Table of Contents
Introduction to Interactive Educational Toys
Interactive educational toys are rapidly transforming the way children learn. These screen-free innovations combine technology and creativity to foster cognitive and motor skill development. Startups like Tapari are pioneering this space by addressing gaps in traditional learning tools while aligning with trends in eco-friendly, sustainable production.
The Market Trend: Why Screen-Free Toys Matter
Parents and educators increasingly seek alternatives to screen-based learning. The interactive toy market, particularly connected audio toys, addresses this need by providing engaging, tactile experiences that stimulate curiosity and imagination without digital distractions.
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How Startups Are Shaping the Future of Learning
The intersection of entrepreneurship and technology is redefining education. Startups are at the forefront of innovation, creating products that:
Blend physical and digital learning experiences.
Promote social interaction and teamwork.
Align with sustainable practices, resonating with eco-conscious consumers.
Tapari: A Startup Revolutionizing Playtime
Founder's Vision for Tapari
Jennifer Rink, Co-Founder & CEO of Tapari, envisioned a product that merges storytelling with play. Tapari's interactive playmat enables children to navigate stories physically, choosing their own adventures without screens.
"We wanted to combine the best of physical and digital worlds to create a product that fosters creativity and decision-making," Rink shared.
Innovative Technology Behind Tapari
Tapari integrates advanced sensors, LEDs, and a sound box to create a dynamic storytelling experience. Children use figures to interact with the mat, making decisions that influence the narrative. This hands-on approach builds motor skills and enhances attention spans.
Sustainability in Educational Toys
Startups like Tapari emphasize eco-friendly materials and ethical production processes. By aligning with sustainable practices, these companies meet consumer demand for responsible innovation.
Challenges Faced by Startups in the Toy Industry
From funding constraints to the complexities of product development, startups face numerous hurdles. Tapari, for example, navigated these challenges by leveraging scholarships and prioritizing community feedback to refine its offering.
Scaling and Growth Strategies for Toy Startups
Expanding into international markets and forging partnerships with educational institutions are key strategies for scaling. Tapari plans to:
Develop multilingual content.
Collaborate with authors for diverse storytelling.
Explore adult-focused versions of its playmat.
Interactive Toys and Child Development
Interactive educational toys like Tapari's playmat promote:
Cognitive and motor skill development.
Social interaction and teamwork.
Enhanced attention spans through immersive storytelling.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
The rise of interactive educational toys signals a shift in learning paradigms. Startups like Tapari are not just creating products but reshaping childhood experiences. As these innovations scale globally, they promise to redefine playtime, making it educational, sustainable, and screen-free.
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Automated Transcript
Narrator [00:00:05]:
Welcome to start up rad dot io, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:20]:
Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from start up rate dot I o, your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany as well as the world's number one tech entrepreneurship radio station, startup.radio. I would like to welcome you today to our first interview 2025. This time, I have the winner of the local pitch competition called cherrypicks 2024 here with me. Hello, and welcome, Jenny.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:00:45]:
Hi.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:47]:
Awesome smile. Thank you very much. I would like to welcome you to start up 8.0 in cooperation with and the European enterprise network. You can learn more about them down here in the show notes and all the services they are offering in order to help local startups and scale ups. That said, you guys are a regional startup, but I've seen in in your CV, you have been around quite a bit. You studied in lovely city of Darmstadt, and you even paid a visit to with Wisconsin Wisconsin Stout. Where is this?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:01:26]:
Yeah. That's right. So, in Wisconsin, I was in a very, very, very, very small town, with a university and a few house houses. It's around 1 hour drive to, go to Minneapolis. Yeah. I hope that was the answer for your question.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:52]:
Yes. And you have been there around the winter. Did you need warm socks there?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:01:58]:
Me? Yes. But there were some people that were in very short, trousers and with
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:05]:
Flip flops?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:02:06]:
Yeah. Exactly. And a t shirt, and I was like, my winter jacket and, knitsle.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:14]:
Your woolen hat. Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:02:15]:
Yeah. Woolen hat. Thank you. And and I was like, it's so cold. How can you do that? It's so crazy. And we had snow, like, around 2 meters.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:28]:
Two meters of snow?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:02:30]:
Yeah. Maybe 1 and a half, 2 meters, a wheel, like.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:34]:
Up to the waist?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:02:35]:
Like, really yes. Not everywhere, but some parts were very high. That was crazy.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:43]:
Sounds like an interesting experience. Welcome to the show. Teppari is such a so so we first agreed this is Te Pari because this is your English word premier. And before we start this recording, we have been a little bit, thinking about how to pronounce it, but we settled on Te Pari. Te Pari is such a unique and innovative concept. Could you share with our listeners the story behind Te Pari and the vision that drives your entrepreneurial journey?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:03:14]:
Yeah. Of course. So in my bachelor's studies, I had an elective. It was called, creative entrepreneurship. And then this elective, we had to do, business plan about anything anything we wanted. And in this time, a friend and me, we had, in our, like, our friends and parents and a lot of people got children and we have seen that a lot of children are very good with smartphones. And they started to swipe on, some pictures, like, some images on the newspaper or some other images or, we also had the example in our design lesson that some children tried to zoom a fish on on an aqua aquarium. And that was so crazy for us.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:04:11]:
Like, I mean, the the sad part is it doesn't work. But that was so sad. And we were thinking about our own childhood, and we were looking for old toy stuff like in the 19th. And then we have seen the this old classic carpet for children with some streets on it and some buildings and other stuff to yeah. Start your own fantasy world and play. Just play with a lot of figures. And we were thinking it would be so so cool and great, if we could play a story like an interactive story or an audio story on this carpet without any screens. And we were we were inspired by some concepts like some click adventures on the computer game or or in computer games or like these kind of books where you can start reading and then you can you get a decision.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:05:15]:
And if you want to continue this part, go to page 23. And you want to continue with another part, go to another page. And then we put all the, thoughts together and, created the idea for to parry, so that you have this carpet, like a a play carpet or a play mat, with, a map on it and you have figures and you can control with these figures your story. So if you have a decision part in your story, you can decide how to continue the story with, yeah, with your figures. So how you place it on the map. For example, Sarah's bike has disappeared. Help her to find her bike. Where you want to start to search? Won't you do you want to go to the lake or to the fire department? And then the story continue, depending on your decision.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:06:19]:
Oh, it's basically an interactive picture book that you play on a play rock, where my understanding is you have, like, like a base rock, and there are a lot of sensors integrated into it. And then the surface, you can change depending on what game you wanna play. Is that right?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:06:42]:
That's right. So we can just change the fabric. Easy easy peasy. So it's just a fabric, and you can change all of the figures. And then you have a new story world because every story world has its own design. It mean, if you have some I don't know. 101 Delmatiner and Harry Potter, it's totally different design. So we need, to change this and, we have a connection with, the Internet so you can download new stories.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:07:13]:
So you have the physics and the digital part. You can easy easy change.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:20]:
I see. Where this customer's with my wife and just having 2 little boys, one of them just today spilled, I think, water and apple juice over the, carpet. You could put both in a washing machine?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:07:39]:
The fuse, I guess, I wouldn't recommend that. The water would be enough, but the fabric, you can put in the washing machine. But the base mat, you shouldn't do that because there's technology in it, but you can, I don't know the word, like, up vision?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:58]:
Wipe it off with a wipe towel.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:08:01]:
Yeah. So and also, we had Viturabix. I was, answering ex this question, with, SS Scottsfest. I don't know how we can translate it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:12]:
It's pure proof.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:08:15]:
And, the, Darmstadt Eshow, wrote it as our headline. I don't know. But, yeah, that's, our wish for the product, so it should be safe for every case.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:08:32]:
I see. So interactive playmates for children are an intriguing idea. What specific gap in the market did you identify? And how does Te Pari address it differently than traditional or tech only based toys?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:08:48]:
Mhmm. So if we look them, at the market, we figured out that, there is like since a few years, there is like, kind of a new market category. It's called con connected audio toys. In this area, you find the Tony Fox, if you know this, for example. And there are a lot of interactive toys coming up, without any kind of screen. So it's kind of a trend, and parents, are searching for alternative plays and games for children, especially if a game is helping or supporting the development of their child children. So but one thing we didn't find because the Tony box for example is a very passive product. So you can just listen and that's the coolest coolest thing.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:09:57]:
But, our product combine a lot different cases and different, features. Because you have the listening part, we have no screen, but we are digital. And, you can decide what will happen, what will happening, but you don't need any kind of screen. So you have kind of a video game but without a video game. And, yeah. The last 2 years or honestly, we I had the idea, 2017. So all the years in the past, we didn't find anything what, combine this kind of format. Like, this carpet, you can start this play world in a physical area.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:10:46]:
So the fantasy world and the physical world are, like, melting together. And, combined with this, audio story part. And then we were thinking we need something like this. So we started we started and we, got a lot of good feedback from parents and kindergartens, etcetera. And, we see a lot of potential in this product also to have fun on the one part, but on also on the other part to, yeah, learn stuff, help them to develop with doing other things than swiping, so we can improve the motor skills or active listening. Help maybe we can help to, yeah, grow the attention span a little bit more because we all, yeah, got lost a little bit of that.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:11:47]:
Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. I see. So, basically, you, saw a product gap in interactive toys, meaning a larger scale than Tony's box?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:11:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think so. So the Tony box is very passive. It's a good thing, but we are we are interactive. And so yeah. We can include the users more in the game. So it's more a game and not not just listening.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:17]:
Okay. You are planning storytelling with interactive play. Can you walk us through how the technology works and what sets you apart from, like, the typical screen based education tools?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:12:32]:
Mhmm. So we have different components in our concept like the figure, then we have the mat itself. And on the mat is a kind of a sound box. So we try to have so the most technology in the sound box. So like a microcontroller and sound speakers. Sorry. And the sensor and in the, in the payment are only sensors and leds. So you have if you have a decision point you got some leds You can see some LEDs where the options are and then you can just put the figure on the sensor and the sensor will figure out which figure it is.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:13:26]:
We have 5 figures we can see which one is on the carpet and which one not. So we have more interaction possibilities.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:36]:
It's also physical, plus you I I assume you your 4 or 5 kids when you have, like, 5 different play figures. I assume you you, have 5 kids and they have to agree and they have to walk work together and walk, literally on the mat with their with a play figure altogether. Right?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:13:58]:
Yeah. They they they should play together. We, would like that. I mean, this scenario is also a part we can control, honestly. Because they are children, they have to learn some social skills and it will be a part of it that children will better who can do the next decision, of course. But they have to learn that too. And some kids do that very, very well, honestly.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:29]:
I see. Talks about kids and customer feedback. What kind of response have you received from, like, parents, educators, and children about Te Pari? And any surprising feedback, like, that shaped the development of your product?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:14:47]:
So
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:14:47]:
Except for finding out it's pure proof.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:14:50]:
The most parents, are very delightful of the products. We have a lot of parents. They are, telling us they will be the first, customers. So we have to tell them if we're ready to sell. Or some some parents, especially some dads are like, if you include like the like a very German, audio story. If we can include this, they will play the with the match more than the children.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:15:25]:
We may add for our audience, the the question marks is like a typical audio story collection of, I believe, above 100, formerly audio cassettes that even I heard. I think that the target market is something like between 8 and, let's say, 12, 14 years old, mostly boys. I I've seen now in the in the shelves of the of the, toy stores, that there are 3 exclamation marks, which is apparently the girl's version of that.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:16:02]:
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we will, yeah, convince them to be part of our Tapiri world. That would be very cool. So, a lot of parents would like that, and they're searching for alternative alternative games for their children that have no screens and also some, education educator like the kindergartens are interested in it because we have some pedagogic materials because we have like a project partner. They doing stuff like, learning through storytelling and they will want to improve the school and the kindergarten concept, a little bit. So we have like this cooperation and you can show the children with this concept, like with Tapari. That's if you do a decision there will be consequences and you have to think about what you want to do and you can also learn what is good, what is bad, and, what kind of values do we have in our community.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:17:20]:
Very easy topics. So so easy that some parents are like me, we wouldn't think about it if we wouldn't do the story for them because it's like the basics of the basics. But that's very interesting because you can put it in a story world and in the game and then it's more like fun or they can they don't just listen to it. They will feel it because they have, like, this immersive audio play. They can I mean, it's a they are part of it because they do the decision in this audio story? And it's a different kind of listening because we have audio plays and not, like, just an audio book. So they have the different voices and sound effects. So it's, kind of immersive to learn about some special situation.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:24]:
Talked about you, Te Pari, as a start up. Every start up has its ups and downs. Would have been the biggest challenges you have faced while building Te Pari, and how have you overcome them?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:18:37]:
Mhmm. Yeah. Ups and downs is a good part. I would say you have, like, every day. Some days you have, like, more ups and downs at one day. But one of the biggest, I think, honestly, the most time it's hard with money. So, we have we got some scholarships in the past. It was very good but the time in between was, a little bit sweaty.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:19:09]:
So yeah. Yeah. It was difficult because you start to think about, should I start a job or should I do continue? Right now, we have another scholarship, so that's good. And another thing very huge thing is our product is a very complex thing honestly because we combine technology like hardware and also software then we have content because in form of the audio the stories so we need people who write down the stories then we need the voice actors. We need a play concept like a game concept. And we need the whole design. How should it look like? So put all the things together and make it make an interactive immersive experience out of it. That's that's like a special challenge and very very interesting because we learn a lot when we are testing our idea.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:20:13]:
But it's not like if you you design a card game, you you can learn a lot of stuff from people who already did this. But what we are doing, nobody did it before, and that's the challenge.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:28]:
I see. So you're discovering completely new challenges every day. Uh-huh. That that that actually brings me to my next question because every start up is thinking about growing and scaling. We already know your product is not ready for, like, mass market yet, but maybe hopefully next Christmas. I was wondering, what plans do you have for scaling? Are you looking to expand to international markets or perhaps floor explore partnerships with educational institutions?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:21:05]:
Mhmm. So we hope so that one day we are international, which, right now, we try to keep our our focus on the product so we get ready for the German market. And we have a huge list, with a lot of idea how we can, yeah, expand the idea. Like, to put, include more features or other kind of stories. And, also, we because we can change the, fabric or and the whole design, we are thinking maybe also to go to a different market, like tabletop. So for not only parents, but every, adults. Like, or or senior seniors. We got some some people are telling us it would be so so interesting for senior people.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:22:07]:
So we have a lot of possibilities. But right now we, are in the area for the children, and want to learn with them. And in the best case, we can grow with the children. So and, also we can have a lot of new content. And we are planning that we have not only German content, also like English, learning English and German, and then it should grow also to go more and more international in, I don't know, 5 to 10 years.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:22:44]:
Okay. I see. Sustainability is always important in children products and is increasingly important. How do you align with eco friendly and ethic ethical production practices?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:22:58]:
It's very important, to us. So currently, we are in the development phase and we are selecting materials, for the play mat and we have to learn a lot about the production process because in the next month, we want to plan all the production stuff, like, production chain, and we try as good as as we can that it's sustainable. And also, I think or I got, like, a vision from my design studies, that everything we are doing and everything we decide how should something be, is a kind of design. So we are also a part to design our world, or shape our world, a little bit. And, so we are thinking it's very important what we decide for the materials and everything. What, has to do with the production and also our content. So what kind of topics will we bring to the children with the stories? What kind of role models will be there? And so on.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:20]:
I have question. If now an independent author, for example, from children's book listens to this or watches this, will you be will you be willing to work with them as well?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:24:32]:
If we fit them yet, of course. We plan in around, like, 2 or 3 months, maybe 4, to to search more authors and people or project partner, in this area of stories, children's stories, interactive audio stories, who is interested to write a story, for us, so that we can get more content on the carpet. So, yeah, of course, everyone is welcome who want your dream with us to make a very, very cool product.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:25:14]:
We usually end with a handful of normal questions. Usually, our question is about HR. Usually, questions only, are you open to talk to new potential employees? But I would also like to do do you get a feeling how many people are currently at Te Pari, and, are you open to talk to new potential employees?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:25:37]:
Because that's like a little gap in our team. Right now, we are 2 people on the team, like an informatic guy and me from interactive, media. But we would be very happy if we can, yeah, welcome someone in the the area of sales. And also for the future, I would dream about it that we have a little team to, yeah, do all the stuff for this project because we have such as a lot of different topics from some writing the stories and technology and marketing and and and and and and a lot of things.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:26:29]:
Funding and investment. We know you have different scholarships including exist. Are you also willing and able to talk to new investors?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:26:39]:
Yes. We start to prepare ourselves for these kind of dogs because, we know that if the product is in the phase we can produce it, we wouldn't have the money to start. So we want to prepare everything that we have, the product way and the whole concept and the first stories and games. And then we just need someone who support us to, press this one button to produce a lot of carpets and, yeah, sell it.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:27:23]:
So, basically, you need some kickoff investment for mass production.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:27:28]:
Exactly.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:27:30]:
The last question since is this is in, cooperation with the European Enterprise Network and hasn't trade in the best. Thank you for sponsoring this, by the way. You have the opportunity to address, like, one question, one concern, one wish to the, political decision makers. What would you like to address? Because we know they're listening.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:27:51]:
That's a good question and very spontaneous.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:27:54]:
That's why we are asking them.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:27:56]:
I don't know if they can do some stuff for the schools, but I think a a good friend of mine is a teacher, and, I know a lot of teacher. And I think I think we need to do a little little work to improve our school concepts and learning, what needs learning. How can, like, oops. How can we include more fun in learning stuff so that the children don't lose this curious part in their soul?
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:31]:
I actually do believe that's very important, and they've been actually very good closing words. And let me guess, you would also like Tapari to be part of this further education. Right?
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:28:42]:
Of course. That would be great if we can help there. And we I love and I think we all, so the whole team, we love to help if we can.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:53]:
K. Great. Jenny, thank you very much. It was a real pleasure talking to you. Best of luck with Te Pari. And as soon as you get into mass production, just let us know, and we will talk about it again.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:29:06]:
Thank you.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:29:07]:
Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Have a good day, and happy New Year, everybody.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:29:12]:
Have a good day, and happy New Year.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:29:14]:
Bye bye.
Jennifer Rink | Co-Founder & CEO Tapari [00:29:15]:
Bye.
Narrator [00:29:21]:
That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events at interviews at www.startuprad dot I o. Remember, sharing is caring.
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