Doug Bernstein is the co-founder and CEO of Melissa and Doug, a several hundred million dollar toy company focused mostly on simple classic toys for children up to 5 years of age. He and his wife Melissa started the company together about 30 years ago.

Some interesting insights from this episode:

They never intended to build a company from the beginning but rather, were driven by their shared passion to do something good for children.

They are a product company at its core. If they simply focus on making great products, everything else will take care of itself.

Adversity can fuel motivation. When their supplier decided to compete directly with them, rather than sue or wallow in despair, they shifted their product development cycle and started to innovate with new products so quickly that nobody could keep up with them.

If you look at an obstacle as something that will take you out of the game, then it will. But if you look at it as something that you have to figure out how to get around, then you will find a way.

They’ve never been tempted to venture into apps and digital media despite external pressure because they feel it’s not good for children at that age and it’s against their corporate values.

They grew to several hundred million in revenue without one dollar of advertising. It was entirely word-of-mouth.

They don’t do any product testing but are still able to maintain a 75% hit rate with new product introductions.

“Excellence is always bringing your very best to what you do and always having the inner pride to do things the very best way.”

Doug Bernstein: Founder and CEO of toy company Melissa and Doug