Torchy's Tacos: Mike Rypka
How I Built This with Guy Raz
- Published
- July 28, 2025
- Duration
- 1h 24m
- Summary source
- description
- Last updated
- Jun 24, 2026
Discusses Long before founding Torchy’s Tacos, Mike Rypka was a troubled teenager trying to outrun his own sel…
Summary
Long before founding Torchy’s Tacos, Mike Rypka was a troubled teenager trying to outrun his own self-destruction. Growing up around addiction and falling into heavy drug use himself, Mike’s future looked bleak—until he got clean and found refuge in kitchens. Cooking gave him structure, purpose, and eventually, a career.After years working in restaurants …
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Show notes
Long before founding Torchy’s Tacos, Mike Rypka was a troubled teenager trying to outrun his own self-destruction. Growing up around addiction and falling into heavy drug use himself, Mike’s future looked bleak—until he got clean and found refuge in kitchens. Cooking gave him structure, purpose, and eventually, a career.After years working in restaurants and corporate kitchens, Mike decided to take a risk on something smaller: a food truck on a street corner in Austin. In 2006, he launched Torch