It’s not uncommon for the Silicon Valley Bank team to try to help our clients with things beyond banking, but this holiday season we’re even getting our kids in on the act.
When our client, San Francisco-based Callaway Digital Arts, which develops iOS apps to delight kids and families and is funded by Kleiner Perkins, told us they were getting ready to launch a new app before Christmas, we asked if we could help. Mr. Potato Head Create and Play is new in a long line of successful, fun and educational games built by Callaway for kids and digital families.
Like in the 80s hit movie BIG (minus the adult mysteriously trapped in the kids body) we hosted a focus group of 4-10 year olds at our Santa Clara headquarters on Thursday. The bankers’ children got to try out the apps and give feedback to directly to Callaway … a somewhat more grueling process than a loan application.
Even after 50 years, Mr. Potato Head is still a kid favorite. “I really liked it. Mr. Potato Head is funny,” said Nikko, age 4.
Today’s event was the second focus group following a smaller scale event held at Silicon Valley Bank’s Palo Alto office earlier in November.
“After the last session with the kids at Silicon Valley Bank we made major changes to the app,” said Rex Ishibashi, CEO of Callaway Digital Arts. “Smart adults can’t predict the behavior of kids. Today we learned some key things that we’re incorporating into our final app submission for next Friday.”
“This was just one more way we thought we could help our client, beyond banking,” said Jason Mok of SVB’s Accelerator team for startups.
“Silicon Valley Bank is more than a bank. It’s a true partner and always there to help,” Ishibashi added.
Happy holidays, Callaway Digital Arts. Based on what our kids told us, Mr. Potato Head is going to be good for your business.