Some highlights to take away if you're focused on the entrepreneurial lessons from this kid:
- Ability to see the core value proposition: that S-hook with string is the fun part of the claw game, you don't need the complex mechanical arm and flashing lights to make it fun
- Scrappiness: use what you got, he only had his toys so made those the giveaways in his arcade.
- User testing: soccer game wasn't hard enough so put up army guys
- Lean startup: don't build a ticket dispensing machine while you're still testing development, just sit in the box and dispense tickets while you watch the balls fall through
- Pricing: make the upgrade plan really easy to justify to yourself (4 plays for a dollar, 500!!! plays for $2)
- Marketing: he even had the cool web startup t-shirt going!
I'm sitting here with practically unlimited web technology in front of me and all that kid had was cardboard... and I think if the flash mob came to my creation they'd have a lot less fun :)
This is a startup. It has all the salient features of one.