Comments on: Quick Thoughts from TC50: ToyBots

By: TC50: Toys Spring To Life With ToyBots Internet Magic

TC50: Toys Spring To Life With ToyBots Internet Magic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:22:09 +0000

[...] with Internet connectivity VentureBeat. ToyBots – Connected Toys Of Some Sort #TC50 Techgeist. Quick Thoughts from TC50: ToyBots Startup Marketing Blog. CrunchBase Information ToyBots Woozees Information provided by [...]

By: Startups Bringing Personalization Back In Style

Startups Bringing Personalization Back In Style — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:07:58 +0000

[...] Startup Marketing Blog by Sean Ellis: Kids are a notoriously difficult market to acquire online. But in the case of ToyBots, I believe they are targeting a fantastic opportunity. It is likely that connected toys will be the next generation in toys and I love their example of having grandma read a story to the grandkids through the toy. [...]

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:34:12 +0000

Hey Tim, good points. ToyBots may be trying to boil the ocean with their approach… We’ll see how it works out – we’re all guessing at this point.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:44:13 +0000

I’m so surprised by your reaction. I thought they were unprepared and didn’t understand either kids or the fundamentals of the retail kids market.

if they had — as i mentioned in a comment on techcrunch right ahead of you — built the “storytelling pillow” that his daughter wanted, they’d have something simple and compelling. I’m imagining a Kindle for kids with a web-based interface (a la Netflix/Roku player). A pillow with some touch controls to select and play/pause streamed audiobooks.

As it is, they seem to suffer from whiteboarding-itis. Too many features, muddling up their value prop.

I would argue that a company pitching a “platform” is a company that has no idea who their customers are or what their business model is.