Spin Master Plays To Win

When a startup toy company creates a fly-off-the-shelves winner three years in a row, someone there must be in touch with his inner child. That's certainly the case with BEN VARADI, RONNEN HARARY, and ANTON RABIE, the three founders of Spin Master Toys in Toronto. When the trio appeared in frontier, they had scored a hit with a pet-rock-type toy called Earth Buddy, and they were pushing their next creation, the Air Hog, a compressed-air-powered toy plane. Cars and rockets followed, boosting 1999 sales to $35 million, from $10 million in 1998.

Spin Master next launched Flick Trix, finger-toy replicas of the bicycles used in the ESPN X-Games and Gravity Games. That pushed 2000 revenues to $70 million, as the company added 70 employees, including a 20-person Hong Kong office. Remarkably, the owners haven't borrowed a cent and have no plans to go public. "We're still young and have a lot of growing to do," says CEO Rabie, 29. Spin Master is their toy, and they're having too much fun to share it.