
Ever want to read your child a book with them as the main character? Well, guess what? It is now possible. Children’s books have entered a revolution. Little Heroes is leading the charge as it offers children’s books with the name of the hero in the book as the name you choose when you purchase it. You can actually open the book and the name of your child is in the pages. Little Heroes is definitely preparing for the future. It is also offering its books as ebooks, so it has developed an eco-friendly alternative to printed children’s books. If you still prefer to have the physical book, you can buy the book as a hard or soft cover.
This is not the first time Martin Ostrovsky has chosen to pursue a business opportunity. Although he works much more than the average employee, he has eliminated the thought of working for someone else. This entrepreneur has a lot planned for Little Heroes and a big vision to go along with it. In this inspiring interview, Ostrovsky helps you understand his choice in children’s books, how he promotes his business, his motivation, his goals and gives some very valuable advice. Enjoy!
Can you begin by introducing yourself and giving us some background?
Growing up in Toronto, Canada, I studied computer science at York University. My dream at the time was to one day become the next CEO of General Motors (yes, sounds crazy now!). But my life took a twist when I landed my first job out of school at a quirky travel company based here in Toronto. It was there I cut my teeth in software development and started traveling the world. In fact, I enjoyed traveling so much that I realized working for somebody else would always restrict my free (travel) time! So I left to start my own software company, Monkeybean Solutions.
Since then I completed my MBA, travelled a lot more and started a few new ventures, the latest one being Little Heroes, which makes personalized children’s books. It’s been a hectic last few years to say the least!

Little Heroes is very unique as it offers personalized children’s books electronically. Can you give a personal introduction of Little Heroes?
Little Heroes allows parents and relatives to create personalized children’s books for the children in their lives. Besides being able to tailor the written story to include family, friends and the child as the main character, the main character in the illustrations can also be customized to look like the child. You pick the child’s hair color and style, eye color and shape (even glasses!) and skin tone. The end result is a beautifully illustrated, truly unique book where the child is the hero of the story. Kids just love it!
But we wanted to take things further. In part because of my background in technology, I knew that physical books alone wouldn’t cut it. We needed to bring our technology to other mediums and so naturally, we chose ebooks as the next logical step. So in addition to the books being available as hard and soft covers, our books can be purchased in electronic form, easily viewed on laptops or mobile devices, such as the iPhone or BlackBerry. This provides a more cost-effective and portable solution for some parents. The response to date has been fantastic.
So, Why children’s books?
I’m always looking for industries that are prime for a shake-up. I felt that children’s books hadn’t really evolved since when I was a kid and the joy of reading could be enhanced and made more interactive with the right mix of technology. Reading, as important as it is, has come under some serious pressure in the last few years simply because kids have so many other options to spend their free time. Parents and teachers are rightly getting worried.
The internet and advancements in technology have made it possible to personalize and tailor almost anything you want. By giving kids a personalized book where the main character looks like them, and the names appearing in the stories are their friends and family, it provides a level of engagement previously unavailable. Kids identify more readily with the story and develop a deeper appreciation for reading and all it has to offer.
You mentioned that Little Heroes will soon have an iPhone app and a Yahoo Application Platform app. What opportunities do you see in doing this?
Again, it all has to do with technology pushing the envelope and finding more ways to engage children. Both the iPhone and Yahoo’s Application Platform provide us with a rich medium with which to complement our personalized stories and add even more value to the reading experience. Current offerings of ebooks on mobile devices allow you to just read the story on your device. So what? In our opinion, they’re not doing as much as they could. I don’t want to tip our hand too much, but we plan on leveraging both the iPhone and the Yahoo Application Platform to create an ongoing personalized adventure for children – a story that never ends – that can be shared with friends and family.
Do you have any advertising?
We advertise on various bloggers’ websites as well as Yahoo, Google and Facebook. But word of mouth is slowly starting to spread. We are looking into a more widespread TV campaign in 2010, where parents can see the extent of the personalization.
How have you promoted your business? Are there a few things you have done that have been the most successful?
We’ve built up a social network using Twitter and blogging to connect with bloggers who share an interest in literacy, parenting and education. That has definitely helped spread the word about Little Heroes. We’re very active on various child literacy forums and we run our own blog, commenting on recent studies and providing our insight into child literacy and education.
We’ve done a few media appearances on radio and television. But television to date, has been our most successful platform. Once people see how great the books look and how easy it is to create and order online, they’re hooked.

There are currently five books available. How many do you plan on releasing?
We’re currently on a pace of about one every two months, but that’s going to change soon. If you want to scale in any business, you need people power and technology. We can’t hire 1000 illustrators and authors, so Little Heroes will open up our publishing platform to anyone and everyone. If you want to illustrate for or write a personalized children’s book, you will now be able to. The recurring theme here is once again, using technology as a disruptive force. There are so many great illustrators and authors out there; all they need is a platform on which to stand. Little Heroes will be that platform. Similar to the iPhone app store, writers and illustrators will be able to set their own prices for their books and benefit from Little Heroes’ distribution channels.
Where do you see Little Heroes in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?
I’d be foolish to predict too far into the future, I’d almost certainly be wrong! But I’d like to see Little Heroes become a well-respected retail brand. I envision a retail location full of touch screens where kids can come and get hands-on with technology, create their own personalized books and walk away with their book right there on the spot. Bit like the Apple store, but primarily for kids.
What has been your motivation?
Interesting challenges always motivate me. Like any good math nerd, I like to solve puzzles. And taking a business idea from the back of a napkin to the real world is a great puzzle to solve. There are so many variables, so many pitfalls, which makes it exciting and exhilarating!
Are there any books that you have read that have inspired you more than the others?
I really enjoyed Jack Welch’s book “Winning”. It’s like a Bible for any MBA graduate. It really does touch on many great points of leadership and management. And without dispute, Jack has a track record to back up what he writes. Other than that, I actually tend to avoid books about business or entrepreneurship. I believe in learning by doing and interacting with other successful entrepreneurs.
Is this your first entrepreneurial venture? If so, how has the experience been thus far?
It’s number three actually. The first venture was during the time between graduating from school and getting my first job. I wanted to learn how to build websites and a professor suggested I learn a language called Python. So I built my first site in Python (terrible site, but it worked!) and sold DVDs online. The money wasn’t great, but it was enough to buy me my first car! Which, in those days, was a big deal! Most importantly, it instilled in me the passion to try new ventures and see how far I could take them.
Little Heroes has been the most pleasurable of the lot. I’ve made so many mistakes in the past and I will continue to do so. But Little Heroes has allowed me to incorporate much of what I’ve learned in running online businesses. Let’s just say I don’t make as many mistakes as I used to
How many hours on average per day do you spend working on Little Heroes?
Monday to Friday, about 14. On the weekends, maybe 4-5 hours each day. There’s always something to do. The travails of running your own business.
Any regrets in starting your own business?
None whatsoever. It’s the best decision I ever made.
What advice can you give to someone interested in starting a business?
I’d give three pieces of advice:
The first and most important, don’t be afraid to fail. The odds are that you will fail so if that scares you, keep your day job. Embrace failure as way to improve because you always do improve and things do get better.
Second piece of advice would be to partner up with somebody whose skill set complements yours. In all my ventures, I’ve always had a partner or partners. It makes life much easier and you learn much faster.
Lastly, read, read and read some more. Subscribe to RSS feeds, read tons of blogs, follow people on Twitter, subscribe to Google alerts. Just do what you can to consume as much info as possible because your next big business opportunity will be lurking around somewhere, you just need to find it.
Thanks Martin Ostrovsky!
Check out more from Martin Ostrovsky.
twitter.com/mylittleheroes
LittleHeroes.com