WEBVTT - The Acerras on Creating Educational Play Tool: Lux Blox (Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>Now on Bloomberg Radio, we take stock of small business.

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<v Speaker 1>Small businesses want more streamlining and less red tag small

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<v Speaker 1>businesses and they can even accept the no, but maybe

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<v Speaker 1>kill them. There's so many people that have ideas and

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<v Speaker 1>it has to be more than that. It has to

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<v Speaker 1>be making it real. Bloomberg taking stock small Business in

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<v Speaker 1>Focus on Bloomberg Radio. A children's toy that you don't

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<v Speaker 1>have to log onto or plug into that blends creativity,

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<v Speaker 1>spatial literacy, and architectural principles, completely made in America and

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<v Speaker 1>developed by a husband and wife team over twenty five years.

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<v Speaker 1>Does it sound good, well, then listen to this. We're

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<v Speaker 1>welcoming now Mike and Heather a chair. They're the creators

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<v Speaker 1>of lux Blocks. Welcome to you both. Good afternoon. So

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<v Speaker 1>let's start with you, Mike, because I know you would

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<v Speaker 1>come up a lot of with a lot of ideas

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<v Speaker 1>when you're developing these blocks, and Heather would come home

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<v Speaker 1>from work and say, Mike, it doesn't quite work. So

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<v Speaker 1>is Lux Blocks? Well? How does it work? What makes

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<v Speaker 1>it special? What makes it special is that when kids

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<v Speaker 1>snap these things together, they have hinges in them so

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<v Speaker 1>they move, so basically you can It's hard to talk

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<v Speaker 1>about a visual thing on the radio. But when you

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<v Speaker 1>sat together and make a sheet that moves like sheet

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<v Speaker 1>metal would move, right, But the minute you fold it,

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<v Speaker 1>it's corrugating like sheet metal would do, like on the

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<v Speaker 1>wing of an airplane. So kids are deriving structure and

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<v Speaker 1>rigidity to the same way an architecture and engineer would not,

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<v Speaker 1>like a bricklayer. Right, you're not piling heavy objects on

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<v Speaker 1>top each other's stick. You're you're getting lightweight strength through ideas.

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<v Speaker 1>So the kids have we call it having access to

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<v Speaker 1>nature's principles success exactly how cells and plants and animals

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<v Speaker 1>are put together through corrugation. Now I understand that there

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<v Speaker 1>are no printed instructions tell us about that. Yeah, well,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, and that's that was always an issue with

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<v Speaker 1>our company. We really wanted to be an open ended,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, old school toy, and we've got a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit of pushbacks because of that. So we have printed

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<v Speaker 1>some instructions online and we have forty two videos online

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<v Speaker 1>professionally done with kids showing how to build with the block. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>The point was we these aren't kids like other toys.

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<v Speaker 1>They'll say this is the Star Wars staying or the

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<v Speaker 1>Harry Potter thing. We really wanted kids to make things

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<v Speaker 1>and tem apart and make more things because the block

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<v Speaker 1>really doesntstruct you and guide you in a really creative,

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<v Speaker 1>beautiful way. And that was the process we want to

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<v Speaker 1>involve on kids play with the block. So Heather tell

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<v Speaker 1>us about the patented hinge, because again I understand that

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<v Speaker 1>you were developing this. You guys came up with the

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<v Speaker 1>hinge and Mike initially wanted to have except you said no,

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<v Speaker 1>no, no no, no, no no no, it has to be part

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<v Speaker 1>of the blocks. What is it and what's so special

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<v Speaker 1>about it? Well? Um, actually, if you saw what the

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<v Speaker 1>prototype process was like, you'd find it most amusing. It

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<v Speaker 1>actually took us, when we really sat down to make

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<v Speaker 1>the block, uh, almost four years with the three D printer,

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<v Speaker 1>trying lots of different designs before we actually wound up

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<v Speaker 1>with the final design. Um. We actually had a German

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<v Speaker 1>astrophysicist come by dropped by the house one day through

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<v Speaker 1>some German friends, and and you know, he was a

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<v Speaker 1>big proponent of of a separate hinge connector with six

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<v Speaker 1>different points in this sort of thing. And what what

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<v Speaker 1>the more you try to put into it, the more

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<v Speaker 1>complicated it became and it had less of a textural appeal,

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<v Speaker 1>and for me, it was very important that it be

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<v Speaker 1>also intuitive. So I was the one who was insistent

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<v Speaker 1>in the entire time that the connector be on the

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<v Speaker 1>block itself, because I wanted that instant gratification that I've

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<v Speaker 1>snapped two blocks together. And the hinge was not originally

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<v Speaker 1>conceived in the process that it was something that developed

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<v Speaker 1>later on the process, because we even had comb like

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<v Speaker 1>connectors and that sort of thing. If you saw at

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<v Speaker 1>our home the number of prototypes we did on our

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<v Speaker 1>three D printer, you you'd really find it most amusing,

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<v Speaker 1>because we have tubs and tubs of ideas that didn't

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<v Speaker 1>quite make it. I'm wondering who came up with the

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<v Speaker 1>atomic optimization principle? Oh, that'd be all right. Tell us

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<v Speaker 1>what is the atomic optimization principle and how does it

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<v Speaker 1>apply to lux blocks. Well, the idea was is that

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<v Speaker 1>it goes back to the Greek that they thought that um,

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<v Speaker 1>it's got there was an intelligent, you know, deity that

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<v Speaker 1>made the universe, that that the god would have had

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<v Speaker 1>a very simple building blocks that would have made everything right.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a very old idea from democratis the Adam idea,

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<v Speaker 1>And well that was when we wanted to make this block.

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<v Speaker 1>We went down to first principles. We look looked at

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<v Speaker 1>how nature put itself together. So there was a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of thinking that wins this block. We look at the

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<v Speaker 1>geometry of Buck, Mr. Fuller and Einstein and so the

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<v Speaker 1>block Uh, the single square, but there's all only one piece.

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<v Speaker 1>If you if you lose a piece, unlike Lego, you

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<v Speaker 1>can still build what everyone because they're all the same piece.

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<v Speaker 1>It's all the same square looking piece. But they generate

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<v Speaker 1>rules when you start putting these things together. These little

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<v Speaker 1>square blocks make spears, they make cells and molecules. They

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<v Speaker 1>just build nature. And that's the atomic optimization principle that

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<v Speaker 1>that basically, when you do have a real atomic element,

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<v Speaker 1>you're going to build the universe. And that's what this

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<v Speaker 1>block does. So Heather, Uh, you and your husband Mike

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<v Speaker 1>are artists, inventors. You work for twenty five years on

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<v Speaker 1>these lux blocks. That's lu X and then b l

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<v Speaker 1>o X as entrepreneurs and small business people getting off

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<v Speaker 1>the ground. You're a hundred stores. Now what has been

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<v Speaker 1>your challenge? What have you learned? Oh, my goodness, Threshley

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<v Speaker 1>and close to eight hundred stores were Recently, Barnes and

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<v Speaker 1>Noble picked us up, so we're pretty excited about that. Actually,

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<v Speaker 1>we hit their shelves on the eleventh. So I guess

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<v Speaker 1>I think the most important thing is at some point

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<v Speaker 1>you do have to say stop, that's good enough, you

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<v Speaker 1>could keep refining. I think every artist or every inventor

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<v Speaker 1>comes across that problem. You know you have to stop

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<v Speaker 1>when you've you've solved the problem. At some point you

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<v Speaker 1>know you just can't keep working. You'll never have a product.

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<v Speaker 1>So that would be sort of a first lesson. And

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<v Speaker 1>then the other ideas are, you know, find your audience

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<v Speaker 1>and start with with a good audience and build from there. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>those would be some lessons that I've learned. Thank you

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<v Speaker 1>very much for joining us, both Mike and Heather A Chera.

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<v Speaker 1>They are the creators of lux Blocks. That's o u

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<v Speaker 1>X b l o X. You're listening to taking Stock.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm pim Fox, my co host Kathleen Hayes, and this

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<v Speaker 1>is Bloomberg