When Kansas City’s Kid Rocket Studios launched its first product, “Kung Fu Robot”–an interactive storybook / app featuring a 9-foot-tall, fire-engine-red, kung-fu-fighting robot—it was supposed to be a soft launch.

Thanks to positive media feedback, the app zoomed to 20,000 downloads in the first few weeks after it debuted in 2013. Today, more than 418,000 people have downloaded the app, which introduces new episodes on a regular basis.

John Kreicbergs, Kid Rocket Studios’ president, and Jason Bays, the startup’s creative director and co-founder, talked about the startup during this week’s 1 Million Cups at the Kauffman Foundation.

The startup grew out of Bays’ idea for “Kung Fu Robot,” which he took to 18 publishers before realizing the concept might work better as an app. The startup—which is part of Propaganda3—has gone on to create to other kid-focused apps: Pocket Sitcom, which lets users play classic sitcom sounds, and Image Scrimmage, a photo-based scavenger hunt for smartphones.

“We have a mission here, which is really about launching imagination,” Kreicbergs said.

But Kid Rocket Studios isn’t strictly focused on building apps. Rather, it wants to develop intellectual properties that can be monetized via animation, toys and other ways. A lot of traditional media gatekeepers haven’t really figured out digital media for kids, Kreicbergs said.

Interested in getting an early look at the final release of “Kung Fu Robot”? Visit this link!