CEO Today - April 2023

57 is laced into the DNA of Toikido. What is your view on technology such as ChatGPT? Are you excited by how it will impact the entertainment industry and do you have any concerns about how it will change the business and social spheres? I’m excited by it and keen to lean into these emerging trends. The team has been playing with ChatGPT and we’ve seen some fun results with stories and narratives. Now we need to work out how it could be useful to our ambitions. Whilst I can see some natural concerns around its impact on “creativity”, I think it will just make our human creatives even better than they already are. What I can say is that any moves we make into the space will be calculated. In Serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is well known for taking early stakes in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Coinbase and Uber. He also recently joined the board of both Gymshark and Toikido. What is it about Toikido that has attracted Vaynerchuk’s interest and what does he bring to the table? I was connected to Gary via a friend, and we gelled straight away. He asked Toikido to help him with his VeeFriends project and wanted to invest in what we were doing. He sees the value in creativity, content, speed and new ways of doing old things. He has been a great investor and is there if we need him. I’ve learned from him as a leader and am proud to be associated with him – his whole mantra about kindness and empathy early 22 we dipped our toes into NFTs – but managed to pivot that project into another offering as the NFT landscape evaporated. As always, we want to be in the water and watch which waves to catch. Are you able to share your plans for Toikido’s future and what are your benchmarks for success? We have some lofty plans for the year ahead. Our first IP “Pinata Smashlings” will be launching across a Roblox game, full toy line, book, magazine and animation series to follow. In addition, we have recently signed two of the hottest gaming IPs to create amazing toy and apparel ranges for the global market. At the same time, we’re not forgetting to keep the focus on creating new IPs and actions every day. A benchmark of success will be for every kid come 2024 knowing what a Smashling is…(and owning one!) THE DISRUPTORS

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