
Show HN: Elfbox – Personalized developmental toys delivered to your door - pmohan6
https://www.elfbox.com/
======
pmohan6
Hello folks, I'm the Co-Founder of Elfbox and I just wanted to share what
Elfbox is and the backstory of why we started it.

At Elfbox, we deliver monthly boxes of developmental toys for children at home
on a rotational basis. Parents tell us about their child's preferences and
developmental requirements and we partner with child development experts and
use AI to individually curate toys for each child. Families use the toys for a
month and return them when they receive their next box (with the option of
purchasing toys at a discounted price that they want to keep longer).

Why did we start Elfbox? I was looking to buy toys for my nephew for his 1st
birthday last year. I went to Toys R Us (before they decided to shut down :P),
thinking that this is where people buy toys. After spending several hours
walking their aisles, I walked out of the store with a sensory overload of
lights and sounds. I realized that I didn't want to get anything for my nephew
from there. It took me several days of online research to find appropriate
toys for my nephew that I knew were made of safe materials & would aid in
skill development.

After speaking to my cousins and friends about this issue, I realized that
when it comes to toys, parents struggle with the following issues on a regular
basis -

1) It is really difficult to find good quality, engaging toys for children on
an ongoing basis. Parents often don't know what the right toy for their
child's developmental stage is. Providing kids with the right set of toys for
their developmental stage is critical since children learn most of their
foundational skills (cognitive, physical, social, emotional) through play.

2) Clutter. Parents have to deal with clutter every day because kids outgrow
toys very fast. There is no easy, frictionless way to reuse or recycle toys.
Families end up hoarding them for years. This problem is even more acute for
millennial parents who live in space constrained urban settings.

This provided us the motivation to start Elfbox. Our aim is to give parents
access to a highly personalized selection of high-quality developmental toys
for their kids without having to own them.

If there are any parents here, we would love to hear your stories about how
you manage your toy collection!

