701 Christoph Frehsee: President of tonies USA
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Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Super excited to have my next guest here. We have Christophe Frazee, who's the president and managing director of Tony's USA, the brand behind the Tony Box, if you are familiar with that. It is a

screen-free audio system that's become a game changer for families with over a million Tony boxes sold just in the U.S., a hundred million Tonys globally. And Tonys has built a storytelling experience kids love and parents trust.

And I cannot wait to talk about how this company has built. It's very, very unusual in that many brands, or at least the sort of the going saying is that many brands are built in the U.S. This is not a U.S. built brand. This is a brand that is built in Europe.

and built in Germany. And Christoph is building the U.S. part of this brand and doing a very successful job doing that as well. So I cannot wait to jump in and talk a lot more about his journey, but also about the Tony's brand. So Christoph, welcome to the show. So excited to have you here. Thanks, Cara. I'm thrilled to be here.

So for those who may not be familiar with the Tony's brand, can you share a little bit about how this company not only started, but also how it has evolved?

Yeah, absolutely. So the company was founded by two dads, Patrick Fassbender and Markus Schaal in Germany. And Patrick basically wanted to build a device for his two daughters. So that would give them agency in...

selecting their own entertainment and education content. So instead of trying to handle as small children, scratch CDs or having to ask the parents for TV or other media, he really basically wanted to reinvent the Walkman in the 21st century. And the result is the Tony Box, which is a small padded speaker for children. And audio starts when you're matching the box with any figurine of your favorite character.

Think Lion King, think Elsa, think the Power Patrol, think Curious George, or also Daniel Tiger from Mr. Rogers. And as soon as you put this figurine on the box, audio starts, music starts. The library spans really from nursery rhymes, sing-along tracks, sleep stories to chapter books, and really covering listeners from toddlers through early readers. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card.

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So the product launched in 2016. So next year, globally, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary. Patrick and Markus grew the brand very successfully in Europe and then decided in 2020 to also go more global and establish in the US market. And that's where I come into the picture. I met them.

Around Thanksgiving 2019, and then on a very short notice, got the mandate to start off the brand in January 2020 here in the U.S. That's incredible. So were you familiar with the Tony's brand and the Tony box prior to coming on?

Yes, of course I was. I mean, you hear from my accent, I cannot hide it. I'm originally from Germany. I immigrated many years ago to the US, but my mom obviously wanted to make sure that also my kids, her grandchildren can benefit from really, you know, this magic audio box. So we had the Tony box for our oldest son.

And that was for me also ultimately the motivation to join the company because I could see what a difference it made in our own household. In the moment we introduced the box at home, I basically got my phone back and that was an absolute game changer.

I love that because taking the phone is definitely something that many parents deal with, or at least maybe they initially give them the phone and then the phone becomes this device that many parents understand exactly what you're talking about. So when you're launching a brand that is already established in Germany, isn't it

really simple to just go into another country and really create a... I mean, can't you just do exactly what you've done in another country when you're coming into a country as big as the US? Or what are some of the challenges? I'm obviously being facetious. Yeah, well, there are many levels. I mean, I think first,

What gave me confidence to sign up for this mission was actually really seeing firsthand the result at home that it has true, I would say, user market fit. Once it's in the

hands of children, it gives them agency. Like I said, it gives them joy. It gives them endless giggles. And they are in charge where parents really enjoy the feeling of safety that all the content is basically well-created. The parents decided what figurines come into the household. And so you don't need the TV as much anymore. Like I said, when the child wants to

to, at the time it was Baby Shark Do Do. Do you remember that song? Yeah, yeah.

And then because before the Tony box, what would you do? You would pull out your phone and you'd be like, okay, baby shark to do YouTube. Here we go. And it goes on. But then once this is over, you're in the rabbit hole of social media and platforms and all this. And the Tony box really gave that safety and that joy to kids. So first for me, it was like, okay, if that works, then really also the belief ultimately children around the world,

behave pretty much the same in this early age. It's probably more the parents that have different values and are looking for different ambitions or filters on what they want their kids to engage with. And I think that was the first dimension I wanted to look at of how do we translate the value proposition that worked in Europe to America. And then obviously what's also different is the distribution channels, the retail landscape.

I often like to say that if we take Europe or, for example, France, or if we take Germany or German-speaking countries, Germany, Switzerland, Austria,

The US is much larger, but we don't have a single user group that is as large and basically cohesive as this German-speaking user group in Europe, in the US. We are much more diverse in many, many ways, in particular when it's our belief system around raising children. Now, the interesting part is this very diverse user group is mirrored by an extremely consolidated distribution landscape, where in the US, basically...

Amazon, Walmart, Target have 86% of the US preschool business.

Wow. So these three retailers control the market, basically. Plus then you can obviously do your own website. You have some specialty store left. You have some mid-tier accounts. I'm a big fan of Kohl's and others in this segment. But still, ultimately, you need to build a brand and make sure your brand and the supply chain are ready to meet the demands of an Amazon, a Walmart, and a Target. And I think...

The three challenges are really like, okay, does it work for the users? Yes, of course. How do we position it for the parents, the decision maker, ultimately the purchaser and gift givers? And then third, is your brand and company ready to deal with U.S. mass distribution?

So, so interesting. How has the product changed since the, the original product was created to today? I guess, you know, we always hear the upgrades, right? And it, how has it changed from the beginning to today?

Yeah, so I'd say it's a very fascinating case study in the sense that the core of the product still today is the same. So the speaker in its form factor, because a lot of thought went into this before Patrick and Marcus actually launched

the product, they worked two years on actually developing it, the form factors, and really making sure the UX is right for, you know, the youngest of listeners. Think about, you know, what could all go right? Or also what could all go wrong with the toddler? Now, though, obviously under the hood, we over the years did many improvements and upgrades. I'd say the biggest difference probably also from Europe to the US is we are in the US much more IP driven.

So obviously, you know, the whole lineup of Disney princesses, of Paw Patrol, but also I would say heritage IPs like Daniel Tiger or so is much more important than more general storytelling in Europe.

So language, obviously, you're a global company. And so language in all different parts of the world. I mean, English is a...

very large language, I would imagine. But how many different languages have you created for Tony's, for consumers, I should say, in the Tony's brand? Yeah. So right now we're still just focused on our core markets, which so it means we have English, French and French.

We also edit Spanish now. So we have quite a large Spanish speaking library now in the US as well. And further languages are on the roadmap. But it is obviously for us each time we want to make sure it is not just a narration. We want to make sure it is not just a translation. If we talk about the space of early childhood development or storytelling in a family, you want to make sure it feels each time very authentic.

Close to home, literally. And there, even for a company like ours now, it's still important to very localize the product. So we're focused so far just on those core languages, but further internationalization will be defined in the coming years.

So you mentioned collaborations like the Disney and Marvel and some of the others that you've done. And I would imagine, too, with authors, right? You're also sharing stories. So how big of a focus is that for the company? I guess it's licensing deals, right?

Yeah, it's licensing deals, but it's also content creation in the essence. I mean, we want to be a partner for parents and ultimately also for kids all along their development from basically a toddler to preschoolers and also middle schoolers for early readers. So, yeah.

Besides the big licenses, it is very important for us to address educational curiosity. So for us, it's all about basically sparking curiosity, sparking imagination, sparking critical thinking through storytelling.

And while, you know, Disney also has really deep stories. I mean, the story of Frozen Elsa is about friendship. It's about love, siblings. It's about mental health. But that only goes so far. And to be authentic in the US, for example, we early started then with, for example, LeVar Burton.

We all know from reading Rainbow, and we took his narrations onto the Tony. We worked with Jane Lynch,

on a series that teaches kids how to tell jokes. We worked with Neil deGrasse Tyson on a series that tells kids about technology and invention. We worked with Calm on meditation and mindfulness. We worked with GoNoodle, which is really like a teacher content channel.

that has this really hilarious on how do you popsicle and bring that on the Tony. So there's the physical product, but ultimately our product unlocks the cinema of the mind. And in order to really make that engaging and educational, we have to work with a variety of content and partners there.

So when you think about challenges, every leader has challenges that they, you know, it sounds great to be the leader of the U.S. for this incredible business that is scaling, but it's a lot of responsibility, too. I mean, not just to your consumer and your parents, but also your team and overall the company. But

What are some of the challenges in kind of designing a tech specifically for young kids, have you found is really challenging for anyone listening? Yeah, so, I mean, in our segment particular,

So obviously first privacy and safety first, right? If we give something into the kids of children for everybody, that's the group that we want to protect the most and set up for success. So it's first like really privacy by design, safety by design.

Then it's about, you know, a toddler who view X in that sense. What could go right? What could go wrong if you put the device or the product into the hands of children? And then I think also families are looking for durability. So, you know, the toy industry, unfortunately, particularly in the U.S., has sometimes gotten a little bit of a reputation of being, you know,

more of a one-time, three-time use. We try to satisfy our children and their needs. We want to reward them for great behavior, for great grades, for great accomplishments. Sometimes it feels like I observed this also, we just buy them something because they behaved in the target aisle. And so I think one thing of products that resonates really there with parents is also longevity and durability. And that's important.

for us as well. That's on the children things. On building a company, obviously, like you mentioned, the team

Let's put it that way. The last four years, we said we're going to start the company in 2020 with a launch date in September of 2020. So from when I started in January to then March, obviously the world came to a stop. And with COVID, we had to rethink our whole go-to-market strategy in a very, very fundamental way and also how we would build a team.

Yeah, definitely. And you mentioned you're entirely remote in the U.S. Yes. So that was the result of basically the COVID pandemic.

that we had plans to set up an office in the Bay Area. And quickly then, as COVID put the world to halt, we thought, actually, this is a great opportunity. It's a fantastic opportunity to not limit ourselves to the talent pool that is here or would be willing to relocate to the Bay Area, but really...

hire experts in their fields, being it in retail, being it in marketing, be it in childhood development, in storytelling, in logistics, in operations and finance, all the things you need to put a company together nationwide. And I would say that is still a strength of us today. We are in the U.S., a team of completely remote 100 people now. Of course, all our departments, we're in 38 states.

And it is really working for everybody because they can bring the best professional self to Tony's and at the same time, obviously stay in the communities and stay with their families where they feel most at home.

What has been different about growing in the U.S., this brand in particular, versus maybe what your colleagues have seen over in other parts of the world, whether it's Europe or what has been kind of the uniqueness to the U.S.? Yeah. So I think first, obviously, how we launched in the sense also with COVID, we in Europe

retail played the major launch role. In the US, we focused on our own website and social media to launch the brand and then Amazon because we were simply not sure if in retail, you know, in COVID where, you know, you wouldn't touch things in a shelf. So imagine we had a demo station in retail during COVID and parents would be like, don't touch this, no, you know. So true. Yeah.

Yeah, well, these were the things you suddenly had to think about, right? And you obviously, these are also good things we continue to think about now. But yeah, so much more direct to consumer, activating the community, really banking on what we called, you know, word of mom, like word of mouth, word of mom in the sense, and then leveraging, you know, an online distribution channel.

But then, though, in the second act really changes is obviously the power of U.S. mass retail. And once you figure out placement in mass retail like Target and start playing, what I would say, retail chess, where one big player moves, other players are also obliged to move because they want a part of the market share and of this developing platform as well. Then you suddenly can have much higher step changes in the reach of

that you have in the US than you would normally have in Europe where retailers are much more fragmented than they are in the US.

When you think about content development, I mean, I certainly still believe that many people think that this is a visual world, right? Yet Tony's has really sort of proven the audio space is kind of here to stay. I mean, it's definitely, you've engaged families with lots of content that is really audio driven.

What has surprised you the most about that? Surprised in a very positive way that I think we are living. So the one thing I feel observed about America and us here is

we are much more flexible in our belief systems and we're able to change very quickly as soon evidence is presented to us. And I think I generally sense, and Jonathan Haidt does great work around that, also to bring more awareness of the side effects of smartphones, of social media and teenagers and that. But even for the early ages now, there's a heightened awareness of

maybe these screens are not that good for our children. While we like that it is a very fast and visual way to transmit information, like us also here, we have this conversation now over screens and we're 100 miles or more apart from each other, maybe the way that the brain works or develops, it might be overwhelming. And I think what has really surprised me in a very positive way is how this message is

really activates parents. And once they gain the awareness and they learn that, you know, the way the brain learns and how audio activates basically, you know, in the brain and opens up the pathways, you can see this in MRIs, listening to audio activates the same pathways as like reading or creative work. And that helps these synapses to develop better.

Parents get more mindful that that's probably time better spent and information given to children than over screens where they're more passive. So

We then said, okay, can we actually prove that with scientific studies? So we worked with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and they just came out really with a very scientific study that showed really a 32% increase in emergent literacy for kids that use the Tony Box, and also 25% reduction in screen time once the Tony Box was in the household.

And that are just facts that, you know, I hadn't thought it would be so obvious and then are very motivating for the team ultimately that when kids listen, you know, the imagination paints the picture.

So you had a background in everything from sustainable fashion to landmine clearing, I read. Wow. So what through line connects these chapters as you are now leading this incredible division of Tony's?

Well, I think one of the common through line there is that you meet people along the way that tell you that what not going to work. Well, that will be difficult. That will be challenging. And I find this each time you've talked about this in your book as well. It's like as an invitation of like, great, bring it on. Let's, you know, let's do it. And I think the additional through line is each time from, you know, building up a land mine clearing business that was technology driven and

to really prove a point and accelerate the rate of how we cleared landmines to then sustainable fashion, to now audio, I felt there is an opportunity to be a catalyst in an industry.

So also my past company, Amover, we were among the first that really brought sustainable fashion that also looked good and classy onto the map. And similar here now with Tony's is really the brand that in the US establishes the category and leads that. And I think it's this kind of pioneering work that I really enjoy mixed with, you know, building around that an amazing team that, you know, then makes...

this dream reality because yeah, every dream needs a team. When you're thinking about hiring people, I think it's, you know, you've got an incredible brand and you're bringing in this group to a brand, which is a little different than starting it from scratch when you don't have a brand, but it's still stressful, right? Because you've got to make sure, especially I think

in a remote situation where maybe you don't have that casual conversation with your neighbor at the desk next door. You've got to make sure that everybody gets along with each other and everybody's motivated by the same principles. How do you do that?

Are there any things that you really kind of look at? Because it really is a lot of responsibility because, you know, especially when you're hiring somebody that maybe somebody is going to have to work with, but they're not interviewing that person, right? And people, you just need one bad egg in the room, right? That is good.

that is going to demotivate people or, but how do you do that? How do you find the right teammates that is going to help you do what you need to do, scale without losing the brand's heart? Fantastic question. And I think it's at the core of, you know, any entrepreneur's

quest to get this right. Because like you said, it's high stakes. So I would say, first, I do this with a lot of intention. So it comes from really the moment of thinking, what do we need in capabilities? Where is the gap? How do we get these capabilities? And then understanding where do you find those

hard skills? Sometimes it's good to look for been there, done this. Sometimes it's also very dangerous and you rather want to see high potential and go for somebody that is not yet jaded in the industry. At the end of the day, I look for five things. And the first one is really somebody that

is motivated, has an ownership mentality, gets stuff done. And I call this somebody that wants to leave a thumbprint, that has something to prove that wants to leave a thumbprint. The next one is obviously very important, which is speak the truth. So there's nothing worse than if a leader never hears the truth. And that can happen in so many ways. And I think we've all seen that. So it needs to be somebody that can say, even in the interview process,

the hard conversation that can say the things that are unsaid. Third one is energy. It's important, particularly in senior levels, but I think on all levels of an organization that you meet somebody that gives energy, that wakes up and has normally a positive outlook on things, that's solution-oriented and has a can-do spirit. Because we're all adding so much of our own lives, of our own identity,

into what we work and what we do. And if then, you know, our energy gets sucked out of this for the unnecessary reasons, that's not helpful. So people that give energy. Third one is collaborative spirit. That goes without saying. Contribute behind silos. It's not just you, you, you. You know, we win as a team, we lose as a team. And the last one I find also important is a scrappy mentality.

So and you find this even when people that have worked at very large companies, you know, they need to be willing to initially, you know, work with duct tape and, you know, pivot then with good information and not make things too precious. And so these are the five things I look for. You know, leave a thumbprint, speak the truth, give energy, a collaborative spirit, and then ultimately scrappy mentality.

I love it. So finally, what's the one thing you want listeners to remember about Tony's and everything that you all are doing? Tony sparks imaginations ear first, and it's giving kids agency and parents basically a screen-free ally. So if you have not tried it, try it out. I can tell you as a parent also that

It will change your parenting experience, but it will also leave a very positive and memorable mark in your child's childhood experiences.

I love chatting with you today, Christophe. You guys are doing amazing, amazing work, reimagining play, learning, storytelling for the next generation. And your work is, I mean, it's challenging, right? Like you've got a little startup within a large company, which is, it's, it's

Definitely challenging, and you're doing an incredible job building this. So I love the Tony's brand, and definitely, if you haven't checked it out, go to their site. It's at us.com.

dot Tony's dot com. And as Christophe was saying, you can find it at Amazon, Walmart, Target, all the local usual suspects that have incredible toy departments, but really, really great brand. And thank you so much, Christophe, for sharing everything about what you're doing too. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend.

Leave a quick review, hit subscribe, all that good stuff. And I'll see you next time on The Kara Golden Show. Thank you so much, Christophe. Thank you, Kara. Appreciate it. Thanks again for listening to The Kara Golden Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of our podcast.

Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Golden. I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building Hint.com.

We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.