Building Blocks of Social Change

Many of us can remember playing with blocks during our younger years, but most probably don’t reminisce about the creations they made. Tegu is trying to change that.

Thanks to a new, locally owned toy company, blocks have gotten a little more exciting and can be used to create just about anything—from windmills and diving boards, to jet fighters and robots.

However, Tegu is not just a toy company. It is a company with the goal of making a social impact in Honduras by selling magnetic blocks to inspire children’s creativity and help instill responsibility.

The four-person team has been working on this project for the past couple of years. Co-founder and "Chief Blockhead" Will Haughey is the husband of coffee-shop owner Rachel Haughey, who opened EspressoNeat in downtown Darien, late August.  

“This probably looks very simple,” said Haughey. “In terms of innovation, it doesn’t exactly look like rocket science, but when you actually take a step back and consider what’s involved in creating a great toy, there’s a ton of research and observation that has to be done upfront.”

It all started when Will’s brother Chris (co-founder and "Head Elf”), went to Honduras to do a study while working for the Boston Consulting Group.

When he saw first-hand the massive deforestation, the broken educational system, the unemployment and underused natural and human resources, he considered the idea of creating a for-profit company in Honduras that would make a social impact.

Chris realized that there was a lot of effort going into the country on the non-profit basis, but what the country really needed was jobs, which gave him the idea to start a business with the local people.

“The most scalable mechanism for doing that involved employing the approach we knew: the for-profit approach,” Will said.

Some of Chris’s contemporaries from Stanford School of Engineering agreed to collaborate with the Haughey brothers to come up with the ideal wooden toy. They observed kindergarten classes at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, to figure out what makes a toy successful.

What they presented to Chris and Will was eight wooden blocks with magnets inside of them. They were not initially impressed.

“We didn’t set out to create the next wooden block,” Will said. "However, after fiddling with these things for two hours we realized we hadn’t put them down. We found them remarkably tactile and uniquely addictive.”  

So, they decided to make more. They watched hundreds of children playing with them and realized that the blocks held the attention of a child much longer than most toys, Will said.

“There’s a surprising functionality,” he said. “For a 3- year-old, the whole idea of two wooden blocks not going next to each other because of polarity is totally mysterious.”   

Chris has been living in Honduras since April to manage the factory and run production, and his co-founders Craig Doescher, the “Grease Man,” and Nate Lau, the “Sultan of Sketch” have visited several times. Every time he walks somewhere in Honduras, it’s a reminder of why they’re there, Doescher said.

“There would be easier ways to go about this, and we’re fully aware of that,” he said. “We feel like we’re blazing a trail. And hopefully, in a few years time, it won’t be a big deal to start a business in Honduras.”

Will loves going there because it provides a reminder of why they’re doing what they’re doing, he said, especially when he recently found out that more than 200 people lined up for a job.

“When you hear that, it breaks your heart,” he said. "It’s easy to lose sight of why we started in the first place.”

Haughey said he has entertained the idea of selling his blocks to merchants in Darien, but that the company is still searching for retail partners who will appreciate Tegu's "commitment to innovative design, quality, and Honduras." For the time being, the only way to buy the blocks is through their Web site, Tegu.com. A set of blocks is priced at $85, which they compare to that of European toy companies.

“We are committed to a standard of quality that will appeal to some, and not matter to others,” said Will, who added that there will always be customers willing to invest in something that is a better quality.

In the next year, Tegu hopes to spread awareness of the company and to develop a dedicated following, Doescher said. In addition, they hope to extend their clientele to educators, he added.  

Right now it just looks like a block company, Will said. He hopes that over time, they will be able to compete with some of the best toys that have dominated the industry for so long, and become an “Apple-like” brand of toy companies.

“We think there’s an infinite number of things you can do with wood and magnets, and our pipeline is full,” he said.

Thomas the Tank Engine, Lego, Barbie and the Rubik’s cube: the best toys today are still the best toys from more than 20 years ago, he said.

“The toys that get it right—that have some fundamental winning property—are the toys that stand the test of time. If we can create that, then all of our goals and ambitions for Honduras start to look at lot more realistic.”

Each of the men behind Tegu has been dreaming of the entrepreneurial track for a long time, Will said.

“It’s strangely exciting because it’s very uncertain. It can be scary but it can also be tremendously invigorating,” he said. "I can’t think of a better aim for what I’m doing in my career than creating a national household brand which stands for all of these things socially.”