Skip to main content
How I Built This

Babylist: Natalie Gordon. How a new mom used nap time to build a $500M business.

67 min episode · 2 min read
·

Episode

67 min

Read time

2 min

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • How did a software engineer pivot from Amazon to entrepreneurship?
  • What makes universal registries better than single-store options?
  • How do you scale from affiliate marketing to direct retail?
  • What challenges arise when hiring your first employees?

What It Covers

Natalie Gordon transforms a frustrating Babies R Us experience into BabyList, building a universal baby registry during naptime that grows into a $500 million business.

Key Questions Answered

  • How did a software engineer pivot from Amazon to entrepreneurship?
  • What makes universal registries better than single-store options?
  • How do you scale from affiliate marketing to direct retail?
  • What challenges arise when hiring your first employees?

Notable Moment

Gordon describes walking into Babies R Us with a scanner gun, becoming overwhelmed by hundreds of bottle options without guidance, putting down the scanner and leaving in tears.

Know someone who'd find this useful?

You just read a 3-minute summary of a 64-minute episode.

Get How I Built This summarized like this every Monday — plus up to 2 more podcasts, free.

Pick Your Podcasts — Free

Keep Reading

More from How I Built This

We summarize every new episode. Want them in your inbox?

Similar Episodes

Related episodes from other podcasts

This podcast is featured in Best Business Podcasts (2026) — ranked and reviewed with AI summaries.

You're clearly into How I Built This.

Every Monday, we deliver AI summaries of the latest episodes from How I Built This and 192+ other podcasts. Free for up to 3 shows.

Start My Monday Digest

No credit card · Unsubscribe anytime