How Boddle's Product-Driven Approach Built Educational Games That Kids Ask Parents to Buy with Clarence Tan

Learning Through Play: How Boddle Built Educational Games That Kids Actually Want

In this insightful conversation, Matt Watson talks with Clarence Tan, founder and CEO of Boddle Learning, about their journey building educational games that have reached over 10 million users. Clarence shares how they tackled the classic problem of educational games - how to make them as engaging as regular games while maintaining educational value. By creating fun games first and then "sneaking in" learning content, Boddle has found success in the competitive educational technology space.

The most valuable lesson? Get out of the office and actually watch users interact with your product. Rather than spending money on complex analytics, the Boddle team discovered their biggest product issues simply by visiting classrooms and observing how kids used their app. Clarence also shares how they eventually cracked the monetization code by understanding that parents were buying subscriptions not because they understood the educational benefits, but because their kids wanted the in-game items.

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Full Episodes: https://product-driven.captivate.fm/episodes

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Check out Boddle here: https://www.boddlelearning.com/

Key Discussion Points:

🎮 Building educational games that are genuinely fun first

🧠 How Boddle "sneaks in" learning content after establishing engaging gameplay

💰 The journey from zero users to 10 million through COVID and beyond

📊 Why watching actual users beats fancy analytics tools

🔑 The monetization breakthrough: understanding kids are the real decision makers

🚀 Pivoting from building many games to focusing on the most successful one

📱 How Boddle connects with both teachers and parents

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction and Welcome

00:46 - Origins of Boddle Learning

02:08 - Making Education Fun Through Games

04:17 - Early Funding and Productization

05:36 - Impact of COVID on Growth

07:42 - Getting on the White House Educational Resources List

08:19 - Server Challenges with Rapid Growth

09:04 - Moving to Tulsa for VC Funding

10:30 - The "Leaky Bucket" Discovery

11:21 - Monetization Challenges

13:57 - Finding the Most Popular Game Mode

14:51 - The Pet Battle Game Success

15:58 - NFT Experiment Mistakes

16:52 - Keeping Education in Fun Games

18:45 - The Power of Classroom Observation

20:47 - First-Time User Experience Issues

22:32 - Learning to Sell to Parents Through Kids

25:40 - Tapping Into the Entertainment Wallet

26:45 - Boddle Bucks and Future Growth

27:38 - Impact and Educational Value

Ready to transform your child's screen time into learning time? Visit https://www.boddlelearning.com/ to try their educational games that kids actually want to play!