Today I talk to Marcus Stahl, the founder of Tonies SE

At the age of 45, Marcus and his co-founder created a digital story playback device for small children and within only 6 years of starting operations, scaled the company to IPO.

Today, Tonies has won numerous design awards and has sold its category-defining products to users in more than 100 countries. 

But their story wasn’t easy. Frustrated by the lack of child-friendly solutions to consume audio dramas, Marcus and his co-founder dedicated 3 years to creating a solution before hitting the market. In the process, they learned what it takes to conquer the next generation of customers.  

In today’s episode, we cover:

• why iterative product development is wrong when launching radically innovative products and why you should focus on product perfection instead
• the importance of customer knowledge and passion across the team when building a category-defining product
• and other important factors when building and scaling a hardware-based company to IPO.

Marcus on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcus-stahl-b77a5022b

Tonies (Company): tonies.de

👋 Get in touch with Kilian here: linkedin.com/in/kiliankarrasch

Do you have an innovative idea you would like to validate through market research or rapid prototyping or a validated concept you would like to bring to life (e.g. in form of an MVP)? Then book a free consultation here: http://bit.ly/3Xr0BvG 🚀

Timeline:

0:00 - Introduction

0:19 - Introducing Marcus Stahl & Tonies

1:04 - Topics covered in the episode

2:32 - Marcus Stahl’s background and how he got the idea for Tonies

5:57 - The biggest challenge Tonies had to overcome in the first year

9:44 - The importance of technological development for Tonies 

12:13 - Was the focus on the hardware/physical product or on the storytelling

13:30 - What was the major success factor for Tonies

15:38 - How can you ensure that your product is successful once it hits the market

18:09 - Why you should focus on product perfection before launching radically innovative products

20:23 - Why customer support is so important

22:54 - Being flexible in your daily work as a founder

24:01 - Biggest challenges Tonies faced while building up the company to its size today

26:56 - The importance of customer knowledge and passion across the team when building a category-defining product

29:15 - Advice for staying close to the customer while internationalizing

32:04 - Marcus Stahl’s number one learning during his journey of building an IPO Company