Welcome to another episode of the Toy Business Unboxed Podcast, where we sit down with Daniel Henao and Daniella Leoni, the real-life couple behind the brand Why Don’t We. Why Don’t We makes connection-focused games for couples, built on the idea that adults deserve to play just as much as kids do. Daniel and Daniella share how a single night of designing during the pandemic turned into a global brand with eight games sold in multiple countries and languages. They also talk candidly about growing a business together as partners, and what it takes to keep a relationship and a company both healthy at the same time.
#176: Why Passion Alone Won't Sell Your Idea – Toy Business Unboxed
Episode Highlight
- 00:00 Welcome and guest introduction
- 00:47 How the first idea began
- 01:36 Designing Talk For Hours overnight
- 04:45 Going full time together
- 07:09 Adapting games for Japan
- 13:28 Why marketing starts with product
- 15:52 Plans to expand worldwide
- 19:57 Building a team in Mexico
- 24:19 Advice for new founders
A Pandemic Habit That Became a Business
Daniel and Daniella have always turned everyday moments into games for themselves, and that habit only grew during the pandemic. As friends described their relationships getting more routine and less exciting, the couple realized they were solving a problem other couples likely shared too. They started building games at home just for fun, then recognized the idea could help other couples the same way it helped them. That realization became the seed for their first product.
Designing Talk For Hours in a Single Night
Their first game, Talk For Hours, came together in one night after dinner, using Daniel and Daniella’s own Photoshop and Illustrator skills to design it themselves. The original version had one hundred and twenty cards built around deeper conversation topics for couples. They reached out to suppliers on Alibaba and had the game fully designed by three in the morning. Looking back, they admit the original design was rough, but it sold out an initial run of two hundred units in just two months.
Spotting a Gap Only Couples Could Fill
That fast sellout showed Daniel and Daniella there was real demand for something more specific than a generic family or kids edition with a couples label stapled on. Most game brands treated couples as an afterthought rather than building for them directly. Daniel says neither of them had a product development background, so their instincts came entirely from lived experience during the pandemic. That gap became the foundation for building Why Don’t We as a brand made specifically for couples.
Going Full Time, One Year and Five Months In
Why Don’t We launched its first product on May 29, 2020, and Daniella left her job in November 2021 to run the business full time. Daniel kept his job a bit longer since it carried the couple’s family insurance, then left his own job in February 2022. That put the full transition from side project to full-time business at roughly a year and five months. Daniel says the growth never depended on pandemic boredom alone, since the brand has kept growing thirty to forty percent every year since.
Adapting Games for Culture, Not Just Language
Why Don’t We now sells in multiple languages, and Daniel and Daniella hire proofreaders from each target country to adapt games culturally, not just translate them. In Japan, for example, a card that asked couples to dance had to be reworked because dancing does not fit local culture the way it does elsewhere. Daniella says the goal is to keep every game in a language and cultural context that keeps the connection and mood intact for couples. That careful approach has helped the brand earn close to five-star ratings in every country it sells in.
Why Marketing Starts With the Product
Most of Why Don’t We’s sales run through marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart, where advertising and competition are both intense. Daniel argues that good marketing cannot fix a weak product, since bad reviews eventually catch up no matter how much is spent on ads. Every new product starts with market research into what couples are actually looking for, which makes the eventual marketing easier. In 2025 the couple also started marketing outside Amazon for the first time, including building a free couples magazine to connect with their audience directly.
Expanding to New Markets and Building a Team in Mexico
Why Don’t We currently has eight products live in the US, with four to five more planned for launch this year, and a team of seven people mostly based in Mexico. Mexico became a hiring hub because it is one of the brand’s biggest markets alongside the US and UK, and most candidates found there understand the US market while covering Spanish-speaking customers too. Daniel and Daniella plan to expand more games into markets like Australia and Japan, where only a few of the eight titles are currently available. Over the next two years, the couple also wants to build brand awareness beyond the marketplaces where most of their sales currently happen.
Advice for Newcomers in the Toy and Game Industry
Daniel’s advice is to start small, since launching too big raises the cost of failure if a product does not sell the way you expect. Of the ten products Why Don’t We has launched, only eight are still active today, and starting small made it easier to try again after a miss. Daniella adds that passion alone does not create demand, so even a genuinely innovative idea needs real market research behind it. Together, their advice is to stay patient, stay consistent, and confirm people actually want what you are building before you scale it.
Conclusion
Daniel Henao and Daniella Leoni built Why Don’t We by treating both their relationship and their business with the same principles: respect, patience, and a willingness to learn. From a four hundred dollar first game designed in one night to eight products sold across multiple countries and languages, their growth has stayed steady rather than explosive. As they expand into new markets and build community outside the marketplaces that got them started, that same disciplined approach keeps driving the brand forward. Their story is proof that a strong idea, tested carefully, can outlast passion alone.
Connect with Daniel Henao and Daniella Leoni
If you’re interested in learning more about Why Don’t We or connecting with Daniel Henao and Daniella Leoni you can reach out through the following channels:
- Website: Visit Why Don’t We’s official website for the latest news, game updates, and more
- Instagram: Follow Why Don’t We on Instagram for visual updates, game previews, and creative inspiration
- Facebook: Follow Why Don’t We on Facebook for updates, discussions, and behind-the-scenes content.
Transcript
Jason Hsieh (00:00)
Welcome back to another episode of Toy Business Unbox Podcast. Today we have Daniel and Dani a real life couple behind a global brand, Why Don’t We? the brand is designed to prove how adults love to play just as much as kids. With only $400 in the very beginning and a whole lot of creativity, they were able to turn their own day-night ideas into connection-driven games that now reach couples around the world. So thank you so much for both of you to joining us on today’s podcast.
Daniella Leoni (00:28)
Thank you for having us.
Daniel Henao (00:29)
Yeah, thank you, thank you. Happy to
Jason Hsieh (00:31)
first congratulations on your success with your own game line. So I want to first start out at the very beginning. So how did the first product ever come about? And can you kind of elaborate a little bit ⁓ the story behind the brands and all the different wonderful product you have created so far?
Daniella Leoni (00:47)
so basically me and Daniel love playing games ourselves. Like we’ll turn anything into a competition. and we had been listening to like some stories about our friends and like you know, with the time and routine things started getting like a little bit more boring, and then the pandemic hit and we started making all of these games at home and we’re like if
We are benefiting from having like cool ideas to spend more time together in a fun way. there’s certainly more people out there that could benefit from stuff like this. And that’s how we came up with like our first product. So we saw a need in our relationship during the pandemic that probably other couples had of finding new ways to spend time together, just the two of you in a fun way, basically.
Jason Hsieh (01:21)
I see.
Mm, okay. What is the name of the first product and how does the first product work?
Daniel Henao (01:36)
This
called Talk For Hours. and I mean that one was kind of basic. at the beginning it had a hundred and twenty cards, okay, like complex topics, like something to speak with your partner, okay. And we came up in one night. I remember that we started like after yeah, we started after dinner. And and even the design was made by us. We have a little bit of knowledge with Adobe, like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Jason Hsieh (01:50)
Whoa, okay.
Daniel Henao (02:00)
And we designed that game ourselves. We started contacting suppliers on Alibaba. Yes. And that night I remember we went to bed like at three AM with the game ready. and yeah, that was I mean we decided it in one night and that was the first game that we came up with.
Jason Hsieh (02:15)
whoa, okay, that’s a really quick turnaround for product development.
Daniella Leoni (02:20)
Without
any AI.
Daniel Henao (02:21)
Yeah,
but I mean it’s funny because this was not the initial design, okay. Now we have a graphic designer and it was improved. But when today we see the original design, we say like wow, that was horrible. how did people buy that? But it was good and yeah, and I remember that that
Jason Hsieh (02:33)
Ha ha ha ha.
Daniel Henao (02:37)
we wanted to test it out that first time. It was only two hundred units and yeah and we sold it in like two months. so I mean it was great and then we decided, you know what, let’s continue and then we did like a bigger run, et cetera. So, so yeah.
Daniella Leoni (02:51)
we kind of with that game, without doing the two hundred unit run and it’s selling out so fast, we identified that there was a niche there that most brands weren’t tapping into. So we decided to build our whole brand targeted specifically towards couples because there is games for couples. There are no brands that do specifically games for couples, so they’ll have like
Jason Hsieh (03:12)
Yeah.
Daniella Leoni (03:17)
The family edition, the kids edition, the couples edition or whatever, but not specifically targeted towards couples.
Jason Hsieh (03:24)
To couple.
I see. I see, I see, I see, I see. Got it, got it. So that was a very fast turnaround for product development. So do you had a background in product development in the past before you started?
Daniel Henao (03:35)
No,
I think it was only like life experience. like Daniela mentioned, like I remember in during the pandemic, we used to invent our own games at home, like drinking games mostly. But I mean we just invented games at home with whatever we could find at home. And I don’t know.
And now when we look back, we think the success of our brand and our games is that we always try to position ourselves in the mind of our clients. Like not only in what we like, but what we think like most of the couples or possible clients would like when they are looking for a game, you know?
Jason Hsieh (04:09)
Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you so much for sharing. one more additional question that I want to ask is this is a common question that I asked for a lot of founders in the Toys and Game space. I think a lot of us started out this business part-time, myself included. I started my business part-time back in 2016. But it took me a very long time to go from part-time to finally take the leap of faith to say, okay, screw my day job. Finally, I’m gonna do this business for real now.
After six years, how long does that process took you from part time to say, Okay, time to do it seriously and I want to do this business full time as my kind of full time kind of career business, so on and so forth?
Daniella Leoni (04:45)
Yeah. Exactly one year and two months, I would say. We launched our first product in May 29th of 2020. Yeah. And by November 2021 I quit my job first because Daniel was the one that had like all of our family insurance and all of that. So
Jason Hsieh (04:50)
Okay. I see.
Yeah, yeah.
Daniella Leoni (05:09)
I quit my job first so we could dedicate myself full time to the job. And then in February 2022, Daniel quit his job and now we’re both fully dedicated to the brand since then. So like a year and five months tops.
Jason Hsieh (05:24)
Yeah. wow, that was really quick. Do you think maybe Covid really also play a part of it because people are just board and they have nothing else to do out?
Daniel Henao (05:31)
at the beginning we thought that, but then after COVID stopped, I mean we haven’t stopped growing Yeah, we’ve been growing steadily every year around 30 to 40%. So it’s been doing really well for us. Okay. I mean, I think it’s the fact that we haven’t stopped, to be honest. We think like we’re always inventing new games. We nowadays we have eight games and four more in the works. I think we’re gonna launch like four or five products this year. So
I think that’s it. We’re always launching new games, improving the games we have. So I think that has been key to our business.
Daniella Leoni (06:03)
We
also take like very seriously what our customers are saying, like reviews and all of that, and we take into account everything that they say to be able to still improve the products that we have or come up with new products too. Like sometimes the ideas even come from listening to our clients. So just I think that part of like doing the social listening and seeing what clients are saying has been key to keeping the brand up to what the market is asking for.
Jason Hsieh (06:31)
I see, I see. And I think one thing interesting thing about your product, because a lot of it is like conversation or like use between couples, and you’re not just selling it in the English edition, you also have multiple languages nowadays, right? what kind of unique challenge do you face when you’re doing translation? And also that’s also a culture nuances because before the meeting interview you mentioned you’re launching in Japan. Japan have a very different culture when it comes to relationship, culture.
what you supposed to say and not say between the couples, how do you kind of tackle that issue when, you know, obviously you two are not Japanese, how do you understand that cultural nuances that go beyond this translation? So
Daniella Leoni (07:09)
We hire people from the specific country to proofread our games but also culturally adapt. And what you’re saying about a Japan is totally true because when we hired somebody from there, there’s specific things like one of our games says like, you have to dance and she’s like, But Japanese people don’t dance. So it’s this one for this one and the idea of the games are like
Jason Hsieh (07:30)
Yeah.
Daniella Leoni (07:35)
specifically to make couples connect and when you’re talking about emotion and connection, you want it to be in your own language and in a language that’s gonna keep the mood going, you know, like it’s not the same for me to play a game with Daniel in like British as it is as in US English because words are the same. Like you know, sometimes those type of differentiators in the language can break the mood. So the idea is that it’s fully spoken in a language that will make you connect and have fun, really.
Jason Hsieh (08:02)
I see, I see. And what are some of the feedback you got from people from other countries as well?
Daniel Henao (08:07)
No, it’s been great. I mean we have over almost five stars in all of the countries that we sell at and I think that’s part of it. I mean we have been really careful in adapting all of our games as an element culturally to the country that we sell at and we don’t go to a country I mean and when say we don’t go is we don’t we don’t launch in a country where the product is not adapted culturally because as you mentioned like in every country relationships work differently. So
Jason Hsieh (08:32)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I see, I see. And while applying that to your own relationship, what has been the biggest challenge of building a business as a couple and maybe some advantage and something you learned along the way? Because personally, I would never imagine myself working along with my wife. It just doesn’t work like we our relationship doesn’t work that way.
Daniel Henao (08:52)
Yeah, I mean it does have its challenges. I mean, but we are able to adapt fast, I think, for everything and to learn. and I think that’s part of our I don’t know, our way of living. It’s that you should always be able to learn or open to learning new things. And I when we started working together, it was funny because when Daniela, she’s always laughing, okay? Yeah, but when she’s working.
She’s very like focused and and it’s funny because she’s very, very serious. So at the beginning I was like, Are you okay? And she was like, No, I’m But I mean nowadays, I mean we spend a lot of time together, we travel a lot, we’re nomads, okay, so we were on a lot around the world. So yeah, so we spend a lot of time, we work out at coffee places, etcetera.
Jason Hsieh (09:23)
Ha ha ha.
⁓ okay. Okay, okay.
Daniel Henao (09:41)
We
kind of know already our routines and everybody I mean I’m a late night worker. I love working after dinner. I stay up until like two or three AM, okay? and she goes to bed. I like that quiet time at night, for example. But I mean it’s understanding each other and understanding that everyone has different way of working and different way of concentrating, you know.
Daniella Leoni (10:01)
I think there’s like three main things basically. First of all, like when we launched this, we said that if this interferes with our relationship, then it doesn’t matter like how successful it is, if it ruins our relationship, it’s not worth it. First of all, second of all, it’s about respect and learning. People have different ways of doing things and respecting each other’s ways, and sometimes in the differentiator of
His way and my way, we can also find strength because he’s good at some things that I’m not, or doing things differently than I do, or and vice versa. So there’s strength in the difference of things. And third and most important, I think we both realize that business discussions are business discussions and it has nothing to do with our personal lives, and we can disagree on business decisions.
And it has nothing to do with our relationship. We can end the argument out say, okay, that was business. Give me a kiss. Next. You know, like.
Jason Hsieh (10:58)
Okay, I see. And since you mentioned about nomads lifestyle, how often do you move? Do you like go from country to countries to countries?
Daniel Henao (11:07)
We move every
three months. I mean three years ago or four years ago, we left Miami when the business was doing really well. Yeah, then I think we jump every three to four months, okay. We have traveled all over the world and yeah, and we try every year to try a new city or a new country, okay. For example, this last year we did Buenos Aires, we did Dominican Republic and Mexico. We always go to Mexico because we have built an amazing team in Mexico, okay.
Jason Hsieh (11:35)
⁓ okay.
Daniel Henao (11:36)
Yes.
So we try to go at the end of each year to do the business plan, to check w what was the year that how it happened and to prepare for the next year. Okay. So but yeah, we jump around every three to four months from city to city or country to country. Yeah.
Jason Hsieh (11:45)
I see. Okay.
⁓ okay. That’s a very cool lifestyle and always like very envy of sometimes. But it’s hard when you have three kids and they need to go to school and it’s kind of couldn’t just change the school every single three months. It’ll be very tricky. Yeah. Yeah.
Daniel Henao (12:07)
It’s been tricky managing the team. I think that could be challenging because sometimes we are, for example, this year we’re gonna be living in Vietnam for a few. The time difference for sure is gonna be challenging. but we also find a good way to to take advantage of it because for example during the mornings or during the days we have more time to concentrate on creating new games, we have more time for ourselves.
Jason Hsieh (12:15)
Okay, okay.
Daniel Henao (12:28)
Okay, and then but then we’re also the challenging part is we’re gonna need to work a little bit later to be able to communicate with the team in Mexico because there’s like a twelve hour difference.
Jason Hsieh (12:33)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got it, got it. Well, I’m not a nomad, but I do travel quite a bit. Like this year I’m probably gonna be traveling to ten different trade shows this year. and I’m actually going to Germany later this month as well for New York actually New Lemberg Toy Fair. Then I’m going to New York Toy Fair in February, then I’m going to Gama in March. So just every single month I’m going to a different Toys World Game Trade Show because that is the industry that we specialize in. But going back, I want to transition
today’s conversation to marketing strategy, because I think one of the main I guess secrets to your success is you must done something right marketing wise. Otherwise, how do you grow so fast, you know, from where you were at to where you are are right now. So what are some of the marketing strategy that work very well for you that you can also share with our audience, both offline and online strategy wise.
Daniella Leoni (13:28)
I’m gonna say something before you do because Daniel is the one that mostly handles all of our ⁓ advertising. Yeah. we’ve only started offline marketing. We’re basically like social media outside of Amazon type of thing this year or 2025. Daniel is like a brain
Jason Hsieh (13:45)
⁓ whoa, okay.
Daniella Leoni (13:51)
Maniac when it comes to data, analyzing data and learning the new trades and keeping up with the new trends within Amazon and the other platforms. So, like he really like every single week, or he’s listening to some podcasts, learning something new. So, part of keeping up with the trends, I feel from my perspective, that has been like great success to our business because he’s always
keeping up with the competition and doing new things. But
Daniel Henao (14:21)
I’m going to disagree with Daniella. Yeah, but because I’m gonna say, I mean, I don’t think good marketing or good advertisement, works without a good product or works without a good team or works without a good strategy. Okay. or at least not in the long run. because maybe you’re gonna have good advertising and invest a lot and you can
sell like 10,000 units of a product, but then it’s gonna stop there. If the product is bad, it’s gonna stop there. You’re gonna receive bad reviews, etc. so I think the success is not only the marketing, it’s everything. The marketing starts with the product for me. Okay. And when we create a product, we again, as I mentioned, we really hear or we really do like good market research. We try to see what’s out there. We try to see
What are clients or possible clients looking for? And then we even our design is based on what we think or what the market research says it’s going to work. It that makes it easier to market a product. It starts with the product.
Jason Hsieh (15:19)
Okay.
Daniel Henao (15:24)
so most of our sales are through marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, Walmart. So we do a lot of advertising on those platforms. Okay. but there’s also a lot of competitors. So that’s why I think it’s not only that, it’s also that we have a good product, a good team, and a good strategy.
Jason Hsieh (15:43)
Mm, I see, I see, I see. So what is the future? ⁓ looking ahead in one, three years down the future, what is the vision for you and your brand?
Daniel Henao (15:52)
I mean yeah I mean every time we meet in December to have the plan we do a plan like for one year, three years and five years okay and it hasn’t changed. We have been lucky to like have a good game. Yeah, and I mean for next year it’s as Daniela always says like conquering the world, okay? I mean we always launch the products first in the US market, okay?
Daniella Leoni (16:02)
We made all of our predictions.
Daniel Henao (16:13)
So now we have like eight products in the US market. We’re gonna launch four or five more this year. But the idea is to roll all those out to the rest of the countries and the rest of the world. For example, in Australia, we’re selling already, but we have only three of our eight games. So the idea is also to launch those games over there, ⁓ in Japan too, like all of the marketplaces that we sell at, and continue launching products, continue making happy couples. and also I think one of our
plan for the next two years is marketing like outside of those marketplaces. Yeah, like we know there’s a lot of couples that they don’t even know that this kind of products exist. Okay. So we really need to work on the awareness of the brand and of the product so couples can know that they have tools out there or games out there to have more fun and to spend more time with each other.
Jason Hsieh (16:47)
Mm, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very different, yes.
Daniel Henao (17:07)
So we’re doing a lot of work that started this year, but on the next two years with social media and getting the brand out there.
Jason Hsieh (17:15)
Got it. Yeah, totally makes sense. I think the problem with the marketplace, obviously it’s a lot easier to get tractions on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, but they kind of also hold everything as like a hostage because you don’t have any customer data as you’re building your brand. you only thing you have is just cash flow. You just have transactions. It’s 100% transaction base. I think for a business and the brand to really scale to beyond like seven, eight figures, you really need to focus on relationships.
With the customer, but you cannot do that to marketplaces. That’s something I also struggle with as I’m growing my own toy brand because we were also very, very Amazon heavy early days in our brand journey before we start building the email list, social media followings, doing meta ads, Google ads, and all the other things.
Daniel Henao (18:00)
You’re totally right. and I think what you said is key. I think you have to find a combination. I mean, everybody knows that everybody goes to marketplaces to buy, you already have your credit card safe there, etc. You trust marketplaces more than any regular website out there. True. But I mean I think what is key is to find that balance, okay? That has that
Jason Hsieh (18:12)
Yes.
Daniel Henao (18:20)
I mean those sales from the marketplaces that are gonna give you momentum and cash flow to be able to develop like the your business part and to be able to get that customer data through your website, through email list, etcetera.
Jason Hsieh (18:34)
Sure, sure, of course, of course.
Daniel Henao (18:35)
And that’s a goal, yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Daniella Leoni (18:37)
The most important part, like for us, for instance, just like you, I think your toys are as a brand, you’re a brand with a purpose. And it’s difficult to sell your purpose through Amazon. So outside of Amazon. So people know that we actually do care about your relationship. We do want you to have fun. we do want you to be happier. You have to be able to build that community outside of Amazon. So yeah, yeah.
For us particularly, what we’ve been doing is for instance, we built or designed a couples magazine that’s completely free, but it’s tools and resources for couples that comes out every month and a half. So it’s the type of content to actually show people that we don’t wanna just stop at the products. We want to be able to accompany you throughout your relationship, regardless of the stage that you’re in, and really be there.
in the fun times, you know, and just like create that community, but creating that outside of Amazon is super important.
Jason Hsieh (19:36)
Yes, yes, yes, hundred percent agree. It’s especially if you want to keep on going and dominate the world, like you say. That’s very important to to do something as well. and also the other question I have for you guys is I know you’re also building the team and sounds like majority of your team is in Mexico. Was that intentional? Why do you choose Mexico out of all the different countries you can hire from?
Daniel Henao (19:57)
I mean it was our third marketplace, it still is. I mean, between UK and Mexico, there are our biggest marketplaces. And I mean, we have some friends there, we were traveling, we were living there for three months, and we said, you know what, let’s find someone. And we were lucky because you’re able to find like good people who also understand the US marketplace. Okay.
Yeah, because it’s kind of similar, even though it’s Latin America, it’s very similar. So and most of them speak English. so after one employee we said, Okay, this went well and now I mean now we only look in Mexico.
Jason Hsieh (20:30)
Okay, okay, okay. What platform do you use to hire people from Mexico? LinkedIn. just Link In, okay, okay, okay.
Daniella Leoni (20:36)
I mean it’s just financially it makes sense because we’re able to target both our English and Spanish markets with the same team.
Jason Hsieh (20:43)
⁓ okay.
Daniella Leoni (20:45)
We don’t have to hire specific people for specific marketplaces or countries, but we can target all of them with only one team.
Jason Hsieh (20:52)
I see. Okay. Okay. that makes sense. Okay. and I think before the interview you say you have a team of seven now. Are you planning to expand as far as team size, hiring more people?
Daniel Henao (21:01)
Yeah, yeah. I mean we just hired someone yesterday. She was working as an intern for like two months and we just hired her and yeah, we have plans of hiring someone I think mid year. Okay. It would also of course depend on the growth, but I mean we’ve been hiring like one new each year. So yeah, so probably we’ll have one or two more because we have some ambitious plans for this year, so probably yeah, we’ll be hiring with the team.
Daniella Leoni (21:17)
Yeah.
Jason Hsieh (21:26)
I see, I see, I see. I think one thing I also struggle because my team is also 100% remote. We have 21 full time staff now. But the main struggle is building a culture for a remote team because we never really see each other. Maybe we see each other ⁓ once every other years. Yeah. and the company have been growing so fast, only two people on my staff I have actually met in person. The rest of the team I have never met in person.
And this year I’m actually going to Philippines in the summer to meet the rest of the team in person. But one of the struggles I face as an entrepreneur, as the leader of the team, is like, how can I make sure I can still create a solid culture where they can still connect among each other as co workers when they never see each other in like physically? Like, do you also face a similar struggle?
Daniella Leoni (22:15)
We’ve implemented certain things to try to break that barrier. Like for instance, like the first Thursday of like every month we do like coffee Thursday.
Jason Hsieh (22:25)
⁓
okay, okay. That’s a good idea.
Daniella Leoni (22:28)
We provide coffee to all of them and we’ll all shine and share like something about ourselves or like
Daniel Henao (22:35)
We treat them as persons and not as employees. I think some companies forget that. That all the teams I mean they have families, they have life, etc. And they treat them only as like as a resource. Okay. And we try not to do that. And as Daniella said, we try to, come up with ideas to meet digitally.
Luckily, we’re able to go to Mexico every year. And for example, this year we all traveled like one hour outside of Mexico City. All the team traveled to a house there and we stayed there for two nights. And we did yeah, we did a we did a team building with the whole team and it was amazing. We have done it in every year in Mexico City, but in like a co working place. Okay. ⁓ It was only like one day there
Jason Hsieh (23:16)
Okay.
Daniel Henao (23:19)
But this time we stayed there for two days and I think it was amazing. The team loved it. It was like mostly for them, what you’re saying. Like
Jason Hsieh (23:27)
Yeah.
Connect. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Daniella Leoni (23:29)
And you get to know each other on a different level and it also like provides a lot of insight into who you’re dealing with as human beings. Makes you kind of like have a lot more faith in the people that you chose as well. That’s definitely nice.
Jason Hsieh (23:37)
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, that’s important.
For sure, for sure. Yeah, for us this year I think we’ll be I’ll be in the Philippines for five days. It’s gonna be a five day event and we’re trying to make sure it is mandatory. So if you don’t show up, we actually gonna deduct your salary
Daniel Henao (23:57)
No, that’s good. I think that’s gonna everybody’s gonna go. I think I’m sure they’re gonna be excited to go.
Jason Hsieh (24:02)
Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. But thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your experience building your own business in the toys and game space. As we’re wrapping up today’s interview, if you have to share just one piece of advice with someone that’s also getting started in the toys or game industry, what would that be?
Daniel Henao (24:19)
I mean I would say don’t be afraid. I think a lot of people think too big. And I’m not saying don’t be ambitious, okay? But when you start too big, you have more possibility of failure. And then I mean, and it’s normal. we have launched ten products and of those tens, only eight are alive today. Okay. So it’s normal that some products are not gonna.. if you start
Let’s say for example, no, I wanna go with ten thousand units because the cost is gonna be poor. But so if that doesn’t sell because you cannot predict that it’s gonna sell for sure, okay. Yeah, then it’s gonna be harder to launch a second product to try it out. True, true. Start small, be patient, okay, and be consistent and and it should work in the in the long run.
Daniella Leoni (25:03)
Yeah, and I would say passion doesn’t create demand. A lot of times we are very passionate about ideas, but if people are not searching for our solutions, then it’s gonna be really difficult to sell those ideas. And it’s not a matter of not saying that you cannot be innovative and bring new things to the market, but if you’re gonna be very innovative and bring something entirely new to the market.
then you have to really do your research and figure out a way to get your idea out there because you can have the best idea in the world, but if people are not searching for it, then you’re not gonna sell it.
Jason Hsieh (25:40)
Yeah, that’s a very good point. Yeah. Well go back to marketing. You also need to do marketing so people are aware of the product too. So and for those of our audience that’s interested to learn more about you and your businesses, where is the best place for people to find you online?
Daniella Leoni (25:54)
you can search for us on Amazon under Why Don’t We Games, or you can go on our website which is makinghappycouples.com And social media as well.
Jason Hsieh (26:03)
Okay.
Daniel Henao (26:05)
Social
media as well. I mean, my name is Daniel Henao. You can find me on LinkedIn or on social media, Daniella too, Daniella Leoni on LinkedIn. Yeah. Are you gonna see like owners or brand creators of Why Don’t We? And you can contact us and we’re happy to help other creators out there.
Jason Hsieh (26:20)
Okay, sounds good. Are you going to any trade shows that’s coming up?
Daniel Henao (26:24)
I mean this year we went to an Amazon event in Seattle. we are Alibaba ambassadors. So we went to the Alibaba event on Las Vegas and probably we’re going to another event in the next year.
Jason Hsieh (26:34)
Any
game event? Like are you going to GAMA, Origins?
Daniel Henao (26:38)
we haven’t been to any game event we should
Jason Hsieh (26:40)
You should. You should definitely go to a game event. I go to a lot.
Daniel Henao (26:43)
Also
after we end this call, send us some recommendations so we can plan during our nomad life where we can go. Yeah.
Jason Hsieh (26:51)
I see. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I can definitely talk offline a lot of some of the recommendations since I know a lot of the event in the industry. So and thank you so much for both of your time and energy sharing your journey, the resources and the lesson learned. That really mean a lot to myself and also our audiences.
Daniel Henao (27:07)
Perfect. Thank you.
Daniella Leoni (27:08)
Thank you so much for having us.
Jason Hsieh (27:09)
Yes.
And thank you for our audience for tuning in to today’s episode of Toy Business Unbox Podcast. I hope today’s conversation gave you practical insight and fresh inspiration for growing your own toys or game brands. This podcast is proudly brought to you by Toy Launch, a leading marketing and growth partner for toys and game companies. At Toy Launch, we help brands scale on Amazon and beyond through full service account management, PPC, search engine optimization, creations, a creative.
Catalog optimization, influencer marketing, and marketing consulting. If you are looking for a proven team that really understands both the toys and game industry and e-commerce, we are here to help. If you’d like a personalized breakdown of your brand opportunities and the best next step, you can schedule a free consultation with us simply by visit toy-launch.com/schedule. If you want to connect with other toys and game founders, join our brand new free communities, Toys and Game Launchpad. You can find us on Facebook with our free Facebook group.
For more resource updates and any industry insight, visit us anytime at toy-launch.com. Until next time, keep innovating, keep creating, keep bringing joys through toys. This is Jason Hsieh signing off on the Toy Business Unboxed Podcast. We’ll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much, everyone.
Daniella Leoni (28:22)
Thank you, Jason.
Jason Hsieh (28:23)
Thank you.
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