Matthew Goins got a very special — and very lucrative — early present this holiday season: His company Puzzle Huddle earned a coveted spot on the wildly popular Oprah's Favorite Things list.
It is Puzzle Huddle's second appearance on the list, which was introduced Nov. 1. The first came in 2020, just two years after Goins created Puzzle Huddle to provide more puzzles and games featuring ethnically diverse characters and images.
2020 was a watershed year for the D.C. startup. It hit $1 million in sales amid pandemic-forced isolation, Black Lives Matters protests over the murder of George Floyd and the Oprah nod. The Business Journal first wrote about Puzzle Huddle in August that year.
Oprah, the influential entertainment and lifestyle billionaire, first assembled her list in the 1990s for an episode of her talk show, and it grew into one of her most popular features. Companies on the list, many of which are small businesses, get a heads up to prepare for the onslaught.
“Being featured on the list has the potential to double or triple our expected holiday sales,” Goins told me in an email. “The momentum created by such a dynamic list should continue into Q1-2024.”
Goins, who the Business Journal named a Diversity in Business Awards honoree in 2022, came up with the idea for Puzzle Huddle after buying toys and puzzles for his children and realizing they featured few African-American princesses, pilots and firefighters. He created his own using stock images and cardboard, and went into business when friends started to request them.
They are available online and through stores, and the company has expanded into pillows, blankets and apparel, including T-shirts and sweatshirts. This year Puzzle Huddle also introduced a paid membership portal that allows users to download PDFs of coloring book pages and worksheets.
“We're planning and expect to grow our membership portal and apparel sales significantly in 2024,” Goins said.
Goins started the company with his wife, Marnel Niles Goins, who is dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities at Marymount University. The couple, who met at Howard University, have three children.
