African Start-up: Edusto Ventures. Aired 11:00a-12:00p ET
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Having a toy is every child's dream, but toys aren't always affordable or made locally. One person doing his part to change that is Daniel Otero in Nairobi, Kenya.</s>DANIEL OTERO, FOUNDER EDUSTO VENTURES: There was a missing type of toys in Kenya, because most toys are imported.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After graduating from arts school, Ortero started creating toys for schools. With only $20 he launched Edusto ventures in 2012.</s>OTERO: My initial capital I used it in buying some raw materials, that is plywood, bought paint, bought brushes and then I borrowed some tools to work. My first items were picture actually puzzles. I began in a hard way. I marketed myself from school to school. Sometimes you get disappointed. Along the way you go to schools and they tell you we don't want this, or we're not going to buy today.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After a few weeks, Otero got his first order.</s>OTERO: A (inaudible) 500 and I made my first 5,000 shillings in my business. When I began I had only five designs. Each year I developed more designs. Right now I have 110 toys I do. This business is quite the tasking. I'm the designer. I'm the quality controller. I'm the marketer sometimes. So I have to do all the work first before it grows. Now sometimes you can even get in the time of sitting down and thinking about other stuff, it's not an easy thing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Currently, Ortero he relies on recommendations to market and sell his products.</s>OTERO: And I have that dream that I'm going to make sure that this becomes a big company, I want to make sure that Edusto becomes a global company that produces the best quality toys.