In 2017, three young Lebanese went on designing and creating skill-building toys in their garage in Jounieh, and it soon turned into an award-winning project, all 100% manufactured in Lebanon.
A dream coming true for the founders, sure, but more for Lebanese parents who recognize the value of educational and skill-building toys for the development of their kids. Let us introduce you to Bildits:
Bildits is a toy that teaches kids construction and engineering as if it’s done in real life but on a smaller scale. Its purpose is to create a manual, fun and creative experience for kids over 10 years old.
It comes with all the materials and tools that are essential in every real construction site like concrete and wood, only safer and less of a mess. Super cool, isn’t it?
Kids get to imagine and create as they please, coming up with their own home designs and easily executing them. This educational kit allows children to develop new knowledge and manual skills by learning in a fun way how to install formwork, pour cement, build masonry walls, and do exterior paint. Raising young builders at home!
The founders don’t seem to want to stop at that. They intend to adopt the same concept for other “majors” skills, which we usually wait for the university to acquire. Of course, this is all about the kids learning useful basic skills, as they acquire perspective and passion for their future careers.
The entrepreneurs have delivered their workshops in schools and educational centers around Lebanon and gained many positive feedbacks from the kids, their parents, and their teachers. The efficiency, benefit, and educational impact of this amazing toy were proven first hand in various Lebanese schools.
Hence, it is no wonder that the Bildits’ team has won several local and international competitions: 2nd runner up in the international Creative Business Cup Denmark, Sponsored by UNICEF as an educational tool for the future generations, Berytech Mount Lebanon Youth Entrepreneurs, Elevate Impact Accelerator & Alt-City, Grow My Business, and Kafalat ISME.
So who are these young entrepreneurs behind this great and successful toy? Their names are Rayan Barhouch, Wael Saade, and Elias Chemali.
They are college graduated, brilliant Lebanese minds. According to them, they were lucky enough to be brought up in a creatively challenging and encouraging environment, and they dreamed of passing these same values to other children.
Barhouch and Saade always had an aspiration to build and create a game company and, one day, one of them had an idea on how to make it happen.
Barhouch, a young expatriate engineer, first thought of Bildits at his work in a construction site in Saudi Arabia. He quit his job and came back to Lebanon to focus on manifesting his idea with his two friends.Â
Wael handled the marketing and business development, while Elias supported remotely from Korea where he was finishing his master’s degree.
When they first started working on the production and manufacturing, the team had to learn the three essential steps of starting this business: the finances, working on the company’s economic plans and directing the toy to its educational goals.
Figuring out these main steps, indeed wasn’t easy for the freshly graduated young men who had no background in establishing companies, but they did it, turning their vision into a business.
What started in a small garage in Jounieh where the founders made the product with their own hands, grew into a workshop where Bildits is currently being manufactured. And by the way, it is hooking the adults as well!
The Bildits are available in various stores in Lebanon: Joue Club, Magic Planet Toy Store, ABC, Enfantillage, Wild Willy Toy Store, Librairie Antoine, Kadmous Toys, and Chez Les Petits by Geahchan. They are also available online. Â
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