The Business of Fun

While many of the featured speakers at the International Startup Festival have focused their efforts on developing products or services strictly for use on the internet, a few have a slightly different business approach. Consider Play Learn Think Tank, a creative learning outfit based out of Toronto. The company creates toys not just to entertain children, but to help them develop beneficial skill sets. To better summarize its outlook, the company features a quote from Charles Eames on its website: “Toys are not as innocent as they appear, they are often the precursor to greater things.”

Toys include Connexions, an abstract 3D puzzle that was initially designed for visually impaired students. Connexions has since gained a second life as an abstract thinking toy for virtually any classroom setting. However, Play Learn Think Tank doesn’t limit itself strictly to physical toys. The company also partners with institutions to try and develop better learning methodologies, including the Helsinki-based Aalto University’s International Design Business Management program.

The company was founded by Ilana Ben-Ari who studied Industrial Design at Ottawa’s Carleton University. Even with a background in design and toy making, her ethos is definitely more in line with the vibrant energy of a typical internet startup. Unlike many typical startups, however, Play Learn Think Tank has a very human feel to it. The company’s website openly states that the company is trying to “make a difference.” The website is less a profit placeholder and more of an thriving, organic enterprise. You get the feeling that this business only intends to grow, and that the focus is more on the product, and less on the bottom line. Illana Ben-Ari will appear at the festival.

The International Startup Festival will also feature speakers from sites like Cheezburger.com, which made its fortune by posting pictures of mildly deranged animals with amusing captions. The “service” in this case is pure entertainment, but not of a particularly sophisticated kind. To be fair, Cheezburger.com was one of the first relatively small sites to actually start turning a profit on the web. Sean Power, chief data scientist at Cheezburger.com, is slated to speak at the conference.

By virtue of their success, both of these speakers demonstrate that running a successful startup is as much about pursuing a particular passion as it is about understanding the fundamentals of investor relationships and quarterly P&L statements. “Fun” can be a selling point.