tepper - Carnegie Mellon University

TEPPER School of Business
TIn 2003, the couple founded Bridge Street Toys, a company focused on reviving and bringing back to the
businessmodel
There’s a saying, “You don’t stop playing
because you grow old. You grow old because
you stop playing.” Carol and Paul Flack
(both MSIA 1988) have turned that sentiment
into a growing business.
marketplace several construction toys Paul played with as a youngster. The genesis of the venture began when
Paul was looking for a construction set to give to the couple’s 8-year-old son, Paul Jr. The toy had been out of
production for nearly 40 years, so they purchased an old set on eBay. Following an Internet search, Carol
discovered that the patent had long ago expired and the three trade names of the various sets – Girder &
Panel, Bridge & Turnpike and Hydrodynamics – had been released into the public domain. A new business
idea emerged for the entrepreneurial couple.
BUILDING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE
Past experiences at Carnegie Mellon and in the business world have helped the Flacks succeed. Carol
and Paul recall that they were the first married couple to be admitted to and graduate from Carnegie Mellon’s
MBA program. It was tough, Carol admits, but “we both got a superb education, though, in hindsight, we should
have taken some entrepreneurship classes,” she says.
Nonetheless, their business education, coupled with their real-world business experience, provided the
foundation they needed.
Carol recalls, “We moved every 18 months or so as our careers progressed.” Paul joined the Avery Dennison
Corp., a national office products company, and then worked for a small, family-owned chemical company.
Carol was with Eaton Corp. for ten years and a technical company in Europe for five years, and then joined
an international chemical company in Boston.
Juggling two careers was challenging, but valuable. “We were seasoned by working in different
businesses,” Paul explains. “By the time we decided to start our own business, we knew what questions to
ask, we knew what to look for, and we had an extensive number of business contacts.”
As their careers grew, so did Paul and Carol’s family. Daughter, Ruth, is now 13 years old and Paul Jr. is 11.
The couple settled in the Boston suburbs in 2002. “There we got the itch to become entrepreneurs,” Carol says.
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