“Growing up in Greenwich, it was just expected that I’d go into Wall Street,” 23-year-old Matt McCarty tells the Business Insider today. But as he watched his peers file onto Metro North trains every day, he realized that the dog-eat-dog financial world wasn’t for him. What he really wanted, in his heart of hearts, was what every young man on the cusp of adulthood desires: to stay at home and play with teddy bears with his mom.
Unlike many other people, McCarty followed through on this plan.
He helped his mom create Zylie the Bear, a teddy bear that “travels the world wearing cute clothes,” and is now a partner in the company. To be sure, getting involved with the “plush market,” was a decision Matt, pictured at left in a pink shirt, wrestled with: “I thought, do I really want to be a guy working in the toy business?” He suspected working in what is called the “plush market” would present a social challenge, and he was right. “At first I was getting skeptical looks from people when I told them what I do for a living.” But after a while, he learned to embrace the Lifestyle.
“There’s never any coverage of this world. The only time the plush market was popularized was with the Beanie Babies craze,” he explains.
And a lot of other start-ups are guys at home with their moms! Right?
Meet Matt McCarty, The Greenwich Guy Who Ditched Wall Street To Make Teddy Bears With His Mom [Business Insider]
