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.