Let Your Children Be Makers, Not Consumers
Interview with Sander Letema, Co-Founder of Infento
Why buy a vehicle for children when you can build one yourself – and at the same time promote your children's engineering skills? This is the idea behind Infento: the Dutch company produces and sells kits with which children from the age of two and their parents can build real vehicles such as scooters & co. Wirtschaftsforum spoke with Infento co-founder Sander Letema about the enthusiastic response his product received from customers and Kickstarter investors, about the importance of engineering skills for success in 21st-century professions, and why shorter attention spans of children are not a problem for Infento's ride-kits.
Wirtschaftsforum: Infento celebrates the idea of making instead of buying. Why do you believe it is a viable business model to pass on this ideal?
Sander Letema: Today's society needs more durable concepts – not just because people like and demand durability, but because that is the direction we need to go to save our planet and keep it habitable. Infento empowers children to become makers rather than consumers. Besides being made from durable materials and not cheap plastics, an Infento kit grows together with the child. This makes it unnecessary to buy multiple children's vehicles.
Wirtschaftsforum: Recently, Dutch internet entrepreneur Ben Woldring has advocated teaching children programming in schools. Your product, on the other hand, promotes building and constructing. Which skills are more important in the 21st century?
Sander Letema: Both programming skills to acquire computer skills and building with physical objects are important in the 21st century – but they are by no means opposites. They actually complement each other really well. Infento teaches children to think creatively and solve problems. Both are invaluable skills to be successful in the jobs of the future. This holds true including all career paths that involve programming.
Sander Letema
"Today's society needs more durable concepts – not just because people like and demand durability, but because that is the direction we need to go to save our planet and keep it livable."
Sander Letema
Wirtschaftsforum: Infento is not the only product on the market that allows children to create and design something unique. However, a child's tolerance for frustration is often much lower than that of an adult. How do you ensure that your product remains fun all the time?
Sander Letema: Infento stands out because of the uniqueness of the vehicles that can be built together as a family. Working towards such a cool goal – a product that you can actually play with afterwards – makes it easy to keep children engaged. Parents can also play a big role in actively encouraging children to think. Involve them by asking questions, let them take measurements, and read the manuals together. The reward will be very satisfying, and your children will be incredibly proud to have built something so big and beautiful themselves.
Sander Letema
"Working towards such a cool goal – a product that you can actually play with afterwards – makes it easy to keep kids engaged."
Sander Letema
Wirtschaftsforum: When you launched a Kickstarter campaign for your product line aimed at families, you ended up receiving about ten times the targeted amount of money. Why do you think a DIY kit has found such an enthusiastic fan base?
Sander Letema: Infento is truly unique. There is no other comparably DIY vehicle kit in the world. We have designed and developed every part of it ourselves. We did not just want to produce a unique modular product, but we also put a lot of effort into the design. This is reflected in our Ride Kits and convinced our Kickstarter investors. We believe we have succeeded in developing a concept that is versatile and durable, and also looks very cool. We are very pleased that so many families have supported our project!
Wirtschaftsforum: The Instagram feed embedded on your website showcases a variety of creative designs that your customers have made from Infento sets. What was the most creative vehicle you have seen there so far?
Sander Letema: Our partner in Korea has built an amazing tank and a life-sized robot from Infento kits. We've seen a wide range of custom vehicles, and we particularly liked a special horse that a customer made for his daughter. It's great to see how Infento unleashes creativity in people.
Interview: Julian Miller | Pictures: Infento B.V.