Fun, Interactive Computer Adventure is Sure to Make Baby Giggle

When Tim Leverett’s son, TJ, was a baby he enjoyed tapping at dad’s keyboard while Tim worked away designing ad campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. Intrigued by TJ’s budding computer interest, Tim searched for educational software titles for babies and infants. Finding none that satisfied him, Tim decided to create his own.What Tim ended up creating, to the delight of babies everywhere, is a fun, colorful, interactive adventure on the computer. And since computers are here to stay, why not start your little ones early? ‘This is awesome software,’ said one Illinois parent, ‘Giggles has become my trademark gift for babies.’

To bring the software to market Tim founded Leveractive and spent the next two years researching, testing and developing. The hard work paid off. By November 2005, Leveractive, the company that Tim founded with fellow designer Mike Governale, was ready to launch Giggles Computer Funtime for Baby™. Shapes, the first Giggles title, allows babies to press a key or keys and be rewarded with animated shapes, animals and sounds. Diving Diamonds, Flopsy’s Funny Farm, Tricky Triangles and eleven more activities give your baby — and you — a lot of variety to choose from. (Each activity can also be accompanied by music). We’ve seen babies and toddlers squeal with delight at the fun images on the screen (not to mention the pure excitement from playing with the previously ‘off-limits’ keyboard).

We caught up with Tim to talk about testing with droolers, finding shelf space and a ‘hot’ key to keep those little fingers from deleting your important files.

Clever Parents: Most companies would die to have customers drooling over their products, yours probably do literally, how do you go about doing market research for a market that is, well, in its infancy?

Tim Leverett: I love that question. It is so true in all respects. In terms of market research of users for development of the product, we do a lot of testing with the droolers! There is just no replacement for having the user of the product test it and provide feedback, albeit that “feedback” typically comes in the form of laughter, smiles, or screaming! That research, combined with our experiences with our own babies, provides the foundation for our product development strategies and the creative execution of those strategies into the final products.

In terms of the overall baby software market, it was the lack of well produced and marketed products in the category that caused me to develop our product in the first place. Our research of the market (which consisted mostly of talking to other parents, conducting an online survey of new parents via the web, asking friends, family, etc.) determined that essentially there was a large consumer desire for a product like ours, but no company was effectively providing appropriate products to these consumers. Myself being one of those consumers was the genesis of this research and discovery. The bottom line is that not only is this market in its infancy, but in fact we’re actually creating and shaping a new vertical market and product category with Giggles Computer Funtime For Baby™.

CP: Developmentally there is a huge difference between a 9 month old, an 18 month old and an older toddler, how do you segment your market? By diaper size?

TL: We don’t really segment our market. We have developed our baby software products so that they have the ability to work effectively throughout those age ranges. Our unique software is targeted at 6 months to 24 months of age. I agree that this is definitely a large window of developmental time for a child. We spent a lot of time (2 years) designing the activities and the experience in such a way that what changes and adapts is how the child interacts and plays with the program, more than the program itself. The child’s growth and learning causes them to interact differently with the activities depending on their age and ability, and the activities are able to adapt in return to the child’s capability.

For example, the littlest users are just looking to hit the keys and pretend to be like mom on the computer. The program locks out the system and lets them tap away safely without endangering mom’s files or computer. As they get older, they begin to recognize the cause-and-effect of their actions with the fun and engaging on-screen feedback they receive from the curious key presses.

After 12 months or so, babies become much more precise and meticulous about their key presses and the responses they get on-screen. Parents are also encouraged to begin interacting with babies by naming the shapes, colors, and animal characters out loud. This is how they learn about these items while playing and how enriching interactions between baby and parent are encouraged.

Also, between 12 and 24 months, babies are encouraged to learn the mouse with a really clever system we’ve built into the program which teaches them the cause-and-effect of moving the mouse, and essentially “trains” them to move the mouse more accurately and confidently. The can also click the mouse button for a different on-screen action and reward then they get by hitting a key.

By 24 months, they’re typically able to say the names of the shapes, the names of the colors, and the names and sounds of the animals. They have also become more adept at operating the mouse and can often choose their own activities now, using the oversized easy-to-hit buttons on the main menu.

So, the product doesn’t change throughout this entire growth period, but how the baby interacts with it and plays with it changes and grows, making it appropriate, engaging and fun for the entire recommended age range of 6-to-24 months. And parents can purchase it at any time within that age range and their baby’s current abilities will fit right in and they’ll be playing with it immediately.

CP: Both you and your partner have creative/design backgrounds, but your software is aimed at being educational. How did you learn to incorporate the educational with the artistic?

TL: I wouldn’t necessarily say that our product is “aimed at being educational.” I would say that it’s aimed at being fun and engaging first, and the educational aspects are the wonderful side effect. Sometimes babies should just be allowed to have fun! Hearing that laughter is priceless.

Making it fun and engaging was critical to the educational aspects because babies learn faster and more effectively when they’re having fun. It is the best way to teach babies anything.

As far as us learning to incorporate the educational with the artistic together, I don’t think that being artistic is ever mutually exclusive of being educational. For us, incorporating the two together was the only way we knew HOW to do it. As designers originally, and working for years in the advertising world, our job was to create things that are informative and educational, but also very artistic and creative. Where we come from, the incorporating of the two is natural and symbiotic.

CP: The software market is obviously very competitive and while it seems like you’ve found a solid niche, shelf space, not to mention mind space, is hard to come by. What’s a guy like you doing to get your product out there? Any advice for other entrepreneurs in the same boat?

TL: That’s a big question. As far as shelf space goes, we haven’t found any yet! We’re actually just beginning to move into the retail market and have previously encountered some of the issues you mentioned. A couple months ago, we approached one major retailer who loved the product but said they were “…afraid it would get lost in the store” because they didn’t currently have a location/section for baby software. So we’ll undoubtedly run into some more resistance like this I’m sure. That is part of the trade-off when coming up with something unique, I guess. Everyone loves it but the stores may resist because there are no proven metrics yet for the product or new product category.

What we chose to do was try to get as many “proven sales” metrics under our belt as possible before approaching retail further. We have been doing a lot of consumer trade shows and selling our products at these shows. We also launched our website as soon as we could and have been selling through the website for the last 5 months.

This way, when we approach retail we can show them that we’ve already sold a few thousand units and that there is a proven consumer market and demand for the product, as well as for the product category.

The trade shows are also great because you get instant feedback from real customers on the product. We have learned a great deal from people at these shows and some of what we’ve learned has already been incorporated in many aspects of our marketing, sales, and the actual product.

As far as additional advice for entrepreneurs, there are certainly a few things that have proven key for us. Making certain that your brand (in short, your image/look/feel/impression in the eyes of the customer) is well developed and solid. First impressions are important and if you’re not ready for retail, don’t approach retail. Prove that your product will sell by actually selling it - trade shows, flea markets, local shows, website, etc. What you learn by doing this will be invaluable to moving forward.

If and when you can afford it, your first major expense consideration after all product development and brand/packaging/image development, should be hiring a publicist or public relations firm. Discuss with a publicist whether your product or business is well suited for PR. A well-executed PR campaign can be the difference between the guy with a cool product in his garage and the millionaire with his product in major retail stores. I feel it’s more valuable and should come well before an advertising campaign - and I come from the advertising world! There isn’t room to go into why here, but if you do some reading and research on public relations, you’ll learn why I say this.

CP: I was reading in your press pack that you outsource a number of functions. That’s a very sensible strategy, but it requires a lot of judgment when picking partners. What was your process and what recommendations would you have for others looking for partners…

TL: We believe very strongly in outsourcing many of our needs. It is a way for us to get experienced professionals doing the jobs that we’re not familiar with or don’t have enough knowledge to effectively hire someone to do. In today’s business world, it helps to be nimble, which for us translates into low overhead!

We picked our outsourcing partners by getting referrals from people that we trusted and by the checking references and portfolios of the companies and people we chose. We have been very fortunate to have picked some great companies and partners so far.

Also, unless you’re a large company, it has become more economical to use partners then to bring it in-house. And some of the tasks that you may be able to save a few dollars bringing in-house, have hassles, risk and aggravations that aren’t worth the savings in my opinion.

Contrary to natural thought, we actually appear more professional and solid as a company because we DON’T do the work ourselves, as opposed to us trying to hire people and do it all in-house. The partners have the experience and professionalism, and they make us look great every time they execute a task for us.

CP: Given the success of Shapes, I imagine that there is more Giggles Computer Funtime For Baby™ to come, what can we expect next?

TL: We have plans for at least 7 titles in the baby software series, Giggles Computer Funtime For Baby™, and they’ll all be targeted at 6-to-24 months of age. The first title, which is currently available, is called Shapes. The next title in this series will be available in June and is called My Animal Friends.

We also have plans for a software series that will continue on from our baby series and will be targeted at 2yr to 4yr olds. It will be called Giggles Computer Funtime For Toddlers™.

CP: Now that TJ is a little older, what kind of computer activities is he into?

TL: TJ is now 4 years old and discovered Playstation 2 a few months ago. So he has been really into video games on the television/Playstation. He also likes cartoonnetwork.com.

CP: When TJ is not at the computer, what are some favorite Leverett family activities?

TL: We love to go to movies and throw rocks in the water down at the beach. We play a lot of Candyland and lots of make-believe out in the backyard.

CP: I’ve found that my boys are very interested in hitting a keyboard when I have documents or emails opened that haven’t been saved.

TL: Anything for attention! They are just trying to be like you! It’s just a good thing that you work on a computer and are not a fire-eater or knife maker!

Use the screensaver version of our software, which comes for free in the package. Most computers will let you set-up a shortcut, like moving the mouse into a corner of the screen, to activate a screensaver. When they attack, just move the mouse quickly to the “hot” corner and activate the screensaver - thus locking out the system and your files from their curious little fingers!