Nigel Phan - Founder Whirli
I wanted to interview today's guest for quite some time.
Nigel Phan is the founder of Whirli - a toy subscription service.
My family is expecting our second daughter and all the clichés about parenthood are true: it changes your perspective on everything.
One thing that changes most dramatically is the number of toys around the house- I am terrified that child number 2 could lead to a doubling of the toy rate.
That's where Whirli comes in. When a child loses interest in a toy (which believe me can happen with surprising regularity) you can return it and swap it for a new one.
Whirli has raised a round of £5 million from this series' headline sponsors, The Octopus Group. The Octopus Group is a collection of 8 entrepreneurially minded businesses that look to back the people, ideas and industries that will change the world.
If you want to check out Whirli you can get a 30% discount by visiting https://whirli.com/offers/jimmysjobs or using referral code JIMMYSJOBS at the checkout.
We're not taking any commission from this link, we're just using it to test how many of you amazing listeners click through.
In this episode with Nigel we discuss:
Where he came up with the idea for Whirli despite not being a parent
Where the name Whirli came from
His career, including time as a partner at McKinsey
What did he hire his first employee to do?
How he chooses what toys go on the platform
How Whirli focuses on at-home education
How parents can use the Whirli subscription
What jobs he is hiring for (didn't we all want to work in a toy shop when we were younger?)
The most popular toys on the platform (not what you might expect)
How he approaches marketing to parents and building trust digitally
Why he is hiring for a Head of People and what that means
What the toys of the future are going to be
What adults can learn from playing with children's toys
Letting toys be toys- removing the gender bias that is prevalent in the industry
His favourite toy of all time
Future plans for Whirli including the plans for experiential events
Join the #SaveDerby campaign by using this template to email your MP and raise the issue with them- we've generated amazing support and have even had a question asked in parliament. Even if you're a casual football fan, local teams are the lifeblood of UK towns and it would be a travesty to let one of the oldest clubs in the UK fall into the history books.