Author: Hapiko

Hapiko was founded by Arun Gupta and Robert Whitney, former executives at Grailed (peer-to-peer fashion marketplace). The pivot from fashion marketplaces to children's hardware is non-obvious but structural: both rely on user-generated content and community engagement. The founders identified a gap in the 2023-2024 "AI Toy" boom. While startups like Curio (Grok) and Moxie raised millions for conversational robots, retention data showed children tire of "chatting" with limited LLMs. Stickerbox bets on tangibility—the dopamine hit of a physical object—to drive retention. Launch timing (Q4 2025) targets the holiday window, positioning the device against the "screen time crisis" narrative dominating parental discourse.