--- title: How Two Friends Teamed Up to Sell Robots to Kids description: 'This duo launched a toy robot project by bootstrapping $100,000 and landing about $1 million in grants. The result: A successful second act.' authors: - name: Daniel Bortz url: https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 60 covers: - Business - Career Advice - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/DanielBortz - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bortz/ former_staff: true - name: Kristopher Brant url: https://money.com/author/kristopher-brant/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 3 covers: - Lifestyle former_staff: true published: '2016-07-26T13:00:47.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T02:39:52.000Z' section: Business tags: - career advice - career lessons - Careers - money magazine - second acts - Small Business - startup word_count: 339 canonical: https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![KinderLab Robotics V3.00_02_22_06.Still001](https://img.money.com/2016/07/kinderlab-robotics-v3-00_02_22_06-still001.jpg) When Marina Bers and Mitch Rosenberg met at a 9-year-old's birthday party in May 2011, they discussed a business idea, fittingly, for children. They arrived with their kids, who went to school together, and Bers buttonholed Rosenberg—who had a background in engineering and marketing—to discuss a prototype she was developing: A robotic toy that teaches problem-solving skills to 4- to 7-year-olds using computer science principles. Bers, a child study and human development professor at Tufts University, wanted a startup veteran to help build her toy into a viable business. Rosenberg liked the product but [wasn't ready to leave](https://money.com/start-business-without-quitting-day-job/) his $190,000 paycheck. The following year, however, Amazon acquired Rosenberg's company—a robotics manufacturer—and the payout on his equity stake was enough to let him forgo a salary, for a while at least, and take a risk. **Read next: [How an Unemployed Construction Worker Became a Craft Beer Entrepreneur](https://money.com/beer-hound-brewery-kenny-thacker/)** The pair co-founded [KinderLab Robotics](http://kinderlabrobotics.com/) in 2013, with Rosenberg as CEO and Bers, still at Tufts, as the company's chief scientist. They focused first on finding capital, landing a $150,000 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. "We needed to test the viability of certain features and see how children reacted," says Rosenberg. They bootstrapped another $100,000—loans from friends and family, plus some personal savings—to build the first kits. Each holds a small robot ("Kibo"), attachable modules (like sensors and wheels), and a set of wooden blocks that map out the toy's actions (turn left, spin). Kids learn to program the toy systematically, Bers says. ![PAC08](https://img.money.com/2016/07/pac08.png) After six months testing toys in schools and promoting them at educator trade shows, KinderLab started shipping the kits in November 2014, selling largely to schools. Sales picked up quickly. Revenue hit $550,000 last year—letting the founders repay those loans—and is projected to be $750,000 for 2016. While the firm targets educators, individual consumers have started buying from the company's website and now make up about half of sales. "Parents are purchasing the product and then persuading the school to buy Kibos for their classrooms," Rosenberg says. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Startups", "item": "https://money.com/startups/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How Two Friends Teamed Up to Sell Robots to Kids" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/", "name": "How Two Friends Teamed Up to Sell Robots to Kids", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-07-26T13:00:47.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/startup-kinderlab-robotics-bootstrap/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T02:39:52.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How Two Friends Teamed Up to Sell Robots to Kids", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/07/kinderlab-robotics-v3-00_02_22_06-still001.jpg", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "caption": "KinderLab Robotics V3.00_02_22_06.Still001" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/07/pac08.png", "width": 800, "height": 385 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Daniel Bortz", "url": "https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/daniel-bortz/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/Daniel-Bortz.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/DanielBortz", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bortz/" ] }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristopher Brant", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristopher-brant/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristopher-brant/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-07-26T13:00:47.000Z", "description": "This duo launched a toy robot project by bootstrapping $100,000 and landing about $1 million in grants. 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