About Throwboy

In 2007, Roberto Hoyos hand-sewed 7 plush pillows shaped like Mac icons, seeking to make the perfect gift to impress his geek girl. They were geeky perfection, so much so that when the tech company she worked for blogged about them, the post quickly went viral. Roberto's own site, which at the time only contained photos of the pillows, got so many hits that it crashed. He realized that what had begun as a geekily awesome hand-sewn gift had the potential to be something even bigger.

Over the next year, Roberto, the grandson of a Peruvian seamstress, thought through the idea of turning the fun, geeky pillows into a business, and focused on learning to sew better. He envisioned an empire of soft and peppy pillows, sewn with care in happily familiar shapes: a brand-name company that would create pillows catered towards geeks.

Despite a lack of capital to start a business, Roberto worked with friends, including developers and graphic designers, to build a company. With team effort and a pirated copy of Photoshop, the Throwboy website was launched. The site was a place where people could purchase the icon and chat pillows and learn more about Throwboy.

Throwboy was ultimately built on community, and grew even more successful than Roberto had ever thought possible. This community grew (and continues to grow) through Twitter, YouTube and other social networking websites. Embraced by the internet geek community, Throwboy had found its niche and flourished. Today the iconic Throwboy pillows are available through multiple retailers, and Throwboy has a following of thousands of fellow geeks, who form the Throwboy community.

Thanks to those who have helped us start and to those who were patient enough to wait for us to finish. We're thrilled with how far we've come and can't wait to see what the wonderful world of pillows holds in store for us. We'd love to hear from each and every one of you (except those who don't like us), so send us an email to questions[at]throwboy[dot]com.