‘Paw Patrol’ co-creator asks Yeshiva University students to ‘bet on themselves’

When Rosie Fellig, 21, stepped up to pitch her business idea to Ronnen Harary, the Canadian billionaire who co-created the children’s television show “Paw Patrol,” she expected to come away with little more than practice pitching to a successful businessman.

Instead, minutes later, the University of Pennsylvania junior secured what she called her “first-ever business investment”: $500 from Harary himself.

“I’m always gonna remember his first investment in me, because it helped with my momentum and helped propel me forward,” Fellig, who runs an online sketch-comedy account she hopes to turn into a production company, told JNS.

Fellig, who is Modern Orthodox, is among dozens of students to receive startup funding from Harary, who is Jewish, through his “No Experience Necessary” tour of North American universities. Named for his book published in July, the tour began Oct. 8 at Penn and is scheduled to visit 22 campuses in the United States and Canada through Nov. 18.

Its aim is to inspire young people “to start their own businesses and to bet on themselves,” Harary told JNS.

At each stop, students get 60 seconds to pitch, followed by a minute of questions. Those selected receive $500 and seven days to use it, then must submit receipts and a more detailed pitch. Thirty finalists will compete for 10 grants of $25,000 each.

Two weeks into the tour, he had heard roughly 400 pitches and funded 40 to 50 students.

Harary, co-founder and chairman of Spin Master, is funding the competition himself. He said the grants come with “no strings attached” and that he will not take equity in the businesses.

“It’s less about the specific idea, and it’s more about someone believing in them,” he said. For some students, “this is the first money they’ve ever received in their life for an idea that they want to bring into the world.”

At 20, Harary and his partner, Anton Rabie, began selling Earth Buddies, novelty heads that sprout grass “hair” when watered. They later moved into toys and, eventually, children’s television — with setbacks along the way. The company’s first series succeeded, but the next three failed. “Paw Patrol,” its fifth, came in the company’s 19th year.

His book urges young people to take risks before they feel ready. “A lot of times it’s not risk,” he said. “It’s just resistance that holds people back.”

He sees the tour, which travels from city to city with a silver Airstream trailer where he hears pitches, as an expression of his Jewish values.

“It’s really expensive to put on,” he said. “I look at it as a form of tzedakah. It’s not just giving back from writing a check. It’s giving back my time and my energy and my thoughts to the kids.”

His stop at YU in Washington Heights was a highlight, he said. “I went to the beit midrash. That was really cool to see.”

Among the students he met there was Jacob Hoschander, an economics senior who nearly missed his chance. He and his business partner, Oriel Atias, had the day’s final slot, but time ran out before their turn. So they ran outside and caught Harary as he was leaving.

“We asked his media team to mic us up, and instead of 60 seconds, we had about 15, walking from the door to his car,” Hoschander told JNS. “It was nerve-wracking, but he gave us his full attention, and those 15 seconds got us into the next round.”

Their proposal, “Project Joshua,” is a platform that lets the different therapists working with a child with special needs coordinate that child’s care.

The pair, who have worked with children with special needs for more than eight years, would use the $25,000 to finish the platform, add privacy protections that meet federal health-information standards and launch a pilot with a care provider.

“For us, it was a chance to show that young people in the Jewish community are building real solutions to real problems, including ones in our own community,” Hoschander said.

Fellig spent her $500 on a director of photography and microphones for her films. Harary “was really, really nice,” she said, and asked mostly about her passion for the project, “which I wasn’t expecting.”

His support meant a lot, she said, because there isn’t much of it for Orthodox women who want to do comedy.

“I’ve definitely faced pushback in my own community pursuing performance arts and comedy and, you know, unladylike things,” she said. “I actually brought that up, and it was nice knowing even somewhat that he could understand a little about Jewish culture.”

With the grand prize, she would produce more sketches and eventually “create longer narrative short films, put them in the festival circuit, get buzz.”

“I think more people should take chances on kids,” Fellig said. “They have really good ideas.”