DeepSummary
Ronnen Harari co-founded Spin Master, a toy company, in the mid-1990s with his friends Anton Rabie and Ben Verratti. Their first product was the Earth Buddy, a novelty gift made from pantyhose, sawdust, and grass seeds. They followed it up with successful toys like Devil Sticks, Air Hogs, and Flick Trix by relying on intuition and identifying play patterns rather than market research.
In the late 2000s, Spin Master struck gold with Bakugan, a transforming marble toy that became a billion-dollar multimedia franchise. However, when Bakugan sales declined in 2011, the company struggled financially and had to restructure. Their comeback was Paw Patrol, an animated show about rescue dogs that spawned an enormously successful toy line and assortment of merchandise.
Spin Master has continued expanding into new product categories like games, activities, and outdoor toys. The company went public in 2015 and acquired several brands to diversify its portfolio. Harari stepped back from leadership in 2021 after 25 years, aiming for Spin Master to outlive its founders.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Intuition and identifying innate play patterns in children are more valuable than market research when developing new toys.
- Creating an enduring, generation-spanning brand or franchise is extremely difficult in the toy industry.
- Diversifying product lines and revenue streams is crucial for sustained success in the hit-driven toy business.
- Major pivots, restructuring and perseverance are often required to overcome failures and declining sales of hit products.
- Luck plays an important role, especially in finding the right partners and creative talent for successful multimedia franchises.
- Transition plans are needed to sustain toy companies beyond the founding team and product life cycles.
- Toy companies should balance maintaining successful core products while continuously innovating new offerings.
- The toy industry is extremely competitive, requiring agility and accepting failures as a cost of hit-driven success.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We did no research, nothing.“ by Ronnen Harari
- “It was an excruciating process. And we did it four times, four restructurings just because no one really wants to believe that the sales are going to go down.“ by Ronnen Harari
- “You cannot consult yourself in the toy industry. It is one of the most intuitive, creative industries out there. It's a feel industry, but it's also a history industry.“ by Ronnen Harari
Entities
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Episode Information
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Guy Raz | Wondery
6/24/24
Ronnen Harary built a 4 billion dollar toy company without relying on market research or focus groups. Instead, he believed wholeheartedly in intuition: the "ah-hah" moment that comes from thinking like a 7-year old. Over a 25-year period, he and his Spin Master partners launched innumerable hit toys and amusements, including Air Hogs, Bakugan, and the smash hit franchise PAW Patrol. Spin Master's journey began in the mid-1990s, when Ronnen and his friend Anton Rabie began selling the Earth Buddy, a chia-pet-like novelty gift made of pantyhose, sawdust, and grass seed. Today, it's a publicly traded company with a portfolio that includes TV shows, video games, and toys ranging from puzzles to plush.
This episode was produced by Casey Herman, with music by Ramtin Arablouei
Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Claire Murashima.
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