#262: NY Toy Fair 2025 Exclusive Interview with Hootenanny Games
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to run a business with your spouse? Is it all fun and games, or does every dinner conversation turn into a boardroom meeting? Do you get to celebrate the wins together, or do you find yourself debating packaging details at 10 PM on a Friday night?
I was so curious about this dynamic that I sat down with Alex and Whitney Kimerling, the husband-and-wife team behind Hootenanny Games. But instead of just interviewing them together, I decided to interview them separately, asking them the exact same questions to see if their answers would match up. And let me tell you, the results had me giggling!
Alex and Whitney have built a thriving inventor-driven game company, and in this episode, they share what it’s really like to run a business together, how they develop games, and why they love working with inventors.
You’ll get an inside look at both the best and hardest parts of running a toy business with your spouse. You’ll learn why Hootenanny Games exclusively licenses inventor-created products and what they look for in a game pitch—plus how you can pitch to them. We’ll also dive into the timeline of bringing a game from idea to store shelves, why extensive playtesting is a must before pitching, and some of the funniest behind-the-scenes moments from their creative process.
If you’ve ever thought about inventing board games or working in the toy industry, you don’t want to miss this one! And if you’re curious whether Alex and Whitney’s answers matched up… you’ll have to listen and find out. 😉
This episode is part of our New York Toy Fair 2025 series, recorded live during the show itself! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the previous episodes in this series for more insider conversations from the Toy Fair floor, and stay tuned for even more exciting interviews coming your way!
Listen For These Important Moments
[00:02:16] – A unique twist makes this interview extra fun. Alex and Whitney are being asked the same questions separately to see how their answers compare.
[00:03:12] – Sharing the best parts of working together, they highlight how their strengths complement each other—one handling the business side while the other focuses on creativity.
[00:08:48] – At the heart of Hootenanny Games is a simple but powerful mission: to bring people together through play and make them smile.
[00:11:27] – Unlike many game companies, Hootenanny Games doesn’t create their own games—every single one is licensed from independent inventors.
[00:16:09] – Rough concepts with strong mechanics stand out the most in a pitch. Games that leave room for collaboration and creative development tend to be more appealing than those that feel too locked in.
[00:21:28] – The best way to pitch? Video calls over emails. A live conversation makes it easier to share excitement and showcase why a game is special.
[00:22:41] – Playtesting is key! The strongest game pitches come from inventors who have refined their ideas by watching real players react and engage.
[00:23:12] – Before closing out, a special listener review gets a shoutout, and everyone is encouraged to check out the other interviews in the New York Toy Fair 2025 series.
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
Want to learn more about Hootenanny Games or pitch your next great game idea? Visit their website at PlayHootenanny.com/ and connect with them on LinkedIn.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to Making It In The Toy Industry, episode number 262.
[00:00:11] Welcome to Making It In The Toy Industry, a podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs, and makers like you. And now your host, Azhelle Wade.
[00:00:23] Azhelle Wade: Hey there, toy people, Azhelle Wade here, and welcome back to another episode of Making It In The Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach. com today continues our New York toy fair 2025 exclusive interview series.
[00:00:38] Azhelle Wade: We are back with interviews that actually happened on the show floor, but before we dive into our next interview, let's quickly recap what happened in our last interview. So last week we interviewed Mike Searles and we talked about tariffs. You guys. Loved this episode. So we covered why Chinese factories can absorb the tariffs.
[00:00:57] Azhelle Wade: They are operating on really razor thin margins and the countries aren't paying the taxes, the people importing the products into their country, us are. And what does that mean for production? What does that mean for reproduction costs? So with Mike, we talked about how the wholesale prices of products are likely to go up.
[00:01:13] Azhelle Wade: A dollar or two based on these tariffs. We also talked about if companies should rush to market with products to avoid an increase in tariffs. The advice from Mike, our guest was no, don't rush to market because you really can't predict when the tariffs will be active and when they won't.
[00:01:31] Azhelle Wade: You have to get your product. On the water on the boat before those tariffs are active in order to avoid them. And that's just something that at this point you can't gamble or rush to happen. Now, if you missed any episode in our New York toy fair, 2025 exclusive series, head over to the toy coach. com slash podcast to check them out.
[00:01:50] Azhelle Wade: Specifically the one with Mike Charles is episode number 261. So you can head over to thetoycoach.com forward slash two, six, one. Today we have a unique twist on our episode. We are interviewing a couple in the toy industry, and this couple runs the game company Hootenanny Games. We are interviewing Whitney and Alex Kimerling separately, asking them to say the same questions to see if their answers match up.
[00:02:16] Azhelle Wade: Alex and Whitney are co founders of Hootenanny Games, a fast growing board game company built from their shared passion for play, but what's it really like to run a business with your spouse? And how do you break into the game industry using the help of inventors? Well, we're going to hear from both Whitney and Alex to get the full story, answer those questions and more.
[00:02:38] Azhelle Wade: Well, let's dive in and see where their answer is aligned. So today we have a unique twist as I'm interviewing the duo from Hootenanny Games. So we have Whitney and Alex Kimerling, who are joining us from Hootenanny Games, super popular in the inventor community. Inventors love you, by the way.
[00:02:55] Whitney Kimerling: Oh, well, we love them.
[00:02:56] Azhelle Wade: They love you guys. Like you're everyone's favorite company to work with. You're like the hot company. So, uh, Alex and Whitney are both running the show today, so they can't be here at the same time. So what we're going to do is we're going to ask them both the same questions and see how they answer when the other one's not in the room.
[00:03:12] Whitney Kimerling: All right. This could wreak some havoc.
[00:03:14] Azhelle Wade: It's going to wreak some havoc and I would love it. Okay. No, it's going to be great. It's going to be a lot of fun. So Alex. Welcome to the podcast. So happy to have you here. He's looking at my questions and he’s like what is she about to ask me? Don't worry about it.
[00:03:27] Azhelle Wade: It's coming. Great. Your wife did great. So first question, what is the single best part of working with your spouse?
[00:03:35] Whitney Kimerling: Oh gosh, you know.
[00:03:37] Alex Kimerling: Oh, that's a great question. So, uh, Every day, Whitney and I, uh, obviously spend way too much time talking about this company, who Nanny Games is, our life, and our kids, and our dog, like everybody's a part of this company.
[00:03:52] Alex Kimerling: Um, and we just talk about it all the time.
[00:03:54] Whitney Kimerling: Alex and I have completely different strengths. He handles the spreadsheet side, the logistics, the you know, the nitty gritty day to day operations component of it. And I love the creative side of it.
[00:04:11] Alex Kimerling: So I think the best part is that we're all in this together.
[00:04:14] Alex Kimerling: It's just a very positive experience.
[00:04:17] Whitney Kimerling: And so I think. because we've got these two different strengths that can kind of meld together. It's fun to have that like complementary aspect with your spouse on a day to day. Okay.
[00:04:31] Azhelle Wade: Hmm okay, that's a diplomatic answer. Move on. How many kids do you have?
[00:04:35] Alex Kimerling: We have two boys, uh, eight and seven years old.
[00:04:38] Azhelle Wade: Talk to me about like breakfast, talking about who you're at breakfast. You're supposed to just be having pancakes, but somebody brings up. I don't know.
[00:04:46] Alex Kimerling: I don't know. I mean, it could literally be anything. I mean, one day our oldest son saw this packaging design and was like, there need to be lights in the trees. And we were like.
[00:04:59] Azhelle Wade: Where were you sitting? Like, where were you in like? Like you guys are in like the living room, reading books, like what's happening? Paint the picture.
[00:05:05] Alex Kimerling: It's like after school, four o'clock, the kids are coming home and eating a Snack and maybe sitting on the couch and we showed them our draft mock up of this game and our oldest son said, yeah, it looks great, but you should put lights in the trees.
[00:05:22] Azhelle Wade: It looks completely bare.
[00:05:23] Alex Kimerling: There weren't lights in the tree, but everything else was pretty similar. And we were like, yes, let's send an email. Let's send an email right now. The next day we had lights in the trees. And so that's, like, they really are a part of every step of this. Um, it's so, it's fun, it's, they probably get tired of it from time to time.
[00:05:44] Azhelle Wade: I mean, he volunteered that information.
[00:05:47] Alex Kimerling: I know, I know he should get a little cut.
[00:05:49] Azhelle Wade: He gets allowance probably. Like, that's the cut. Oh, I love that. That is so funny. I can't wait to share what Whitney said. What's the hardest part of working with your spouse? The hardest part of working with Whitney on Hootenanny?
[00:06:05] Alex Kimerling: Oh, definitely turning it off.
[00:06:08] Whitney Kimerling: Turning off the talk about business. I mean, truly we talk about it all the time, um, which is both a good and a bad thing, right?
[00:06:16] Alex Kimerling: Like we can't always talk like we go out to dinner, just the two of us in a nice restaurant and like. The hardest thing is to say, okay, let's go an hour without talking about a project that we're working on or some big marketing event or, you know.
[00:06:32] Whitney Kimerling: It's nice to have that ability to be able to relate to each other on that level. But then sometimes we're like, okay, we need to talk about something else.
[00:06:42] Alex Kimerling: It's always in the back of our minds. Um, cause we're so invested in this from every stage. And we're in this, uh, together. So it's really. It takes both of us turning it completely off for that to happen.
[00:06:57] Azhelle Wade: I totally get that. My husband also works in the industry. but we don't work together, but still. Like, can we go to Target without it turning into a trend research trip?
[00:07:06] Whitney Kimerling: Absolutely not.
[00:07:07] Azhelle Wade: Can we?
[00:07:08] Whitney Kimerling: And my children know that too.
[00:07:10] Azhelle Wade: No, I'm literally like, we're going to go to Target, and I'll be like going down an aisle, and he's like, I'm just going to stop by the games. I'm like, no! We are not going to the game section today. Like, that's like an hour and a half.
[00:07:22] Whitney Kimerling: Yes, yes. That's very fair. That's a solid time estimate.
[00:07:26] Azhelle Wade: Taking photos, looking at competitors.
[00:07:28] Whitney Kimerling: To the point where the Target employees are kind of wondering if you're casing the place.
[00:07:34] Azhelle Wade: Right yeah, they're like, what are they like even doing? Oh my gosh, that's so true. I can only imagine working in the same business. Well, it's so hard when you have a partner in this industry. I was telling Whitney, I do too. And like, okay, let's picture this. You guys go out to dinner tonight and you're like, let's recap our day. How was your interview?
[00:07:52] Azhelle Wade: Like literally the interview is about your business. Like you can't like, what else are you going to talk about? Like, I would, I kind of want to know like, what else is there? Like, what do you talk about?
[00:08:01] Alex Kimerling: I'm not sure. I don't remember.
[00:08:02] Azhelle Wade: You guys need hobbies. You gotta take a dance class. Like, you gotta do something separate.
[00:08:06] Azhelle Wade: Cause what else is there to talk about? I struggle with this. I do.
[00:08:10] Alex Kimerling: Yeah. I, I really, I don't know. I think this, I think this is like at least 90 percent of everything that we do. So it's just, that's who we are now.
[00:08:21] Azhelle Wade: I know. It's fun though. It's fun. You're probably, you know what? I, my husband and I would make a great team, but he also thinks it would destroy our marriage. So we're not going to work together ever.
[00:08:31] Whitney Kimerling: I feel like you either want to do it or you don't. There's no in between.
[00:08:34] Azhelle Wade: I do. He doesn't.
[00:08:37] Azhelle Wade: Um, side question. Do you think it would be so easy to talk to your spouse and work with your spouse about the same thing all the time? If it weren't such a fun industry?
[00:08:48] Alex Kimerling: Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. I think that, um, First of all, our mission as a company and probably other companies feel the same way is to make people have fun, right? Make people smile, spend time together. And so if that was not our mission, I think that everything else would be a little bit lower priority or a little bit lower significance in our lives.
[00:09:14] Alex Kimerling: Um, but. That's such a fun mission that we just have to support it and keep, keep thriving and working towards that.
[00:09:21] Azhelle Wade: Yeah It's so I mean, yeah, it's a fun industry. It's a fun mission So it's so funny because you actually preemptively answered question three. If your business had an official motto, what would it be?
[00:09:31] Alex Kimerling: Oh, yeah, definitely that. Make people smile.
[00:09:34] Whitney Kimerling: Hmm. Okay. I think I would say if people have fun, we're doing our job right.
[00:09:41] Azhelle Wade:That's so sweet. That's why everyone likes them.
[00:09:45] Alex Kimerling: I mean, we bring people to the table, and if we can bring one more family around the table to play a game and have 30 minutes of fun together, I mean, I think that, that really holds a tremendous amount of value.
[00:09:58] Alex Kimerling: We may never know it or see it, but that's kind of the goal, to get more people sitting around and spending time together.
[00:10:06] Whitney Kimerling: Well, but that's what it's about, right? I mean, we are in the business of bringing joy and bringing fun and, you know, we, that's what we want.
[00:10:15] Azhelle Wade: So if you, if you see an inventor pitch and like, they're not even having fun playing their own game, are you like?
[00:10:21] Whitney Kimerling: Yeah, it does kind of, it does kind of kill it, doesn't it?
[00:10:23] Azhelle Wade: Don't do that. Okay. Did you know that when you started your business?
[00:10:29] Alex Kimerling: Um, I don't think we were as specific about it until we had product and once we had our first batch of games and we were sharing it with our friends and family, it just kind of clicked
[00:10:42] Azhelle Wade: Like you realize what you liked about it.
[00:10:43] Alex Kimerling: Yeah, this is it. Like before that it was like, okay, we're making things and we're going to try to get out there and make a name for ourselves and all that. But it really. Made it more of a passion once we saw our friends and family really have an awesome time. Oh, that's nice. And so, yeah, and it brought it home and that's so from here on out, I think that's hands down our motto.
[00:11:10] Azhelle Wade: Aww, that's so nice. And is it, okay, is it actually unofficial? Because not to spoil anything, but you both pretty much said the same exact thing.
[00:11:16] Alex Kimerling: Well, we say it a lot. So, I don't think it's on our website but maybe it should be.
[00:11:16] Azhelle Wade: Mmm, okay. So, out of you and Alex, who is more likely to come up with a new game idea?
[00:11:27] Alex Kimerling: Mmm. That's a good question.
[00:11:29] Whitney Kimerling: Um, neither.
[00:11:30] Alex Kimerling: Probably Whitney. I'm not.
[00:11:32] Azhelle Wade: Really?
[00:11:32] Alex Kimerling: She's so much more creative than I am.
[00:11:34] Whitney Kimerling: We are all inventor based items. I would love for my brain to work that way. I have so much respect for inventors, um, because I would love to just be able to have an ounce of that creativity. But we are all inventor based items and then we just kind of take those beautiful brain children and run with them from there.
[00:11:53] Alex Kimerling: I handle all the, like, back office Excel spreadsheets, and when I bring them up to her, she's like, get that away from me. Just tell me a quick summary. What's--
[00:12:02] Azhelle Wade: Do you try to show her your cool Excel spreadsheets? You're like, look at this formula I made.
[00:12:06] Alex Kimerling: Look at this graph. She's like, I don't want to see it.
[00:12:08] Azhelle Wade: So what creative stuff do you like to do? Cause you're like, I'm the creative one.
[00:12:10] Whitney Kimerling: Well, I like to take the concept and then kind of visualize it, come up with like some fun. Quirky themes, right?
[00:12:19] Azhelle Wade: You do the theming?
[00:12:20] Whitney Kimerling: Well, we do the theme in conjunction with our graphics people. And so our graphics team is excellent, but this one, Disco Island Escape is one of our newest games.
[00:12:30] Azhelle Wade: That was so fun. Best packaging.
[00:12:31] Whitney Kimerling: And I love the shimmer.
[00:12:33] Azhelle Wade: It's a lot of foil. Well, a lot of different parts. I've done this with, a lot.
[00:12:37] Whitney Kimerling: It's very shimmery and I like it that way. Um, but it is. You know, it's lemurs who live on disco ball mountain and the mountain turns out to be a volcano and so they have to boogie across lava to safety, you know, it's a totally random thing.
[00:12:55] Whitney Kimerling: Right. And it's just, that's the thing that I love. I love taking the concept and then just making it into something really, really exciting.
[00:13:03] Alex Kimerling: And we also have this graphic design firm that we work with, Statement, uh, in Nashville and they. came up with this lemur idea.
[00:13:12] Azhelle Wade: Oh, they had the lemur idea.
[00:13:15] Alex Kimerling: Yeah. And so they like paired the game mechanic with the fact that they--
[00:13:17] Azhelle Wade: Oh, they helped with that. Wow.
[00:13:19] Alex Kimerling: So we were playing this game that April and Ed invented and we loved it. And we said, Hey, we need a theme. What can we do? And they went down this path of lemurs who are so used to climbing in the trees that they forget how to walk. So when they finally like get onto the ground, they wobble around and like look like they're disco dancing.
[00:13:41] Alex Kimerling: And they're like, Disco lemurs. Let's make a game.
[00:13:45] Azhelle Wade: Interesting. So when you sit in an inventor meeting and someone is pitching the game to you, are you focusing in more on the mechanics and then thinking about like how those could translate into different themes?
[00:13:55] Whitney Kimerling: Yes, yes.
[00:13:56] Alex Kimerling: The beauty of this is that we work with really fantastic inventors, so it doesn't have to be either one of us that comes up with a crazy game idea.
[00:14:04] Alex Kimerling: It's, um, I mean. You know, April and Ed with Disco Out, uh, Barry and Jason with Feeling Cute. I mean, we work with these fantastic people all around the world who pitch us these crazy, awesome, fun ideas.
[00:14:18] Whitney Kimerling: In a lot of ways, I think that sometimes if an idea comes to us and it's too fully baked, you know, and for example, obviously now we have AI, which like, is great in a lot of ways.
[00:14:31] Whitney Kimerling: Um, but I think sometimes when things get so far down the road, even with like these beautiful AI generated packaging that a lot of people are doing now, um, it's hard to kind of peel out what it could be from how it's like fully presented in this nice, neat package. So sometimes I like the rougher concepts because then I can see like the true bones and potential of it.
[00:14:55] Azhelle Wade: When you first started the business, did you know you were going to solely focus on inventor product?
[00:15:00] Alex Kimerling: Yeah, I think that was, that was pretty clear. Um, so in the past, before we started HooteNanny, I worked for a different game publisher and it was all inventor based as well. And so we kind of knew that that's the best way for us to expand our creative funnel and kind of bring the best of the best ideas. So it's not just limited to things that we come up with. It's much beyond that.
[00:15:24] Azhelle Wade: You see this so different with, I mean, every company is different with how they deal with inventors, but it's so different from bigger companies that are trying to rush, like, like that are doing mass market during a ton of skews every year. So they're kind of like rushing that they want to see things fully baked. Cause they're like, we don't have the time. If we're going to bring in your item, we don't have the time to be developing it. And I love, cause you are not the first. company like small to midsize that says, I like when it is not all the way done.
[00:15:49] Azhelle Wade: So we can put our twist on it and you know that this game exactly as it has not been shopped around to all of the other companies because it wasn't even fully in existence before coming to you as that way, so.
[00:15:59] Whitney Kimerling: I will tell you too, that like the ability to take it and put the spin on it is truly I think what. Is setting us apart and like being able to work with inventors and turn these into not just, we know that these are an inventor's passion project, but they become our passion project.
[00:16:23] Azhelle Wade: Love it. See what the inventors like. I was hanging out with her. We were just having a fun day. I don't, I didn't know who she was.
[00:16:28] Azhelle Wade: I liked her for different reasons, but this is beautiful. I love this. So next question, who is better at handling the business side of things?
[00:16:37] Alex Kimerling: Oh, yeah.
[00:16:38] Whitney Kimerling: Alex.
[00:16:38] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Okay. You already said that.
[00:16:40] Whitney Kimerling: One word answer.
[00:16:41] Azhelle Wade: Really?
[00:16:42] Alex Kimerling: I pay all the bills. It's, uh, yeah. So that's, that's definitely my focus in the business.
[00:16:50] Azhelle Wade: Does he go to all the sales meetings? Does he do all of that?
[00:16:52] Whitney Kimerling: Well, sometimes we kind of tag team that.
[00:16:54] Azhelle Wade: Okay. But like the, Oh, you mean like the paperwork?
[00:16:56] Whitney Kimerling: The paperwork side of it. Yeah.
[00:16:56] Azhelle Wade: Absolutely.
[00:16:57] Alex Kimerling: Whitney is fantastic with the packaging. Like bigger creative concepts.
[00:17:03] Azhelle Wade: Yeah.
[00:17:04] Alex Kimerling: Um, but yeah.
[00:17:04] Azhelle Wade: Okay. That's you.
[00:17:05] Azhelle Wade: That's you. And if you had to describe your co-founder's biggest strength in one word, what would it be?
[00:17:13] Alex Kimerling: Dedication.
[00:17:15] Whitney Kimerling: Practicality.
[00:17:16] Azhelle Wade: Oh.
[00:17:17] Whitney Kimerling: He crushes dreams. He does tell me when I have to put the foil back down.
[00:17:23] Azhelle Wade: That is a lot of foil. That's 50 cents of foil, I think.
[00:17:26] Alex Kimerling: Whitney is so passionate about this stuff.
[00:17:29] Alex Kimerling: Um, I mean. The amount of effort that goes into getting every little detail right is just, I can't, I can't even explain it.
[00:17:37] Azhelle Wade: That's a lot of foil, maybe 75.
[00:17:41] Whitney Kimerling: But it makes you happy.
[00:17:42] Azhelle Wade: It does. No, it's beautiful. And it's on the side panel. I have tried to pass like that at a job and they were like, no, Azhelle, calm down.
[00:17:48] Azhelle Wade: We don't, they're like, we want margin.
[00:17:52] Whitney Kimerling: If you love foil, come to Hootenanny.
[00:17:52] Azhelle Wade: But it's high end. This is what makes me want to buy something and display it in my house, you know, cause it looks fun. It looks like a disco party. What detail, like give us a detail from feeling cute. Like I am just so curious about what details does she hyper focus on?
[00:18:05] Alex Kimerling: Well, so. Let's, let's talk a little bigger picture than that. So this game, when it was first pitched to us, Whitney took a print and play that day, maybe the next day, and went to nine different friends houses and play tested this game with kids varying ages and tried this game out. At a level that, I mean, it was intense playtesting with a lot of different children and every note that she took ended up getting kind of filtered through this game and like changed some of the gameplay ever so slightly maybe, um, but really fixated on what worked and what needed a slight adjustment and kind of developing the game from there. And so just those little nuances.
[00:18:56] Azhelle Wade: Wow. Yeah, that commitment. from, from a manufacturer. Yeah. It's unprecedented. I think.
[00:19:00] Alex Kimerling: I think it really goes back to passion. Like if you can see something that you're working on come to life in a fun way, particularly with children, like it just, it makes your life so much more meaningful. Right. And Whitney definitely showcases that.
[00:19:15] Azhelle Wade: Oh, I love that. Okay. Last question I have for you that I'm also going to be asking Alex, um, personal opinion. Why do you think more companies don't license more ideas?
[00:19:29] Alex Kimerling: I can always speak to Hootenanny.
[00:19:31] Whitney Kimerling: Gosh, well, you know, I think, I mean, based on our size, we don't have in house creative, and the ability for us to have access to so many, like this wide swath of creative minds, um, is, I think, what, What is like the lifeblood of Hootenanny Games, right?
[00:19:55] Whitney Kimerling: And so I don't, I don't know because I, I see this like genuine, um, Opportunity. Opportunity and like authenticity to it. So I think part of it just comes from the, you know, the resource and the availability to have it in house.
[00:20:11] Alex Kimerling: Our goal is to bring in as many great ideas as we can that we can still focus on, right?
[00:20:17] Alex Kimerling: Like we can only put so much marketing effort. In a year. Right? And so when we launch a game, we're not going to launch 50 games in one year because we can't spread that, that marketing love and like, make sure that they're all successful. But at this stage, we're launching three, four, maybe five games a year.
[00:20:35] Alex Kimerling: Um, we're much more able to focus on those and get them the right placement and backing and really. Awareness campaign. It's just huge.
[00:20:44] Azhelle Wade: Can you tell me like how long it takes when you see an idea that's really good from an inventor to getting it done? Let's say at a sales meeting.
[00:20:54] Whitney Kimerling: So we generally can have from pitch to like shipping date completion, like in the U.S shipping date.
[00:21:04] Azhelle Wade: Okay. So you get first round inventory in the U.S.
[00:21:07] Whitney Kimerling: First round inventory in the U S. Um, we've done it as fast as nine months.
[00:21:13] Azhelle Wade: Wow. Okay. No, that's great. So, wow. So yeah, like promotion, marketing, marketing budget. I'm sure. I'm sure. You know, the businessman, uh, is a, is a factor in how companies are deciding how often they're going to license and develop products. So it's very interesting. Awesome. What is the best time of the year to pitch to you?
[00:21:28] Whitney Kimerling: Last question. We take pitches all year round. All year round. We do not just take seasonal pitches.
[00:21:32] Azhelle Wade: Best way to pitch to you?
[00:21:35] Whitney Kimerling: If we can't be together in person, definitely over like a video call. Whether that's zoom or whatever, because I just, I want to hear from you about your game. I don't want an email pitch because those are easy to kind of push to the side. I want you to tell me why your game is great.
[00:21:52] Azhelle Wade: Love it. Is there any last bit of advice you would give for inventors that want to pitch to Hootenanny?
[00:21:56] Alex Kimerling: Oh. Yeah. Um, we love inventors pitching to Nanny first of all. So always reach out, please.
[00:22:02] Alex Kimerling: That's our, uh, where all the great ideas come from for this company. They're all inventor games. Um, so secondly, I would say play test your game. Like you've never, Playtested anything before, like not just pitching to us, but pitching to anybody, if you know the nuances of what works and what's successful and what makes people laugh, fixate on those and make, make those moments really fun and really big, um, and then bring it to a publisher when you feel super confident in its success and the amount of smiles you're going to get. And I think it'll be a really big hit.
[00:22:41] Azhelle Wade: Fantastic. Alex, thank you so much for your time today. This was an awesome interview. Whitney, thank you so much for this interview. It was so fun. And I can't wait to see Alex's answers to all of these questions.
[00:21:51] Whitney Kimerling: Can't wait to see them either.
[00:22:52] Azhelle Wade: Good. Don't talk about it because I want you to comment on the video.
[00:22:55] Alex Kimerling: Okay. Okay.
[00:22:57] Azhelle Wade: You're not allowed to talk about work. Okay.
[00:22:58] Alex Kimerling: All right. Fair enough. No work.
[00:23:00] Azhelle Wade: It was a pleasure. Thanks for coming by. Thank you. Good to be with you. Nice to see you. Okay. It was a pleasure hanging out with you today and I hope you enjoyed the podcast.
[00:23:09] Alex Kimerling: Thank you so much. It was fun talking with you.
[00:23:11] Azhelle Wade: Yeah. Have a great rest of your show.
[00:23:12] Alex Kimerling: All right. Take care.
[00:23:14] Azhelle Wade: So before we dive into our conclusion of this episode, I've got to share a review that came in recently for the podcast. Just a few days ago, we got a review from superdave0828, who says this woman knows her stuff. Listening to her podcast has taught me tips and tricks of the trade, but it's also walked me through a lot of the things I didn't even know I should be doing as a person starting in this business, ask the question, pitch the sale, present your product, get out there and do what you got to do.
[00:23:41] Azhelle Wade: Added bonus. I met her in person and she is an absolute delight to speak to. Listen up people don't miss out. Thank you so much, Dave, for that incredible rating and review. If you love this podcast and you haven't already left as a review. What are you waiting for? Your reviews keep me and amazing guests coming back to this show week after week.
[00:24:02] Azhelle Wade: Every time a new review comes in, I read it. I show it to my friends, my husband, puts a huge smile on my face. So please stop whatever you're doing. If you can leave a rating and review wherever you're listening to this. Podcast. Alright. We have heard from both Whitney and Alex in this interview, and I've gotta say some of their answers did match pretty perfectly, but oh my gosh, I couldn't stop giggling when, uh, I would see their answers wouldn't match in the interview, or honestly, it was quite entertaining when they did match.
[00:24:30] Azhelle Wade: But to hear it from the other side, but that is just the magic of building a business with your spouse. Getting those two perspectives from game design to marketing, to navigating the world of toy game invention, Alex and Whitney's. Journey is full of advice for people looking to break into the industry, whether you're going to be a manufacturer and you're thinking about working with inventors to develop your products, or whether you're an inventor and you want to pitch to Hootenanny Games and you're wondering what a company like Hootenanny Games is looking for.
[00:25:00] Azhelle Wade: Whitney and Alex, thank you so much for sharing your story for joining me for this fun little game for the podcast. I can't wait to see where Hootenanny Games goes next. And I know Whitney, you're going to be serving up all that creativity where Alex, you're going to keep the business on track with the financials and the business side of things.
[00:25:21] Azhelle Wade: Thank you both again for being such an incredible part of the toy invention community. If you want to connect with the hootenanny games team, we're going to throw their LinkedIn information and their website. In the show notes of today's episode. So just head over to thetoycoach.com forward slash two, six, two, to grab all of those links as always.
[00:25:41] Azhelle Wade: Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one until next week. I'll see you later, toy people.
[00:25:54] Thanks for listening to the Making It in the Toy Industry Podcast with Azhelle Wade.
[00:26:00] Head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips, and advice.
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