#NEXTFounderChats: Alex Hong
Alex is a Next 36 entrepreneur and Co-founder of Robot Playtime.
Tell us a bit about you and your venture! What was your inspiration for creating your venture?
We teach young learners robotics and computer science, while fostering their imagination and creativity. Our platform, Pixel, transforms an everyday device (smartphone or tablet) into a programmable robot. Pixel starts off without any intelligence or emotion, so it’s up to the user to program personality and life into the robot. With the ability to connect to any open platform, including hardware devices such as Lego Mindstorms, Arduino-based chips, and Raspberry Pi, as well as open software such as Minecraft or Twitter, users are able to customize and equip their robot with any hardware components and interface with open software to build a robot with no limits. This unlocks unlimited potential for the user to grow in their learning and create an interactive robot that can do anything they imagine!
I started this venture with my co-founder, Onome Igharoro, to share the experience of creating an interactive robot to be as easy as possible, so that anyone from an 8 year old to a grandma can do it. Robots are powerful interactive learning tools for young learners to get exposed to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) education and create a multidisciplinary mindset.
Our vision is to enable the creation of incredibly smart and interactive robots to be built by anyone. We want Pixel in the hands of every child to make their imagination of what a robot can do come true!
What problem is your venture solving? Why did you choose to tackle this market?
There is a global problem in the K-12 education system where there is little to no opportunity to learn about technology, computer science, or STEAM. Current products on the market that try to address this gap are inaccessible, extremely expensive, and do not engage learners in the long-term.
Onome and I are extremely passionate about Robot Playtime’s mission — to empower young learners to create. When I was a child, I wanted to build a robot to do my chores, but didn’t know how — it was both intimidating and difficult. It took many years of tinkering and learning before I could build one, and realized learning robotics was a gateway drug to learning a vast set of multidisciplinary technical skills. Onome, born in Nigeria, faced similar challenges where he had to fight uphill battles to learn the technical skills he has today that enables him to create with software and hardware. We both wanted to create a solution that would make learning these skills accessible, and provide the opportunity to expose STEAM education to every young learner in the world.
What are some of your venture’s biggest milestones?
We have over 100K in app downloads purely from word of mouth with $0 in marketing since our launch in mid-August 2017. One of our biggest wins was being featured as one of the top education app, and “New Apps We Love” on the App Store (US).
Our most recent milestone was launching our education package, providing education centres with teacher training, tailored K-12 curriculums, and classroom activities. Our platform will be used in education centres to teach robotics, computer science, and STEAM this coming year.
Have you won any awards and/or competitions or received press for your venture?
One of the notable awards during Next 36 was the Mastercard Challenge, where we pitched to Mastercard executives and won 1st place. We also received several notable media and press. Check us out!
- Discovery Channel: https://youtu.be/NyhcRjFJKCo
- Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/pixel-app-attack/
- BetaKit: www.betakit.com/robot-playtimes-programmable-robot-for-kids-wins-next-36-mastercard-challenge
When you first started, what were your biggest hurdles in building your venture?
I had little to no knowledge about entrepreneurship, the problem I was trying to solve, the space I was involved in, what the fancy business and marketing terms meant, how to build the technology, and where to even begin looking. I was completely starting from zero.
But I had a quirk for being attracted to intimidating and difficult challenges. I chose to study at one of the most demanding and enriched engineering programs in the world (Engineering Science at University of Toronto), started and competed in gymnastics at age 20, and placed 1st at the Canadian Dragon Boat Championships in several divisions against more seasoned athletes. I saw entrepreneurship as a life-long journey of learning that I wanted to pursue. I can say today that I’ve learned so much from the many challenges I’ve faced, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.
How do you believe technology will impact your industry over the next decade?
The education landscape will completely change. In the next decade, learning will be much more interactive and the work produced by students will be incredibly impressive. Young learners would be able to accomplish feats unimaginable today, such as building robots that recognize them as their master, do their chores, or even completes their homework! Once technology enables a kid’s imagination to come true, the possibilities are endless! This is made possible by the exponential growth of household robots and robots as learning tools (see Fig. 1).
What is the biggest mistake you’ve made as a founder?
The biggest mistake that I’ve always kicked myself for was not being proactive enough to get what I want. I’ve always waited for something to happen, or for the perfect information to execute. Reza Satchu, a founding member of Next Canada and an incredible instructor for one of our classes at Next, has always said entrepreneurs act on imperfect information all the time. If I was more proactive in my actions, I would’ve learned faster, grown as a founder a lot quicker, launched a product sooner, and hit my milestones.
What would you say are the most important skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
The willingness to learn and the ability to problem solve are two big ones. As a founder, it is a requirement to understand every aspect of your venture from technology and product development to how the markets behave to forming a valid business model. These are skills that founders will have to gain in order to succeed.
Having a deep drive for the mission you’re trying to accomplish is another requirement. Be prepared to embark on a 10+ year journey; we’re in it for the long-term! Surround yourself with influential people that will push you to become better.
Lastly, the ability to prioritize is a skill that’s required. Not just prioritizing tasks that need to be done for the venture to succeed, but also prioritizing mental health, diet, sleep, exercise, family and friends. These factors are extremely important as they affect your performance.
To learn more about Robot Playtime, check out their social media!
- Website: https://robotplaytime.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robotplaytime
- Twitter: @robotplaytime
- Instagram: @robotplaytime
- YouTube: https://youtu.be/ncMR07XMtv4
- Discord: https://discord.me/robotplaytime
