Most of us have iPads, but most of us don’t have kids. That’s what I shared with Phyl Georgiou, the co-founder of Tiggly, who explained why I, and any adult that knows a toddler, could find Tiggly’s iPad toddler-toy useful. We all know a two-year old, right? In my case, I know plenty, so I listened in.
The idea of lugging around puzzles, baby-Einstein play-sets, miniature pianos or busy-ball poppers to keep a toddler entertained can be a real challenge, not to mention heavy and an all-around inconvenience for most busy parents.
iPad games are a nice alternative since the games can all be played on one device, but toddler iPad games fall short, in that they don’t offer kids a hands-on toy to complement the digital game, which kids inevitably want. This makes it near-impossible for parents to avoid lugging around some kind of “tangible toy.”
The founders of Tiggly saw that problem and came up with a solution: bridge the digital and physical worlds by creating a toy that works with the iPad. It’s a fresh idea, but how could something like this be pulled off? That’s what a group of six HBSers in Section D set out to resolve in their Field 3 project, which is how the first iPad toy for toddlers got started.
The team worked hard to win the top award. On Field 3 IPO day, Tiggly (formerly known as IvyKids) won the audience choice and the judges schoice as the best idea in Field 3. This led Phyl and Steve Miller, two members of the initial team, to take the idea more seriously and figure out if they wanted to create a business out of this idea and bring it to market.
If they could create a product that would be convenient for adults, work with the iPad (and be iPad friendly), appeal to and engage toddlers, they just might have a working business model, and Phyl dedicated his entire summer towards making this happen. And that’s just what he did.
How it works:
Tiggly Shapes, simply put, is a toddler’s toy for the iPad. It bridges the virtual and physical world with its “tiggly shapes,” which are rubber-like cut-outs (in the shape of a square, circle, triangle and star) that are easy to carry, colorful, multi-purpose and simple.
The shapes work with the Tiggly ipad app, of which there are now three (Tiggly Draw, Tiggly Safari and Tiggly Match), creating engaging, fun, interactive games for kids 18 months – 3 years old. The perk? It’s encourages creative and critical thinking.
To get it, you simply download the apps for free in the app store, buy the shapes online from Tiggly ($24) and it’s ready to go.
To learn more and support the team: check out the video of tiggle at www.tiggly.com and their Kickstarter campaign, which just launched last week, at //bit.ly/tiggly
