Amelia Cosgrove and Bryan Thomas are the young married entrepreneurial couple behind PopUp Play. They’ve designed an app where kids pick a building of their choice (a gingerbread house or castle, for now) and then design the structure with windows, doors and decorative details. Then the child’s design is delivered to her house via flat fiberboard pieces that snap together (see demo video below). Cosgrove and Thomas pitch Popup Play as a STEM toy on Shark Tank (January 27).
The PopUp Play app is available for free on iTunes (it was voted as Best New Kids App by the Apple Store). Shark Tank billionaire Mark Cuban has invested in STEM toys before Roominate (which was acquired after Shark Tank), but according to the show a deal with PopUp Play “might be in jeopardy when the Sharks learn that most of their revenues comes from one source.” Shark Tank airs Fridays at 9pm on ABC.
