Meet the Team - Annie O’Toole - Operations

Go on, tell us why you love SwapBots:

Accessibility. It’s certainly one of the biggest, if not the biggest, reason I love this product. Emerging technologies, like the recent advancements within AR, should be accessible to the masses. I believe that all people, especially all children, no matter their circumstance, should be able to experience the triumphs of the human race, and as we know; technology breaks through a huge number of disbeliefs and boundaries daily. That’s inspiring stuff.

The majority of children in the western world have access to a tablet or smartphone, which means that access to hardware is no longer the problem, price is. In ten years, I want to hear somebody answer the question; ‘what inspired you to pursue a career in tech?’ with ‘the moment I watched my toy burst to life, in the palm of my hand’.

Here at SwapBots we do just that, with only a pocket money price tag.

You started your career in quite the unconventional way, tell us how you ended up with SwapBots?

I didn’t just drop out of university, I dropped out twice. After a four year stint, pursuing degrees that I had no passion for, I had no qualifications. However, in their place was a burning obsession with startups and the people behind them.

I went on to start my own small business, working with entrepreneurs in the alternative finance sector, through that work I had the opportunity of working with some amazing companies – SwapBots included.

Learning on the job, I had moments in which I made terrible mistakes and I had moments in which I had great successes. However, after over three years of hard work, my startup failed. Although I’d learnt so much, I still felt like a failure. I had no idea what to do or where to go.

But the Founders of SwapBots had a different perspective and I was offered a position here, which I love. I’m very grateful to be part of this startup’s journey! Nice one, John & Andy!

From an operational point of view, what’s complex about getting a toys to life product to market?

There’s a lot of complexities to launching a product, like SwapBots. I guess all product based businesses have similar difficulties, like the financial strain of manufacturing large volumes of product, as a pre-revenue business. However, launching a toys to life product, is almost like launching two products at the same time; you have the toy and then you have the digital product, which for us is our AR video game app.

Juggling both the manufacture, design, packaging and sales of a product is complex in itself, but the business team at SwapBots have also managed the development of the entire video game from start to finish. Luckily we’re a great team and although it’s often tough, it’s an amazing experience. You don’t get to do things like this everyday, being part of this visionary team, who have the most exciting ideas and mountains of passion, is a real honor.

Have you always been technical?                                                                                                                                  

No!! I could hardly use a computer as a teenager. I was doing my GCSE’s when the first computer made it’s way into my house. I didn’t play video games either, I was busy outside on a farm with a bunch of horses. I never envisioned I’d be sat here ten years later. But I love it, the possibilities that modern day technology brings, are mindblowing.

So, you’re about to fulfill Kickstarter orders, what’s next?                                                                      

Probably me in a giant SwapBots costume, around Christmas time, demoing our amazing product to kids across the UK! We’d love to get out into the community over the coming months, the moment people see our product burst to life on screen, is the moment all of this hard work makes sense.

Image source: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/story/2017-05-04/man-francisco-a-tale-of-two-cities-and-their-tech-industries/