Smart Stuff Studios is a family business based in Cary, North Carolina — founded by a former Apple engineer and dad of five who wanted better digital products for families.
Smart Stuff Studios started in a home office in Cary, NC. Tommy Tornroos, a former Apple engineer and dad of five, was frustrated with the digital products available to families. They were either too generic, too expensive, too complicated — or just didn't work the way they were supposed to.
So he started building what he wanted: beautiful, purposeful products that serve real families in real moments of their lives. The first product was Find Luna! — a bilingual interactive book for his kids that turned a simple idea (Where's Wally? meets language learning) into a complete series of 11 books used in schools across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
That first product became the foundation. From there came Memory Keeper (a pregnancy journal that actually gets used), Magical Letters (physical letters from Santa and the Tooth Fairy that feel real), and BabyNames (a curated database of meaningful baby names for curious parents). Each one started as a problem Tommy needed solved for his own family.
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Tommy Tornroos — Founder
Former Apple Engineer · Dad of 5 (with Baby #3 due any day!)
Tommy spent years building products at Apple before realizing he could build better ones — for families, not enterprise clients. He lives in Cary, NC with his wife, their two kids, Baby #3 on the way, and Luna, the Golden Retriever who inspired the Find Luna! book series.
When he's not building products, he's probably coaching his kids' soccer team, walking Luna, or wondering why there's always one more thing to fix.
Every product we build answers one question: "Would I use this for my own family?"
If the answer is anything less than an enthusiastic yes, we go back to the drawing board. That means no dark patterns, no data harvesting, no features added just to say we have them. It means beautiful design that works, content that's actually useful, and experiences that feel like they were made by someone who cared.
We believe digital products for families should be held to a higher standard — because they're shaping how kids relate to technology, how parents engage with their children's development, and how memories get made and kept.
Build digital products that serve real families in the moments that matter — with care, craft, and a genuine desire to make life a little more magical.
"If it's not something we'd give to our own kids, it doesn't ship."
— Tommy Tornroos, Founder
Five percent of every purchase at Smart Stuff Studios goes to pet cancer research, in honor of Luna — the Golden Retriever who inspired the Find Luna! series and has been part of the Tornroos family since the beginning. We believe our pets deserve the same medical breakthroughs that improve human lives. Learn more or donate at ACVIM.org.
Thirteen products across six categories — each one built with the same care and purpose.
We'd love to hear from you — whether you're a parent with a question, a teacher interested in our schools program, or a real estate agent wanting listing videos.
General inquiries: [email protected]
Founder directly: [email protected]
Press & partnerships: [email protected]
From bedtime stories to baby names to listing videos — there's something for every family here.