Building Non-Addictive Apps for Kids | Melissa Cash, Pok Pok

The Peel with Turner Novak

Turner Novak

Technology

4.6 • 11 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2024

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get Attio, the next generation of CRM: https://bit.ly/AttioThePeel Warp: Don’t let payroll and compliance hold your startup back: visit https://joinwarp.com/peel to get started and receive a $1,000 gift card when you first run payroll. Melissa Cash is the Co-founder and CEO of Pok Pok, a montessori-inspired collection of digital toys that spark creativity and learning through open-ended play. Prior to Pok Pok, Melissa spent a decade working in marketing and design roles, helping Snowman drive 9-digits of downloads across its game portfolio and designing physical products at Disney. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (05:46) Creating a Montessori inspired game (12:18) Why it's impossible to avoid screen time (15:35) Designing a non-addictive product (17:38) Monetizing a non-addictive game (21:47) How to price a subscription game (24:18) Using new features to drive retention (26:04) Marketing a kids game to parents (30:59) Why Pok Pok waited to launch Android (34:12) How getting pickpocketed in Germany led to a job designing products at Disney (39:23) How great products can define a childhood (43:21) Lessons from having a great idea while working at Disney (46:03) First coming up with the idea for Pok Pok (49:00) Advice for starting your first company (50:10) Fundraising tactics from Pre-Seed to Series A (54:08) How to build your network from zero (57:08) Getting the most out of Slack groups (59:07) Melissa’s hack for in-person events (01:01:33) Tactics for meeting people at events (01:03:39) Winning multiple Apple design awards (01:07:07) How to get press for your startup (01:13:17) Prioritizing getting women on Pok Pok’s cap table (01:18:38) Strategies for staying creative (01:21:58) Melissa’s influencer marketing hacks (01:24:24) Lessons from failed influencer campaigns (01:28:19) Growing 5x YoY, adding STEM content (01:30:28) What surprised her about starting a company Referenced: Try Pok Pok for 50% off an annual subscription with code POKPOK50: https://apple.co/3XAGSwT Snowman Studios: https://www.builtbysnowman.com/ Hampton Private Founder Group: https://joinhampton.com/ VC Backed Mom’s: https://www.vcbackedmoms.com/ The Peel Podcast episode with Eric Newcomer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXH_peQWtnc More on Pok Pok’s Series A: https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/18/now-a-series-a-startup-kids-app-and-digital-toy-pok-pok-is-coming-to-android/

Transcript

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0:00.0	They were trying to figure out how to introduce him to technology and his favorite toy at
0:03.6	the time was just a big busy book with no words and just lots of images.
0:07.9	And they wanted to digitize it.
0:09.8	From there it was just like very, very clear that they were onto something really unique.
0:14.6	I saw the artwork first and had just never seen anything like that for children.
0:18.5	It was so bespoke and beautiful.
0:20.6	And I realized this is
0:21.7	going to be something really interesting. And then we talked a lot more about how all of our kids
0:27.3	are going to grow up to have jobs that haven't been invented yet. And we have to prepare them for
0:31.0	that world. And technology is not going anywhere. And we have enough rote learning coming out of our
0:35.7	ears that there's just so much more we can do for kids.
0:38.8	And it was just really clear that we had to start this business.
0:42.3	And but that it didn't fit into Snowman and what they were building with their video game studio.
0:46.8	So we decided to start another company essentially.
0:50.8	And that ended up becoming Pock Pock.
0:52.9	Our whole mission with the company is to help raise the next generation of creative
0:57.0	thinkers through play and ultimately become like the Pixar of play, like that number
1:02.0	one digital first kids brand that parents actually love just as much as their kids do.
1:06.0	So with that depth and care for the brand comes the parent also encouraging the play.
1:12.7	So just as an example, if you're going on a long flight and you're like, okay, kids, how are we going to keep you busy for 10 hours?
1:18.1	The parent is more likely to recommend the product that they feel good about rather than letting their kids do the thing that they feel like shit about, but their kid happens to really like.
1:27.0	And it's not that kids love cocoa melon more than poock Pock. It's just that it's harder to
	...

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