30: The Unexpected Business That Sprouted Out of a Child's Desire with Osayi Lasisi

About this episode

Osayi Lasisi shares the story of how a simple wish from her daughter led to the creation of Pocketlings, a business built around brown plush dolls.

How does a daughter’s simple wish become a full creative enterprise? Osayi Lasisi didn’t set out to launch a product line. She set out to find a brown plush doll for her daughter. When that search came up empty, her daughter didn’t just get disappointed and move on. She said, let’s make them ourselves. And that’s where everything started. In this conversation, Osayi shares how Pocketlings was born, what it’s like to co-build a business with a 10-year-old, and the lessons that have emerged from just figuring things out as they go. Highlights Your idea doesn’t have to be brilliant. Pocketlings didn’t start with a market analysis or a brand strategy. It started with a kid who wanted something she couldn’t find. “She couldn’t find brown plush dolls and she decided she wanted to start selling them.” That’s it. That was the spark. And it’s a good reminder that the ideas closest to our real lives, the ones rooted in genuine need, are often more powerful than the ones we manufacture trying to be clever. Research is a skill. Before anything was ordered or designed, Osayi asked her daughter to do the research: manufacturers, price points, competitors, and profit margins. Not because she…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Chung

Guest: Osayi Lasisi

Topics covered

• entrepreneurship
• creativity
• business development
• children's products
• real-world learning

Keywords

• business
• creativity
• entrepreneurship
• children's toys
• real-world skills

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Pocketlings

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