Image credit: Fat Brain Toys
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Every year around this time, I get a little nostalgic for Toy Fair. My first real job at age 27 was at the toy startup, Worlds of Wonder. On my first trip to New York City for the trade show, I stumbled upon one of my early designs in the toy store FAO Schwarz. With one notable exception, licensing my ideas to toy companies proved challenging when I struck out on my own. I’ll always be grateful to the industry for celebrating inventors, though. It gave me my start.
These days, having to go through a toy broker is more common, but I was pleased to discover there are companies welcoming independent inventors with open arms. I was lucky enough to interview Erik Quam, longtime director of product development at Fat Brain Toys -- one such company -- a few weeks ago.
Related: Get Your Product to Market in Six Steps
Fat Brain Toys began in 2002 as a single online store focused on magnetic toys. According to its website, the company now boasts more than 7,500 toys, games and gifts in stock as well as two retail stores and a mail-order catalogue. Its own line of educational toys, which it began developing in 2006, can be found at SFMOMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian and other shops.
How does the company develop new innovations that meet it’s “very specific niche of design-inspired pure play”? Mostly, Quam said, by working with inventors. If you have an idea for him, he wants to hear it.
Quam began the company’s annual hunt for new product ideas last month at a trade show in London, though he welcomes hearing from inventors throughout the year. In fact, he said he never says no to a conversation. He doesn’t want to make the mistake of inadvertently passing something up.
“If it’s the next great idea, I want to be the first one to jump out and sign it,” he said. “So there really isn’t a bad time to submit.” That includes Toy Fair, which begins this weekend.
Does Fat Brain require submissions to be prototyped or patented like some companies insist? No.
“It could be anything, really. We are not the type of company that is going to turn our nose up at a sketch on the back of a napkin... We love to see the root of an idea -- to cultivate it, water it, give it some fertilizer, watch it -- and see it grow,” Quam explained.
I love that.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270699
Every year around this time, I get a little nostalgic for Toy Fair. My first real job at age 27 was at the toy startup, Worlds of Wonder. On my first trip to New York City for the trade show, I stumbled upon one of my early designs in the toy store FAO Schwarz. With one notable exception, licensing my ideas to toy companies proved challenging when I struck out on my own. I’ll always be grateful to the industry for celebrating inventors, though. It gave me my start.
These days, having to go through a toy broker is more common, but I was pleased to discover there are companies welcoming independent inventors with open arms. I was lucky enough to interview Erik Quam, longtime director of product development at Fat Brain Toys -- one such company -- a few weeks ago.
Related: Get Your Product to Market in Six Steps
Fat Brain Toys began in 2002 as a single online store focused on magnetic toys. According to its website, the company now boasts more than 7,500 toys, games and gifts in stock as well as two retail stores and a mail-order catalogue. Its own line of educational toys, which it began developing in 2006, can be found at SFMOMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian and other shops.
Quam began the company’s annual hunt for new product ideas last month at a trade show in London, though he welcomes hearing from inventors throughout the year. In fact, he said he never says no to a conversation. He doesn’t want to make the mistake of inadvertently passing something up.
“If it’s the next great idea, I want to be the first one to jump out and sign it,” he said. “So there really isn’t a bad time to submit.” That includes Toy Fair, which begins this weekend.
Does Fat Brain require submissions to be prototyped or patented like some companies insist? No.
“It could be anything, really. We are not the type of company that is going to turn our nose up at a sketch on the back of a napkin... We love to see the root of an idea -- to cultivate it, water it, give it some fertilizer, watch it -- and see it grow,” Quam explained.
I love that.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270699
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