Let him cook: How Weber Blackstone CEO Roger Dahle went from upstart to the biggest name in grilling
It’s time for our annual Fourth of July grill episode here at Decoder. This is when we invite the CEOs of outdoor cooking companies onto the show to explain just how their businesses kind of look like every other business. And this is a very special edition. Today I’m talking to Roger Dahle, the CEO of Weber Blackstone, a full circle moment for Decoder. Roger was our first-ever grill CEO on the show back when he was the CEO of just Blackstone — a griddle company he started in 2008 that exploded in popularity during the pandemic, when videos of smashburgers went relentlessly viral on TikTok. Verge subscribers, don’t forget you get exclusive access to ad-free Decoder wherever you get your podcasts. Head here. Not a subscriber? You can sign up here. Blackstone grew so fast and so furiously that Roger was able to buy Weber a couple of years ago, a legacy company that had fallen on hard times. Fun fact: We asked Roger to come on the show last year to talk about the merger, but it was stuck in antitrust review at the Federal Trade Commission. So Roger and I talked about that, what competition review entails for grill companies, and what it takes to manufacture these products overseas and import them into the United States in an age of high tariffs and high energy prices that are pushing consumers down market. We also talked about what it means to merge with Weber, a storied company with iconic products that had become pretty stuck in its ways and pretty siloed. Roger now seems very eager to break those silos down and create a better combined company with a new culture. As I said, there’s a lot in this one — including whether the chip market is affecting Weber’s connected thermometer business. It’s pure Decoder bait through and through, and Roger was great in this episode. Okay: Weber Blackstone CEO Roger Dahle. Here we go. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Roger Dahle, you’re the CEO of Weber Blackstone. Welcome back to Decod