Reimaging Big Brands to Create New Experiences with Steve Rosen of CreateOn

Steve Rosen is one of the CreateOn Co-Founders. He helps licensors like Magna-Tiles, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Willy Wonka put products and deals together. Steve has worked with all the major film studios, licensing agencies, and toy companies in creating high-profile products, utilizing best-of-breed licensed IP in his 17 years in product development and in the entertainment industry.

Steve has executed numerous licensing deals and most recently, he brokered licensing agreements with four leading children’s entertainment brands. He has also run software development teams across the globe, creating from cradle to casino floor best in class slot machine experiences.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Steve Rosen talks how the CreateOn and Magna-Tiles deal came about
• What Steve and CreateOn brought to the magnetic toys construction industry
• Why customization is likely to be the next licensing deal for CreateOn
• How Steve convinced Sesame Street and other licensors to come on board
• Steve talks about his previous experience in licensing that helps him convert licensors for CreateOn
• The types of professionals that bring a licensing deal to fruition
• What Steve learned about building relationships from Roger Sharpe
• Steve shares why he moved to LA and how it led to his amazing career journey
• A low moment Steve had to push through and a proud moment in Steve’s entrepreneurial journey

In this episode…

It takes another level of wild creativity, guts, and expertise to seek out brands that everyone loves and dare to reimagine them in order to create new experiences that will hopefully make people love the brand even more. That’s precisely what Steve Rosen of CreateOn is doing when they broker deals between mega players in the toys and entertainment industry in order to bring fresh products for people to enjoy.

Through their partnership with these colossal brands, Steve and his CreateOn team are creating brand new and licensed IP products, and they have taken the construction toy category by storm. And with every great success story is the ups and downs of the man who made things happen.

Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz on this episode of the Inspired Insider as he talks with Steve Rosen of CreateOn about how he and his co-founder, Aaron Singer, started the company and how their journey has been since. Steve also shares the story of how they struck gold in the construction toy category, how they reimagined established brands to create a new experience people love even more, and what he thinks is next for CreateOn. Stay tuned.

Resources Mentioned on this episode

• CreateOn
• Steve Rosen on LinkedIn 
• Aaron Singer on Linkedin 
• Roger Sharpe’s Episode on Inspired Insider 
• Mike Farah on LinkedIn 
• Brown Bear Book for Kids 
• Punk Cat Book for Kids

 

Episode Transcript

Jeremy Weisz

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here Founder of InspiredInsider.com you know Steve Rosen said who is gonna watch this on Facebook right now you may be listening to this later on. But um, I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders people who inspire me pass gas, you know, you should check out other episodes Ron Popeil and no one’s heard of Ron Popeil. You know, he’s legendary. But wait, there’s more. That’s what he came up with. And if you know the very dramatic Ginsu knives ever hear those things, you know, you know, Steve Rosen it I’ll introduce in a second officially but, you know, Steve, when I was talking to Ron and we talked about the journey, when he was starting out on the streets of Chicago. He would go to Maxwell Street, he would wake up at like four in the morning, buy vegetables, take his folding table out, you know, set up all his stuff. And basically pitch people all day long. And get vegetables and slice them and dice them in the veggie Matic and some of the best pitch men go on QVC and infomercials and sell their stuff. So anyways, by the way, if anyone knows anyone on QVC, or any of these things, I think we’re gonna talk about Steve and the products, they will be perfect, perfect, perfect for that venue. So we’re gonna talk and you could see it here actually CreateOn but before I introduce Steve officially, this episode is brought to you by Rise25 and Rise25 you know, I started my business partner John Corcoran. And in the over the past 10 years of podcasting, Steve, I feel like this is the best thing I’ve ever done because it helps me give to my relationships that helps share amazing content, and by giving them my best relationships, we form You know, different business relationships to not just personal and so I have it I’ve seen no better way to give to my relationships and Steve is one of those giving people too. So if you have questions about podcasting, we do help businesses launch and run their podcast, go to Rise25.com there is a video of john and i explain, you know, what you can do to you know, get ROI with podcasting and we do bands are like an old married couple so that people get a kick out of that. This You know, this has been long awaited Steve Rosen’s one of CreateOn founders and you could see here right here with Magna-Tiles, and we’ll talk about the different amazing stuff that they create. And I always tell people that see this high describing I go What is Mattel, Magna-Tiles, Lord of the Rings Star Trek Willy Wonka and monopoly have in common? That’s what I say. And I go Steve, see that see, so he works directly with these many more licensors puts products and deals together. And throughout his 17 years in product development and the entertainment industry, Steve has worked with all the major film studios, licensing agencies, toy companies creating high profile products, utilizing best of breed licensed IP. And he’s executed numerous licensing deals and most recently brokered licensing deals with for leading children’s entertainment brands. He runs, you know, software development teams across the globe. Create You know, he did run software development teams across the globe as well. And check out createon.com I don’t even know how he got that domain. And a fun fact, which most people don’t know about Steve, if you know from a business perspective, cool. If you leave him open for three point he makes about 90% from the field. So think Steph Curry meets Sunday pick up basketball,

Steve Rosen

if you’re five, seven, a buck 60 you better be able to drill that

Jeremy Weisz

so thanks for joining me

Steve Rosen

So wait, wait, let’s let’s just be real. Yeah, my pleasure. But let’s, let’s talk about that real quick. Because, you know, I don’t know about you, but like, by the way, let me just say, like we’ve been at this,

Jeremy Weisz

there’s four people watching right now. So are you saying no one was gonna watch so there are four people and then one person is dropped off after saying that, so go on.

Steve Rosen

Don’t like for me, like I miss a miss playing basketball like so much. It’s one of the things like it’s my it’s been like therapy for all these years. And like having that camaraderie that we have on Sunday morning. And honestly, in memory and memory of Brian Olson, I wore the Brian Olsen deep v neck just for him. But yeah, I miss it. Yes,

Jeremy Weisz

um, I want to start off with the journey but um, you know, lately, you work with Magna-Tiles. I don’t know if you want to show a few and just talk about how that came about.

Steve Rosen

Sure. So the company that I am co-founder of is called CreateOn we are a strategic partner of an amazing product called Magna-Tiles. Magna-Tiles has been around for about 20 years, they, they are historically a preschool early learning product. And they are the I’ve always kind of called them the Kleenex of the magnetic construction because they’re ubiquitous with quality and everyone who has not tolerate you, even if you have a knockoff, people call them Magna-Tiles because it’s a great name and they are a quality product you never throw away. They’re kind of handed down from, you know, kid to kid and you know, as I’ve kind of built this business a little bit, my son who’s six, he’s he kind of moved on to Legos when he was young. He loves them. It’s like his favorite thing. And you know, what we’ve done is kind of brought him back to it which is been great, especially as a father watching his son build stem stuff, but so Anyways, this kind of started as a my son’s best friend in preschool, his father and I took the kids to a park. And you know, we had known each other and we got to talking. And he’s a he’s a, he’s a talker, and he’s just like a boatload of energy. And he’s explained to me, how is he in this business group, but the guys are Magna-Tiles. So I’m like, Oh, my God, we love Magna-Tiles. And he’s like, I think I have an idea of how to potentially partner with them. Because he his expertise is in document security and printing. And his idea, the way he pitched it to me was, I want to take Magna-Tiles, and customize them and print family photos on them. And I was like, awesome. I think that’s so cool. And this is kind of what we came to. I mean, the karate champion, watch. Oh, that’s awesome. And so back in front, so this was his idea, right? And I said, that’s, that’s super cool. I love the idea. We would totally buy those but I see something totally different. Like See Lego and lego star wars like you licenses. You can you can build on them. And then they become basically what Legos are where? Legos. I don’t know if you know this, but someone 17 years ago, they were on the brink of bankruptcy.

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