Meet Marissa Louie: Founder and CEO of Animoodles (Chief Animoodler)
Interviewed by Lingling Chen
Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO at Animoodles, which are cute and soft stuffed animals that have interchangeable and posable magnetic parts — kids can do so much more with Animoodles than with traditional stuffed animals.
Marissa was previously an Art Director at Apple and Principal Designer at Yahoo. During a recent studio tour at her home office, Marissa shared with us why she quit her corporate job for Animoodles, how she found incredibly talented team members, and her favorite coffee!
(Animoodles are on available on Kickstarter.com, through November 29, 2017, and they’re at a Kickstarter special price that starts at just $44 for 2 Animoodles. To back Animoodles, click here, or search for “Animoodles” on Kickstarter.com.)
You studied Industrial Engineering, Business, and Economics at UC Berkeley. How did you get into the field of Design?
When I started studying at UC Berkeley, I didn’t know the web design profession existed. I had thought that websites were designed by engineers! After I graduated, I joined a consulting firm called Deloitte where I was a consultant and helped companies customize their ERP systems to improve their supply chain management from warehousing to transportation. During that time I practiced many things on the job, such as UX research, product design, information architecture, and user testing.
Once I realized that I had a passion for product design, I developed my design skills further by taking online courses and by reading books. I studied the same books and topics that top design schools include in their undergraduate and graduate programs. I practiced design by frequently giving myself different design challenges, so over the time, my design skills progressed.
You worked at some top technology companies such as Yahoo and Apple. Why did you quit to start Animoodles?
Growing up, I collected hundreds of stuffed animals. They have always been my true passion in life. I asked myself how they could be even better. What could I design that is more exciting and has more play value for kids, but respects their tastes? As a kid, I would play with stuffed animals with my classmates. But as we reached 2nd through 5th grade, more and more of my friends would get tired of their stuffed animals and get rid of them. That just broke my heart, because to me, stuffed animals are storytelling mechanisms — they can be brought to life by kids.
After going through many ideas, I came up with the idea for Animoodles. I was envisioning that you can take them apart and combine in different cool ways. The more Animoodles you have, the more fun you will have!
I also moved away from designing software and into designing toys because toys can make a stronger emotional impact on people. People can really bond with stuffed animals if they use their imaginations
Do you have any advice on how to find the right team members?
Our team feels like a family: a lot of us worked together previously at different companies, so we knew what it would be like to work together again.
We have an amazing team because very early on we built a core team with people who are on the top of their fields, who are easy to work with and who are dedicated to the project. I have been so grateful for that.
What’s the best advice you have been given?
Learn to see the differences in others as valuable. This is the lesson the Animoodles teaches children: each Animoodle has different strengths and weaknesses, but when they snap together and join forces, they can be unstoppable.
What would be your advice to someone who is just out of college?
Don’t stop learning. Now that you’ve completed college, you have full control over what you learn. Learn deeply in the field you want to work in, and learn broadly across disciplines so that you can develop a unique way of solving problems. If you keep a habit of learning, it will pay off in the short and long term.
I recommend taking online courses, following blog posts and YouTube videos, reading books, and listening to audio books. I graduated from college over 10 years ago, and I still learn new disciplines.
How do you find inspirations when you feel life is stalled?
I think the biggest cure for when you feel like life is stalled is to ask yourself what you really love. If you’re lucky enough to know what that is, pursue it will all your heart, and you’ll never feel stalled.
Once I determined that I wanted to do a new take on stuffed animals, my whole life changed. I found that there were so many new things to learn, and so many new things to try.
What’s a fun fact about yourself that most of the people don’t know?
I was born and raised in San Francisco, where a lot of my extended family lives. At our family gatherings, we often bring our favorite stuffed animals!
What’s your favorite coffee shop in the Bay Area?
My favorite coffee is inside my home, thanks to Blossom Coffee’s One Brewer! It’s the most precise way to brew coffee, and brings out flavor notes that other methods, such as drip coffee, just can’t. Plus, their team, which includes former NASA, Apple, and Tesla engineers, helped work on the magnet mechanism inside of Animoodles!
Any last words for the Real Radiance readers?
Thank you so much for chatting today. We created Animoodles to encourage creativity and compassion in kids. It’s been so much fun to bring Animoodles to life, and we hope this will be the next toy craze for kids. Visit us at http://theanimoodles.com to learn more, and please support us at Kickstarter.com!
