Aaron Heienickle is helping parents sneak business skills into game night — and kids are loving it
Credit: Canva/Motherly
Founder Aaron Heienickle created a card game that teaches kids to invent crazy ideas, and think like entrepreneurs. The best part? It feels like pure fun.
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Picture this: it’s a Tuesday evening, the dishes are mostly done, and your kids are sitting around the table arguing passionately about whether a solar-powered toothbrush or a glow-in-the-dark umbrella is the better invention. They’re laughing. They’re persuading. They’re thinking on their feet. And they have absolutely no idea they’re building the kind of skills that business schools charge six figures to teach.
That’s the magic of Products: The Card Game, the flagship creation from Skypig—a Missouri-based company founded by Aaron Heienickle with a simple but powerful idea: what if you could teach kids to think like entrepreneurs by just playing a card game?
Invent it. Pitch it. Win it.
The concept is deceptively simple. Players draw from a deck of 70 product cards and 180 feature cards to create wildly creative (and sometimes hilariously absurd) inventions. Then they do the part that really matters: they pitch their creation to everyone at the table, making the case for why their product deserves to win.
In the span of a single round, kids are exercising creative thinking, public speaking, persuasion, and problem-solving—without a worksheet or screen in sight. It’s the kind of learning that sticks precisely because it doesn’t feel like learning at all. And with endless combinations of products and features, no two games ever play the same way.
The approach is working. Entrepreneur.com and The Globe & Mail recently ranked Products: The Card Game as the #1 overall entrepreneurship game—a recognition that speaks to both its educational substance and its genuine appeal as a game families actually want to play.
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Why entrepreneurship education matters—earlier than you think
If “entrepreneurship” sounds like a concept better suited to MBA programs than kitchen tables, the research might surprise you. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving are among the top skills needed for the future of work. And a study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 91% of employers rank problem-solving skills as a priority when hiring.
These aren’t future concerns—they’re today’s reality. And the foundation for these skills is built in childhood. As education researchers at Grand Canyon University have noted, entrepreneurship education helps children develop cognitive skills like decision-making and critical analysis, while also strengthening social and emotional skills such as communication, self-confidence, and empathy.
Or, as Motherly has shared in our guide to teaching kids about money at every age, financial literacy and entrepreneurial thinking aren’t extras—they’re essential life skills. The earlier we start weaving them into everyday moments, the more naturally our kids absorb them.
The story behind skypig
Aaron Heienickle didn’t stumble into this. A University of Missouri graduate with a dual focus in marketing and computer science, he launched Skypig in 2020—right when the world was shutting down and families were desperately searching for meaningful ways to connect at home. What started as an entrepreneurship card game quickly grew into something bigger: a mission to teach invention education and creative confidence to the next generation.
Heienickle’s entrepreneurial credentials run deep. He won $10,000 for Skypig through Mizzou’s Entrepreneur Quest program, created Mizzou’s 4impact social entrepreneurship pitch competition, and has taught AI web development courses that reached students as far as the University of South Africa’s Women in Tech program. He doesn’t just talk about making entrepreneurship accessible—he builds the tools to make it happen.
Skypig is also a member of the Invention Education (IvE) Community, and Heienickle has been intentional about partnering with local organizations, universities, and governments (as far as Uzbekistan) to support economic development—bringing the same entrepreneurial energy he teaches through his games into the communities around him.
Beyond game night: from classrooms to boardrooms
What sets Skypig apart from other educational games is that it meets people wherever they are. The Educators Edition comes with a 37-page downloadable lesson plan, printable worksheets, and up to 10 mix-and-match activities designed for students of all ages—making it a turnkey tool for teachers who want to bring entrepreneurship into their curriculum without starting from scratch.
There’s even a company edition built for teams looking to spark entrepreneurial thinking within their organizations—because the skills Products teaches aren’t just for kids. Creative problem-solving, confident communication, and the ability to think on your feet are exactly what today’s workplaces need more of.
But for parents, the sweetest version is the simplest one: the original game, played at your kitchen table, with your kids pitching inventions that make you laugh so hard you forget you’re also teaching them something that could shape their future.
Play is still the best teacher
There’s a reason Motherly keeps coming back to the idea that play is the engine of childhood learning. Research consistently shows that children learn most deeply when they’re engaged, having fun, and exercising their own creativity—not when they’re being drilled on content.
Products: The Card Game taps directly into that. There are no right answers, no memorization, no winning by being the “smartest.” Kids win by being creative, by communicating their ideas convincingly, and by thinking quickly under a little bit of playful pressure. Those are the exact muscles that entrepreneurship requires—and that every child benefits from developing, whether they grow up to start a business or not.
As we explored in our feature on boosting creative play and thinking in kids, the research is clear: creativity sets kids up to be curious, engaged lifelong learners. When we give them tools that nurture that creativity—rather than replace it with passive consumption—we’re investing in who they’re becoming.
Planting seeds for financial confidence
There’s another dimension to what games like Products can do for families, and it connects to something many parents are already thinking about: how do we raise kids who feel confident about money?
Entrepreneurship games don’t teach kids to balance a checkbook—but they do something arguably more foundational. They help kids see themselves as people who create value, who can take an idea and make it real, who understand that solving a problem for someone else is the heart of every business that works. That mindset—the belief that you can build something, not just consume something—is the bedrock of financial literacy. And it’s a lot easier to absorb when you’re laughing about a waterproof pillow with a built-in flashlight.
The game that’s worth adding to your shelf
In a world overflowing with screen time and structured activities, there’s something refreshing about a card game that brings the family together, gets everyone talking (and laughing), and quietly plants the seeds of creative thinking, confident communication, and entrepreneurial problem-solving.
Because the next great inventor, founder, or problem-solver might just be sitting at your kitchen table right now. All they need is a deck of cards and someone who believes in their ideas.
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