Date: Apr 23, 2014 Author: Paul Brinkmann Source: Orlando Sentinel (
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Two Central Florida fathers with backgrounds in engineering and online games are developing a toy to teach math and science skills. Jeremy Scheinberg of Winter Park and Chris Harden of Apopka are both 39 and both have young kids. After participating in a startup event in November, they decided there was a need for better educational toys -- especially ones that don't make annoying noises.
They settled on a robot plush toy called Trobo that would be a ‘buddy' for kids and also interact with tablet computers using an app. The app will feature stories that teach STEM skills (Science Tech Engineering Math) and include the Trobo character.
Scheinberg, an engineer, quit his job as chief operating officer at Alcorn McBride to devote his time to their startup, called Skookoo LLC. Harden is a development director at EA Sports.
The two dads presented at Rollins College on Monday for the entrepreneur program 1 Million Cups.
At the event in December, the two sewed a model of Trobo "while others were coding." They were recently accepted into Orlando-based Starter Studio's new three-month mentoring and accelerator class for startups.
"We both made audio-video products for the theme park industry. We ran into each other in November at Startup Weekend and that's where this came about," Scheinberg said.
They're trying to arrange for development of a toy that would start at $40 for the toy, app and five stories to begin with. The child's name and avatar would be incorporated into the story somehow.
More than 80 people saw them at the 1 Million Cups presentation, where audience members asked questions and applauded Scheinberg when he said he quit his job for his new passion.
The first toy will be Edison after Thomas Alva Edison, and they intend to develop a female version named Curie after Madame Marie Curie.
Audience members pleaded with them to make Curie some color besides pink. The two men said pink had won out during a focus group they already organized, but the jury was still out on the final color for Curie.
