Who is EB?
EB is a new startup by ex-Lumos folks. No, not J.K. Rowling's charity. No, not the projector company that couldn't be bothered to different their logo from ours. The smart helmet company. Nothing? You know what, it's OK, just know that we know how to innovate and bring ideas that sound silly or unfeasible at first and turn them into something awesome.
We're geeks at heart and relish a great underdog story, and so what better giant to go up against other than LEGO. Hopefully they've not forgotten how to be fun and don't start chasing us with their 95345s.
Do you one better, why is EB?
Quite simply, we decided to begin this quest because we wanted to do what we love - for Bilal, that's finding a way to get paid to just build LEGO all day. For Sean, it's building up yet another startup only to leave before it gets good.
One might ask, of all the ways to get paid to build LEGO all day, how is starting a whole new business the best way to get there? The answer to that question is that it's not. And we're fine with that, because we want to build something that solves not just our problems, but a bunch of other peoples' problems too.
Over the years, we've gotten pretty good at understanding customers' needs and finding creative ways to meet them. Whilst we love Lego, we believe that there are major things that can be addressed, which it seems like Lego isn't too interested in addressing.
1. Pricing is getting absurd
We remember as kids, the pricing of Lego sets was way out of reach and we had to beg our parents to get us just one set! If they eventually agreed, that would be our one set for the year, maybe even next few year! Fast forward to 30 years later and even though we're earning big-boy money, we're still having to plead with our wallets to buy our one set for the year. How has it gotten more expensive?
2. Why is it so hard to make my own creation?
The increase in diversity of parts has been a magical thing, but it has also increased the complexity of building something cool out of Lego. This is because now there are too many different part types and not enough of each of them in official sets to provide a meaningful inventory to build some cool new stuff. Sourcing is a pain in the butt, and even more expensive than buying the official Lego sets.
3. Where's the Asian-inspired stuff?
Bilal's and Sean's ethnic backgrounds combined account for half of the world's population, but there are very little asian-inspired builds amongst the vast library of official Lego sets. We think this is a hugely underserved group of people and so we want to serve this market better!