Photo credit to Jon Vanderbeek

I've seen something like a fifty thousand pitches in my career.. (including several inside or just outside of the bathroom at Javits, Nuremberg, Dallas, HK….) 

A few years ago, while I was in the innovation group at Spin Master Toys, I got a cold outreach from a kid named Jay Brown. Not sure why, but he stood out. I went with my gut. I learned this lesson from David Fuhrer as I stood out to him for some reason. 

That happens more than you'd think. What doesn't happen more than you'd think is that the kid had already licensed a product. In high school, he got a product placed!

So I invited him to the Spin Master inventor event in LA. The one with the skateboarders in the parking lot for those that were there (I honestly ended up in a surgeon’s office the next day and the doctor politely advised that I not try stunts like that again). 

Jay was, by a wide margin, the youngest inventor in the room.

I tried to make Jay comfortable but to my surprise Jay worked the room. He asked questions that were about the business, not about himself. He listened to people twice his age talk about tooling costs and retail windows and margin, and instead of glazing over, he took it in. I've watched grown inventors handle that room worse.

I still can't fully explain what separated him from the pile. It wasn't polish — he didn't have anything to polish yet. I can only point to authenticity and passion.

Then I met his Dad (and later I met his three younger brothers on a video call) , Jay was trying to shue his younger brothers away as he was working and then the whole thing started to make more sense. His dad (Joel) is a preacher, a musician, and an innovator in his own right. 

It's rare to have a light within you but Jay had that and then turned that light around and pointed it at his three younger brothers, who now have a “big bro” example of what it looks like to actually pursue an idea rather than just to have one.

In 2024, Spinmaster awarded Jay the Toy Design Scholarship. He's in college now and growing because of his drive and a helping hand from Spinmaster. 

He still sends me product sheets. He still takes the call. He keeps going at it.

He gets a toy guy and “dad’s” most coveted award: “he's a good kid.”