Harary founded Spin Master at 25 with $10,000

Ronnen Harary, cofounder of Spin Master, says people in their 20s should launch companies now more than ever because markets move faster and capital is easier to raise.

Spin Master began in 1994 with three friends and $10,000 in Toronto, making it a 30-year overnight success. After early hits like Earth Buddy and Tech Deck, the company rode the Paw Patrol wave to $2.4 billion in 2023 sales and a $2 billion valuation. Harary, now 55, told Business Insider that the window for first-time founders is wider than when he started. “Back then you needed a physical product and a shelf in a store,” he said. “Today you can build on Shopify, go viral on TikTok, and raise from angels in weeks.” He also argues that twenty-somethings have fewer obligations—no mortgages or school tuitions—so they can take bigger swings.

The toy industry’s pivot to streaming content made Spin Master’s brands global overnight. Paw Patrol alone generates $5 billion a year in merchandise, and Spin Master’s digital-first strategy has kept margins above 15%. Harary warns, though, that the same speed that helps startups can also burn them out. “You have to ship fast, but you also have to listen,” he said. Spin Master now allocates 10% of revenue to R&D and keeps a war chest of $300 million for acquisitions like the 2021 purchase of Rubik’s Cube. He advises founders to focus on a single category—“Be the best at one thing before you diversify”—and to avoid chasing hype cycles.

Harary’s next move is to take Spin Master public again; it went private in 2015 after a failed IPO. The company filed confidential paperwork with the SEC in late 2023, eyeing a 2025 listing. If it succeeds, it will prove that the toy giant built by twenty-somethings can still scale in a world where playtime is defined by screens, not aisles. For early-stage founders, the lesson is simple: the tools and timing are here, but the discipline to focus still matters most.