Franci Zidar, CEO of Bird Buddy | CEOs You Should Know

Franci Zidar, CEO of Bird Buddy | CEOs You Should Know

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
So I grew up in Slovenia, which is a central
European country next to Austria and Italy. And what about
the small village by Slovenian standards, So it's.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
A really small town by global standards.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
And so you know, my dad was a founder of
one of the largest national parks in the region, and
he took me out a lot, right, So I spent
both like as a kid just playing with other kids,
most of my time outdoors in nature, right, and sticks
and stones were my toys, and it was amazing. And

(00:38):
I'm sure you have a similar experience of childhood. And
I think that anybody that was kind of born before
the nineties or two thousands or whatever probably.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Had a lot of that in their lives, right.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
So yeah, And I learned a lot about the importance
of preserving habitats and biodiversity from my dad, right, And
I had a passion for that, and I really enjoy
that part of myself, like just knowing, you know, where
I live, what's my place in the world, the impact
that I'm making, and you know, what I can do
to make a positive impact. My kind of you know,

(01:13):
initial school experience was I think pretty standard you know,
primary school, high school. But so my dad is the
odd one out in the family and being like basically
a founder of a of a nature park right where
everybody else in my family and I have two older
sisters and my mom are lawyers, right, so very much

(01:34):
that kind of a you know, it's pretty contrasting, like
two sides of the start.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I'm just going to say, nice job of being the
black sheep of the family.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, percent right, uh and so but but but you know,
having said that, my coming out of high school, right,
I wanted to study law, and not by any pressure
from the family.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
It's not like my mom wanted me to do it
or anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
But I just felt like, I think I can mediate well, well,
I think I can speak well. I think this is
kind of a good career for me. Right, I want
to help people. I want to you know, yeah, mediate
between people and so on. Right, So I went to
law school and I really didn't like it. So I
just didn't enjoy the learning experience.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I didn't enjoy kind of the crowd.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
And I think that the what I've learned later in
life for myself, and I think it's kind of important,
Like even you know, I guess in the past five
to ten years, right, I've learned to kind of embrace
that part of me is that it's really hard for
me to learn things and to do things where I
don't know what the kind of the impact of that is.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Right, So why am I doing this? Right?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
And So after a couple of years in high school
in law school, not very happy my mom. So she
her being the chief attorney in the family, right, she
came to me and said, like, look, Francie, you're not happy, right, Like,
should do something else?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Right, Clearly you're you're not happy, right.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
And she found this school for me and sending me
like an ad for what was at the time like
a creative multimedia school, right, because she knew I liked
the kind of design and be creative and build products
and stuff like that. And I made some videos that
won some local competitions and stuff like that. So she
sent that to me and told me, look, go go

(03:23):
check it out.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I ended up enrolling and studying there, uh, and I
really loved it. I asted and coming out of it,
I weirdly immediately became.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
The head lecturer of that program.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
So after three years, because my head lecturer at the
time quit after I ended the program, and then the
school director came to me and said, look, you do
you want to give this a shot?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Like you clearly are good at.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
It, right, And then it was lecturing for seven years
web web development and design.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Basically, Wow, coming out of that experience.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
That's fantastic. You know, I always appear to appreciate our
parents because I'm a parent too and my kids. The
filmmaker in New York now, she just graduated from Elina,
North Carolina last year, and you and I were talking
offline about having passion and you didn't have a passion
for law, even though you thought you wanted to be
in it, and then you found your passion. But sometimes
our parents have to guide us. And you know, kudos

(04:16):
to your mom for recognizing the baby of the family saying, hey,
he's not happy here, he's gonna be happy to do
it with something else.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
You know, we are of course here to talk about
bird buddy, but before we do that, and this incredible
thing that you've come up with is just extraordinary, and
I think it's life changing to a lot of people
who love their backyard, who love birds, who love the
outdoors and everything but we'll talk a lot about that.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
But what's really cool about looking.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
At your background front Sie, is that you know you've
been entrepreneuri for a long time. And I don't know
if you picked that up from your dad because he
was a founder, but you know, your brain might be
works a little bit different than mine does. I'm pretty linear,
and what comes to what I do in the media
with sports and television, radio and digital stuff like that
and sports scores and watching games where you come up

(05:01):
with ideas and then going to the next level, how
do I implement the idea and how do I make
it a real thing? Can you tell me a little
bit before bird Buddy about being an entrepreneur and you've
worked on some really cool things. Can you kind of
go over your history of that place.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
So basically that kind of story starts sweat effort where
I ended, right, which is bically me kind of lecturing
for for seven years because at the time I also
built like an agency, like a software Dove agency that
builds web apsmobile apps, hoby games, things like that. But
really I wanted to build my own takes right, so
quickly we started kind of creating our own projects and

(05:38):
spinning them out of that company.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Right, and kind of the red line, right.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
And to your point about passion, I think this is critical, like,
and I think it's also obvious, right, but it really
is critical for anything you do in life, right if
you're not passionate about it, like you Obviously there are
things we have to do that we're not passionate about it,
and we do them, and it's fine, right, But if
you want to succeed at something like there have to
be passion for it, right. And my passion clearly was
that kind of transcending digital and physical, right, and getting

(06:09):
people to use digital tools like apps or hardware or
whatever to engage with something that's in real life, right.
And all the startups that I've founded, we we're basically
doing that right. Either it's true kind of gamifying travel
or exploration, right or you know, in the case of
bird Body, really you know, bringing nature closer to you
and helping you notice nature, right. And that's kind of

(06:29):
at the core of everything I've done. And so a
lot of learnings, right, a lot of learnings. And I
think that because my background for the most part is
kind of design and engineering before I became you know,
this entrepreneur that I've not been for about ten years, right,
I've really spent a lot of time just building stuff,
very hands on. So that was kind of my instinct

(06:50):
and one of the things that I've learned is so
it's amazing for you to have that skill set to
be able to build something. It is also a bit
of a danger because you might just building stuff that
nobody needs, right, and you're you're.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Passionate about it, you love it, you want to build it.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, you know, it's interesting you see that because as
I was thinking about this, so you explaining this and
being entrepreneurial and building stuff. It's a little bit like
social media when you you have something and you don't
know what's going to go viral, or maybe you have
a song as a musician and you have no idea
if it's going to be a hit, right, And I
imagine that in a lot of circumstances that when you

(07:24):
build stuff and you've got that entrepreneurial mind, you really
don't know if it's going to stick against the wall, right, You.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Often don't, right.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
There is so as you grow as a as a
professional into space, right, what you learn is how to
validate things and how to fail fast. And it's you know,
it's a trope and a lot of people talk about it,
but it's real, right, Like it's it's you have to
learn to fail fast because the longer you're doing something
that's kind of you know, destined to fail, the more
time you're wasting really, right, uh, And I think that
especially when it comes to building startups and products, and

(07:55):
you know, in the digital space, whether it's app or
hardware and stuff like that, right, there are ways where
you can really kind of try to find an audience,
talk to them, validate things right, and build confidence that
this is worth building, right Because ultimately, so for bird Buddy,
you know, our mission is connecting people with nature, right
and helping them make an impact in their local biodiversity, right,

(08:16):
And I think that are are the only way we
get to make that impact if people want to follow us, right,
if they want to buy our products. So basically it's
critical for us to have that product market fit for
us to achieve that vision. So being careful about building
things that people want is really you know, it's kind
of a critical part of the success with the mission, right.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
All Right, Before we actually talk about what bird Buddy
is and I imagine a lot of people that listening
to this interview right now are googling it and or
already have one like I do. I got one years
years ago when you first started out, and I thought, Wow,
what a great idea.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
This is just fantastic.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
I do want to talk about the idea of it,
because I got just a little puzzle piece of your
dad being a founder of a park. So you were
outside a lot and you had talked about that in
your origin story, so you're obviously noticing nature out there.
But you know, it's really interesting from listen, as long
as man's been around, there's been a bird feeder. And
then of course, you know, we saw hummingbird feeders, and
I know you do both those. And we'll talk about

(09:13):
all your cool products and seeds too, and I want
to talk about that angle as well too, because that's
fascinating that you do that as well and makes a
lot of sense. But tell me about the origin idea
about coming up with this bird feeder. And to be clear, folks,
it's basically a high definition camera that's in the bird
feeder recognizes with AI different types of birds, hundreds of birds,

(09:33):
and basically, you know, can throw this on your phone
very quickly. It basically automatically recognizes it and you get
a snapshot into your bird feeder. And I'm dumbing it
down a little bit and Francie's going to do much
better job explaining it. But can you tell me about
the idea about it, because it's just very very cool,
simple but very cool.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Totally. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
So the company I was building before launching bird Buddy
was a It was a hard up invested in by
snap so snapchat from La right. That was all about
building real world games, right, and it was kind of this
Pokemon Go as a platform, so it allowed anybody to
go and create real world games with elements of chat

(10:13):
fiction and augmented reality.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Again, the goal being trying.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
To get people to go out and kind of play
games outside, right, then engage with things in real life.
That was super hard to scale, right, very hard to
go to market, very hard to find a customer.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
But I still love the idea. It's kind of exciting.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
But after that didn't really kind of pan out the
way I wanted to. I came back to Slovenia and
an old friend of mine over a beer just throws
out an idea of a birdhouse with a camera, right,
And I was very much in that space.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
My head was in that space.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
So like Pokemon go, right, yeah, and collection and and
you know what is a bird if not a pokemon? Right,
it's in the you know, it's colorful, it's beautiful, it migrates.
You'll find different birds in different spaces. There's a lot
to learn about them. It's a really beautiful kind of
vehicle for us to notice nature.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
And I think that the last thing that I'll say
kind of on.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
The core idea of a bird feeder and why birds
I think are so important for us to kind of
rebuild our relationship with nature, right, is that they're pretty
much the last kind of remnant of wildlife in our
daily lives.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
You barely ever see a deer or a squirrel or
something like that, right, But like birds are the only
kind of large taxonomy that actually lives around us. It's
so fleeting, right, it's very hard to engage with. But
they are the last representatives of wildlife.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
That you know, it is on a data basis, right.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
Very cool.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Well, listen, I did at new good job of it
so for our listeners, And how dare you not know
about Birdie Buddy ape. But you're going to know about
bird Buddy right now. If you were to tell everybody
about what the product is, Fronsie, what would that be totally?

Speaker 2 (11:48):
So bird Buddy is a smart bird feeder and its essence, right,
it takes beautiful images and videos of visiting birds, it
recognizes them through AI.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's beautiful collection for you. Right.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
There's a lot more to it, and we're building this
kind of comprehensive experience where one of the kind of
latest and to me really exciting and greatest features is
that you are now able to name a bird. So
if like a northern cardinal visits your bird Buddy like
a couple of times a day and you love it, right,
you can give it a name and then it's Bob.
And then when that bird comes back, you know, we
notify you that Bob came back, right, So we're really

(12:22):
trying to build a tangible connection with kind of the
nature around your home.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
So that's bird Buddy, the smart bird feeder.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
At the heart of it is almost you can think
of it like a ring doorbell, right. It's it's custom design,
so it takes beautiful snapshots from up close in portrait format,
So it's a yeah, there's a lot of kind of
design decisions and technology that went into it to make
it really kind of fit this use case.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
But at the heart of it is that.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Camera, and then around it we're building new products, right,
So the smart bird feeder was the first one we've
just started shipping. You mentioned it, right, the hummingbird feeder
in June, and then bird Bath is coming online in
Q four. And then another partt that I'm excited about.
We're calling it the Nature Station, which is effectively like
a mounting station for all of our products with a

(13:07):
base which is for pollinator plants. And we've partnered with
Gardens for Wildlife, which is a national wildlife federation startup right,
and they're shipping life plants that are native plants that
support butterflies and bees and other you know, life in
your yard. So we're really trying to look at your
backyard holistically, right or at your garden and help you

(13:28):
connect and notice it.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
So, Franzie, I know that you're not uber or left
and going up against the taxi industry. I get that
part of it, But would you classify yourself as a
disruptor or not?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
So that's an interesting question, right, I think I think
that the reality is that we've built a new category. Yes,
So yeah, it's not like we're disrupting something that has
been there and all of a sudden, it's we're trying to,
you know, make it different.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
It is, you know, and it's also why I love
what we're building. Right. People are past it about nature.
They're passionate about birds, right.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Fun fact, backyard birding is the second largest outdoors hobby
in the US.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Not second gardening.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Not surprised, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Seventy million people in the US.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Few birds are homes, right, So that's it's a huge
hobby and we're building on top of it, right, We're not.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
We're not disrupting it.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
We're not you know, yeah, trying to make away with it.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
We're really trying to enhance it, right.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
And the only reason I ask you is that you know,
when we were talking offline, there have been bird feeders
for a very long time and hummingbird feeders. You've taken
it to a digital level and it's just fun. It
once again, very simple, but just brilliant in itself. I'm
so curious about this. When did you and your team
know that you had something special. Whatever that means that

(14:44):
you knew that maybe we've got something very special or
when when did that happen.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
August twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
And what wasn't and what was that moment?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
So basically, you know, I have experienced stuff. I've built
a website for what at the time was a completely
different looking product, right, but it was a smart bird feeder,
and in its essence put it online to try to
get people on a newsletter.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Right. Look, we're you know, thinking about building this.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Here all the feature that we're trying to make and
sign up, you know, leave your email to learn more
about this project, right, And we had fifty thousand people
on that newsletter within a month.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
And then as.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
We were engaging and reaching out and asking people for
feedback on design decisions and all that stuff, the engagement
was off the charts, right.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
So within the first month.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
After bringing that to market in a very kind of
MVP minimum viable product way, right, it really has shown
insane signs of product market fit.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
So another company out there that's really changed a lot
of lives that I'd like you to expound on a
little bit, Fronci is Kickstarter. And I know that was
a big part of getting things going. So tell us
about working with Kickstarter, why you did it, and how
to help the company early on?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Totally.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, So that US letter was basically the first step
towards our Kickstarter campaign, right, And it was really building
an audience, building a community of people that you know,
love what we're building, are interested in it, want to
help be a part of it, want to help build it. Right,
And so that was August twenty and twenty, and then
we were considering whether we want to take that to

(16:25):
crowdfunding or not.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Right. The reality is that.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Building a hardware company, or building hardware at scale is
insanely expensive, right, And even you know, a successful Kickstarter project,
it's really hard to pull off because there are so
many costs to bring that product to market. But yeah,
we were extremely fortunate that you know, that initial spark,
that initial wave of excitement really translated into a massive

(16:50):
Kickstarter campaign for us.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
They were a great partner. They continue to be a
great partner.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Interesting that you mentioned that, because just today we had
one of their representatives that was the first that I
got to chat with visit our office that you know,
and I said, like an hour with her to take
her through our future roadmap.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
They continue to be a partner, right, and we continue.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
To kind of try to figure out ways as we
consider what the category really looks like and what we're
kind of building for the future right where it kind
of takes arter fits in.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Just fascinating stuff. So you tell me if I'm wrong
about this. I'm just going to make a laming guess
in this. But I would say that after we were
going through the horrific times of post COVID and having
to be at home and you came up with this,
people's lives were changing. Obviously we were at home a
lot more. But as you were coming out of this product,

(17:39):
I'd like to think that you got more eyeballs on
this than you probably normally would have because people were
spending more time at home and they were looking for
diversions and things like that.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Would I be correct?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
So that was the assumption, and to a point of
concern out of the gate, right, Okay, this is a
moment in time, and this is because of COVID, people
are much more likely to engage with the product like this.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Right.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Fortunately it didn't turn out to be that way, right,
So our growth has been you know, crazy from twenty
twenty one to twenty twenty four so to this year, right,
and our ambitions are kind of kind of continued to
basically two x the business every year for the next
couple of years. Right.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
So yeah, it's it's for sure it helped.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
And I think that there was something that that initial
momentum that was enabled right by the unique situation that
the world was in at the time.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
But fortunately for us, this is not the main thing
that helped succeed or that really kind of informed that.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Right.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
So if I can take what you're inferring is is
that there was a little bit worry after we got
back to whatever our new normal was that the interest
would go down, but it obviously didn't.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
So yes, even during COVID peak COVID, Right, the concern was, Okay,
this success because of that, right, or are we going
to translate this into a sustainable, long term business?

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right? That fear just didn't materialize.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, So we clearly there is massive demand for a
product like ours, and I think that because the problem persists. Right, So,
people want to reconnect with nature. It's seven out of
ten people feel like they're disconnected. Right, It's a major
issue and this is COVID or no COVID, right, it's
just a fact.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
So one of the other fascinating things that is very
clear on the website are seeds that you offer. Now,
this really intrigued me, and I'll tell you why, because
you've come up with this very cool, unbelievable product. But now, frency,
you're in the seed business, and I don't know how
much you knew about seeds going into this, but I imagine

(19:39):
it's its own animal and it's all different thing.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
But it makes sense. You wanted to have people.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Buy through your store with the bird buddy, so I
get that part of it. But this is a whole
new business plan that you had to look into to
make it easier for your clients. Yet I don't know
if it was a great unknown territory, but please tell
us about that. I thought brilliant that you sell seeds
on the website with the feeder, But tell me about
getting into actually doing something like that for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
So it seems like a like a natural fit, right,
It's almost like an Espresso pods, Right, Yeah, you buy
an espress machine, you need espresso pods.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Right, you buy a bird about you need seeds.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
So from that point of view, it was just like
kind of an obvious next thing to do. We partnered
with a company to help us kind of bring that
to market.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Right.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
It was for us the only reasonable thing or path
to go by, right, because it's us investing in kind
of vertical integration and build at all ourselves would be
a major investment, right, and all in the goal to
try to kind of, you know, provide our customers with
an end to end experience right where you are with
bird Buddy, from you know, the day you buy it

(20:49):
and use it to how you feel it and all that, right,
And it's it's really we are trying to figure out still, right,
what a perfect kind of loop within that experience is.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
And and seeds are really they're a very nascent product
for us.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
It's exciting to see the traction and all that, but
it's really something we're trying to figure out how it
fits into the holistic bird body experience.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
So at the end of the conversation, we're going to
give the website to everybody and you can check everything
out if you already haven't googled it. But why don't
you tell everybody again about all the great products that
you have because it's not just the one thing, you've
got several.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yes, totally, yes.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
So bird Buddy currently is already a bit of a
product family. It's an ecosystem, right. The first product we
started shipping was a smart bird feeder originally called bird Buddy.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's now it has a companion now on humming bird
feeder side.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
So in June we started shipping a hummingbird feeder, which
is a beautiful product, right, And hummingbirds are such beautiful
birds that have such unique characteristics and seeing them up
close is even to something's not even more magical than
other types of birds.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Right.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
In Q four, a bird bath will join that product family. Right,
A weird amount of innovation went into the bird bath.
If it's very important for the water flow to be constant,
so we have to design a pump that actually works,
because most of them don't. Right. So yeah, but it's
a product that we're super proud of and start shipping
and Q four and to tie it all together, you know,

(22:16):
but what I mentioned earlier is we will start shipping
what we call a nature station, which is a mounting
station for.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
All of these products to live on.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
It's a beautiful piece of kind of hardware that goes
into your backyard right with what we call a pollenator
pot at the base for native plants and berries to
provide kind of shelter and habitat for local butterflies, bees, birds,
and so on.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
You know, I was thinking from somebody who's from a
different country and now working you know, with Americans, but worldwide.
And this is the cool thing about your product is
that it doesn't discriminate anybody. Anybody around the world can
buy and enjoy your product. Where you're changing lives for
passion for something different in the backyard or where everybody

(22:58):
wants to put it. Listen, when you're an entrepreneur, I
know that it's not always about making money. You are
you've got a great product, but it must be fulfilling
to you and your team that everybody around the world
who tries one of your products is better off for
it because you're doing something cool and different.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
It's bringing enjoyment to there.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
And listen, folks, we always talk about COVID and post
COVID and it's a difficult world out there and the
world's on fire, YadA, YadA, YadA.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
I get all that. So when you are able to
enjoy something at your home. Fancy.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
I just I imagine it must be fulfilling that you know,
you're making people happy out there with your product, would
I be correct?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
One hundred percent? And I think that in ways that
even surprise us.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
So one of the more recent learnings for us is
or was how bird Buddy is a tool for families
to get together, which kind of crazy to me.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Right. So half of our customers buy bird Buddy is
a gift.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, And so you know those customers are into kind
of twenty five to forty five age group, right, and
they give it very often to a parent or to
a grandparent, right. And the way bird Body works is
that when you set it up, you can invite people
to your bird Body experience. And we've had so many
people reach out to us and tell us it's the
first time in years that I'm engaging with my dad
or with my mom on a regular basis and we're

(24:16):
talking about birds. Right. So yeah, you know, a part
of it is just you know, helping people connect with nature.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Right.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
But one of the things that's really emerging as a
beautiful behavior for us that we're trying to now figure
out if we can somehow enhance it. Right, is this
family bonding that's happening around bird Buddy as a product,
because effectively, again, you buy it for a parent, right,
and then you go back to you know wherever like
New York Or's you know, and then but you say connected, right,
you say connected to that product in your home and

(24:44):
you enjoy the same nature that your family does. Right.
And it's yeah, So it's beautiful and it's super fulfilling
and in ways that kind of surprises you know.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Well, listen, I've really enjoyed this conversation. And once again,
I know a lot of people have probably googled bird Buddy,
but let's give everybody the website so they can check
it out.

Speaker 4 (24:58):
And by the way, the website's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
It's easy to navigate, it's easy to buy off of there,
along with your seeds and all the different products you have.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
What's that website for our listeners.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
It's birdboddy dot com orody dot com. Yeah, it's a
beautiful websit verry.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Cool thing that Listen, it's thrilled to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
I just I'm in awe of people like you that
come up with great ideas but then have the courage
to implement them because it's not cheap to do it.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
It takes a long time.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
And then, as you and I talked off the top frenzy,
you just don't know if it's gonna work out or not,
and you're gonna make it.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
You just don't and.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
It's just thrilling for you and your team and everybody.
I I just it's fun. I like it when people
come up with cool things that everybody can enjoy out
there and listen, the last thing I'll lead with everybody
because I'm not a bird lover and I don't go
bird watching or anything like that, but I can tell
you now that I'm always checking out my phone and
the pictures and it's just cool. It's fun. And if

(25:58):
you've got birds in your backyard, road people do no matter.
I live in northwest d C. Now, but I've got
a ton of birds that flock around in the back
of our condominium. It's it's fantastic. So I enjoy the
product and it's really cool. Listen, continue success to you
and your team. Uh just wonderful that you're doing so well,
and we really appreciate you joining us on CEOs.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
You should know I appreciate it too. Thank you very
much for having me on. Yeah, thanks Lennys.