How I Built This with Guy Raz - Power Rangers: Haim Saban

Episode Date: March 27, 2017

As a refugee growing up in Tel Aviv, Haim Saban remembers not having enough money to eat. As an adult, he hustled his way into the entertainment business, writing theme songs for classic cartoons like Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff. But producing the mega-hit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers put him on track to becoming a billionaire media titan. 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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So every time I have an idea that people tell me, no, don't do that, I say, oops, I'm onto something. From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. I'm Guy Raz, and on today's show how a group of spandex wearing teenage superheroes called The Power Rangers helped turn Heim Saban into one of the richest men on Earth. If you asked Heim Saban what he does,

I used to describe myself as a cartoon schlepper. Cartoon schleper? Yeah. What I did for years is I went and knocked on doors and tried to sell cartoons all over the world. That's what a schleper does. And he schlepped some of the biggest cartoons of the 80s and 90s, Inspector Gadget, X-Man, and of course his biggest hit, The Mighty Morphan Power Rangers,

which has just been revived as a blockbuster Hollywood feature. Me and four kids found a spaceship buried underground. I'm pretty sure I'm a superhero. Cool. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here, because long before the Power Rangers, long before Haim Saban was flying around the world on his private jet or hanging at his Beverly Hills mansion with Bill Clinton.

He was just a poor Jewish kid living on a dusty street in Alexandria, Egypt. We lived in a very narrow street. We were a kind of lower-class family. My father was a salesman in a toy store, and my mother was a seamstress. We had family friends who were Egyptian Muslims, Egyptian Christian. Christians, Greeks, Italians. It was a pretty cosmopolitan city, Alexandria. But in 1956, shortly after the Suez War, many Egyptian Jews were accused of being traitors. So Haim's family had to flee to Israel.

Heim was 12 at the time, and no one in his family spoke in Hebrew. In fact, they didn't know anyone in Israel. And when they got there, they were housed in a tiny apartment in a rough part of Tel Aviv. It was one room in an apartment that had three rooms and the other two rooms were occupied by another couple and by a hooker and her pimp. And it was the five of us. And my father basically had a job selling pencils and erases door to door. And some days he would sell three pencils and some days he would sell no pencils. So it was, to say the least, a very hard life, yes.

And do you remember going to school right away? Well, I didn't want to go to school, but my father thought I should be a lawyer. I mean, I wanted to make money, you know, because living under these conditions was not a very exciting prospect. So we compromised that I would work during the day and study at night. So I'd wake up at six. I'd go to be a runner in a travel agency. At 4.30 in the afternoon, I'd go to school until 9.30. 9.30, I come home. I do my homework in the staircase because obviously I couldn't do it in the room where the family was.

And go to sleep and then every day was the same routine. Were you a good student as a kid? I was a pretty bad student and the principal called my father and said, your son most probably is going to make a lot of money one day, but a student in academics, he ain't going to be and he ain't going to be no lawyer. So take him out of school. So my father set me down and said, I need you to finish high school and finish with high grades.

And then you can do whatever you want, but you must finish high school. And did you finish with high grades? Yes. Did you feel in any way being a Jew from an Arab country in Israel at the time that I don't know you were you were sort of seen as sort of a lower or like a second class citizen by Jews from European countries? Yes. I had a girlfriend whose parents were from Poland and her mother said to her, if you bring that Schwarzschwe. That's a hire that black animal to the house. I'm going to jump off the balcony and kill myself. Wow. Yeah, so we would make out in the garden. Then I joined the army. I was in the infantry.

And were you actually in combat or did you have a different kind of job? It was at the beginning in combat unit and then they realized that I would be much more efficient at organizing entertainment for the soldiers. So that's what they put me to do. So my job was to put together bands and go from one post to the other. For example, I remember right after the six-day war, we went down to the Sinai and drove from one position to the other with entertainers and entertainers soldiers in each position. That's what we did. I mean, obviously that foretold what you would do with your life. You would become a person in the entertainment industry. But was that your first exposure to being in an entertainment environment to actually organizing those things?

Yes. Well, that's the job they gave me. I don't know why they gave me that job. I had no background in it, other than the fact that I played guitar a little bit. But that's the job they assigned me to. So I did the job I was assigned to. And was that what led you to kind of think, well, maybe I should pursue this after the army? No. What led me to join a band after I left the army was simply the necessity to make some money and get out of that room and support my family, you know, so that my father didn't have to go, go-to-door selling pencils. At the time, there was no television in Israel. there was radio, and they used to play, you know, Beatles songs.

And in our band, the lead singer sounded exactly like McCartney. So we were pretty successful, even though I was a pretty lousy bass player. I've read that you actually were so bad that you would turn down the amp so people wouldn't hear your bass. Well, just at the beginning. Yeah. So did you eventually get good at it? No. No, okay. I was never good enough, which is why one day the two brothers that were kind of the basis of the band, the lead singer, and his brother was a solo guitarist, came up to me and said, why don't you be our manager?

Because you're holding us back musically. And I couldn't be happier. So one of the happiest days of my life was the day I put down my guitar at my last gig. And I became a manager. And then you manage one band, then you manage two bands, and then you build a business around that. So at some point you left Israel. You moved out, right? Well, first, I became a tour promoter in Israel, and I brought many artists to Israel from Raychos to Jose Feliciano, blood, sweat and tears, and many others. But how were you doing this as a 20-something-year-old kid? You were just hustling? You were just convincing people that you were the guy to make this happen?

Well, Mark Zuckerberg at 24 has built Facebook, so at 24, I was able to bring Jose Feliciano to Israel. What the heck? Fair enough. You're supposed to be doing stuff, you know? You're not supposed to be sitting and counting on your parents. Okay, so at some point you moved to, I guess, to Paris. When did you decide to do that, and why?

Well, I moved to Paris simply because Israel was really really. from a business standpoint, too small on me. And despite my success, quote unquote, I was in debt of $600,000. Wait, you had $600,000 in debt in Israel? How old were you? By the time that happened, I was 29. How did you accrue all that debt, by the way? Well, I had a big group of harpists from Japan. in October of 1973, ready to tour the country. And the Yom Kippur War took us all by surprise.

So obviously, there were no concerts. There was no shows. There was no way for them to even leave because the airport was closed. I had to return the money. I had paid them in advance. And I had a couple of other bumps in the road again, that had nothing to do with me, which is the devaluation of the Israeli pound,

which meant that we had big shows lined up where all of the expenses were in dollars, and the revenues were in Israeli pounds with the devaluation of the pounds. We played to full houses and were losing money every night. So these two things compounded got me to $600,000 in debt. Were you freaking out? I mean, thinking, how am I going to ever pay this back? No, I don't think I was freaking out. I was in a total state of panic, though.

You know, freaking out assumes you still have some control. But when you have a massive panic attack, you have no control. So what did you do? So I moved to France, and I signed this nine-year-old who sounded like an adult, and he was a fantastic singer. A nine-year-old singer in Israel. You thought he was going to help you pay off this debt? Well, I got very lucky.

I got very lucky. How did you get lucky? What happened? Oh, you know what being lucky means? It means having the skill to grab the luck when it's presented to you. What was the luck that was presented? Well, this first record that I produced went platinum. With this nine-year-old Israeli-old?

With this nine-year-old. What was his name? Noam. N-O-A-A-N. How did the song go? Do you remember? Diffici lear de choirse So you basically strike gold with this, or platinum, I guess, with this record, and you've got a career, I guess, in France. Like, at this point, do you, what did you do?

Did you start a production company in France, in Paris? I started a production company, then I set up my own label. And I sold over a period of eight years. that I lived there on my own label, more than 18 million records. Wow. How did you even know how to cut deals in Paris? Like, I mean, you get there as an Israeli. Obviously, you spoke some French from your childhood,

or you spoke pretty good French. But how did you even know how to had a wheel and deal and, you know, get a studio together and find distributors? I have no idea. You just started knocking on doors? Oh, yeah. Knocking on doors is what we do, right? I mean, you know, old business people knock on doors.

All salesmen knock on doors. But I learned it on the job, I guess. You know, I don't know. I never produced a record in my life when I produced that first record. Yeah. So why did you decide to move to the U.S., I guess, in the early 80s? Well, I bought a house here in 1978, and I moved here in 1983. Yeah.

And what did you intend to do in L.A.? I was planning to basically continue doing the same thing, which is creating, producing and distributing music. And therefore, I built a studio in Studio City. And we started creating music for cartoons. Why cartoons? How did you even get into that world at all? Well, I studied how music is paid for in America by ASCAP and BMI. These are the publishing agencies, right?

These are the publishing agencies, that's right. They are as representatives, collection agencies is what they are. They pay royalties and things like that. And they pay royalties, right. So when I realized how much money there is in this, I thought, ah, that would be a good idea. And was it because it was music in cartoons or just any music? It's any music, but cartoons music can be very profitable.

And here's the reason why. If you look at a sitcom, there are musical stings. So they have cumulatively maybe two minutes of music, maybe three. But on a cartoon, you have wall-to-wall music. And because these collection agencies pay based on the number of minutes that air, you would make a lot more money from a music on, you know, a little known cartoon than you would make on the Mary Tyler Moore Show or the Cosby Show. A lot more money on a cartoon.

How did you figure that out? I called Ask Up and I said, can you explain to me, please? Yachate, pakit, makiti. And I called BMI, can you please explain to me, micitty, boogity, backity. And then I sat down and I calculated and I concluded that being a member of BMI is the right way to go. And I went for it. And how did you create cartoon music? What did you do?

Well, I went and I knocked on door of different cartoon producers. And I made them an offer they couldn't refuse. What was the offer? And I said to them, I'll give you the music for free. if you let me keep both the publisher share as well as the composer share. And people said, well, that's not a bad deal. We normally pay all these composers for that, and you'll do it for free. I'll do it for free.

I'll just keep the royalties. So what cartoons did you make music for? Dhaba, da, d'ab, Inspector Gadget. Yeah. There you go. Amongst many others, we worked for Hannah Barbera and Ruby Spears. and Dique, filmation, he-man, just, you know, tons and tons of cartoons. At one point, my music partner and I were the top writers at BMI.

Do you remember the Heathcliff one? Heathcliff, Heathcliff, Heathcliff, you're the one. No, no, no, Heathcliff, Heathcliff, no one should terrorize the neighborhood. Are you a fan of my music? Yeah, huge fan. Okay, this is good. So, I mean, how are you getting all of this music composed? Well, at a given point, we had so much work.

There was no way that one or two composers can satisfy, you know, the hundreds of episodes that we were scoring. So we, at one point, had 12 studios. Twelve studios, just making music for cartoons. Twelve studios making music for cartoons. When people ask me, what do you do? I said, I'd make music for cartoons. I could see the compassion in their eyes.

Because they thought... I got to tell you, there was no room for compassion. I was making money head over piss. All right. So a huge, of course, turning point in your life, I guess, happens when you discover this Japanese live action show, which, of course, became the Mighty Morphan Power Rangers. But tell me, how did you come across this whole concept? What happened?

Well, in 1984, I was in Japan and, you know, stretching on my bed and the TV on, there were only three channels, two of them showing game shows or some other reality base that I didn't understand the word. And the third channel had these kids in spendix kicking monsters' butts. And I thought, hey, this looks like fun. It all of a sudden dawned on me that once they turn into superheroes, meaning into Power Rangers, and they have their masks on and they're kicking monster butts, it could be anywhere. So all of the action scenes, which is what costs the most money, were basically accounted for. So I thought, well, if I shoot an American segment with American kids in an American. American environment, and I tie this up into the action sequence. I can create a show for very

little money because all the action scenes I would purchase. And that sounded to me like a great idea, never mind the fact that I truly enjoyed the show. It's funny, I remember because when I was a child, we lived in Japan from 1979 to 1982. And I remember when I saw Mighty Morphing and Power Rangers on in America, I recognized it immediately as a show that I watched as a kid in Japan. What was the show called in Japanese, by the way? Jew Ranger, meaning 10 Rangers in Japanese. So you bought this in, I guess, 1986 around then? No, I bought it in 84, and I slept it, remember, cartoon shepper, shlepper?

And I slept it for eight years. What do you mean? You went around trying to pitch people on this show for eight years? Yes. And why did you think it would work? Well, I just loved it, and I thought that it's got so many elements that we at the time didn't see on American TV. And then I said to myself, my goodness, it's been on for like 20 years or something in Japan with such success. Why in the world wouldn't it work here?

I know that some people look at it as campy, cheesy, I don't know, I heard all kinds of definitions. To me, it's a lot of fun show, and every time I'd look at the pilot over and over again that I was using to pitch the show, I just couldn't figure out why people don't see it. And what did they say when you showed it to them? They said, why do you embarrass yourself? Heim Saban, creator of the Mighty Morphan Power Rangers. In a moment, we're going to find out how he not only found a home for his show, but figured out how to buy his very own kids' TV channel on someone else's dime.

I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This from NPR. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This from NPR. I'm Guy Raz. So it's 1992, and Heim Saban has been trying to sell his idea for the Mighty Morphan Power Rangers to anyone who would listen and pretty much no one is interested. That is, until he gets a meeting with an executive at Fox named Margaret Lesh. And unlike everyone before her, Margaret actually likes it.

She's the only person who said, there's something there. There's something there. So she orders the show to air in 1993. Yeah. And we go and produce 40 episodes to be stripped. on the Fox Kids Network, which at the time is the number one outlet for kids. I'm producing it,

meaning I'm just there with every script, every outline, every frame, every daily, every sound effects, every piece of music, every casting,

I'm not, you know, letting this thing go to anybody. Yeah. And basically, once we produce it, there's a mutiny at Fox from Rupert Murdoch on, down and the group of affiliates who basically say, this is horrible, we're not going to air it.

And so this executive, Marguer, she, I mean, what, she goes to bat for you? So what she said, she said, look, I can't fight all my bosses, et cetera. I understand all of that. So I'm going to air it early in the morning in the summer. And I'm going to air it for eight weeks, right? Yeah. This is summer of summer of 93. Correct.

Okay. And then I'm going to take it off and we'll call it today. I said, you know what? I'll take it. I'll take whatever you give me. Right. And did you, by the way,

you owned the rights to the show? It was still 100%. Okay. So you take this deal because you had no other choice. You had to take it, I guess. That's right. Yeah.

And she believed in it. Well, her boss even told her that she's playing her career by putting this show on. Just scrap it. Wow. But she believed in it. She just put it on. And within less than a week, it beat every other show.

Wow. Across it, it generated the highest rating of any show on Fox Kids. It beat at the time you had Looney Tunes or Tiny Tunes. You had Batman. You had all these shows that were the hit of Fox Kids. And it delivered double, triple the ratings of all these shows. So, of course, that eight weeks was renewed right away. Well, she moved it to the afternoon right away because it was such a monster hit for her.

I know I asked you this, but I'm still trying to figure it out. Like, how did you know this was going to be a hit? It's called the Yiddish Kishke, meaning in my gut. Gut is many times more important than brain. I have to tell you that the biggest hits that I had in my life and in music, and hand in television and hand in business have been always as a result of significant rejections and repeated rejections.

So every time I have an idea that people tell me, no, don't do that. I say, oops, I'm on to something. And you, I mean, when that happened, when that show was a hit, did you go to other people say, I told you this was going to work? Or were you just sort of...

I didn't have time to go or tell people or whatever. I got my own problems. What are you on from me? So, okay. Okay, so Power Rangers is doing great. And I guess at this point you've got the production company is called Sabon Entertainment. Yes. And then about a year later, I think it was that Fox approaches you to buy your production company?

Well, I'm approached by Rupert Murdoch himself at the time. This has around 94, 95? 94. Mm-hmm. And he has all kinds of concepts. he's putting on the table. And I was holding firm for no money would exchange hands. We would put our content into a joint venture and he would put the network into that joint venture. You were basically saying, yes, I'm not looking to sell my company to you. I'm looking to create a joint

venture with you. Correct. I realize that it's really great to have a great piece of content and there is a game changer for a network. But to own that network was the goal I have said for myself. All right. So let me get this clear. Fox New Kids is coming to you and saying, we want to buy your production company and all your cartoons. And you're saying, I'm only going to let you have that if you give me half of Fox Kids.

Is that right? Yes. Okay, so I'm just trying to figure out why Rupert Murdoch would take that deal. I mean, couldn't he just do all of this without you? Well, he asked Margaret Lash, who was running Foxy, said to duplicate what Chaim has done, including his international distribution and presence worldwide. How long will it take you? And she said, I can do it, but it might take me five years plus.

And he wanted that network right away. He wanted a presence in that category. And by doing this joint venture with me, he was instant. in the worldwide kids' business. So he basically agreed to give you half of Fox Kids Network in exchange for your distribution network and the cartoons that you had. But then at that point, you owned half of the Kids Network. Yes.

I mean, a pretty incredible gamble you took because you rejected it as an original offer. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't going to do anything else. I wasn't going to bring in a partner in a company I owned 100% off. Yeah. So what do you guys do at that point? What's your next move? Well, the next move is I called Chase Carey and Margaret Lash one day. Chase Carey was also at Fox. He was a...

Chase Carey was the chief operating officer at Fox. And I said, look, I got this idea we should be in the 24-7 kids business. Yeah. And there's only one channel that is not part of a big conglomerate and that has has full distribution that we can buy, and that's the family channel, owned by Pat Robertson. The televangelist. Correct. And basically, you wanted Fox to help you convince Pat Robertson to sell it?

Right. And they said to me, well, he would never sell. I said, well, how about we ask about that as a concept? So they meet with Pat Robertson, Pat Robertson. They call me afterwards, and they say, Pat Robertson. is not a seller. But Chase is going to meet with his son, Tim. This is Tim Robertson, Pat Robertson's son. Correct. And maybe they'll try to find some kind of cooperation. He meets with Tim a few days later. And I say, can I come? And he said,

no, no, no, well, I'll handle it. I said, okay, fine. They didn't want you there because they thought you were going to be a pain in the neck? Because maybe they were concerned that I would be too pushy or I don't know. I don't know. The answer is I don't know. I just didn't care. All I cared about was the result. I didn't care. So he goes to the meeting with Tim. He comes back and he says, nothing to do. I said, okay, you're done. They said, we're done. I said, okay, I want you to come to a dinner with Tim and myself. Wait, wait, stop. You said that you should be, you should have a dinner with Tim and you said, let me have a shot at this. Let me see if I can convince him. Right, and we said the three of us at dinner, and I said what I said to Tim.

We left the dinner with a deal in principle. What did you say to him that made him... I don't want to get into what I told him. I want to get into... I can't tell you that Chase told me at the end of the dinner, you're a crazy man. What are you doing? I said, don't worry about it. We'll figure it out.

You basically were hustling this deal. Hustling... Hustling has a bit of a negative... No, it's a... Not at all. Not anymore. Not true. Not true? You speak English better than I do. So hustling is not negative? Not negative anymore. No. Okay, so I was hustling. You were hustling. Okay, good. I was hustling. You were hustling. Andy Robertson then says, okay, we have a deal.

Yeah, we had some sort of a joint venture concept that we agreed upon that through the negotiations, evolved into basically us buying the whole channel. And Fox paid for the whole thing? Yeah. And what they pay? 1.9 billion. Which, that sounds like a lot of money. Was it a good deal?

No, it was not a good deal. It was a fantastic deal. Okay, so you have the deal, and you bought this, what was a Christian cable? channel and then you transition it into a kids channel. Was it hard to do that? No, look, I mean, we converted the channel from a channel that targeted people 80 plus, 80 years old plus. I mean, it was a disaster zone. From a demographic standpoint, so we struggled for a couple of years. And then as we were turning the corner, I realized that we had built a company that was worth

between five and five and a half billion dollars competing with companies that were worth 10 to 20 times that. The business of this world and the Warner Brothers and so on. So I came to the conclusion that it's time to sell. So wait, this is about like five years in? Yes. And so you have this channel, Fox Family, and then you decide you want to sell it. I mean, you owned half of it, but then Fox owned half of it.

How were you able to sell? So I had the right, based on my contract with Fox, to put my share to them, which I did. And we said to negotiate, they told me that they thought my share was worth half a billion. I told them that my share is worth $2 billion. Let's sit down and talk. Yeah. But half a billion dollars, that's a lot of money. I mean, wow.

Now, $2 billion is more. But you could have walked away at that point with. half a billion dollars and she would have been a very happy. I wasn't going to walk away with half a billion dollars. There was not a shot in hell. I was going to do that. Okay. My stake in the company is worth two billion. That's what I thought. So what did you end up doing? So I didn't want to get into a pissing match with my partners. I said, okay, well, you know, give me a proxy to sell it. If I can sell it for four and a half billion dollars, would you sell it with me, sell your share? They said yes. Then I ended up selling it for $5.3 billion. How did you do that?

Well, there were two potential buyers. One was CBS and the other one was Disney. And Disney was really very interested in the assets. And they ended up putting up the right amount of money for the asset. I mean, that meant that you probably walked away with easily with more than a billion dollars. One and a half billion. So you become a billionaire overnight. Yes. Why was it so important for you to get a billion and a half dollars rather than half a billion, right? I mean, was it the money that was important, or was it the principal, or was it something else? It's not about what was important to me. It was more about what is fair.

I mean, that was the fair price for the asset. I mean, was money becoming really rich? Did that motivate you? You know, it wasn't only money, but it was also money. Money is a marker to success. Yeah. I mean, we could continue this conversation and talk about you bought Univision in 2006. And then, you know, you created an investment fund.

Like that's, is it, is it work? Is it getting to a higher number? Is it recognition? What is it that motivates you? Is it just the joy of working? Like, what is it that keeps you going every day? Look, I don't collect stamps and I don't play golf. Yeah.

You know, I don't have hobbies other than playing my guitar. This is my hobby, you know, getting deals done and making investments and so on. And look, it allows me to do things that I truly enjoy, which is give a lot of money back to this incredible country that has given me so much opportunity, the United States. and Israel, which took me in when I was a refugee. So there's a lot of gratification in that. When you look in the mirror in the morning, do you see Heim Saban, the sort of billionaire mogul, or do you see that kid who was doing his homework in the stairwell

of a modest apartment building in Tel Aviv with nothing? I see neither. I don't see myself as a mogul, no, do I see myself as a, an impoverished child. I just see a guy hurrying up to his next phone call or next meeting. I am Saban. Today he runs an investment firm.

It's called the Saban Capital Group, but he hasn't stopped schlepping cartoons. The Mighty Morphan Power Rangers movie is out in the theaters, and his name is right there in the title. I'm glad that you remember the theme song to Inspector Gadget.

Dhaba daub Inspector Gadget Right? What a song It is one of the best theme songs I think ever, it really is Yeah It's almost as good as Go Go Power Rangers

That's a power pop song though You know, that's a classic That's like, you know, moon river or something You know Woo Yes, yes, I thought I'll cause you a woo And please don't turn us off just yet in a moment. We're going to hear from you about the things you guys are building.

Hey, thanks so much for sticking around because it's time now for how you built that. And today's story comes from Paul Tecker of Yorba Linda, California. Paul's been a consultant in the beverage industry for the past 20 years. And over that time, he's also been brewing his own beverage. Well, I've been a home brewer for 20 years and pretty quickly realized that the magic ingredient in craft beer is the hops and started brewing with hops. And one day I had some leftover, and it just hit me that hops should be enjoyed on more occasions, and how come it's only in craft beer?

Now, that's not necessarily a question everyone would ask. Bacon, maybe. But hops, who knew? It's a very subtle flavor. You know, it's something that is really pleasing and really pairs well with food. And, you know, the more I looked at it, the more I said, wow, this could be a whole new category. But instead of coming up with another artisanal chocolate bar or a hops-infused cheese, Paul thought, what about a new drink? Maybe even a drink with no alcohol.

As much as I love craft beer, you can't drink it on all occasions. So I started experimenting and probably about a year of research and many failures and trying different varieties came up with something that I thought was just phenomenal. What Paul came up with has no barley, no yeast. no fermentation, no alcohol, and best of all, no calories. Paul basically made up hops-flavored sparkling water. You know, I think when people think of hops, they think of bitter. But, you know, there are over 100 varieties of hops, and the hops that we use, these aroma hops, add citrus and pine flavors, grapefruit.

It's really complex and what I consider the spice or the magic ingredient. So Paul took his creation to a beer festival in San Francisco, and at first he was a little nervous about what beer drinkers would think. But when people came up and tasted it, people were like, wow, you know, this is legit. The flavor is really interesting and refreshing, and that's when I knew that it's not just me. Now, think about this for a moment. Sparkling water is super hot right now. Just as the company that makes LaCroix. And it's no secret that craft beers huge.

Paul just figured put him together. And he's managed to get his drink into a few small retailers and restaurants. Now, he's not making a profit yet, but this year, he's expecting sales to double. And if I can get it to the point where a big company would like to pick this up and distribute it worldwide, then, you know, I would feel fantastic about that. That's Paul Tecker. His company H2 OPS is based in Anaheim, California. California. If you want to find out more about it, visit our Facebook page. And please, please also tell us your stories. You can do that by going to build.npr.org. That's build with AD. We love hearing from you. Thanks so much for listening to the show this week. If you want to find out more about it, go to how I built this. NPR.org. You can also write to us at H-I-B-T at npr.org or follow us on Twitter. It's at How I Built This. Please also help us out by subscribing to our show on iTunes or however you get your podcasts and leave us a review while you're there.

Our show was produced this week by Ramtin Arablui, who also composed the music. Thanks also to Neva Grant, San Azmeshkampur, and Jeff Rogers. Our intern is Claire Breen. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to How I Built This from NPR. Hey, if you're still listening, you know, a lot of people ask me what podcasts I listen to, and I listen to a lot. And one of my favorites is NPR's Planet Money. It's full of super fun, insightful stories that explain all kinds of things about the world.

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