
About this episode
Five years before he became a massively successful content creator, Dhar Mann was nearly broke and living in a studio apartment. It’s the kind of story he might tell in one of his videos: bite-sized, live-action morality tales that have earned 60 billion views across YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. Raised in an Indian Sikh family, Dhar had a strong entrepreneurial drive, which led to early business success, but also a spectacular downfall when he got pulled into a Ponzi scheme. A few years after losing nearly everything, he began making short, dramatic videos that conveyed life lessons. Nobody watched at first and critics called them cheesy, but today, Dhar has a huge production studio in Burbank, where dozens of employees make content for tens of millions of subscribers.
This episode was produced by Alex Cheng and Casey Herman, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.
Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Katherine Sypher.
You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at [email protected].
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Get every episode summarized
Each time How I Built This with Guy Raz publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from How I Built This with Guy Raz

Room & Board: John Gabbert. A Broken Deal, a Family Rift, and the Birth of a Fur...
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Advice Line with Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Beautycounter: Gregg Renfrew. She Built Beautycounter to $1B… Then Got Fired Fro...
How I Built This with Guy Raz

Advice Line with David Neeleman of JetBlue
How I Built This with Guy Raz