into USC and my mom.

7:17

She highly recommended to become an

7:19

engineer because, you know, the

7:21

high pay jobs are all engineers

7:24

and like $30,000 a year. So

7:26

I got into electrical engineer

7:28

at USC, which is kind

7:30

of not my personal favorite. I

7:32

want to be, I like

7:34

art. I want to be a,

7:37

I want to be an architect.

7:39

But It's all right. I

7:41

think, uh, I don't know

7:43

any better too and just follow

7:46

my mom's guidance and advice.

7:48

Yeah. Yes. So, and by the

7:50

way, I mean, today, a 3.3,

7:52

you would not get into

7:54

USC, right? much harder to

7:57

get into. I don't even think

7:59

you're getting USC at 4.3

8:01

now. No, it's very hard. It's

8:03

completely changed. But why is decision

8:06

you made? Because you've got

8:08

a USC degree, which is

8:10

a very prestigious degree. And from

8:12

what I understand, out of

8:14

college, you get a job working

8:17

for a company that made computer

8:19

monitors. I guess you were,

8:21

it was like a sales

8:23

job. Is that right? Yeah, technical

8:25

support. It's a Taiwanese company.

8:27

It's called Dachung. It's the biggest

8:30

consumer electronic company in Taiwan. Yeah,

8:32

Dachun, right? I remember. Yeah,

8:34

they're famous for rice cookers.

8:36

Didn't they have a commercial, dot,

8:39

dot, dot, dot? Didn't they

8:41

have that commercial on TV? Yeah,

8:43

very good. Yeah, we grew out

8:45

with that commercial. And so

8:47

I was hired as the

8:49

first technical support slash customer service.

8:52

because it's first of all

8:54

I was born in Taiwan so

8:56

I know their culture I speak

8:59

the language so they hired

9:01

her army pretty cheap I

9:03

mean it wasn't thirty thousand dollar

9:05

year was my salary was

9:07

one thousand seven hundred fifty bucks

9:10

a month and and my boss

9:12

say hey you're pretty good

9:14

at telling the story of

9:16

why the computer monitor should be

9:18

better what's our monitor patterns

9:20

why did you try sales? So

9:23

I say, okay, I'll give a

9:25

shot. So you're really focused

9:27

on now in sales, selling

9:29

Vatun computer monitors, but I guess

9:32

around four years into it,

9:34

you're 25, 26, maybe 27, I

9:36

don't know, you get frustrated there

9:38

and you decide to leave

9:40

and start your own monitor

9:42

company. Tell me the story about

9:45

that. What was going on?

9:47

Yeah, there were multiple reasons. Oh,

9:49

it's 26 years, though. And, uh...

9:52

I was so jealous. Every

9:54

Saturday when they had this

9:56

management class, only the senior manager

9:58

can 10. I say, how

10:00

come I was invited? I want

10:02

to know more. So I went

10:05

to my boss, say, can

10:07

I go, can I do

10:09

that? He said, no, no, you're

10:11

too young. I already got

10:13

promoted from like nobody to director

10:16

of sales marketing at that time.

10:18

I say, Okay, but you

10:20

guys know nothing about this

10:22

business. So I know better than

10:25

all of you, I should

10:27

be the nice in line to

10:29

be a VP. And then my

10:31

boss's boss says, no, you

10:33

need more time. And when

10:35

my previous VP left, and I

10:38

saw definitely on the next

10:40

in line, and he went to

10:42

do something else on his own.

10:45

All of a sudden, he

10:47

dropped somebody else to replace

10:49

him. Who know nothing about computer

10:51

monitor and I think I

10:53

just think he's it was a

10:55

whimp And I say I can't

10:58

work for this guy at

11:00

the same time I really

11:02

found in love with the computer

11:04

monitor industry and I know

11:06

this industry farewell I know the

11:09

problem was the industry at that

11:11

time the computer monitor The

11:13

spec on the monitor was

11:15

fully controlled by IBM right based

11:18

on their specs because IBM's

11:20

dominated the PC market. Yeah, exactly.

11:22

Or IBM clones. Yeah. Yeah, everything

11:24

is called IBM compatible. Compatible,

11:26

yes. They use the TV

11:28

interlacing technology to do computer monitor.

11:31

I look at it as

11:33

a, you're gonna this is not

11:35

good for a consumer. The resolution

11:38

is too low. Are you

11:40

gonna kill people's eyes? And

11:42

I look at it as it's

11:44

flickering, right? It's refreshing that

11:46

30 hertz. Meaning three times a

11:48

second. And just for simplicity reasons

11:51

here, this is the frequency,

11:53

right, that powers the cycles

11:55

right here. Yeah, right. And so

11:57

60 hertz would mean a.

11:59

better quality monitor essentially in show

12:02

you know 60 hertz meaning just

12:04

for every second each screen

12:06

refresh 60 right there's less

12:08

lag there's no lag yeah exactly

12:10

so right I just I

12:12

couldn't take it I say there's a

12:15

golden opportunity to build something a

12:17

little better you can easily turn

12:19

into 60 hertz it's not hard

12:21

you just spend a little bit

12:23

more money so I went all

12:25

the way out to the chairman

12:27

of the company dot on he

12:29

told me Who's your customer? I

12:31

say, we'll build it. Customer will

12:33

come. Say, no, we're IBM. Everybody

12:35

else is not our customer. We

12:37

don't want to build it. So

12:39

he shot me down. So that's one

12:41

of the main reasons. Again, I

12:43

left. I say, I'm going to

12:45

build it myself. If IBM want

12:47

to build this, my company will

12:49

build that. This is the classic

12:51

story. You know, the young upstartard

12:54

has an idea. They bring it

12:56

to the boss. the boss says

12:58

no and the upstart gets frustrated

13:00

and they leave and that's basically

13:02

what happened right yeah you said all

13:04

right I'm gonna try to figure this out

13:06

myself this is 1990 what is that I

13:08

mean first of all how did you even

13:11

get the money to start a

13:13

computer monitoring monitor I guess you

13:15

had experience now you knew where

13:17

the factories were in Taiwan you

13:20

knew kind of had an understanding

13:22

of how they are manufactured but

13:24

you still needed money and in

13:27

1990 to raise the money wasn't

13:29

easy. Who did you go to?

13:31

At the time, Dauton was also

13:34

buying from other suppliers. So I

13:36

got pretty lucky because I know

13:38

all the factories. And one of

13:40

the suppliers was built for

13:43

Dauton, which I know very

13:45

well. They're hungry like me.

13:48

And they're pretty much a

13:50

similar age. And he raised

13:52

a lot of money to do

13:54

their own. computer monitor manufacturing. So

13:57

wait, so this person you're talking

13:59

about. This person you pitched your

14:01

idea to, he was like a

14:04

supplier or a factory owner in

14:06

China? Yeah, so the opportunity I

14:08

presented, they say, God, we want

14:11

to do that, right? So they're

14:13

very entrepreneurial in spirit, and they

14:15

say, oh, yeah, if you do

14:18

this, I gave you $150,000. Right.

14:20

So you gave me $150,000. So

14:22

you gave me $150,000. So I

14:25

went to my dad and I

14:27

put together $50,000. Some of them

14:29

from my dad, some of them

14:32

from my own saving after four

14:34

years are working. Then after I

14:36

told my boss and my boss

14:39

is I'm leaving. The funny part

14:41

was my boss is the boss,

14:43

the chairman of the company of

14:46

Daton US. He said, oh, well,

14:48

yeah, we really like you. I

14:50

think you're definitely worthwhile to investing.

14:53

So he gave me $150,000. Wow.

14:55

You know, I've, you know, 27

14:57

years old, I found $350,000 and,

15:00

uh, I just started the business.

15:02

Don't understand a balance sheet, don't

15:04

understand an income statement. Never run

15:07

a company in my life. Wow.

15:09

All right, so you start, so

15:11

you start your business, uh, to

15:13

make competing monitors, better monitors. It's

15:16

called, you call it MAG Inovision,

15:18

I think. Yes. This is I

15:20

mean it's a kind of a

15:23

fortuitous time because 1990 I mean

15:25

This is really people think of

15:27

the 80s as a time when

15:30

The PC boom really happened, but

15:32

it was really the 90s when

15:34

so many more people brought personal

15:37

computers into their homes in part

15:39

because the internet was coming and

15:41

Windows made it easier to use

15:44

PCs before in the in the

15:46

80s. It was Doss, you know,

15:48

and and so now in the

15:51

90s ordinary people without a lot

15:53

of skills could figure out how

15:55

to use a Windows PC, meaning

15:58

lots of people needed monitors. So

16:00

if there was one standard, which

16:02

was the... the IBM specs and

16:05

you could improve on it, you

16:07

could stand out, I guess, right?

16:09

Yes, absolutely. There was the crazy

16:12

time in this industry. I mean,

16:14

back then, if you can't build

16:16

cat monitor, you would sell them

16:19

out. And if you can't build...

16:21

Oh, God, the PC person computer

16:23

was in great demand. Yeah. and

16:26

they're getting cheaper and you know

16:28

so right I mean all things

16:30

see for happening cheaper you can't

16:33

get in that monitor you can't

16:35

get in on memory chips and

16:37

the technology was growing that is

16:39

such a rapid speed you went

16:42

on the hard drive went from

16:44

can make to 20 make to

16:46

50 to you know just yeah

16:49

non-star innovation from in the 90s

16:51

for a personal computer and this

16:53

whole industry was was on fire

16:56

In your case, where were you

16:58

selling the monitors? Were you selling

17:00

them through retail stores or were

17:03

you selling them to PC makers

17:05

as a bundle? Like where they

17:07

would just, they would sell it

17:10

with their computers. I found a

17:12

really key customer called Gateway. Gateway,

17:14

yeah, sure. Yeah, because we're the

17:17

same age. And I used to

17:19

go visit with them a lot.

17:21

And what do you think like?

17:24

What's a better technology? lower price.

17:26

Better technology, lower price. And they

17:28

were able to make PC cheaper

17:31

by selling direct because they were

17:33

mail older. There won't e-commerce. There

17:35

was no e-commerce back then, but

17:38

they were mail-order. So they bypassed

17:40

everybody by making the computer so

17:42

much cheaper. So they became one

17:45

of my biggest customer and whatever

17:47

they sold. So all right, so

17:49

Gateway is the biggest customer like

17:52

80% of your sales? Yeah, I

17:54

was say 70 80% Wow, okay.

17:56

This is this is key because

17:59

I think within six years you

18:01

guys are doing six $100 million

18:03

in revenue. So you really like

18:06

caught a wave here. I mean

18:08

this was massively growing, massively fast.

18:10

You had 400 employees for MAG

18:12

innovation. Just very briefly, William, how

18:15

were you able to make a

18:17

cheaper product that was better quality?

18:19

Was it, I mean, A, I'm

18:22

assuming you were making these in

18:24

China, so that lowered costs, but

18:26

how else were you able to

18:29

really... compete against these much bigger

18:31

companies like Tataung. Yeah, in the

18:33

very beginning, we're just making it

18:36

better. My customer made it cheaper,

18:38

like Gateway. And I just, I

18:40

keep on, again, in the early

18:43

90s, the technology shifts so fast.

18:45

Yeah. We'll have 14-inch computer screen,

18:47

15-inch computer screen, 17-inch computer screen.

18:50

This is all happening three or

18:52

four years. We'll have 60-hertz. We'll

18:54

have 70-hertz. My engineering background, I

18:57

keep on pushing the technology envelope.

18:59

So in the first four years

19:01

when it goes so far fast,

19:04

I just focus on technology advancement

19:06

and I found a factory to

19:08

do it, that was a key.

19:11

I mean, we're building everything offshore.

19:13

So, so Taiwan is pretty efficient

19:15

back then. I mean, to go

19:18

from zero to 600 million within

19:20

six years is mind-blowing. I mean,

19:22

the pace of growth was probably

19:25

so fast. that you had no,

19:27

I mean I don't even know

19:29

how you were able to handle that

19:31

because, and by the way, not always

19:33

a good thing, right, because it can

19:36

lead to huge challenges. Very fast explosive

19:38

growth like this must have been quite

19:40

overwhelming. Yeah, it was way too overwhelming,

19:42

all right. Was it a disaster later?

19:45

Yeah, I mean, let's so let's talk

19:47

about this because we obviously there's a

19:49

wave gateway 70 80% of your business

19:51

is coming from gateway which. On

19:53

the one hand

19:56

it's amazing, on the

19:58

other hand it's

20:00

a little scary because

20:02

you're dependent on

20:05

Gateway, right? By 1998,

20:08

your revenue drops to $470

20:10

million and then it really

20:12

starts to drop further and

20:15

further from there. Tell me

20:17

what happens. Is it just

20:19

competition enters the space? Many

20:21

more companies are like, wait

20:23

a minute, we can compute

20:25

against these guys. Exactly, it's

20:28

a combination of problems, right?

20:30

The market got so much

20:32

bigger so efficiency became a

20:34

key ingredient for success and

20:36

the competitor are coming in

20:38

like crazy. We're still focused

20:41

too much on technology and

20:43

there was a focus on

20:45

efficiency so there causes more

20:47

competitive so I was the

20:49

only supplier for them and

20:51

they want to diversify also

20:54

so Gateway started to buy

20:56

from other people and because

20:58

we grew so fast I

21:00

mean we couldn't control our

21:02

quality but most importantly I

21:04

literally all grew myself in

21:07

management capability. I'm still a

21:09

kid who thinks technology would

21:11

dominate everything so I wasn't

21:13

a great manager. I don't

21:15

have enough, my management team

21:17

is not strong enough because

21:20

I didn't enough. Also

21:22

I was into too many

21:24

sector of the business. I

21:26

was in the service business,

21:28

service computer monitor. I had

21:30

an engineering lab designing smart

21:32

TV in 98. Already an

21:34

idea. Already an idea, yeah.

21:36

Way before it's time. Way

21:38

before it's time when Internet

21:40

was still going through Modem

21:42

and I sunk a lot

21:44

of money in there so

21:47

I wasn't good enough to

21:49

make it to the next

21:51

level. The management team was

21:53

still challenged by me, by

21:55

the dominance of an entrepreneur

21:57

like me. You were a

21:59

micro man. It was a mega manager.

22:01

Oh yeah, it does. Yeah. But I

22:03

mean, but you couldn't see it at

22:05

that time because you were young and

22:07

learning, but obviously on reflection you realize

22:09

that because you were involved in every,

22:11

I mean, there's, look, there's different

22:13

arguments that people make about this.

22:15

Some people say you have to

22:17

be involved in every detail of

22:20

the business. Some people say no,

22:22

you really have to delegate and

22:24

trust your people. Sounds like that's

22:26

where you landed eventually. Yeah.

22:28

Yeah, well I learned the hard

22:30

way because it's, I mean, I

22:33

was 30 years old, I don't

22:35

know what management means. And I

22:37

don't know how to manage my

22:40

finance, right? Because I was, I

22:42

thought money would come easily,

22:44

but money didn't come. And

22:47

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22:49

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22:53

we come back in just

22:55

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22:59

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23:01

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26:19

Hey, welcome back to how I

26:21

built this. I'm Guy Ross. So

26:23

it's 1998 and William's first company,

26:26

MAG Inovision, has gone from 600

26:28

million dollars in revenue. to being

26:30

buried in debt. And William, looking

26:32

for a way out, decides to

26:35

sell the business. I want to

26:37

pay out my debt. I couldn't.

26:39

And I sell companies to the

26:41

five years under the rest. How

26:44

much debt did you have at

26:46

the time? I think we had

26:48

$25, $30 million of debts. And

26:50

obviously you had some investors. He

26:52

wanted to pay back, I guess.

26:55

Yeah. Well the investor lost some

26:57

money they lost yeah they lost

26:59

yeah including myself putting another more

27:01

money so the shareholder values of

27:04

the dog disappeared and and it

27:06

was tough so so on the

27:08

rest we had to settle with

27:10

you supplier I tried to you

27:12

know from 98 99 until 2001

27:15

I did nothing but suddenly deaths

27:17

so I tried to make money

27:19

Pay them. Make money. So three

27:21

years, I didn't do anything but

27:24

paying your suppliers. Just to understand.

27:26

So you sell it under dress.

27:28

It's amazing because a lot of

27:30

people from the outside would think,

27:33

wait, you were doing 600 million

27:35

in sales just two years earlier.

27:37

This is an incredible success story.

27:39

And yet, it just shows you

27:41

how tough that business was that

27:44

if the bottom fell out and

27:46

you had to sell it and

27:48

you were left with nothing, like

27:50

you were broke. Yeah, nothing. And

27:53

you had to pay back the...

27:55

the people you owed money to.

27:57

I mean, couldn't, here's a just

27:59

a weird question, couldn't you declare

28:02

bankruptcy and have those debts forgiven,

28:04

I guess? I could, but I

28:06

don't, I mean, that's not my

28:08

motivation, right? I believe I want

28:10

to do better for them. You

28:13

know, we looked at bankruptcy, but

28:15

I just don't want to do

28:17

it. So what was your plan

28:19

to pay back the debtors, the

28:22

people that had, you know, that

28:24

you had money to, how are

28:26

you had money to, how are

28:28

you, how are going to, how

28:30

are going to, I know what's

28:33

a new product, so instead of

28:35

going through me, I say you

28:37

pay me two-person commission, I use

28:39

that two-person commission to pay you.

28:42

So you were doing consulting work

28:44

for some of the people you

28:46

owed money to, basically, for free?

28:48

Yeah, for free to pay enough

28:51

because I want to pay that

28:53

off. And yeah, I know a

28:55

lot of suppliers. They know I

28:57

didn't do anything wrong. I didn't

28:59

take the money or anything, and

29:02

they still trust me. Just know

29:04

that during that during that time,

29:06

there was a major transition transition.

29:08

It's just poor management on my

29:11

behalf. So they allow me to

29:13

give me some time to use

29:15

my talent to make some money

29:17

for them to pay on my

29:19

debts. Wow. Okay. So this is,

29:22

I think this is like a

29:24

period of four at least four

29:26

years of trying to, you know,

29:28

doing consulting work in part to

29:31

try and pay back debts. And

29:33

I think one of the things

29:35

you got involved with was helping

29:37

one of these companies try and

29:40

figure out like like a smart

29:42

TV and and and also plasma

29:44

screen televisions right? Yeah back then

29:46

the plasma TV started to emerge

29:48

and very expensive. There were like

29:51

$20,000 I think and I mean

29:53

today they cost you know like

29:55

nothing but but back then I

29:57

mean they were super expensive. Meanwhile

30:00

I want to talk about about

30:02

smart TVs for a moment because

30:04

I mean this is the late

30:06

90s. And I mean, no one

30:09

was really interested in them yet,

30:11

right? But I guess you... were,

30:13

right? You wanted to sort of

30:15

make them or something that would

30:17

resemble them, right? Well, yeah, I

30:20

just built it. I say, TV

30:22

should be connected to the internet.

30:24

I actually had a whole design

30:26

lab where we laid out a

30:29

board, we found a software company

30:31

in Boston to Linux space software

30:33

for us. I found a chip

30:35

supplier, put a CPU in the

30:37

TV, and connected to the internet.

30:40

And when you turned on that

30:42

TV, first page was apps. Back

30:44

then we didn't color apps back

30:46

then were color widgets This is

30:49

way before iPhone the TV work

30:51

great, but the problem was the

30:53

internet connectivity was rather slow So

30:55

it takes five minutes to warm

30:58

out of TV because it's a

31:00

motor need to connect and Again,

31:02

I was 98 and Lost all

31:04

my money Wow, that's that's part

31:06

of the part of why your

31:09

first business went under yeah So,

31:11

all right, let me kind of

31:13

set the context here because you

31:15

are financially in crisis at this

31:18

time trying to figure out how

31:20

to pay back debt and also

31:22

trying to figure out how to

31:24

make money. I guess both of

31:27

them are connected. And you are

31:29

going back and forth between Asia

31:31

and Southern California to do consulting

31:33

work and to try and figure

31:35

out different ideas that you could

31:38

generate. income from and innovation, but

31:40

none of them really work. And

31:42

you get on a flight October

31:44

31st of Halloween 2000. You've got

31:47

to fly back Singapore Airlines flight.

31:49

You're in Taiwan and you're going

31:51

to fly back to Los Angeles.

31:53

Tell me what happens. Yeah, so

31:55

the reason I want to get

31:58

back that evening was because it

32:00

was my daughter's a first trigger.

32:02

She. Halloween. You were going to

32:04

get back, even though you were

32:07

leaving on the 31st by the

32:09

time you get back to LA.

32:11

it was still the 31st picture

32:13

crossing the international airline. I leave

32:16

like 1130, I'll get back here

32:18

like 630, I barely make it,

32:20

I can still see my daughter

32:22

in her costume. In customs. Yeah,

32:24

so I realize, she's like four

32:27

years old, three years old, so,

32:29

so, so I say, okay, and

32:31

let's do that. And by the

32:33

time I finished my meeting at

32:36

5 o'clock, I came out of

32:38

the office, started a ring. I

32:40

don't know what's very stormy that

32:42

night. Very swarming that night. So

32:45

by the time I got to

32:47

the airport, Singapore Airlines is terminal.

32:49

It's kind of creepy. There's nobody

32:51

around. Most people are not in

32:53

the airport because I think most

32:56

people in Taipei don't want to

32:58

take the flight because there's typhoon.

33:00

They don't even think, they don't

33:02

even know that the plane's going

33:05

to take off or not. But

33:07

I asked Singapore if you're taking

33:09

it off, I'm going to be

33:11

on a plane. I need to

33:13

go back. So I was the

33:16

last person on a plane on

33:18

a plane. This was a Boeing

33:20

747 obviously because the transatlantic flight

33:22

so big plane Yeah, so he

33:25

started taxing on the runway pretty

33:27

rapidly because I think he want

33:29

to beat the The wind because

33:31

what were the winds out like

33:34

30 40 miles an hour? Yeah,

33:36

I think it's going over. So

33:38

it's a little bit over 50.

33:40

I think the 747 400 can

33:42

still take out on the head

33:45

one like 60 miles per hour

33:47

right He obviously he just want

33:49

to beat typhoon. He want to

33:51

get out there quick. So we

33:54

took it out rather quickly, but

33:56

I was on the plane. I

33:58

was setting a number I think

34:00

22. I request a seizure. Nobody

34:03

was next to me. So I

34:05

was watching people magazine and we

34:07

hit, we hit what, the liftoffs

34:09

be 165 miles per hour. And

34:11

my portion of the plane was

34:14

up in the air. And then

34:16

here's this. No, it's like somebody

34:18

knocking on the door. I say

34:20

what what the heck is that?

34:23

But then immediately I said a

34:25

link to the left. Obviously, something

34:27

really bad happened. The last tires

34:29

on the plane hit the construction

34:31

equipment and the concrete barricade where

34:34

they were doing construction works. They

34:36

eclipsed the concrete barrier as it's

34:38

taking off. As it's taking off.

34:40

And you know, the... Now you

34:43

hear everybody scream. You know, the

34:45

plane obviously came down and I

34:47

was in the front of the

34:49

plane came down and So I

34:52

lift my feet up, I lift

34:54

my hand up. That was my

34:56

crash position and The moment right

34:58

after I looked on my feet

35:00

my hand The fire came on

35:03

an east me red orange fire

35:05

came on an east me apparently

35:07

the exploded and the plane was

35:09

towing to two pieces right where

35:12

the fusile was and the fire

35:14

came underneath me and once it

35:16

hit the wall I thought okay

35:18

this is that I'm gonna get

35:21

burned but the fire disappeared right

35:23

away because I think the fire

35:25

burned out of oxygen in the

35:27

solar explosion sucked out of oxygen

35:29

away from the plane. of the

35:32

aftermath are shocking. I mean it

35:34

was it was ripped in half

35:36

and you were in the front

35:38

half of the plane. 96 people

35:41

survived 83 people were killed in

35:43

that flight and you I mean

35:45

you I can't even imagine what

35:47

what what what that was like

35:49

but you when it stopped when

35:52

you could leave your seat and

35:54

get out. What do you remember?

35:57

Well, the fire came on

35:59

underneath me and fire disappeared,

36:01

immediately I couldn't breathe. I

36:04

was just... No oxygen, yeah.

36:06

No, no oxygen. First thing

36:08

once in my mind was

36:10

dead. And uh, immediately, you

36:12

know, within half a second,

36:15

I thought, oh wow, you

36:17

know, I miss all my

36:19

family. My mom, my dad,

36:21

my wife, my daughter, my

36:24

sisters, my brother, everybody. Then...

36:26

Nice thing flash to my

36:28

mind was, oh, okay, I

36:30

had no more headache and

36:33

no more stress. I'm kind

36:35

of relieved because at a

36:37

time my blood pressure was

36:39

160 over 130 constantly because

36:42

I was under a lot

36:44

of stress, obviously, because I

36:46

was in depth. So that

36:48

was a... I went through

36:51

my mind in like two

36:53

seconds. Because you were going

36:55

to die. Yeah. And that

36:57

was it. Yeah, so I'm

37:00

bucking my C-Bail. The plane

37:02

was still moving. I'm bucking

37:04

my C-Bail. I say I'm

37:06

going to get out here.

37:09

I need to breathe. So

37:11

I went through the first

37:13

door on my right. I

37:15

tried to open that door

37:18

where the plane was still

37:20

moving. I couldn't open it.

37:22

Obviously, because of pressure, pressure

37:24

out of the plane still

37:27

fully engaged. When I went

37:29

from the door on the

37:31

right to the door on

37:33

the left, the plane stopped.

37:36

But the last few seconds,

37:38

I had no memory. I

37:40

don't know what happened. And

37:42

the night scene, I knew,

37:45

was the door popped open

37:47

and the ring hit my

37:49

face. The ring hit my

37:51

face and the door just

37:54

exploded open. And along with

37:56

the... The escape shoot and

37:58

the fire on the

38:00

smoke, rushing out of the plane,

38:03

pushed me, I got ejected from

38:05

the plane. It's unimaginable. And I

38:07

mean, it's almost a, you know,

38:10

a cliche, I guess, which is

38:12

when somebody has a near-death experience,

38:15

it does often change their life

38:17

because it changes their perspective. And

38:19

from what I gather, That happened

38:22

to you. I mean, here you

38:24

were focused on these stressful things

38:26

about debt and then you go

38:29

through this experience and I have

38:31

to imagine that this was going

38:34

to fundamentally change the way you

38:36

saw your life. Yeah. It's really

38:38

hard to describe because I'm always

38:41

a... I'm super optimistic, optimistic, always.

38:43

I didn't really look back that

38:45

much, honestly. It's kind of unfortunate.

38:48

It is unfortunate, but I didn't

38:50

want to think too much on

38:53

that. I'm never really digging to

38:55

my own mind what really happened.

38:57

What did it really changed me?

39:00

How did it really change me?

39:02

Because I don't think it's going

39:04

to help me anyway. So I

39:07

say, just keep on looking forward.

39:09

What else can you do? What

39:12

other problem can you solve? I

39:14

really focus on that instead. So.

39:16

Yeah, did it really change me?

39:19

I don't, you know, I'm still

39:21

the same person. I guess my

39:23

question is, did it change what

39:26

matters to you? I know, I

39:28

really want to come back home.

39:31

Yeah. That's one thing I really

39:33

want to do during the fire,

39:35

I mean, after the plane, that's

39:38

something I really, really want to

39:40

do at that time. I really

39:43

want to be close to my

39:45

family. And, uh, that mattered to

39:47

me the most. versus, you know,

39:50

anything else. Yeah, you have money,

39:52

success, a lot of problems to

39:54

solve, technology, but I think, does

39:57

it really matter? Yeah. I think

39:59

the most important thing is love.

40:02

I kind of differentiate love and

40:04

passion, I guess. I want to

40:06

a single prayer online next day.

40:09

I say, get me out of

40:11

here, I want to go back.

40:13

It was scary for me. I

40:16

mean, I can't imagine like getting

40:18

on a flight after going through

40:21

that because it was tough. I

40:23

mean, I'm kind of like, I

40:25

don't have a sweaty palm. But

40:28

I had a pretty sweaty palm

40:30

at the flight, the whole flight.

40:32

And, uh, but I'm sorry. I

40:35

just want to get back. I

40:37

don't care. So you get back.

40:40

And eventually, you continue with... with

40:42

your work, but I guess one

40:44

of the things that you'd been

40:47

doing, one of the consulting jobs

40:49

that you'd been doing was with

40:51

your former customer gateway. I guess

40:54

they had retail stores in the

40:56

US at that time and they

40:59

wanted to sell other things besides

41:01

computers because the market was getting

41:03

competitive and presumably they wanted to

41:06

build out their inventor, their product

41:08

offering. And you suggested... that they

41:10

look into televisions, into plasma televisions,

41:13

which were, again, in 2001, really

41:15

expensive. I mean, they were like

41:18

$15,000, $20,000. But I guess your

41:20

idea was, hey, maybe you guys

41:22

should get into the plasma TV

41:25

business, but make them really cheap.

41:27

Tell me about your proposal to

41:29

them. Yeah, so a new, high

41:32

definition TV is going to be

41:34

a hot item, because US government.

41:37

was really pushing for HD TV,

41:39

but high-definition TV wasn't affordable back

41:41

then. It was $15,000, $20,000. So

41:44

there's a problem. The problem is

41:46

government want to push. digital TV

41:48

are not affordable. And I guess

41:51

I should point out that the

41:53

government had required this digital makeover

41:56

at the time. They wanted television

41:58

to move away from analog to

42:00

digital video signals. High-deaf was part

42:03

of that. And so it required

42:05

all manufacturers to move from analog

42:07

televisions with an antenna, essentially, to

42:10

a new type of digital. Well,

42:12

there's digital antennas, but a digital.

42:15

receiving digital video signals. Yeah, government

42:17

want to do that desperately. Their

42:19

mandate was like 1998, 1999, 2009,

42:22

2000, 2001, 2000. Keep on pushing

42:24

back. Right. Because TV, the Sony

42:27

and Panasonic of the world and

42:29

the retailer of the world don't

42:31

don't care. They're making so much

42:34

money on analog TV. Why should

42:36

they give away? The digital TV,

42:38

right? They look at digital TV's

42:41

something belong to rich people. So

42:43

knowing the cost. of the components.

42:46

I said, I think I can

42:48

build this TV and sell it

42:50

for like $3,000. So I was

42:53

running around asking for money to

42:55

fund my new project and I

42:57

want to consume what I want

43:00

to show to talk to my

43:02

friends at Gateway and I say,

43:05

how about investing in me? I

43:07

want to do TV. At that

43:09

time, Gateway had like 500 country

43:12

stores, retail stores. All across the

43:14

US. All across the US. And

43:16

I found the US retail store.

43:19

The person computers is a price

43:21

point, went from like $2,500 average

43:24

to like $1,000. Right. So I

43:26

mean, at that time, PCs were

43:28

getting cheaper for consumers, but not,

43:31

I mean, not much cheaper to

43:33

make, I guess. So, so imagine

43:35

Gateway was just cutting their profit

43:38

margin in half. Yeah. So they

43:40

were suffering because... They lost 50%

43:43

of their margin to support the

43:45

stores. So they went to the

43:47

consumer lights on the store and

43:50

they want to know what else

43:52

to put in this. store. And

43:54

so I went to them and

43:57

said, oh, I want to give

43:59

you investing me. And so they

44:02

turned around and say, how about

44:04

this? Why don't you help us

44:06

getting to this place under the

44:09

gateway brand? So we can sell

44:11

it at the gateway country stores.

44:13

So later on, they say, OK.

44:16

In that case, it's a, well,

44:18

we'll pay you 2% of all

44:21

the revenue you help out January

44:23

on TV. And on top of

44:25

that we'll pay you $20,000 months.

44:28

So here I say, okay, I

44:30

started a video as a consultant.

44:32

And my own money has started

44:35

from my second mortgage, my house,

44:37

$400,000 to fund my business. I

44:40

hire a few people who's been

44:42

with me for a long time.

44:44

And we started a business. So

44:47

just to clarify, you went to

44:49

Gateway to pitch them an idea

44:51

on. cheaper plasma TV's but then

44:54

you started a business called Visio.

44:56

I saw the business as V-Ink.

44:59

V-Ink. The brand was called V.

45:01

The brand in the initial was

45:03

called V at a time so

45:06

I actually my first TV was

45:08

V and right. But in the

45:11

business was to make plasma televisions

45:13

for Gateway under their under their

45:15

brand. My origin of business was

45:18

selling V-TVs. But I had no

45:20

funding and gave me say. Help

45:22

us getting to the Gateway brand.

45:25

I say, okay, we do Gateway

45:27

brand instead. So I changed my

45:30

business plan. I say, I do

45:32

it because you're paying me. So

45:34

from 2002, 2003, and 2004, the

45:37

very beginning of the Visio, VE,

45:39

later became Visio, we were making

45:41

money from Gateway. So I went

45:44

to Asia, set out a factory

45:46

for them. I went to Korea

45:49

to get the component for them.

45:51

I went to the chair manufacturer

45:53

manufacturer to... Procure for them? Computer

45:56

chips, yeah. With the other thing

45:58

for them and laser market a

46:00

product which we helped them build.

46:03

You were trying to get the cost

46:05

of a plasma TV down to

46:07

under $3,000 which would have been, which

46:09

you did and that was kind of crazy.

46:12

How did you do that? How were you

46:14

able to get them so so much, you

46:16

know, if they were selling for 15 grand,

46:18

how were you able to get

46:21

them retail, get the retail price

46:23

down to 3,000? Yeah, the same

46:25

thing I have been doing all

46:27

my life, right. Simplify the supply

46:29

chain and control costs. The supply

46:31

chain at a time for Sony

46:33

and Panasonic, Sony will build a

46:35

TV in Japan, which is very

46:38

expensive. They will build everything,

46:40

right? They built even their own

46:42

plasma screen. They were vertically

46:44

integrated, totally vertically integrated. So

46:46

they built it. It's already

46:48

a little bit more expensive

46:50

than they should. And they

46:52

sold it to Sony US. and

46:54

another layer of margin, right? So

46:56

Tony U.S. has a big organization

46:59

and they do Sony marketing, which

47:01

is adding additional overhead, and Sony

47:03

will probably sell it to a

47:05

distributor, distributor will add more margin,

47:07

a distributor will sell to a

47:10

circuit city at a time, the

47:12

circuit city will market plasma screen

47:14

as their ultra-high-end for ultra-rich Uber

47:16

wealthy people, the big and near

47:18

in Beverly Hill, and they will,

47:21

it's like, white glove service, white

47:23

glove service. And they were marked

47:25

like 40 points. So what did

47:27

you beat that? Like what was

47:29

your strategy? I found the right factory

47:31

in Taiwan. I built a lot

47:34

cheaper than at a time the labor

47:36

costs in Japan. And the components

47:38

are the same. At the same time, we

47:40

were vertically deintegrated

47:43

and used that efficiency and we

47:45

passed a saving to the consumer.

47:47

So I want the gateway to

47:49

say, let's do the same thing

47:51

we done before. You have your

47:53

own retail store. You don't need

47:56

a lot of margin. You

47:58

go direct. When

48:00

we come back in just a

48:02

moment, how William's gateway strategy to

48:05

go direct gets derailed, leading him

48:07

to start a new business and

48:09

revive an old idea. Stay with

48:11

us. I'm Guy Ross and you're

48:13

listening to how I built this.

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time. For a limited time,

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Vanta at vanta.com/off. Hey,

50:33

welcome back to how I built

50:35

this. I'm Guy Raz. So it's

50:37

2004 and William has teamed up

50:39

with his old partners at Gateway

50:41

to sell affordable flat screen TVs.

50:43

And they're selling well at first,

50:46

but then. By 2004, Gabey was

50:48

on a lot of pressure because

50:50

the PC price went down even

50:52

further. Right. And they had pressure

50:54

to shut down the country stores

50:56

because I think each store at

50:58

that time is costing a $1

51:00

million a year to run. So

51:02

for a final store, that's $500

51:05

million. So they had to shut

51:07

down the store. But when you

51:09

shut on the store, nobody, when

51:11

people buy TV, they want to

51:13

see it. So they ended up

51:15

shutting down the store. Once they

51:17

shut down the store, they say,

51:19

we're going to get out of

51:21

TV businesses. Which meant that you

51:24

were going to focus on building

51:26

at your brand, essentially. Yeah. So

51:28

I tried to license the brand

51:30

from them. They don't want to

51:32

license to me. And I say.

51:34

Okay, what I do, right? So

51:36

I came up with a new

51:38

brand name. And I wouldn't do

51:40

the supplier try to get them

51:42

to PLTV for me. But just

51:45

to be clear, Gateway would not,

51:47

even though they decided to get

51:49

out of the business entirely, Plasm,

51:51

they would not license the brand

51:53

name to you. Yeah. So you

51:55

decided, well, you decided, well, I'm

51:57

just gonna come up with a

51:59

new brand name. Yeah. It's also

52:01

an interesting time, because most televisions

52:04

in 2002, when you really, when

52:06

you launched Visio. Visio. We're still

52:08

big. rear projection, right, TVs? They

52:10

were like huge, heavy things. If

52:12

you had a flat screen plasma

52:14

TV, you were a very wealthy

52:16

person. Yeah. So you start to

52:18

produce these televisions, but I think

52:20

you also did something which proved

52:22

to be very impression, which is

52:25

you cut a deal with Costco,

52:27

right, that they would sell your

52:29

televisions. And did that happen almost

52:31

immediately that you made that deal

52:33

with them? Yeah, so around I

52:35

think 2004, 2005, I used to

52:37

sell a computer monitor at Costco.

52:39

So I know the people a

52:41

little bit. You had a connection

52:44

there. Another connection there. So at

52:46

the time, Costco had no market

52:48

share for TVs. Yeah, people didn't

52:50

buy that at Costco at the

52:52

time. They still mainly bought, you

52:54

know, food. Yeah, because people like

52:56

Sony and Panasonic and they don't

52:58

want to deal with Costco. They

53:00

give Costco the leftovers because they

53:02

want to protect their existing dealerships

53:05

with Circuit City and Best Buy.

53:07

So I want to call someone

53:09

and say, you know, you guys

53:11

are so aggressive in costs and

53:13

your biggest frustration is that you

53:15

cannot get a good brand product

53:17

for you. What did you carry

53:19

us? Let me prove to you

53:21

that we can work together and

53:24

disrupt the whole TV market. And

53:26

they're very efficient because at a

53:28

time they're break events around nine

53:30

and a half percent and they

53:32

don't want to make money on

53:34

merchandising anyway. They just want to

53:36

make money on membership fee, right?

53:38

The membership fee, yeah. And merchandising

53:40

for them is a service for

53:43

members. And with the same mentality,

53:45

I say, I don't need to

53:47

make a lot of money, I'm

53:49

pretty small, but I can't get

53:51

a great screen for you at

53:53

$2,500 bucks that they would buy

53:55

the television from you. They were

53:57

about like 2,400, still for $2,500.

53:59

Wow, so their margins were, wow.

54:01

And so all of a sudden,

54:04

people would go to Costco and

54:06

see. these flat screen TVs for

54:08

2,500 bucks. Yeah, yeah, it was

54:10

so like a hot cake and

54:12

the government is happy because more

54:14

people are buying digital TV and

54:16

cars are really happy because all

54:18

of a sudden there's somebody in

54:20

the consumer electronics space. I started

54:23

growing my business. What's remarkable is

54:25

that there are parallels between the

54:27

Visio story and your previous company,

54:29

the mag, you know, the monitor

54:31

company that really had this rapid

54:33

rise and then a fall. But

54:35

here, I mean, within a few

54:37

years, you hit 700 million revenue,

54:39

right? Visio, I think, by 2007,

54:41

so just a few years after

54:44

you launch it, it was the

54:46

number one HDTV brand in the

54:48

US. It surpassed Samsung Samsung. had

54:50

a market share of like 14,

54:52

you know, a half percent. And

54:54

from what I understand, that year,

54:56

you were, you did about two

54:58

billion dollars in sales, which is

55:00

remarkable. What I'm wondering is, why

55:03

didn't the big players see this

55:05

coming? Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, I mean,

55:07

why didn't they compete when they

55:09

saw you selling these TVs at

55:11

Costco and just selling these TVs

55:13

like hot cakes? I think their

55:15

legacy relationship, their legacy business model,

55:17

right? I mean, I picked a

55:19

partner like Costco. I mean, all

55:22

they need 9% to break even.

55:24

You got Circuit City require, what,

55:26

25% to break even. They had

55:28

to make 25% margins to break

55:30

even. To break even. And so

55:32

Costco clear was a winner. And

55:34

also, right, we look at inventory

55:36

control like a hawk versus. big

55:38

company like Sony and Panasone, and

55:40

for them to make a decision,

55:43

the salesperson got to talk to

55:45

their US corporate, US corporate got

55:47

to talk to their Japanese counterpart,

55:49

and Japanese counterpart got to go

55:51

up. There's 25, I don't know

55:53

how many tears are reporting. We

55:55

have one tier. So, you've been

55:57

pleased it's the right thing to

55:59

do or do it right away.

56:02

So, what about efficiency? And we

56:04

have, you know, a few people

56:06

and they have a lot of

56:08

people. I read a stat that's,

56:10

that you claimed it in 2007,

56:12

that your overhead was 0.7% of

56:14

sales. That was your overhead cost.

56:16

Yeah. Now, here's my question, though.

56:18

I mean, you saw this happen

56:20

in a different business before, where

56:23

you catch a wave, there's all

56:25

its excitement, but then the other

56:27

competitors come in. So I know

56:29

you had this strategy of, like,

56:31

let's make cheap TVs, let's sell

56:33

them through Costco, and then eventually

56:35

Walmart and Kmart and others, but

56:37

you must have known in the

56:39

back of your mind. that history

56:42

could repeat itself, that very soon,

56:44

the big players were going to

56:46

figure out how to make cheap

56:48

TVs and go after your customers.

56:50

Yes, that was a tuition I

56:52

paid 30 for. When did that

56:54

start happening? I mean, when did

56:56

you start seeing the, you know,

56:58

some of these competing brands start

57:00

to come in? Right around the

57:03

same time, there's a lot of

57:05

people try to compete in the

57:07

space. A lot of new brand

57:09

came in. It was a brand

57:11

called Olivia. Some of my supplier

57:13

even had their own brand. So

57:15

I say, okay, well, we better

57:17

be really efficient. We really smart.

57:19

We better have better product. We

57:22

better have a better management team.

57:24

So that means I can't manage

57:26

everything by myself, by technology anymore.

57:28

I want a great team of

57:30

people. So I start to hire

57:32

who understand like finance better than

57:34

me. So I start to spend

57:36

a lot of time putting together

57:38

a great team. Yeah. I mean,

57:41

it's interesting because Visio's sort of

57:43

you know, your sales would go

57:45

up and down and up and

57:47

down like, you know, 2007, I

57:49

mentioned, two billion in sales, but

57:51

then... there were some years you

57:53

know where the sales were you

57:55

know three billion but then they

57:57

would then some years they went

57:59

down to one and a half

58:02

billion and and and I know

58:04

that this is a tough business

58:06

right and and so was the

58:08

outside pressure on your sales really

58:10

just simply a matter of more

58:12

competitors a lot of competition right

58:14

but we invest happily re-into the

58:16

company I think that kind of

58:18

set us apart right I said

58:21

this time around I'm not going

58:23

to be money is not the

58:25

only thing right I want to

58:27

I want to make this your

58:29

enterprise so we invest in the

58:31

brand we invest the people and

58:33

around 2008 2009 I think God

58:35

my competitor are hardworks getting stronger

58:37

and stronger yeah soon later I

58:39

got to add more value right

58:42

and I guess to add more

58:44

value you you revive this earlier

58:46

idea you had about about making

58:48

smart TVs because Right back in

58:50

the late 90s, when you tried

58:52

doing that, it didn't work. But

58:54

now you're talking about 10 years

58:56

later, the technology is better. So

58:58

I guess you went for it

59:01

again, right? Yeah, I went back

59:03

to my roots. I say, we

59:05

gotta have recurrent revenue. I say,

59:07

how do we do that? We

59:09

gotta get TV connected to the

59:11

internet again. I think instead of

59:13

making money once on TV sales.

59:15

The same customer probably come back

59:17

seven years later to replace their

59:20

TV. I say, why don't we

59:22

just make money every time people

59:24

turn on the TV? How do

59:26

we do that? And I started

59:28

investing into internet TV in 2009.

59:30

We saw shipping the first internet

59:32

TV on the digital TV in

59:34

2009. And did that really turn

59:36

things around? Yeah, actually. And we

59:38

got Hulu, YouTube and Netflix. Although

59:41

it's not 100% of a volume

59:43

people respect that, right? So if

59:45

you were saying, oh, what is

59:47

the streaming right? We had the

59:49

first Wi-Fi TV and we had

59:51

the first TV with a little

59:53

keyboard so you can cross the

59:55

web and back then with Tina

59:57

was Yahoo and they built the

1:00:00

first operating system for TV for

1:00:02

us. Eventually, I mean now we're

1:00:04

going into 2024, I mean you

1:00:06

guys did eventually go public and

1:00:08

but in 2024 you were outright

1:00:10

acquired by Walmart, they bought Vizio.

1:00:12

for $2.3 billion. And Walmart, it's

1:00:14

amazing, I read that, according to

1:00:16

Walmart, 90% of Americans shop at

1:00:18

Walmart every year. Tell me about

1:00:21

the decision to go with Walmart,

1:00:23

because I mean, you guys had

1:00:25

gone public at one time, you

1:00:27

were valued at three and a

1:00:29

half billion, and then the value

1:00:31

had gone up and down, but

1:00:33

you know, pretty good outcome. $2.3

1:00:35

billion to acquire the business in

1:00:37

2024. Was it kind of a

1:00:40

relief for you when that happened,

1:00:42

when that offer came through? Well,

1:00:44

it's better and sweet. As an

1:00:46

entrepreneur, I don't think, you know,

1:00:48

it's my intention to ever stop

1:00:50

solving a more problem for this

1:00:52

industry. I love attacking, making TV

1:00:54

better. So when they came to

1:00:56

us and they wanted us to

1:00:58

consider this deal, it was a

1:01:01

tough decision for me. But if

1:01:03

I look at what's best for

1:01:05

the company. Potentially, this is big,

1:01:07

right? Yeah. This is, this is

1:01:09

a lot bigger. Well, we, I

1:01:11

built, this is way beyond my

1:01:13

entrepreneurship, though. Way beyond, right? We

1:01:15

built a platform like, you know,

1:01:17

last year we did over $700

1:01:20

million in media. Yeah. This is

1:01:22

not something that's all of my

1:01:24

garage anymore. This is an enterprise.

1:01:26

Right. I think one of the

1:01:28

happiest moment in my life. I

1:01:30

told that to a lot of

1:01:32

people, it's like 10 years ago

1:01:34

when I walked into Visio, I

1:01:36

feel the Visio is bigger than

1:01:39

me. Right, right, which is what

1:01:41

I want. It's, it's like, I

1:01:43

describe that to a lot of

1:01:45

people. It's like, I think a

1:01:47

daughter, I have a daughter, right?

1:01:49

It's like, someday you're gonna walk

1:01:51

down, die out for her with

1:01:53

her, and marry her to somebody

1:01:55

else. I mean, it's sad. It's

1:01:57

not your girl anymore, right? But

1:02:00

it's actually great, because that's the

1:02:02

outcome you want. You want, you

1:02:04

want to, you want her to,

1:02:06

to, you want her to, to,

1:02:08

you want her to, to, to,

1:02:10

you want her to, to, to,

1:02:12

to, you want her to, to,

1:02:14

to, to, you want her to,

1:02:16

to, to, you want her to,

1:02:19

you want her to, to, to,

1:02:21

you want her to, to, to,

1:02:23

you want her to, to, to,

1:02:25

to, to, you want her to,

1:02:27

to, to, to, you want her

1:02:29

to, to, to, to, to, you

1:02:31

want her to, to create her

1:02:33

own chasing after her dream. So

1:02:35

I couldn't find a better partner

1:02:37

in Walmart to do that because

1:02:40

they reached 90% of America. When

1:02:42

you think about, you know, what

1:02:44

you built and what you achieved

1:02:46

and everything that happened, I mean,

1:02:48

how much of your success do

1:02:50

you attribute to the work you

1:02:52

put in and how much do

1:02:54

you think has to do with

1:02:56

just getting lucky? You know, okay.

1:02:59

You need to define being lucky

1:03:01

because I was real unlucky on

1:03:03

the plane. Yeah. I was really

1:03:05

unlucky when I lost my first

1:03:07

millions of dollars on my first

1:03:09

business. I was very unlikely when

1:03:11

I had a great idea on

1:03:13

connected TV, smart TV, but I

1:03:15

was way ahead of time. So

1:03:18

I think my definition is lucky

1:03:20

is always worry more about other

1:03:22

people surrounding you than yourself. I

1:03:24

think the locks doesn't drop out

1:03:26

of sky. You can't stay at

1:03:28

home and be lucky. But locks

1:03:30

is given to you by people

1:03:32

around you. And sometimes you never

1:03:34

know who's going to make you,

1:03:36

who's going to help you. I

1:03:39

wasn't lucky enough because I didn't

1:03:41

hire good enough back 20, 30

1:03:43

years ago. But now I surrounded

1:03:45

myself, very very critical, very smart

1:03:47

business people, a lot smarter than

1:03:49

me. I'm lucky. Yeah. Because as

1:03:51

I have done. That's

1:03:55

William Wong, founder and

1:03:57

CEO of Visio. Hey,

1:04:01

thanks so much for listening to the

1:04:03

show this week. Please make sure to

1:04:05

click the follow button on your podcast

1:04:07

app so you never miss a new

1:04:10

episode of the show. And please sign

1:04:12

up for my newsletter at gueras.com or

1:04:14

on substack. This episode was produced by

1:04:16

J.C. Howard with music composed by Rontine

1:04:19

Arablui. It was edited by Niva Grant

1:04:21

with research help from Alex Chung. Our

1:04:23

audio engineers were Robert Rodriguez and Maggie

1:04:26

Luthar. Our production staff also includes Catherine

1:04:28

Sifer, Imanni, Casey Herman, Sam Paulsen, Chris

1:04:30

Mussini, Kerry Thompson, John Isabella, and Elaine

1:04:32

Coates. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been

1:04:35

listening to how I built this. If

1:05:01

you like how I built this,

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you can listen early and ad-free

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right now by joining Wondery Plus

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ad-free on Amazon music. Before you

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go, tell us about yourself by

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filling out a short survey at

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wondery.com/Survey. If you've been a long-time

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listener to how I built this,

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you might remember the very first

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episode we aired back in 2016.

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I sat down with Sarah Blakely,

1:05:29

the founder of Spanks, and we

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explored her journey from selling fax

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machines to starting her own company

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that's now valued at over $700

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million. When Spanks launched in the

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early 2000s, it revolutionized the fashion

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industry by creating an entirely new

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category of clothing. Shapeware. Then, in

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2019, Kim Kardashian launched her own

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shapework company, Skims. She may have

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had fame and fortune on her

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side, but going up against an

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established Titan-like spanks, was no safe

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bet. The newest... of Business

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dives into this

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fascinating rivalry. This

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is a story about what it

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takes to launch a product a

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how far celebrity backing can

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really take a brand. take a Follow

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Follow on the Wars on the wherever

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can binge can binge Business Wars, Spanks, versus and

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ad and now now on Wonderie Plus.