Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Squishmallows joined Warren Buffett’s business empire two years after Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and others helped make the plush stuffed toys a viral sensation on TikTok.
For Judd and Laura Zebersky, whose company Jazwares makes the toys, the success of Squishmallows is hardly what they imagined when they met 33 years ago at the University of Miami law school.
They married in 1993 and embarked on law careers, but Judd Zebersky soon realized that wasn’t his destiny. Four years later, he started Jazwares, where he is now chief executive.
“I have really loved pop culture since I was a kid,” Zebersky said in an interview at this month’s annual shareholder weekend for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) in Omaha, Nebraska.
“I was into comic books and toys, and I’m also an artist–a not very good one,” he said. “I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘I want to make toys.’ She said, ‘Follow your dreams,’ and that’s what I did.”
Laura Zebersky, a litigator, sold her practice in 2005 and joined him, becoming Jazwares’ president.
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