Advice Line with Steve Ells of Chipotle

What It Covers

Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle, joins Guy Raz on the How I Built This Advice Line to counsel three entrepreneurs — an Australian craft gin distiller, a heated mat startup founder, and an Italian-American winery owner — on differentiation, market focus, and building authentic brands in crowded or declining markets.

Key Questions Answered

• •Brand Differentiation Through Place: Narrow your identity to one geographic or ingredient-specific story rather than expanding the product line. Streaky Bay Distillers forages local botanicals — abalone shell, saltbush, coastal rosemary — that no other Australian distillery uses. That hyper-local specificity, paired with handcrafted packaging, creates a defensible brand position that generic vodka or whiskey extensions would dilute.
• •Product Line Discipline: Resist pressure to broaden offerings when a core product is clearly superior. Ells kept Chipotle's menu deliberately narrow against industry advice, enabling quality control at scale. For small producers, a focused lineup signals mastery. Streaky Bay's gins outperform their vodka on differentiation — concentrating resources there sharpens the brand rather than fragmenting it.
• •Mission-Driven Businesses Need Commercial Scale First: Mat Zero's heated mats serve humanitarian needs but require profitable consumer sales to fund that mission. Ells recommends targeting high-spending outdoor enthusiasts — skiers, hunters, polar expedition teams — at the $109–$295 price point, then embedding a give-back mechanism, such as donating one unit per 50 sold, once volume justifies it.
• •Newsletter as Content Resource, Not Promotion: Cantina di Rosina's monthly email should prioritize genuinely useful content — food pairings, cooking tips, tasting guides for Abruzzo wines — over brand promotion. Raz's own podcast newsletter follows this model. Readers who find recurring value become loyal subscribers, and that loyalty converts to wine club memberships, which generate predictable recurring revenue.
• •One-on-One Relationship Building Precedes Scale: Ells built Chipotle's early customer base through individual interactions, not mass marketing. For niche products in declining categories — wine consumption among Gen Z is falling — personal outreach to chefs, athletes, and influencers who receive product samples creates authentic advocates whose word-of-mouth reaches audiences that traditional advertising cannot convert.