SPECIALIZE DESIGNS creates new toys for blind and sighted kids

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 | Source: Concentrate

Tiffany Huang hasn't spent a lot of time in the professional workforce, but she's been there long enough to know she would prefer to be her own boss.

The University of Michigan Ross School of Business student spent a few months working at a major Metro Detroit-based automotive supplier last summer, and didn't like being a small fish in a big pond with no real decision-making ability. That inspired her to pursue her own start-up with some classmates from U-M this year: SPECIALIZEDESIGNS.

"It was so large I felt I had no say in what was being done," Huang, queen of operations for SPECIALIZE DESIGNS, says of her previous experience. "I wanted to have a say in something smaller."

SPECIALIZEDESIGNS is that something smaller. The TechArb-based start-up (founded by Huang and Shaili Das) creates toys that can be used by both blind and sighted children. Its first toy is a cross between Simon and Bop It, is shaped like a plate, and requires its users to pay attention to noise and vibrations.

Huang and Dasi (along with another U-M student who is no longer with the company) have noticed how the blind community is becoming more integrated with mainstream society. They hope this toy will help further integrate both. "We want to create a solution to bring children together in schools," Huang says.

The partners are still working on the prototype and are planning to shop the concept around at toymaker trade shows this summer. Huang expects to bring the toy to market within the next year, with its main customer being schools.

Source: Tiffany Huang, queen of operations for SPECIALIZEDESIGNS
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.