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In this episode, we interview Webb Knudsen is an entrepreneur and investor with a background in entertainment, social media, and mobile technology. He is the CEO and co-founder of Playper, a company that creates paper toys enhanced with augmented reality (AR) for children. Knudsen has held significant roles such as Vice President of Business Development at Crisp, where he focused on expanding market presence, and led sales teams at Aarki and Millennial Reach.

His earlier career includes positions at Walden Media, CAA, and Lucasfilm, emphasizing profitability and market strategy for movies, brands, and apps. He is also a partner at Knudsen Capital, a family investment office focused on early-stage, high-growth companies, and a Vice President at Partnership Capital Growth, a private equity firm specializing in health and wellness.

Knudsen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Speech Communication from Pepperdine University (2009) and a VC Unlocked degree in Venture Capital from Stanford University (2020). He is based in Madison, NJ, and is known for his interest in sustainable business models, having founded Playper to address environmental concerns with plastic toys.

TechEd TV Transcription

3:47:36 You guys are watching Tech Had TV with Dr. Edwin Hernandez, and….
13:47:40 Today, we have a co-host.
13:47:48 Good evening, good afternoon, good morning, you guys are watching Techhead TV with Dr. Edwin Hernandez.
13:47:52 And today, we have a great guest. Welknudsen, from Plaper.
13:47:57 And, um…. What's next?
14:06:44 Alright, one's…. We have to do it again, because I was not recording.
14:06:49 Oh, okay. No problem.
14:06:51 Alright, let's do it again. Uh… 3, 2, 1. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. You guys are watching Techhead TV Podcast.
14:07:00 And if you're listening, you're listening to our podcast with. A new guest, an entrepreneur, a friend.
14:07:06 We have Gunnelson, so he's right here with us. Hi, Gweb.
14:07:09 Hi! Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
14:07:12 Great, great, great. So one thing I see behind you is, uh, besides asking for your background, uh, academically and professionally.
14:07:18 You have a very cool background. Is that your company, PlayPer? What is that?
14:07:22 That is, yeah. Behind me we have our very bright, colorful, fun playbook toys. We've got the, uh….
14:07:29 Castle, playset, catapult, Dragon Trainer, the story starters, we've got a pirate ship.
14:07:34 The Mermaid Castle and our Pirate and Mermaid story starters, and uh… I'm very proud of them, they're a ton of fun.
14:07:40 And tell me about your real background. You come from media, so I know you probably don't like to brag about, like, the names like Lucasfilm, CAA.
14:07:47 But what's the story behind it?
14:07:50 Yeah, I got my career start in the entertainment industry, and it was a very fun place to get a career start. I started off at the production company Walden Media, which makes the Chronicles of Narnia movies.
14:08:01 And then I jumped over to CAA, Creative Artists Agency, and after that, I went to Lucasfilm, where I was selling the.
14:08:07 Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies in the distribution sales department, and uh… after that, I jumped over to the Silicon Valley startup scene, did a couple startups in the marketing space.
14:08:18 Then jumped into, uh, investing in consumer products, and then I founded, uh, Playper and became the CEO.
14:08:25 Of this business.
14:08:28 Great, that's an interesting segue, because you have, um…. And he would wake him up, and I will say, when you became a parent, is that right?
14:08:35 That connected your new career as a CEO of Playpair. So what happened? How did that begin?
14:08:42 Yeah, it's… it's an organic story of, kind of, uh, playing with my kids and, uh, seeing the toys that they had, and, uh.
14:08:50 Seeing the toys that were filling up our home, and realizing that the majority of the toys.
14:08:56 We're plastic, uh, as, uh, is, is, uh, the case for the whole toy industry. 90% or more of all toys.
14:09:03 Are made out of plastic, and they are not recyclable, and that was the revolution that my wife and I had, and kind of the challenge that my wife and I had, is over and over again, we realized.
14:09:14 The, uh, kids have a, uh, you know, relatively short. Period of time that they are into most toys, a matter of days, matter of weeks, months if you're lucky.
14:09:26 Um, and then you as the parent are faced with this challenge of, what do I do with these toys when my kid is no longer into them?
14:09:33 And so that was really the revelation, uh, that led to Playper, is, uh, there's a lot of cool stuff being done in the toy industry with recycled plastics, natural woods.
14:09:42 Trying to be more eco-friendly, but what I felt was really missing was the exit solution, the, what do you do with these toys when your child is no longer into them? And so that's really what PlayPer solves.
14:09:55 Is, uh, it provides awesome, imaginative, buildable toys that are great for pretend play.
14:10:01 But also, when they, uh, when your child is no longer, uh, enjoying and loving the toys anymore, you can just toss them guilt-free in any recycling bin, which, uh.
14:10:15 Yeah, because Playper is a paper, right? It's like a play, you know, words for play word.
14:10:11 Is something that not any toys really can say. It is, yeah. Exactly.
14:10:20 And uh… and I saw that…. And I saw a presentation on Shark Tank a while ago.
14:10:26 Where they had, uh, a paper wallet. So you had a paper-made wallet.
14:10:31 And I think it gained a lot of, like, attraction from the sharks, because simply it was recyclable the same way.
14:10:37 And they were making the same statement that. That we had too many, like, uh, use of leather, synthetics, and things like that.
14:10:46 And in general, you couldn't personalize it, for example. And I assume that the creativity side of the story with paper.
14:10:54 It's something that you want to, like, incentivize with your kids, and as well as with other kids, right, with somebody else's kids.
14:11:00 And that… that's basically what a stem…. Is, right? So are you, like, a STAM-based toy, or what is… what is your role there?
14:11:07 Yeah. Yeah, well, we like to say steam, uh, because Steam incorporates, uh, arts as well, and that's a big part of who we are. So STEM is science, technology, engineering, and Math, and then STEAM.
14:11:14 Ah, okay.
14:11:19 Is science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, and so we, we, uh, are a STEAM-accredited toy, and, uh, we really value that. There's definitely some.
14:11:31 Technology and engineering and, uh, uh, science that goes into paper, but also the arts, uh.
14:11:37 Component of what we do is very important to the Players story. There's storytelling at the heart of everything we do, the characters, the….
14:11:46 Backstories behind them, the storytelling, the imaginative play that happens with those is really….
14:11:51 Key to the play per experience. Um, so…. Yeah, that's, uh, that's really, uh, important to, uh, what Playper is all about. But no, I appreciate you highlighting, kind of.
14:12:03 Paper as the material that we use. It is a paper-based material, it is fully recyclable.
14:12:09 And I think paper generally is an underutilized material for a lot of different products, and.
14:12:14 Definitely in toys, and um… we have, uh…. Created a material, it's a very unique material to us that is very durable, and it's one of the first things that people notice when they.
14:12:25 Open up a paper, toy boxes, just how durable it is, and we get a lot of….
14:12:31 Surprised comments from customers saying, wow, I can't believe this is actually.
14:12:35 Paper-based, it's a lot more durable than I was expecting it to be, so it is flexible, you can bend it, and it won't break or snap, and it actually has a water-based coating on it, so you can spill liquid, catch up, whatever on it, and.
14:12:47 Wipe it right off, so it is a really unique material, and paper is just fantastic. Like, the way that it feels in your hand.
14:12:54 The kind of tactile feel of it is really, really cool, so….
14:12:58 Um, no, we're proud to make our products out of… we call it paper board, actually, is, uh….
14:13:04 What color material… yeah, yeah.
14:13:04 Player Board, okay. And do you have any, like, besides… I saw some videos on YouTube where you have, like, I think it was MS… it was NBC.
14:13:13 We're covering your toys, but you have, like. Parents.com, you have, like, other places where… where your showcased at Barnes & Noble. Where else can we find your toys? Where else can people find your toys?
14:13:25 Yeah, I appreciate you asking the question. Um, Barnes & Noble Nationwide were sold in over 600 Barnes & Noble stores. Really proud of that one.
14:13:33 We feel like we're really aligned with Barnes & Noble, uh, in a lot of ways around literacy, around imagination, just around all of the values that they have as a business.
14:13:43 Really proud that we're sold nationwide at Barnes & Noble. We're sold on our website, Playper.com, we're on Amazon, Toysrus.com, Walmart.com, masonnett.com.
14:13:53 We're in about 70 toy stores throughout the country, mainly. Mom-and-pop type toy stores, and uh….
14:13:59 That's about it right now, but there's some, uh, other exciting things in the works, but, uh, I can't say it yet.
14:14:05 Alright, but, like, you have a flagship product, like, a flagship, like.
14:14:09 Thing, which is called the Curious Kingdom. I saw it, I was like, that's kind of cool, uh, it's like, uh….
14:14:15 It's something that came from your background in Hollywood, or what's the deal?
14:14:14 Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. So, Curious Kingdom, the castle playset, you can see it behind me there, was the first product that we launched.
14:14:27 Uh, and uh, it, uh, it has these really fun characters that come with it, King Ketchup, Queen Alpha, Snuffle the Dragon.
14:14:34 I can't catch you, okay.
14:14:35 Oli the Ogre, Princess Petunia, I won't go through all of them, but the point is, is that they all have really fun names, backstories, personality traits.
14:14:43 We're not here to give kids products that are just generic King, Queen, knight, dragon. We want to give kids little snippets of what makes these characters unique. King Katchup loves ketchup.
14:14:55 Snuffles the dragon has allergies and sneezes fire, little fun little snippets like that, that then kids can jump off and tell stories with, so….
14:15:03 Yeah, you mentioned my background in Hollywood. One of the things that I really learned through my time in Hollywood is the power of storytelling, and the emotional resonance of.
14:15:15 And the importance of that, not just in Hollywood movies and TV shows, but also in products. If you run a brand, if you….
14:15:23 Uh, if you have a consumer products company, the story that you're telling is incredibly important, and uh….
14:15:30 And the stories that kids tell with our products, in addition, is something that I really, really value about our products, and I love seeing my own kids.
14:15:41 Do, pretend, imaginary play with our products and, uh, hearing stories about.
14:15:45 Customers who buy our products and have super creative kids doing awesome.
14:15:49 Awesome storytelling and pretend play with them.
14:15:56 Yeah.
14:15:51 No, I think… I think he needs to, like, train their imagination, their creative side, either as inventors, maybe in art or science, whatever.
14:16:02 And in that way, right, basically, you have…. The product made in New Jersey, is that right? It's a U.S.-based.
14:16:10 Manufacture product.
14:16:12 Um, we are not made in the U.S, we're designed, developed, and everything in the U.S, um, but we do, uh, we, we manufacture our product in China.
14:16:23 Um, currently, um, we do all of the, like I said, design, development, other stuff, and our whole team is based here in the U.S, except the manufacturing does.
14:16:31 Happen overseas in China. We… yeah, we have a great team over there that we work with.
14:16:36 And you're… besides being as the CEO and founder of Playpair.
14:16:42 You are part of different boards, you are very active in the venture capital community, as you said before.
14:16:49 Tell us more about your board involvement, so I can, um, Sarah Valley, for example.
14:16:53 Yeah, thanks. No, I sit on a couple different boards. I do consumer product investing through.
14:16:58 Two different buckets, one through a private equity investment group called Partnership Capital Growth, or PCG, and also through a family office called.
14:17:07 Knutson Capital, or KC, and I sit on a couple of the different boards of our portfolio companies, one of which is.
14:17:15 Cerebelly, the baby food, toddler food brand that does purees and bars.
14:17:20 Uh, that are optimized for brain development, and uh…. It, uh, it's a fantastic company. It really is the most, uh, nutritionally beneficial.
14:17:31 Uh… baby and toddler food company out there on the market today, and uh….
14:17:35 And, you know, the founder of Cerebelly likes to say that.
14:17:40 Um, you are your brain. There is no more important part of.
14:17:45 The human body, really, than your brain. The brain is so key to everything that, uh.
14:17:54 That you do as a human, and really who you are as a human, and the brain, when you are a baby and a toddler, is advancing in just incredible ways. And so.
14:18:05 You know, I, uh, both at my work at Plaper and Cerebelli, we talk a lot about brain development and how.
14:18:12 Uh, we can help kids develop in the best way possible to really become the best adults.
14:18:19 Um, and grow throughout life, and so that has to do with the nutrition, uh, that they are fed, through the food that they're given, and then also through.
14:18:28 Through play experiences, there's great companies like Playper, my company, we're invested in another great toy business called Love Every that really.
14:18:37 Focuses on how kids develop at specific stages of development. Um, and so that's really something that is important to me, especially as a dad of.
14:18:47 For young kids, and just watching kids develop at those young ages is just….
14:18:51 It's honestly just magical, um, so, um, I'm….
14:18:54 Congratulations, and I think besides your dad. Inspiration, uh, here, you have….
14:19:02 Also, financially, um, looking at the business. Very, very, very strong investors in your company, and your company has grown, obviously, to become, like, a….
14:19:12 A market player in this industry. So, who else besides your venture capital firms.
14:19:19 Are invested in Playpair, and do you see wasting more capital? Do you see….
14:19:23 Go into the market, like an IPO. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
14:19:29 Yeah, um, so we have some great backers at Playper. Our own family office, Knutson Capital, is an investor, obviously, but, um.
14:19:37 We have the former CEO of Fisher-Price is an investor in Playbour, the former chief brands officer of Mattel.
14:19:44 Is an investor, uh, we have the former CEO of J.Crew, the former CEO of Dell Computers.
14:19:50 Um, the, uh, current, uh, founder and COO of Fresh Pet, uh.
14:19:55 Uh, just a lot of really great executives who have, uh, incredible experience, um, around the table at Plaper. Um, we're bringing on some other, uh, angel investor groups right now, or angel investors and family office groups right now.
14:20:09 Um, I, uh, I can't say who yet, but there's some great stuff in the works right now, but, um.
14:20:16 We are raising capital right now. We have a $1 million convertible note open that we've brought $400,000 into. It's on a $5 million cap.
14:20:24 Um, we, uh, you know, we're raising through a WeFunder campaign as well right now.
14:20:30 I think that the future of Playbird, uh, is, um, likely going to be an acquisition at some point. I think there's a lot of….
14:20:40 Uh, big toy companies out there that are trying to. Uh, that are trying to figure out the sustainability of their products, and I think that we would be a great add-on for.
14:20:52 Um, a lot of those type of companies, so, uh, just to list a few, Mattel, Spin Master, LEGO.
14:21:00 Hasbro, um, companies like that, uh, that, that I think. Could end up acquiring paper down the road.
14:21:06 Wow, that's… that's pretty impressive, and…. Last but not least, I am, as you know, I'm very interested in software, so I saw that you have an.
14:21:15 Augmented reality play that we're visualizing right now. Tell us more about that, and how that complements the Play Per Story.
14:21:16 Yeah.
14:21:23 Yeah, so, um, our company was, uh, founded originally back, uh, or the idea for it originated around when Pokemon Go.
14:21:33 Was really big in the marketplace. I'm sure a lot of you listening remember Pokemon Go and kids.
14:21:38 Out there, and adults too, walking around with their phones and finding the, uh….
14:21:43 The Pokemonsters, whatever, the, the, uh, going around. I think augmented reality really took a turn and blew up in a big way around Pokemon Go, and um….
14:21:56 My co-founder, uh, was looking at the AR technology that they used, and.
14:22:00 Felt strongly that AR technology made a lot of sense for the kids market.
14:22:05 One of the challenges, generally, with screen time for kids is that kids can become zombies. They stare into the screen, and they kind of get locked into the screen, and I think that AR.
14:22:16 Really presents a cool way to overcome that, because you see beyond the screen. If you're holding your phone or your tablet there.
14:22:24 You see… you still see the world, and so, uh, in Pokemon Go, obviously they were getting up and walking around and, uh.
14:22:32 Uh, and exploring the world, and I think that augmented reality is a very cool technology, especially for the kids market, because it does.
14:22:41 Allow for more exploration and doesn't lock you into the screen environment quite in the same way that.
14:22:47 Uh, traditional, um. App might….
14:22:50 No, I love that, I love that, and definitely I've seen that situation with my nieces and nephews with.
14:22:57 Roblox, especially, and all sorts of games like that. But generally, I think your company is playing a big role right now.
14:23:05 Congratulations on the success of PlayPer, I think it's a… it's a great product.
14:23:08 Thank you.
14:23:10 And I think you're going in the very, very, um. Very strong growth, for what I can see.
14:23:15 And last but not least, any future things that we should be aware, any new products that you have in the pipeline that are… or you will participate as some sort of a conference or something? Something that we can….
14:23:28 Highlight from this, uh, interview.
14:23:30 Yeah, for sure. So, first of all, behind me here, you can see the Pirates and Mermaids products. We're launching those in a couple months here. They are our best products to date. Uh, they're very interactive, have lots of cool little.
14:23:42 Features and play features within them. We realized when we launched the castle as, like, a drawbridge door that opens and closes, and all of these other little.
14:23:53 Uh, these little interactive features, the catapult, I've got one right here, is one of our more popular products as well, and it really launches these, uh.
14:23:58 Okay.
14:24:01 Little gnome characters, we realize that the interactivity that happens with the product, um….
14:24:06 Is really important, and so we doubled down on that in a big way with the pirate ship and the mermaid castle.
14:24:11 And, uh, the Mermaid Castle, you can't really see it, but, uh, it's got a dance floor that opens and closes, so….
14:24:17 The characters can have dance parties. Uh, the pirate ship has a plank that pulls out, and the characters drop into a little jail cell below.
14:24:26 Uh, it's got, um, a little mini catapult on the front that launches little bananas and.
14:24:31 Anyway, there's just tons of interactive features on the Pirate and Mermaid products, and.
14:24:36 We can't wait to get those out to the public. The other, um, products that I really want to highlight here, and I'm so excited that I can finally talk about this, it's been in the works for a little bit now, but um….
14:24:46 We, uh, just signed on our first licensing deal with Hidden Pigeon, which is the.
14:24:53 Licensing arm for Mo Willems. Um, if you have kids between the ages of 3 to 8.
14:24:57 I'm sure you are familiar with, uh, Elephant and Piggy, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and all of the.
14:25:01 Yeah.
14:25:04 Awesome, uh, uh, stories and characters that, uh, Mo Willems has developed.
14:25:09 And, um, and we are doing, uh, paper versions of their, uh.
14:25:15 With using their characters, where we're doing, uh, versions of our products with their characters, and it's gonna be awesome.
14:25:22 Pigeon, uh, story starters product, and we have a really cool elephant and piggy, uh, product that we'll launch later this year as well, so….
14:25:30 Really, really excited to introduce those to the world.
14:25:34 Well, great, great, great. I don't want to keep you the rest of the afternoon here, Webb, and a really, really, really impressed with this, uh, results. I've seen your….
14:25:43 All your evolution, let's say, from idea to culmination, let's say, like, uh.
14:25:45 Yeah.
14:25:49 And thanks again for joining us, and. I'll get back, everyone, back to work, and thanks for watching and listening to TechHead TV. Say bye to the web. Bye-bye.
14:25:58 Hi, thank you so much for having me. Bye-bye.