Hardware Podcasts

Manduka: Peter Sterios

How I Built This · 24 Apr 2023 · 1h 10m

What this episode covers

Peter Sterios, founder of Manduka, explains how he launched a multimillion-dollar yoga mat company after discovering a high-performance German astroturf underlayment used by his mentor, Shandor Rameet. Sterios took a massive financial risk by borrowing $25,000 to import the first batch of mats, storing them in his garage, and then leveraging relationships with celebrity yoga teachers like Baron Baptiste and Eric Schiffman to drive early adoption. He details the operational challenges of scaling production with a German factory, managing cash flow as a small team, and the eventual sale of the company to YogaWorks in 2007.

Most relevant to

founders before launch, early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
YogaWorks, Lululemon, Athleta, Patagonia, Channelstone Partners
Products
Manduka
Also
Shandor Rameet, B.K.S. Iyengar, Baron Baptiste, Eric Schiffman

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