936 Jenny Young:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP936 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Jenny Young

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Jenny Young:

If you give children the space and the time, they really can do amazing things. So, in a typical, you know, two-year-old class there’s these little LEDs that we have, the multicolored LEDs that light up in rainbows. And so, they’re going to be doing the connections and connecting it to the battery pack and then building some sort of structure that goes with the robot. We’ve designed 2,500 projects over the last 14 years. So, there’s a lot of different iterations and a lot of different engineering principles that the kids are learning. But yeah, the little ones are actually building little tiny, pretty simple but really cool robots.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it’s probably dawning on you by now that we’re going to be sharing our future as humans…with robots. Robots have been doing the vacuuming for years and they’re increasingly ubiquitous on assembly lines, handling hazardous chemicals or bomb disposal, assisting surgeons, picking fruits and vegetables, and now even serving coffee. Jenny Young is the force behind the Brooklyn Robot Foundry, a business that’s not only sparking the curiosity and creativity of children through robotics but is also paving the way for aspiring entrepreneurs with its innovative franchising model. Today Jenny shares her own journey of empowerment through robotics, her passion for STEAM education, and the importance of creativity in technology.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring serial entrepreneur who first started tinkering with gadgets as a young kid in Ohio and now runs a successful business that introduces robotics to kids as young as two years old. Jenny Young is the CEO and founder of the Brooklyn Robot Foundry, a vibrant and inclusive brand dedicated to prioritizing diversity and empowerment for children of all backgrounds and communities through STEAM education. Jenny is a trained mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur to bring a more diverse, inclusive and creative approach to STEAM education. Founded in 2011 and with four locations open currently, the brand focuses putting the “art” in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and sharing the fun of STEAM education with children everywhere, inspiring them to continue a life full of exploration, problem-solving, and imagination.

Melinda Wittstock:

Jenny will be here in a moment, and first:

[PROMO CREDIT]

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Melinda Wittstock:

What’s it like to build a robot? You may be intimidated by the very idea of trying your hand at it, but Jenny Young is helping everyone from two-year-olds and teenagers to accomplished CEOs build robots in 10 different franchised locations around the U.S.

Melinda Wittstock:

Jenny is on a mission to transform education in a way that integrates STEAM, in other words, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, with the Brooklyn Robot Foundry. Jenny herself grew up immersed in a culture of creativity and engineering from an early age in a household of makers. She was encouraged to explore and tinker with various projects, often joining her parents in the workshop. Her environment was enriched by the influences of her mechanically inclined family: both of her grandfathers and her father were mechanical engineers, while her mother had a knack for craftiness and skilled handiwork. This upbringing fostered Jenny’s passion for taking things apart and transforming them into new creations. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Fast-forward to today, and Jenny has built a robust and growing franchise business teaching kids and adults alike how to build robots. She offers a unique franchise model that emphasizes community impact and supports a diversity of opportunities for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs with a passion for education and innovation. Today we talk about her growing franchise opportunity, plus the miracles she’s seeing in empowering young kids with creative problem-solving skills that increase their confidence.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Jenny Young.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Jenny, welcome to Wings.

Jenny Young:

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, robots, I mean, they’re the future. I’m so excited to talk to you. Let’s just start at the beginning. What made you excited about making robots?

Jenny Young:

Oh, it’s such a good question. I grew up in Ohio, and in Ohio, there are space to have a workshop and a garage, you know, where you get to take things apart and put things back together. And so, I grew up in a household of makers, and so I was always taking my toys apart, going into the workshop with my dad or my mom and maybe modifying things and kind of turning the projects that I had into the things that I wanted them to be. Both of my grandfathers were mechanical engineers. My father’s mechanical engineer, and my mother is really good with her hands and really crafty. So, it was just a big part of who I was as a child.

Jenny Young:

And so, I went to university and got a mechanical engineering degree because it really is just kind of core to who I am. I’m the type of person that enjoys understanding how things work and enjoys being given a kind of hard problem that no one solved before and trying to figure out all the creative ways to solve it.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it’s just like it runs in the family, obviously, was something that came was very intuitive and natural to you, and now you’re helping other people, really, with STEAM education. Tell me a little bit about the Brooklyn Robot Foundry and what it’s doing. You’ve got four locations open, and you’re getting children excited about building robots and beyond, yes?

Jenny Young:

Yeah. But actually, we have Franchise the System. So, we actually have 10 franchise owners and one corporate location. So basically, what we do is we do robotics for kids. We’ve been in business for 14 years. We have a research and development center in Brooklyn where we come up with lots of new robots. Then we test them on the kids, see how the kids like it, see how the teachers like it, and then once that project is good, we push it out into our franchising curriculum. So basically, the way the business model works is we find individuals that want to open their own small business, but they need help from a company that’s been doing it for over a decade.

Jenny Young:

It’s something called franchising, where they pay royalties to us, and then we teach them everything that they need to know in order to run Their own business and then they run robotics classes in schools and organizations. And so, they bring robotics to the, to the students within their territory. So that, that is a business model. The robots start at age 2, which is like very surprising for people all the way up through middle school. And we’re developing a high school curriculum too. And sometimes we do classes with adults as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wow. So, tell me about some of these robots. I mean, okay, so a two-year-old, what’s the two-year-old encounter? How does this work? How is a two-year-old introduced to a robot?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, I know it’s funny. Everyone thinks they’re never gonna be able to do it, but they totally can. So, the type of project that we would do with a two-year-old is, it’s something pretty, pretty easy. But it’s probably slightly more complicated than what people think a two-year-old can do. And so, they are gonna be using their hands, they’re gonna be using balsa wood and screws. We even give two-year-old screwdrivers. Typically for a two-year-old it’s a, it’s a caregiver kid class. So, the caregiver is there and helping.

Jenny Young:

But if you give children the space and the time, they really can do amazing things. So, in a typical, you know, two-year-old class, they’re going to be doing something like there’s these little LEDs that we have, the multicolored LEDs that light up in rainbows. And so, they’re going to be doing the connections and connecting it to the battery pack and then building some sort of structure that goes with the robot. We’ve designed 2,500 projects over the last 14 years. So, there’s a lot of different iterations and a lot of different engineering principles that the kids are learning. But yeah, the little ones are actually building little tiny, pretty simple but really cool robots.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s really exciting. So, they can make the robot. You can be creative in terms of making the robot. Kind of what they want the robot to look like, I guess, right?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, that’s right, exactly. So, one of the benefits of our program is a lot of people say that they have a STEM offering. We use the acronym steam, which brings art into engineering together as to one. And so, we design projects that are very open ended. So, if you were to come into a classroom and see these kids building robots, every child’s robot would actually look very different. And it’s because we leave a Lot of white space. We leave a lot of space for the kids to be able to design it and decorate it and make it look like their own. And that really leads to more engagement with the kid.

Jenny Young:

Because, you know, if a child really loves frogs, then their robot could look like a frog. And if another child really loves helicopters, then their robot can turn into a helicopter. And if somebody else just likes kind of modern art, you know, there’s going to be some modern art robots in there too. So, they’re learning real engineering concepts, but they are able to customize it and have it look like whatever their brain wants it to look like. So, it’s a very fun class, it’s a very engaging class and really, it’s a very creative class. And then the, the beautiful thing is at the end of the class, the kids are taking the project home with them. So, so then they feel really connected to the thing that they’ve created that’s so interesting.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, presumably they’re learning also to interact with robots, which just looking, you know, fast forwarding in our future is probably going to be something that we’re all going to have to get more accustomed to doing.

Jenny Young:

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, we really are trying to demystify engineering and we want kids to be not just consumers of products, but we want them to be problem solvers and we want them to be creators. And so, when people think of engineering, they think, oh, that’s too hard. But there are definitely ways that you can explain it to little kids where they will get it and then they will feel, you know, empowered to, to, to do what they want with, with the technology.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, this is sort of maker culture meets engineering meets education. It’s really interesting how you’ve combined all these different things. I can see the maker culture in this as well. So as the, as kids get older, how much more sophisticated does it get? Like what’s a kind of 10-year-old tending to do as opposed to say a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, so we at the moment we do stop at eighth grade, but we are developing a pilot program right now that we’re doing at a charter school in Manhattan. And so that, and for the older high school ages, we’re teaching Python coding and we’re doing physical robotic builds, but then also having a coding portion of it where they’re learning to code, but then they’re coding things that are in the physical world that they’ve built. So that is the high school curriculum that’s in prototype stages right now, but in the pilot stage. But for middle school, which is the current curriculum where we stop at, those kids are also doing coding, but they’re doing block-based coding something similar to like a scratch. They are building a physical creation. It’s a different project every week. We have a 40-week curriculum and they are learning about different sensors, distance sensors, light sensors, sound sensors. There are different outputs, different types of servos motors, things that move lights, just different types of inputs and outputs.

Jenny Young:

And then they are coding it on a tablet, but it’s a block-based coding language. So, they’re not actually typing characters, but they’re doing block-based coding. And so, it’s cool because it’s not just purely screen based. Our company is very big on pulling kids away from screens and bringing them back kind of in the physical world and in a community of other kids building and creating. So even the coding class is, it’s a group-based project so the kids are working together on a team, but they’re really building a robot in the, in the physical world and then coding it with some, with, with, with a tablet. So that’s kind of the most advanced that we have at the moment. And then starting at age 2, it just kind of goes up and gets more and more complicated until you got to, to those coding classes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Excellent. So, what do you find happens? What are some of the transformations you’ve seen in those kids through this? I imagine it’s very empowering for them.

Jenny Young:

It’s huge. And that word empowering is one of our core company values is what are things that we can do that can empower both our students, our teachers and our franchise owners? We are always constantly thinking about how can we show kids the joy of learning and then through that that’s going to get that empowerment. So yeah, what does it look like when the kid becomes empowered? I mean it’s an amazing experience. We have kids that maybe some of the kids don’t do as well in a typical classroom setting. A classroom setting where you are meant to be quiet and you’re meant to sit in your chair and you’re meant to listen as a person kind of lectures and teaches you things. Sometimes we’ve got these super creative kids that need to move and they maybe think a little bit differently than what a typical classroom is set up for. And so those are the kids for me that I feel maybe the most connected with because it’s, that was the type of student that I was. And so, these kids are given space to be a little bit noisy, to move around, to be able to think outside the box.

Jenny Young:

Because these projects are very open ended. The kids can build them in the way that works with them in their own brain and the connections that they have and, and the creativity that they’re bringing to it. So, we see a lot of kids that really light up, that feel that empowerment, that start recognizing the amazingness of their own brains. We get a lot of feedback from parents as well, like, oh my kids maybe self-confidence was down, but now they come to your facility or they come to your classes and they’re like, whoa, I’m actually really good at this. And so, we’re celebrating all different types of learners and it’s not just those kids, those are the kids that’s again, that I connect most with. But any time where a child is allowed the freedom to kind of create and align with what it is that they’re thinking about is really where you’re going to get that empowerment and it’s where real learning can happen.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So, it sounds like you’re expanding obviously with a franchise idea that you, you outlined a little bit earlier. Tell me, what’s the vision for bringing this really national?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, so at the moment we have 10 locations all in the northeast, but we are looking for franchise owners all over the United States. We’re approved a franchise everywhere. So, the vision is to take it across the US and then ultimately to take it globally. And the thing that’s interesting is one of our core company values is that empowerment and creating a franchise system where you are empowering small business owners to really be able to start their own business but not have to be on their own. And to have the support of a brand who has been doing it for over a decade is really huge because it gives people that confidence that wait a minute, this is something that I can do, especially when they have such a strong support system. So, you know, it is still about that empowerment and it is about getting robots out into the world through people that are community leaders within their own territories and within their own communities. So, then you’re having these, you know, localized hubs of, of community building where these individuals are, are really making a, a beautiful difference in their community and, and then inspiring the next generation of problem solvers. So, so that’s the vision and it’s really exciting to just watch, watch the brand grow.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Eight years ago, I started this podcast because I wanted to help women succeed as entrepreneurs. Over the years, I’ve driven more than $10 million in sales to the women I’ve featured on this show, and this year I’ve taken my investment in female founders to a whole new level as a venture partner of the new firm Zero Limits Capital, where we’re dedicated to investing in highly scalable seed stage startups founded by women and diverse teams. We’re looking for mission-driven innovators with exciting new applications of AI, Blockchain and other emerging technologies that make a social and sustainable impact to change the world. If this is you, please take a moment and tell us about your opportunity at bit.ly/ZLCintake – that’s bit.dot.ly/ZLCintake – capital ZLC lowercase intake. 

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Jenny Young, CEO and Founder of the Brooklyn Robot Foundry.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Jenny Young:

And it’s also really exciting as we bring on new franchise owners. We are getting people from all different, different backgrounds. And so that has been a really amazing thing to watch. We have people that come from a finance background, people that come from a marketing background, people that come from, you know, an IT background, people that have run daycares. And all of these individuals are bringing their lived experiences and, and their skills and kind of their knowledge to the brand and just really growing the brand and making it, you know, even stronger and robust. So, it’s just a, it’s a fascinating business model because you do have these hyper localized small business owners and, and you really gain from the knowledge of, of kind of this diverse ownership background. So, it’s really an amazing business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I love that it attracts a diversity of people. What do you look for in a franchise owner? You know, what qualifies them to work with you?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, it’s a really great question. So, a big part of what a franchise owner has to do is business development. So, what we look for is we look for people that are leaders in their community. We look for people that like kids. You have to like kids. We also look for people that are just excellent communicators because the way you grow the business is you get more and more B2B business to business contracts and then also, you know, sell additional classes to parents. So, you just have to be a really good communicator and you have to be a person that teachers and your employees are going to want to work for. So, you have to be a person that is welcoming to all different types of ideas, that is really good at coaching and mentoring your staff.

Jenny Young:

Because those are the two ways you grow the business is as you get additional contracts, you hire additional people. So, you know, it’s kind of like a people person. A person that is genuine, that is trustworthy, that is, you know, someone that people respect so you don’t have to be. And we like people that use their hands to do something. It doesn’t have to be robotics, but you know, it could be someone who likes to cook, or someone who makes music, or someone who is an artist, but somebody that understands kind of the benefit of learning through using your hands. But you don’t have to be an engineer, you don’t have to be a technical person. You really just have to be more of a people person than anything else.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. I love that you’re bringing all this, you know, diverse background and perspective and such, but also to a franchising world where often franchises are cookie cutter. Like, they have to be exactly alike and follow the same rules and have the same experience and all of that. So how do you balance those aspects?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, I mean, I think it really depends on the franchisor and kind of how do they embrace kind of the diversity of their owners? And because it is really part of our core values is kind of that people first and embracing everybody’s differences to allow all the voices to come to the table and really make things better. It’s really just core to who we are. And so, we see our role as a franchisor is in service of our franchisees. So, we are always looking at what are the things that the franchisees that are doing that. Oh, I think that they need a little more help there. They need a little more guidance there. And so, then we bring in additional support from our corporate team to ensure that the franchise owners are getting the support they need. Also, our franchise owners, like I said, come from different backgrounds.

Jenny Young:

They’re actually really good. We have a very collaborative franchise owner group. Everybody wants to help each other because the stronger that each territory is, the stronger that their own personal territory, the higher the worth of their own personal territory. But also, they’re just, like, really great people that want to help each other. So, they are also helping each other. But the thing about the franchise model is if it’s done correctly the way that the franchise system does well, it really only works if the franchise owners are doing well. Now, there are franchises out there that don’t think about it that way, and they really are just thinking about how can they make the most money as possible. But those systems get bad reputations.

Jenny Young:

They probably don’t last. They probably don’t do that well. And so, for me, it’s really important that our brand does it the right way, that we scale the right way, and that we make sure that our owners know that we are here to support them and to help them with whatever challenges that they come up with. So that is the way that we’ve just set up the system.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve got it. Yeah. So, I was thinking, too, just about the branding, like, say, if you think of something like McDonald’s, right, where the big innovation there was that any McDonald’s or any way back in the day, any Holiday Inn you walked into or any, you know, it was the same experience no matter where you were. And so, that’s not really so much your approach.

Melinda Wittstock:

How do you manage, though, you know, sustaining your brand and brand safety in the context of the, of the franchise model or how much leeway do your franchisees have in putting their own kind of branding stamp on it?

Jenny Young:

That’s a really good question. They don’t have much leeway to change the branding. I would say one of our core strengths is first of all the robotics and kind of the supply chain around that. But then the branding side of it is something that we give a lot of support to our franchise owners on and we have really strict branding guidelines. So, we don’t have a brick-and-mortar location. The way it works is you get a set territory and then the franchise owners are going into other people’s organizations within that territory and running a class. So, if you walked into a class in Rochester or Fairfield, Connecticut or Philadelphia, themroom would look different because it’s in other people’s spaces.

Melinda Wittstock:

I see. So, it’s not like a physical location. It’s not like you’re trying to do like a Starbucks for robotics or whatever.

Jenny Young:

Yeah, exactly. So, it’s not like a brick and mortar. It’s not like a retail store. So, it’s like going to be running in school, school A, and then over here it’s going to be running in daycare B. The physical space is going to look different because it’s other people’s spaces. But if you were to look at the experience that the children are having, it is very consistent across the brand. So, the materials, we have a research and development center and also a production center in Brooklyn. We produce all of the curriculum and we also produce all of the kits that the franchise owners use.

Jenny Young:

So those are completely consistent. And even across the brand, every single owner is doing the same robot for the same age group across all 10 locations. And so that experience is very similar. The way in which we teach and the classroom management is also totally systemized and is consistent across all locations. So, each franchise owner’s teacher has to go through exactly the same training. And it’s not just the training on how to build the robots, but it’s the training on how do you interact with little people when they do this and when they do that? What are the different ways that you can teach so that all different types of learners will be able to be successful in their project? So, all of that pedagogy is being taught and is consistent across the brand. Now there will be different verticals within different territories, but we do allow all, all owners to be able to run new verticals as they get developed. So as an example, in Rochester, our franchise there was really interested in doing more with homeschools.

Jenny Young:

And so, we developed a curriculum. She did a pilot of that curriculum up in Rochester. Once the pilot is finalized, which will be very soon and is successful, we’ll roll that out to the entire system. But it might be that other territories that’s either not a vertical they’re interested in or maybe it’s a vertical that doesn’t have as much, maybe there isn’t as much demand in those other territories. So, so, so yeah, so actually the classes are, would feel very similar from location to location.

Melinda Wittstock:

Got it. This is so interesting. 

Jenny Young:

I would say that is something that a lot of small business owners come in and don’t have the experience of being, of being, having done marketing before. And so, we have a marketing and advertising team that creates all of the marketing assets that our franchise owners use. They can customize them, put in different pictures so that it matches the demographics within their territory. Maybe you know, slightly modify the words, add their locations. But what we found is that is something that franchise owners really need is that support of having all the marketing assets really at their fingertips so that they can go out and really do more of the business development. So, if you also were to look across our brand, our territories, you would see that the branding is extremely consistent in terms of marketing and advertising. So, the contract term is a 10-year contract.

Jenny Young:

You will be given an exclusive set of zip codes and that is your territory. And no other Brooklyn Robot Foundry franchise owner can operate classes within that territory. It’s yours. It’s exclusive to you. The initial investment will cost somewhere. It kind of depends on where you are. But the range is from 90 to $120,000. And that’s going to include your initial franchise fee, which is 38,500 that’s due at signing.

Jenny Young:

Then the rest of that money that 90 to 120 is kind of spent over the next like three to three to six months, depending on the speed of ramp up that the franchise owner wants to ramp up. And that’s going to include things like initial inventory, insurance, legal costs, kind of all of the things that you have to do when you got a business up and running, marketing and things like that.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, over a 10-year period, I mean, so what’s the deal for the franchisee? I mean, how much are they, how much money are they likely to make? What’s their return on investment and what’s yours? I mean, how does that all work?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, it’s such a good question. Although we’ve been in business for 14 years, we’ve only been franchising for two. And, this is probably maybe more information than a lot of people understand, but FTDS have something called an Item 19 and Franchise Systems are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission. And so, there are restrictions on what franchisors are allowed to say in terms of kind of financial projections depending on the age of the franchise. And since our franchise system is so new, we don’t have individuals that have been in business long enough to be able to give financial projections. But that’s something that we talk to candidates about as we go through this process and we’ll introduce you to our franchise owners. And the franchise owners can talk and do talk about their revenue, what’s their top line revenue, what’s their profit margins? And so all of those questions are questions that candidates will be able to ask of our 10 owners once we get kind of far enough in the process with them. In terms of how our revenue works is the way that franchising works is you always will pay a royalty.

Jenny Young:

So, the franchise owners will pay us 7% off of their top line revenue and that is the way that we make money. And then the franchise owners also purchase the materials from us. So that is another revenue stream for us as a franchisor.

Melinda Wittstock:

Got it, yeah. So, what is the likely return for them? I mean obviously it depends on how good are they at their job. Like so you’re giving them lots of support, but how good are they at getting people enrolled? How good are they at, like, marketing it? You know, how good are they at the actual execution? Are they able to set the prices or the prices, you know, to attend these classes? Is that set by you? I mean, I’m just trying to figure out what kind of expectations may be some of these folks should have or what’s your intention for them. Obviously, you want them to do well because the better they do, the better you do too.

Jenny Young:

Right? Exactly, exactly. The beautiful thing about franchising is that the systems are set up that we want our franchise owners to do as well as humanly possible because it helps us, but it also helps with validation so that we can get additional franchise owners in to really grow that brand. And so, it’s just really important to us that the owners do really well in terms of pricing. Yeah, the pricing is different by territory. So, you can imagine what an individual could charge in, say, Rochester is very different than what an individual could charge in Manhattan. And so those prices are prices that the franchise owner set themselves. But we do have financial tools that help them understand.

Jenny Young:

It’s called a pricing calculator that helps them understand what are their cost of goods sold, what are their variable overhead. And some franchise owners come in with finance backgrounds, and they’re really great at making spreadsheets and understanding their cost of goods sold in their P and L. And some of them don’t. So that is another kind of support system that we have to help people really make sure that they’re pricing things the way that they would want to price it in order to make the profits that they want to make. And so, we’re really working with each franchise owner to understand what their goals are and then also what can their territory take on in terms of price. So, they’ll be doing competitive analysis, and then they’ll also be looking really deeply into their costs. What are they paying their teachers, you know, what are the different cost centers within their territories? So, it depends, it really depends on the territory, what the numbers look like.

Melinda Wittstock:

So ultimately, I mean, there’s so many different directions for your business to grow. So obviously, national expansion through these, these franchises, you can expand in terms of the age range that you’re serving. Do you think there’s room for adults to be learning this? I’m. I’m thinking of how the, the workplace is going to transform with robots, and the older people are the less familiar. Is that something that’s in your sights?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, I skipped that because most people don’t ask about it. But yes, we actually have adult classes for adults as well. We do a lot of corporate team-building events. So, you can imagine rather than a sip and paint, we will come in, work with the corporation and then the adults will be building robots. We’re also actually doing a pilot with an organization that works with formerly incarcerated individuals and as a way to kind of pilot some Intro to Robotics classes for adults. So that’s really exciting. That’s hopefully going to happen in May in New York City. So it’s just another vertical.

Jenny Young:

And so, to your point, how does it expand? I mean, ultimately, I want to go globally. You know, that’ll take a couple of years because of import and exports and tariffs and things like that. But also, our verticals that we will expand on as well, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, no, don’t get me going on tariffs. I’m curious how that actually impacts a business such as yours with like, you know, are you getting, you know, are you having to take the cost of raw materials and all that kind of stuff or, or how is that impacting you?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, I mean, so we, we, we are a manufacturer of, of goods, right? We produce every single robot that is made. Last year we made 45,000 robot kits. So, 45,000 times a child built one of our robots. And this year we’re on track to do I think 75,000 or something like that. So, we make a lot of, we make a lot of kits of parts. And so, so the thing that my background is in design and manufacturing. We have a really robust production center, production system and process. And so, what we have is we have a whole ERP system which kind of manages all of our inventory and all of our parts.

Jenny Young:

It lets us know how many of everything that we have and how many we will need in order to produce all the orders that the franchise owners are putting in. And so, within that system we also have a lot of supply chain things that we’re thinking about, especially in terms of kind of tariffs on different countries. So, all of our main parts that kind of like the critical parts, but most of them actually have primary, secondary and tertiary suppliers. And all of those suppliers are in different countries. My production team is constantly looking at what do the tariffs look like today and which suppliers should we purchase things from. And then we have these projection graphs that tell us how many of each part we need. And so, we’re buying some things ahead before, before tariffs from different countries come in. We are hyper aware of kind of the cost of things and because obviously that affects our bottom line, that affects our profit because we, you know, we make a small profit on, on, on the kits as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. And how much you can actually, I mean, the tricky thing for businesses is two things, right? Like, how much can you actually pass on to the consumer and still have a viable business? And then how much? Gosh, you know, when you’re, you’re, you’re looking at your margins, but it’s the uncertainty of like, not knowing. Like one day they’re on, one day they’re off. 

Jenny Young:

It’s been a challenge, but, you know, we’ll, we’ll get through it. And I do feel like because of my background in production and supply chain, we really are set up a lot better than maybe other individuals that do manufacture in the States because we do have these multiple places where we can purchase our materials and then we do our production of the kit. So, kind of like lightweight assembly is happening in Brooklyn. So, we do have, you know, control over that, which is nice.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, speaking of challenges, Jenny, I mean, this is an incredible business that you’ve built and you’re building. I mean, what have been some of the toughest things along the way? You know, you’ve been operating for more than a decade. Every entrepreneur has hearts to popping moments. You know, what have been some of yours?

Jenny Young:

I think, like, if I were to look at it as an overarching. What’s hard, Jenny? I would say I am the sole owner of the business. I don’t have, you know, I don’t have a counterpart. I have a really incredible team. But as the CEO and founder, there are things that you have to kind of keep to yourself. And there are some decisions that you have to make that no one else in the world has ever had to make before because it’s just specific to your business. And so that’s tough. You know, I mean, everybody talks about it, but being a CEO can be kind of lonely because you can’t talk about all the things that you would like to talk about with kind of anybody.

Melinda Wittstock:

I know that one. But all my business, all five of my businesses, I’ve been the sole founder, so I totally jive with that. Right. Because other people aren’t necessarily going to understand. So, like, what I’ve had to do is find other people, other entrepreneurs. Do you know what I mean?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

But.

Jenny Young:

But they don’t always understand the business model. Right. And then just idiosyncrasies of like, should I do this or should I do that? And it’s not always clear kind of what is the right decision. That being said, I think I have the right personality type for that, because I am the type of person that is okay with failing. I have ADHD, and I think that it’s actually a huge superpower. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are neurodivergent in that way, and I think that brain type gets driven on adrenaline and gets driven on being in stressful situations and trying to figure out what is the best way forward with the knowledge that you have, knowing that you’re going to have to make a decision, and then that might not have been the right decision, but you’re not going to know until you make it right. And so.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you’re never paralyzed in that sense. Like, you’re always. You’re always moving. I mean, I like action. You know, if you can move fast. I. I hate to use the Mark Zuckerberg thing because not. Not a massive fan of his style, but, yeah, there is.

Melinda Wittstock:

There is some truth to the kind of move fast you break something.

Jenny Young:

If.

Melinda Wittstock:

If you do break it, though, you’ve got to be prepared to fix it. Yeah.

Jenny Young:

And you have to be prepared to recognize that you’re going to make some bad decisions, and that’s okay. But that is what an entrepreneur does, right? You can’t be crippled with indecision. You have to just say, with all the information that I know I’m going to do this. And then you also have to take responsibility for when your decision was awful, and you have to tell your team, I made this decision, and I recognize that wasn’t the right decision. And so, there’s humility that has to come with it.

Jenny Young:

But I think that that is hard. I think the thing that’s been interesting for me as the Franchisor is watching all of the support that the franchisees can give to each other. And that’s something that would have been kind of nice to have as I was starting the business. I guess I feel like a little bit of jealousy, like, oh, they have something that they don’t know what to do. They have nine other people that they can call up and ask their advice on it.

Melinda Wittstock:

But that’s because of you.

Jenny Young:

Oh, yeah, yeah. But it’s cool, too, to be able to see it happen, you know, pat yourself on the back.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, it’s really quite amazing. So did you bootstrap this, or do you have investment in the company or how did. How did you grow it?

Jenny Young:

Yeah, I bootstrapped it. Yep. That’s how I did it.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s hard to do. I imagine that must have been really, really difficult in the beginning. So. So take me, like through the founder story. In that first moment where you have this idea, what were some of the first things that you did? You know, for anyone listening, that is inspired by what you’re doing or is just at that phase of starting a business, right, where it can be kind of intimidating. So how did you start?

Jenny Young:

Yeah. I also think you have to be a slightly strange person to bootstrap a company from nothing. You have to be really scrappy and you have to be okay with living, living tight. Living on a very tight budget.

Jenny Young:

So, my husband and I both are entrepreneurs. We started our businesses basically around the same time. There was a point in time where I was working as a consultant while running my business so that we had money that was coming in so we could pay our bills. And he was starting his business, and then his business was like, okay, now you’re bringing in some revenue with your business. I’m going to quit my consultant job and I’m going to run my business full time. And so, it’s nice to have a partner where you can kind of swap back and forth who is the one who’s going to be in charge with paying the bills that month. And, you know, we’re lucky both of our businesses worked.

Jenny Young:

That you can kind of rely on the other person, but you also just have to be really aware of how much money you have, what is your burn rate of, you know, how quickly you go through that money, and what are ways that you can be creative to bring in some revenue when you’re at a point where you don’t have as much cash that you need. And so, it does typically mean that your business might, you know, it. We. We’ve been in business for 14 years and franchising for two. We were about to start franchising in 2020 and then Covid. So, we got delayed by about two years. But it took us a while to get to the point where the business had all the processes and the systems and everything set up to be able to franchise it.

Jenny Young:

Had I taken on investment, it wouldn’t have taken me that long, but now I don’t have any investors and it is an incredible thing that I don’t have to listen to somebody else and I get to kind of drive this the way that I want to drive it. I definitely would not change the way that I did it. But you have to be a person who is okay with taking risks and I am, and I actually kind of enjoy taking risks. So, it works well with my personality.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s amazing. Well, you’ve created a business that is so intrinsic to who you are. Like not only just the, the, the expression of the culture, but I’m thinking of your childhood, you know, sort of making, taking things apart, making things or whatever, but also your journey as a business owner and then being able to pass that, all that knowledge on and empower other people to have, you know, vibrant businesses as well. It’s very, very exciting and it’s an exciting field. Jenny. I want to make sure people know how to find you and work with you. If they’re listening to this thinking, wow, I want to be a franchisee. Or they just are interested in, in finding a location where they can take their kid.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like what’s the best way?

Jenny Young:

Thank you. Thanks for asking. I would say go to Brooklynrobotfoundry.com and up at the top, if you’re interested in franchising, there’s a big header on the, on the website. It says click here if you’re interested in franchising. And if you just want to have us come to your kid’s school or you want to have us do a robot birthday party for you on the, on the bottom of the main website there’s a contact form. So, and if you just say, hey, Jenny, sounds really interesting. I’m thinking about doing my own business, maybe I could shoot some ideas by her. I love to, I love to talk with entrepreneurs.

Jenny Young:

I love to kind of think through new business ideas. I’m open to that too. And you can reach out on that contact form and, and my team will get that email to me. So yeah, we, I’d love to talk to people if, if you have ever thought about being a small business owner but wasn’t, weren’t really sure where to start. This is an incredible business opportunity. Children’s enrichment is really something that people say we call it recession resistant. So, in an economy that’s doing really well, everyone puts money into their kids. And in an economy that’s not so hot, people want to put money into their kids.

Jenny Young:

So, it’s really a great space to be in right now.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Well, Jenny, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Jenny Young:

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a really fun conversation, and thanks for letting me share my story.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Jenny Young is the CEO and Founder of the Brooklyn Robot Foundry.

Melinda Wittstock:

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Melinda Wittstock:

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