Three international trade fairs

Most of my career had been in startups and IT around Bangalore. During our second pivot at NeoHumans, we started building AI toys. That took me to the Canton Fair in China in late October 2025, followed by the Nuremberg and New York Toy Fairs in January and February. Three very different markets in about four months. We went to find suppliers, present our products and make connections, and got a fairly thorough education in international business along the way.

China had an extraordinary amount going on. We explored electronics, toys and decorations at Canton, met innovative startups and assessed suppliers and robotics offerings. I even tried on robotic legs. There was plenty to explore, and we achieved the practical goals we had gone with. We found the right suppliers and people for what we wanted to build.

At Nuremberg, we were presenting our own products. A lot of companies were enthusiastic about them, and some people described our ideas as among the most compelling they had seen. They liked how we presented and sold them too. That gave me confidence in the products, but also in my own ability. I realised I was a pretty good salesman even among people doing business internationally.

New York was a different experience. The people I met in Europe seemed deeply interested in the toys themselves. In New York, more of the conversations revolved around brand names, licensing and partnership deals. We had success there too, but I preferred the European conversations about building better toys. It was interesting to see how differently companies approached the same industry.

When most of your work is in software, you can miss how much business still happens this way. Manufacturers, suppliers and buyers come together, look at actual products and work out what they can do with each other. Seeing that firsthand gave me a more grounded understanding of the economy. I think more people in software would benefit from spending time in these environments.

It also gave me a much greater appreciation for the work governments and trade organisations do to support industry. Bringing the right people together makes it easier for businesses to find partners and reach new markets. Those connections affect what gets manufactured and which companies get an opportunity to grow. There is a lot of work involved in creating the conditions for that to happen, and these visits made its value much clearer to me.