How This Toy Company Leveraged Its Mission to Partner With Microsoft and Target

Creating educational toys that center Black and Brown kids is serious business for Terri-Nichelle Bradley, founder and CEO of Brown Toy Box. In 2023, the Atlanta, Georgia-based company founded in 2016 brought in more than $1 million in annual revenue. Its products include 3-D puzzles of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and STEAM activity boxes on topics like robotics and marine biology. Bradley, a former communications professional who raised four children, started the company after thinking about the “leaky pipeline” issue that was preventing a lot of talented people of color from pursuing careers in STEM.

“It’s not an intelligence issue. It’s not a talent issue. It’s an access and opportunity and exposure issue,” Bradley says. “You can tell kids, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ but if they never see it, where’s the scientist or the architect or the entomologist? It’s really about exposure, and then building their confidence to explore those things.”

Brown Toy Box, which Bradley first launched as a subscription box, now has five employees and sells its products through retailers like Target and on Amazon. The company also recently struck a partnership with Microsoft to create coding games based on the characters in its toys. Here’s how Bradley, who was named to Inc.’s Female Founders list in 2020, is adding new partners by leveraging Brown Toy Box’s mission.

Know your retailer

Bradley credits some of Brown Toy Box’s success to being able to “talk about purpose and profit together,” adding that many retailers want to have more inclusive product offerings to cater to an increasingly diverse customer base. “They want to demonstrate, ‘Hey, we understand that there’s a shifting demographic,’ and to really be authentic about bringing brands in that represent that,” she says.

Still, Bradley knew retailers wouldn’t stock her items just to feel good–they needed products they felt would make good additions to their shelf space. When she pitched her toys to Target in early 2021, she explained that moms wanted toys like hers, and when they couldn’t find them in stores, they were purchasing them through social media outlets like Instagram, so retailers were essentially leaving money on the table, she says. Bradley had sales numbers to back up that claim, which helped: She pitched Target on a Friday and the retailer agreed to work with her the following Monday. Bradley advises people going into similar pitch meetings to get to know how companies think of themselves. For example, Target refers to its customers as “guests,” so she did so in her pitch. It’s a way of showing you’ve done your research and understand the retailer.

Make the mission something people want to buy

Bradley strives to make all of the toys Brown Toy Box produces equal parts learning and fun, a process she compares to sneaking vegetables into meals. To do this, she brings on teachers as consultants and has focus groups to see what kids will actually play with and what parents will pay for. As she learned during her days working in communications, getting advocates like teachers and parents on board can be a powerful way to spread your message.

“Any kid can have fun and play with this, and that’s what we want,” she says. That focus on making the toys fun helped her expand her customer base. In particular, she found that many moms were purchasing her toys because they wanted their children to have a more diverse toybox than what they had as kids.

Tell your partners what you can add

Brown Toy Box has also struck partnerships with companies that want to support schools in their communities. “While they may already have programs around recruitment and internships, the folks that work with us are intentional about wanting to foster confidence in exploring STEM/STEAM at the youngest stages,” she says.

To bring on partners, Bradley drew on another lesson from her career in communications: You need to understand “what the win is” for your partner. Companies are looking for something beyond a photo op, she says, and Brown Toy Box can help set up events with local schools. Working with a company like hers can also help with what she calls “issues management” for companies that historically may not have had a good relationship with minority communities. “We’re able to talk about our experience in terms of marketing to African American moms and to women, and talking about diversity marketing, so we help them with that,” Bradley says.

While 2023 was a difficult year in that many retailers pulled back on orders after overstocking items during the pandemic, Bradley viewed it as an opportunity to seek out new sales outlets that aligned with her brand’s mission of learning through play. Today, Brown Toy Box items are stocked in Smithsonian gift shops as well as other museums, zoos, and aquariums, and Bradley is pursuing licensing opportunities creating toys for global brands.

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