BeanBagglz: The ultimate 33-in-1 tossing game for kids, adults and family
We recently chatted with Anton about his experience taking his product, BeanBagglz, from idea to market. Read on for the Q&A below, check out the website, and follow the startup on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to keep tabs on the growth of BeanBagglz.
Q&A with Anton Riniti, creator, BeanBagglz
Tell us about your product and what makes it stand apart from the competition.
BeanBagglz is the world’s first bean bag tossing game that has interchangeable templates, a built-in storage bin, wheels for portability, and converts into a full-size game table. There’s nothing on the market like what we have. We call it the ultimate 33-in-1 tossing game.
What inspired you to start your own business?
My kids. Growing up, Friday night was game night in my house. When I tried to instill that with my children, their concept of game night was to play with iPads. There was no togetherness. I wanted to have a game that was good for every age, that could bring a family together and get them interacting again.
So in 2016 I ran a Kickstarter campaign, and I ended up earning five times more than what my goal was. The rest of 2016 was spent perfecting the prototype — quality is our absolute №1 consideration with this game. It had to be the best we could manufacture.
BeanBagglz’s pricing plan is dependent on the amount of templates you purchase. There’s the base pricing, plus template add-ons (customization) or certain packages, plus additional accessories (like chess or backgammon pieces, magic tricks, sport bags, etc.).
People can customize their own experience. We’ve got everything from a kid’s game to improve their math to an adult drinking game.
There are more than 300 game variations within the 33 templates, and we’re encouraging people to submit ideas. We really want to be interactive with people. Come to our website. Share your stories. Join the BeanBagglz family. A big part of our work is engaging with our audience, and we do that through our website, blog and social media.
We also started a “Toss It Forward” campaign incentivizing people to donate old tossing games to charity to get a discount code for one of our new products.
What obstacles did you face as a startup, and how did you overcome them?
Finances are of course a big obstacle. The Kickstarter certainly helped us a lot. Outside of that, it’s just a matter of being really smart with our money.
Designing the game was also a challenge because I wanted it to be completely self-contained. I’m a magician by trade and a billiards trick-shot artist — I’m the visionary within the company. It was important to surround myself with talented people who had complementary skills. My business partner has more of an engineering background with expertise in customer experience.
We certainly questioned ourselves along the way, but we knew this game didn’t exist, and it was something we felt strongly about bringing to market.
There are highs and lows associated with being an entrepreneur. You want to hit the ground running without affecting quality assurance — it’s the most important consideration. I want this product to last a lifetime. Treat it right, and it grows with your family.
What are you doing to get the word out about BeanBagglz?
It seems like you need to be a real magician to figure that out. I mean I designed all my own games — the template, the characters, everything. But social media, I don’t know a lot about it. I’m having GoDaddy direct us on how to make the experience interactive online. How do we make it work with so many game choices? How do we make it easy for a customer to get in, and get out? And how can we help them make bundles so that they can customize the whole game experience? The website should gives the customer all the flexibility in the world.
With GoDaddy GoCentral you can build an online store in under an hour. It includes a website, a shopping cart, shipping and payment options, coupon codes, and everything you need to sell your products online.
What strengths do you bring to the table as an entrepreneur?
Creativity. Thinking outside of the box and certainly, as my parents have instilled in me, just a really good work ethic. As an entrepreneur, you have to have that.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned since starting the business?
Patience. You have to be really, really patient with this. It’s not going to happen overnight, and you need to see the long-term goal and constantly work toward that. It’s a lot of steps to get to that end journey.
Thanks for taking the time to tell us about your startup, Anton, and best of luck as you bring BeanBagglz to the world!
Originally published at Garage.
