Isaac Larian
Founder & CEO, MGA Entertainment. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutive@isaaclarian ↗mgae.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Isaac Larian is the billionaire founder and CEO of MGA Entertainment, the world's largest privately held toy and entertainment company. He is best known for developing and scaling blockbuster toy lines including Bratz and L.O.L. Surprise!, as well as acquiring the legacy brand Little Tikes.
1shows
2appearances
26statements
4resolved
4supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
6said about them ↓ Everything Isaac Larian said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Larian: MGA operates with zero outside investors or bank credit lines
“You know, maybe as big as MGA is, We don't have a bank line. We don't have any investors in here because I did that previously, and the banks and the investors are for you. When it's sunny, when it rains, they all run away.”
Larian: Private equity contracts are designed to strip founders of control
“Most of these, what I have seen, they write the contract the way it is all in their favor, because you need the money, and they have the money, and they hardly lose money. They take over your business, so you lose your business.”
Larian offered Mattel designer Carter Bryant a 3% royalty for Bratz
“We give you three percent royalty on the dolls, but you must quit Mattel and come here right away.”
Larian: Mattel Uses Litigation to Put Competitors Out of Business
“When you look at the history of Mattel, they have basically used litigation as a business tool to put competitors out of business.”
Larian: Consumers, not toy companies, will pay the cost of import tariffs
“And these tariffs are not going to be paid by the toy companies or any company. They're not going to be paid by retailers. They're going to be paid by the consumers.”
Larian: Raising toy prices from $38 to $49 can actually increase sales
“There is no difference between 38 and 49. So trust me, nothing will change. Actually, sometimes psychologically, when you sell something a little bit more expensive, you sell more of them, because people think, oh, that's a great thing.”
Larian: Market educational toys to grandparents with disposable income, not moms
“It's the grandparents. It's the gift givers. So you need to start marketing to grandparents. Once you start marketing to grandparents, because they want to take care of their, our gift givers. They want to take care of their children or grandchildren, and they…”
Larian: 'Town Hall' is a terrible name for kids' apparel
“But that name Town Hall doesn't resonate with the product you're selling. The first thing I would do is come up with a name that people can relate to so they don't think about a Town Hall with President Trump or somebody else.”
Larian claims Nintendo's Game Boy was inspired by MGA's success
“I still to date say that Nintendo was inspired by the success of my Game & Watch to come up with Game Boy, and of course they didn't want to give me Game Boy.”
Quinn Emanuel made $450M representing Mattel in the Bratz lawsuit
“Oh my god, Cohen Emanuel, the law firm that represented, made four hundred and fifty million dollars.”
MGA sued Lucasfilm over Star Wars licensing and won
“And we ended up in litigation with Lucasfilm, which I won, but that really put a bad taste in my mouth, and I said, the hell with it. I don't want to work for these entertainment companies. I want to make my own IP.”
Larian mortgaged his home for Bratz ads after Toys R Us canceled
“Toys R Us cancels five and a half or six million dollars worth of Brad's orders. I thought, now for sure we're gonna go out of business, so I went without my wife's approval, got a second mortgage in our, on our house, and put another one and a half million do…”
Larian resold canceled Bratz inventory to Toys R Us at 25% markup
“And Toys R Us came back to us, I think two days before Thanksgiving, said we want to buy that order that we want to buy it back, that order that we canceled. And I said, those goods I don't have anymore, but I have goods in LA, and they cost 25% more, and they…”
Larian: LOL Surprise became MGA's biggest toy launch, surpassing Bratz
“And it became the biggest toy ever that we have launched, much bigger than Brad's.”
Larian: The toy business sees 15 to 100 failures for every hit
“For every success, there is, at least in the toy business, 15 to a hundred failures.”
Larian: MGA owns the largest US toy factory, employing 700 in Ohio
“We, MGA owns the largest toy factory in America, in Hudson, Ohio. We employ 700 workers.”
Larian: MGA Entertainment has ten product failures for every hit
“And for every success that we have had 10 failures.”
Larian: ABC International reached $70M in annual revenue
“We were doing seventy million dollars in a year.”
Larian: Micro Games of America achieved $23M in sales and 32% profit on Nintendo Game & Watch
“In toys, I was making 32% profit, and the first year I sold twenty-three million dollar of Nintendo Game & Watch.”
Larian spent $125,000 on a commercial just to pitch retail buyers
“I had to spend 125,000 dollars to make that TV commercial.”
Larian eliminated inventory risk by requiring retail letters of credit
“I learned from my mistake, from my failure with Nintendo game and watch, and this time I did not buy inventory like crazy. I would sell to retailers on what you call FOBs, free and board, so they had to open a letter of credit and buy it. So they owned the ris…”
Isaac Larian: Bratz brand is undergoing a resurgence and growing again
“It's a good thing they did that because Bratz is under resurgence and growing again. So on my LinkedIn, I thank them. I thank them for this.”
Larian: MGA is North America's top privately held toy company
“We're not as big as metal, but we are the number one privately held toy company in North America.”
The other half of the tape: Isaac Larian's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 6 times in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 6
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 6
2024 6 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Isaac's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, MGA Entertainment | 2 | 26 | 100% 4/4 | full record on How I Built This → |