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Home › Dad of the Month

Robert Klick

By Kelly Burgess

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a father who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man and a father. Above all, the Dad of the Month is dedicated to his children. Rich or poor, famous or not, he shines as an example of what fathering is all about.

Entrepreneur Robert Klick's invention may be the hottest toy on the market at the moment, but he gives all the credit to his two children: Maddi, 4, and Cameron, 18 months. After all, it's his status as a stay-at-home dad that had him focused on toys in the first place – it was Cameron's smiling face that initially "sold" his product to the public, and it's Maddi, on her mother's knee, who continues to bring in customers.

Klick, of Golden Valley, Minn., is the inventor of the Po-Knee (www.poknee.com), an adorable stuffed pony that an adult can set on their knee to give a child a "horsey ride." The idea for the toy came to him one day when Maddi was galloping away on his knee. "It just came to me that this is such a great blend of an old-fashioned idea that could be combined with new technology," he says. "What I thought was really important was that it's interactive, one-on-one time with your child, which toys seem to be getting away from more and more."

Family Man

That one-on-one and family time has always been important to Klick. Although he's always been an entrepreneur, he has redoubled his focus on working for himself since he and his wife, Shannon, started having children. "My wife does the standard 9-to-5 working shift, but I've always worked for myself and have started a number of businesses over the years," he says. "To a certain extent, it's a juggling act, just as it is when the wife is trying to make an additional living while the husband works full time in a corporate environment, but it allows us to have a lot more control over our family life and the time we spend with our children."

Since their children are young, their focus as a family is on activities where everyone can find something to do, such as going to the beach or playing at the park. They also own a boat and try to get out on the water as often as possible in good weather. Since the Po-Knee has taken off, Klick has to spend a lot more time working on its production, so he brings the kids to the factory with him. "They have a great time because there's plenty of room and not much they can get into that I have to get them out of," he says. "They especially love riding their bikes and riding toys around the warehouse."

Klick also notes proudly that Maddi identifies so much with her father that she calls herself an inventor and often calls him into the room to look at her "inventions." "She'll maybe put a blanket over a ball and call it an invention," he says. "But I love that she admires what I do enough to imitate me."

Po-Knee Express

Although he describes himself as a "serial inventor," the Po-Knee is Klick's first actual invention, and its success has amazed him because it came so quickly. As soon as he made the first prototype, he went to a toy fair in New York, N.Y., and found a couple of interested manufacturers. He began selling his product, advertising and promoting it in any way he could think of. Then, Robert's sister heard about Oprah Winfrey's "Million Dollar Idea Challenge." She sent a letter to Oprah, and the next thing Robert knew he was on his way to Chicago. And all of this happened in just a year.

After that, thanks to little Cameron, it was smooth sailing for the product. Klick was one of seven inventors invited to appear on the show. Each of the finalists got to demonstrate their product and the studio audience chose the winner. Cameron was Klick's "test rider" for the Po-Knee and he gave it his all. "Cameron's the guy who won it for me on Oprah because as soon as I put him on my knee and he started smiling, that was it," he says. "The audience simply couldn't resist."

Since then the Po-Knee has hit the ground running. Klick sold more than 2,500 officially licensed Seabiscuit Po-Knees in three minutes on QVC. He and his wife, Shannon, were then invited back to Oprah for a follow-up show. Russell Crowe was on that same show, and Klick says he tried to get close enough to Crowe to offer him a Po-Knee for his child-to-be, but couldn't get past Crowe's phalanx of security.

While Klick doesn't think he'll ever be so successful that he'll need security to guard him and his toys, he does dream of the Po-Knee doing well enough that Shannon can quit her job and join him in the at-home business. "Right now the Po-Knee is doing well enough that I can focus on just making them," he says. "We're kind of the rock stars of the toy industry right now – we were very well-received and we just have to follow that up with more success. It's exciting."

It's also gratifying for him to be able to focus on Maddi and Cameron. Not only did Cameron win him first place in the Million Dollar Idea Challenge, but Cameron, Maddi and Shannon appear in all the photos used in the promotional literature. As for his house, Klick laughingly says it's a veritable Po-Knee stable. "Our house is a toy factory – we've got Po-Knees all over the place," he says. "Of course, kids being kids, they still prefer to play with the remote control and the boxes the toys come in."

Now if Klick could just figure out how to package that.



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