Elnaz Sarraf is the CEO and founder of the award-winning ROYBI Robot – world’s first AI-powered smart toy to teach children language and STEM skills. It also has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions in Education, on the 2019 CNBC Upstart 100 list as one of the world’s most promising startups,, and on Fast Company’s 2019 World-Changing Ideas.
Elnaz is also a Board Member at Consumer Technology Association, Small Business Council and member of Forbes Technology Council.
Growing up as a woman in Iran, Elnaz witnessed the limited opportunities, leading her on her journey in the U.S. to become an entrepreneur and create a technology that would empower children by providing universal access to personalized learning and an education that prepares them for a better future. With 15 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, Elnaz leads ROYBI; an investor-backed EdTech company that raised $4.2 million in its seed round focusing on early childhood education and self-guided learning through artificial intelligence.
Before starting ROYBI, Elnaz co-founded and led a consumer electronics/IoT company, iBaby, serving as the company’s President. As an immigrant and female founder, Elnaz has made worthy accomplishments in a short duration of living in the U.S. Honors include being selected as Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Milestone Maker, named the Woman of Influence through Silicon Valley Business Journal and Entrepreneur of The Year in Silicon Valley. She has been a speaker at several conferences such as the Mobile World Congress, ASU GSV Summit, Consumer Technology Association and more.
What is ROYBI all about?
ROYBI is an AI-powered educational robot for kids aged 2-8 in language learning and basic STEM. ROYBI utilizes AI to personalize learning based on the child’s learning ability and interest. ROYBI has a facial detection to say hello and initiates friendly conversations.
It is conversational and detects what the child says during practice time. It detects if the child is happy or sad. It also evaluates their emotions during the practice time.
ROYBI Robot creates smart reports for parents and educators to track learning progress, pronunciation scores, and much more. Parents can play, schedule, and check their favorite lessons on companion iOS and Android apps. ROYBI is the best educational toy for homeschooling and remote learning to make learning fun through play and innovative engagement.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I came to the United States when I was in my early twenties to start a new life. Knowing English and the American culture helped me adjust to American culture and excel in my studies. So I experienced firsthand, how learning a different language early in life can help reach your goals later on.
We know that exposure to multiple languages at an early age is significant for children’s future success. Still, not every family can afford to hire private tutors or sign up their child at a language immersion school. Parents I met at different research groups often told me about their interest in an affordable and smart technology that can expose their children to multiple languages.
During a discussion I had with my co-founder, Ron Cheng, I learned about his shared interests as an engineer and a parent for a smart toy that can help his children with self-guided learning with fun stories and engaging lessons. Together, we decided to work on an education toy robot that can address this need for parents. With ROYBI Robot, we chose to utilize AI early on in our planning stage to ensure that teaching with the robot is interactive rather than passive. We want the experience of learning and interacting with ROYBI Robot to interest children more in STEM topics and curious about innovations.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
I don’t remember a specific example. Some technical issues can sometimes come across as incredibly weird until our CTO and co-founder give me a reason behind the problem.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I believe there is no mistake specifically in the business. I tend to let go of the mistakes and look forward to what the future has to bring. I make sure to learn from them and implement them in my future decisions, but I tend to think of them as “good lessons learned” rather than mistakes.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I like watching quick youtube videos on a daily basis. The topics range from business to investing, real estate, marketing, and even motivational stories. I found short videos being more helpful for me since I do not have a lot of time to read books.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
I highly recommend courses on Udemy, especially on advertisement. If you want to grow your business, you should know the principles of marketing and advertising. Also, other skills to learn that you deal with on a daily basis would be accounting.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
When I started my business, I did not know a lot about social media advertisements. I had a great experience with retail and distribution sales but not much with e-commerce sales and advertisement. So it took me several tries with agencies where I did not know the right questions to ask. I ended up hiring a couple of agencies that could not help us grow and wasted a few months of our time. Eventually, I decided to take this opportunity and learn as much as I can. Since then, I was able to increase our sales month over month, and now I am a lot more confident when it comes to online marketing.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Facebook is by far the most effective online advertising channel. For our business, TV appearances have generated the highest sales, but as you know, TV advertisements can be very costly unless it is a free press. So aside from TV advertising, Facebook is the best channel. We tried many ways, but Facebook seems to have the best algorithm to find the right buyers on a worldwide basis.
If you only had 1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would start researching the trends and find the right products to sell. Then, I would spend that money to advertise on social media and gradually turn that $1000 into $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000, and more. Of course, this is a plan that would take time to accomplish, but it is a great start.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
To not worry too much, keep exploring different ideas, and learn new things as much as you can.
What is your favorite quote?
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
– Walt Disney
Besides the obvious social media tools available, what are the top 3 most useful tools or resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
Google Suite, Zoom, and Dropbox are an essential part of our company’s growth, especially that most of us are working remotely from all around the world.
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
It is definitely more fun than I thought. I get to work on many different projects on a daily basis. In just one day, I switched between marketing to fundraising, operations, accounting, sales, and more. Also, when I think about the impact, you can have a significant contribution to the world by using technology.
How can readers get in touch with you?
I can be reached through my LinkedIn – Elnaz Sarraf.
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