AI Summary
5 min readWhen a Scooter Founder Advises Three Small Businesses
Carlton Calvin, founder and CEO of Razor USA, built a company that turned a fleeting craze into a decades-long business. The aluminum scooter that sold a million units a month at its peak in 2000 still sells close to a million units a year today. But Calvin's real skill, as he describes it, is a "weird talent" for spotting what kids will want next—an instinct he is now trying to systematize before he steps back from daily operations.
"I'm trying to institutionalize my trend-seeking abilities," Calvin says. "I'm kind of a fun analytical person and I'm trying to analyze and see if I can come up with like an algorithm for it." He compares the search to walking a beach with a metal detector: bottle caps for hours, then maybe a quarter, and once a month a silver dollar. The rare finds are the ones that shift culture. But when he started actively looking rather than waiting for opportunities to arrive, he found more than expected. Hacky sacks, he notes, are coming back in a big way, and Razor already has them in stores.
The Patent Trap
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of How I Built This with Guy Raz
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (03:08) **Introducing Carlton Calvin and Razor’s Trend-Seeking DNA** - Guy Raz welcomes back Carlton Calvin, founder of Razor USA, and they discuss the enduring popularity of the classic scooter.
- 2 (07:30) **The Futility of Patent Lawsuits Against Small Copycats** - Carlton explains why pursuing patent protection against knockoffs is often a losing battle.
- 3 (09:42) **Caller 1: Sean and the Party Game "Eulogy"** - Sean from Saskatchewan pitches his party game where players create a character at a funeral, with the goal of winning the right to perform the eulogy.
- 4 (14:31) **The "Prove It First" Strategy for Toy Inventors** - Guy and Carlton press Sean on the need for more traction before seeking a licensing deal.
- 5 (18:04) **Ad Break and Sponsor Messages** - A series of advertisements for Engine, Apple Card, US Bank, and Anthropic’s Claude.
- 6 (25:19) **Caller 2: Shereen and Honey Bespoke Stationery** - Shereen from Houston runs a stationery business with $120k in annual revenue, selling on Etsy and her own website, and holds licenses with major universities.
- 7 (27:46) **The Power of Being the Face of Your Brand** - Guy and Carlton push Shereen to use video and show her face to build a following.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Today’s callers: Shawn from Saskatchewan weighs whether brand-building or licensing is best for his card-based party game. Then Shirin in Texas wants to differentiate her graphic stationery in a crowded Etsy marketplace. And Mark from New Jersey works through refocusing his line of craft spirits.
Plus, Carlton’s recent efforts to pass on his trendspottting talent to the next generation.
Thank you to the founders of Youlogy, Honey Bespoke Stationery & Paper Goods, and Little Water Distillery for being a part of our show.
If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode—where Guy and former show guests take questions from early-stage founders—leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to [email protected] or call 1-800-433-1298.
And be sure to listen to the Razor founding story as told by Carlton Calvin in 2025.
This episode was produced by Casey Herman with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella. Our audio engineer was Annlie Huang.
You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram and sign up for Guy’s free newsletter at guyraz.com or on Substack.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
More from this podcast
How I Built This with Guy Raz →