Today we’d like to introduce you to AJ & Stacy Green.
Hi AJ & Stacy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We honestly kind of fell backward into Real Play Kids. When our first daughter was born, I became really passionate about finding non-toxic, open-ended toys for her. As her first birthday was approaching, I really wanted a Pikler triangle, but they were expensive and hard to find. My husband has always been talented at building things, so he used his hobby CNC machine and woodworking skills and built one for her.
After seeing how well it turned out, I said, “Why don’t we build a few more and sell them on Facebook Marketplace for some extra cash?”
Then, shortly after, COVID hit. Playgrounds closed, families were looking for ways to keep their kids active at home, and suddenly people were driving from Houston, Dallas, and all over Texas to pick up our Pikler triangles from our front porch.
That’s when we realized we had something special. I remember saying, “We need to figure out how to fit these into a box so we can ship them.” Once we solved that challenge, everything changed.
We started the business in a tiny shed behind our rental house in South Austin. We invested our last $500 into a stack of plywood, hoping it would work out. It was definitely a leap of faith. When COVID caused both of us to lose our jobs, Real Play Kids became more than a side business—it became our livelihood.
Since then, we’ve continued to grow, expanding from one product to an entire line of play furniture designed to inspire creativity and imagination. Looking back, it’s amazing to think that what started as one birthday gift for our daughter has grown into a business that’s now helping families all across the country create spaces for real play.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. Other than my background in education and AJ’s handyman and woodworking skills, we really didn’t know much about running a business. We were learning everything as we went from shipping and marketing to customer service, accounting, and manufacturing.
On top of that, we decided to have another baby. So here we were, running a growing business with two small children. We were building products out of a tiny shed, working under a homemade carport, and our dining room became the packing and shipping station. Looking back, it sounds a little crazy, but that’s how determined we were to make it work.
There were plenty of long days, late nights, and moments of wondering how we were going to keep up. Working with your spouse every day while raising young kids isn’t always easy. You don’t really clock outyou go from talking about production and orders to making dinner, helping with bedtime, and then jumping right back into work after the kids were asleep.
Those years stretched us in every way, but they also taught us resilience, patience, and how to work together as a team. Looking back now, those struggles were part of what built not only our business but also our family.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets us apart from other small businesses is that AJ is still the designer and maker behind our products. Every piece starts with an idea and goes through his hands before it ever reaches a customer. We are still very hands-on and involved in every step of the process.
At the end of the day, it’s really just the two of us running Real Play Kids. Of course, we do have a few “coworkers” that help us along the way: our 3D printer, laser cutter, automatic drill press, and our newest addition, our UV printer. We joke that they are the only employees we have!
Staying hands on allows us to maintain the quality, attention to detail, and personal touch that our customers have come to know and love. We aren’t just designing products; we are parents designing for other parents.
One of the milestones we are most proud of is reaching over a million dollars in sales. When we think back to where we started building in a tiny shed behind our rental house, investing our last $500 into materials, and packing orders out of our dining room; it’s honestly hard to believe how far we’ve come.
That milestone represents so much more than a number. It represents thousands of families who trusted us to be part of their children’s play experiences, countless late nights, risks we took, lessons we learned, and the support of our amazing customers.
Reaching a million dollars in sales was an incredible accomplishment, but what we’re most proud of is the community we’ve built along the way and knowing that our products are helping families create meaningful childhood memories.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success to us was never about growing the biggest company or chasing a certain level of wealth. Our version of the American dream was actually much simpler: it was creating a life where I could be home with our girls during those precious early childhood years while also building something meaningful together as a family.
It was never about fancy cars, designer clothes, or trying to keep up with anyone else. For us, success has always been about living within our needs, having flexibility, being present for our children, and creating a business that supports the life we wanted to build.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://realplaykids.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/real.play.kids/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realplaykids
