How I Built This has made the founder interview format into something close to art. These podcasts share its commitment to telling the real story behind how companies are built — the pivots, the near-failures, and the decisions that actually mattered.
Founders with David Senra takes the How I Built This spirit and applies it to historical business biographies — each episode reconstructs the founder's journey through primary sources with the same intention of understanding what it actually took. David's emotional investment in the material makes the show feel as warm and personal as Guy Raz's best interviews.
Acquired is what How I Built This would be if it went five times deeper — Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal's research-grade episodes on the world's greatest companies cover the same territory as HIBT but with the detail and analytical rigor of a business school case study. For listeners who love the format and want more, this is the natural next step.
Indie Hackers shares How I Built This's commitment to the honest founder story — Courtland Allen's interviews cover the same territory of origin, struggle, and breakthrough, but focused on self-funded founders building in the current era with real revenue numbers shared openly.
My First Million shares HIBT's entrepreneurial energy and genuine enthusiasm for the mechanics of how businesses work — Sam and Shaan's brainstorming sessions and founder analysis consistently surface the same kinds of business insights that make HIBT episodes so rewarding.
Masters of Scale shares How I Built This's production ambition and its commitment to extracting genuine lessons from successful founders — Reid Hoffman's focus on the counter-intuitive dynamics of scaling complements the narrative format with more explicit frameworks.
The Diary of a CEO shares HIBT's willingness to go beyond the highlight reel — Steven Bartlett consistently creates space for founders and creators to discuss the personal and psychological dimensions of building something, which is exactly what makes HIBT's best episodes so memorable.
Business Breakdowns shares HIBT's love for understanding why certain businesses work — the systematic breakdown of specific companies gives listeners the same business intuition that HIBT builds through narrative, using a more analytical approach.
This Week in Startups shares HIBT's deep engagement with the startup ecosystem — Jason Calacanis's real-time commentary on companies and markets gives the show a complementary value to HIBT's historical and narrative focus.
Invest Like the Best shares HIBT's respect for founders and operators — Patrick O'Shaughnessy's conversations with business builders are peer-level in a way that complements the more narrative HIBT format, revealing the strategic and analytical frameworks behind successful companies.
SaaStr shares HIBT's focus on the founder journey — but specialized for software businesses, where Jason Lemkin's expertise and the SaaStr community's network produce founder conversations with unusual operational specificity about what it actually takes to build a SaaS company.
The best HIBT alternatives share its focus on the full founder journey — not just the highlight reel. Shows like Founders, Acquired, and Indie Hackers all cover the real mechanics of building companies with the same narrative depth.
Founders, Indie Hackers, and The Diary of a CEO all conduct long-form founder interviews with a similar emphasis on the real story rather than the polished version.
Acquired goes much deeper — multi-hour research-grade episodes on specific companies. Founders goes deeper on the individual entrepreneur through their biography. Both reward committed listeners.