This year, more than 800 attendees will convene at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, for two days of inspiration, community building, mentorship, and innovation from some of the world’s most groundbreaking entrepreneurs. The sold-out event will feature on-stage interviews by podcast creator and host Guy Raz with founders of major U.S. companies, representing a wide range of industries including technology, consumer products, wellness and entertainment.

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NPR's second annual How I Built This Summit is sold out. NPR's HIBT Summit (Graphic: Business Wire)

“Starting a business can be thrilling and terrifying all at the same time,” says Raz. “If we’ve learned one thing from the podcast it’s that our listeners feel connected to the struggles, failures, and challenges they hear on the show. The Summit is designed as a gathering place where our community of listeners can learn from one another, share their own challenges and solutions, and hopefully make real and lasting connections that will offer support long after the Summit ends.”

Main stage speakers include;

• Sara Blakely of Spanx.

• Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

• Stewart Butterfield, of Slack.

• Troy Carter, of Atom Factory.

• Tariq Farid, of Edible Arrangements.

• Cathy Hughes, of Urban One.

• Marcia Kilgore, of FitFlop and Beauty Pie.

• Stacy Madison, of Stacy's Pita Chips.

• David Neeleman, of JetBlue.

• Jen Rubio, of Away.

• Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, of Instagram.

In addition to main stage interviews, Summit attendees will get access to additional track sessions facilitated by world-renowned entrepreneurs. The 2019 track session themes include: fundamentals to sharpen your business acumen and master your pitch; leadership to develop your personal and organizational leadership style; and innovation to provide guidance on how emerging business trends can impact your strategy.

Track speakers include Erid Friedman and James Park, Co-Founders of Fitbit; Bobby Brown, Founder of Beauty Evolution LLC; Y-Vonne Hutchinson, Founder and CEO of ReadySet; James Reinhart, Co-Founder and CEO of thredUP and more!

Following the popularity of last year’s How I Built This Fellowship, close to a 1000 people from all over the world applied for the 2019 cohort. How I Built This Fellowship serves as an opportunity for innovators at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey to attend the Summit and join a growing professional support network. This year, the program includes a full conference ticket, a customized in-person kickoff session before the Summit, reserved seating for the Summit's main stage programming and post-Summit educational resources.

“The early stage [of entrepreneurship] is when an idea is the most vulnerable, and having this amazing community of people support you and give you thoughtful advice was motivating and exciting.”
Dewan Farhana, 2018 How I Built This Fellow and founder of Betternest

How I Built This started as a podcast in 2016 stemming from the power of storytelling fueled by honest and intimate conversations between Guy Raz and some of the most successful entrepreneurs. How I Built This is now one of the 15 most-downloaded podcasts in the United States according to Podtrac and is consistently a top-ranked business podcast on the Apple charts. Guy Raz has been called “one of the most popular podcasters in history” by The New York Times and appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show, where host Jimmy Fallon called HIBT his favorite podcast.

HIBT was also featured in Barron’s The 7 Best Podcasts in Business and Finance in March of 2019, Business News Daily’s 10 Best Business Podcasts in December of 2018, and Digital Trends The Best Podcasts of 2018. HIBT has rapidly and consistently established itself as a pioneer in the podcast world.

You can preview the day’s programming at https://hibtsummitagenda.nprpresents.org/.

Fans and listeners can also experience some of the day's onstage conversations and get a glimpse of exclusive behind-the-scenes moments by following NPR Extra’s Instagram, The How I Built This Facebook and Twitter and the official hashtag #HIBTSummit.

Listen to How I Built This on NPR One and wherever podcasts are available.

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