May 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Bird Buddy’s CEO, Franci Zidar, shares how the company is bringing nature closer to home with their smart bird feeder. 🐦✨
Learn more about Bird Buddy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steven (00:01):
Welcome to the Four Worlds Podcast from Tomorrow's
World Today.
We're diving into the latest intech, science, and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries and the world of
inspiration, to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation, andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow.
(00:23):
Francie, thank you so much forjoining us and hopping on the
show.
We're really excited to haveyourself and BirdBuddy on with
us
Franci (00:32):
thank you yeah i'm very excited to be here uh always
great to talk about bird buddyand meet people who are
interested in
Steven (00:38):
bird buddy absolutely and i think you're reaching the
the right target audience forthat one let's jump right into
it with talking about who youare and who bird buddy is
Franci (00:49):
okay so uh my name is francie i'm one of the
co-founders and the ceo of thebusiness uh i am for whatever
reason, super excited aboutgetting people connected with
nature through digital stuff.
I've founded a couple of otherbusinesses before BirdBuddy that
were all very much in thisarea, right?
So getting people excited andconnected with real things,
primarily nature through digitalkind of means.
(01:11):
Yeah, BirdBuddy started in 2020with a beautiful Kickstarter
campaign, right?
That was a very, like, it wasjust amazing.
Like thinking back, right?
How many people actually camein in to support us and to
engage.
We built like an audience ofabout 50,000 people in a matter
of two months as we kind ofstarted to go out with this
(01:33):
idea.
Right.
And it was really kind of anorganic thing that just kind of
happened once we started showingit to people and get people
engaged.
Launched the Kickstarter late2020, funded it in 2021.
So that's when you complete itbecause it was like a two month
campaign.
And then, yeah, very quicklygrew to where we are today,
which is a team of about 60, 70people doing amazing work and
(01:55):
shipping hundreds of thousandsof units that get people
connected with nature andexcited about birds.
I feel extremely fortunate tobe able to build this business.
Steven (02:04):
You took my next question out of my mouth.
How did BirdBuddy start?
But hearing about that journey,that very quick journey that it
took What did that mean to you?
And how did that feel when youcome up with this idea, get it
ready on Kickstarter and thenquickly get it and make it come
to fruition?
What was that feeling like?
Franci (02:23):
It's such a blur, honestly, because it was all so
intense and so fast.
Building a hardware business ishard, period.
Whether you love it or you hateit, it's easier if you love it,
but it's hard regardless.
So there was a very short, likethe honeymoon period was very
short, I'm trying to say.
right so i was like yay this isa beautiful business people
(02:47):
love the product right now wehave to build it and then you
know everything happens which isextremely uh intense and
complex kind of trying to pulltogether everybody that's
required to be able to buildthis product right which is a a
uh not a you know supersophisticated uh like
electronically type of productbut it's sophisticated enough
and it's a complete noveltyright you have nothing to lean
(03:08):
against right there was noproduct like bird buddy there
were no products helping peopletake photos and AI recognition
of birds and nature around thehome.
We were really trying to inventthis from scratch.
That was hard.
Even today, being the categoryleader and a bit of a market
(03:28):
maker in this space is actuallyhard because you have to really
think hard about what peopleactually want and then try to
build it.
Steven (03:36):
Just hearing about that and hearing that journey,
hearing how it all started,let's go into what a eventually
BirdBuddy became and what youdo, what you make.
Just give us a quick overviewof some of the products and what
they do and how it connectspeople with nature.
Franci (03:54):
Totally.
Yeah.
So BirdBuddy is a connectedbird feeder, right?
It's effectively you can thinkof it as a bird feeder with a
ring type doorbell camera,right?
That as a bird lands, it takesphotos, it sends you a
notification, it recognizes thespecies through AI.
And it also well, at thispoint, it's a pretty compelling
experience.
Actually, it started out as apretty kind of bare bones as
(04:14):
I've described it.
But right now, there's a lot ofmeat on that bone as well.
You can go pretty deep, you canengage, you can learn, right?
You can share.
It is very much a familyexperience is what we learned,
right?
BirdBuddy is a householdproduct.
People very often buy it for aloved one, for a spouse or a
parent, right?
And they enjoy it together,which is beautiful, right?
And we've had a lot of peopleshare.
(04:35):
So for example, like a childbuying it for a parent, we've
had a lot of people sharestories about how they're now
texting their parents more thanthey have in a year years
because they're both connectedto this, you know, beautiful
product and they both got thesame content.
And then you chat aboutnorthern cardinals and flickers
and all that stuff.
And it's really, there's a lotof emergent stuff that happened
over the past couple of yearsthat we didn't, you know, quite
(04:57):
expect and they surprised us,but they're beautiful.
But yeah, so that's the heroproduct, right?
It's a bird feeder with acamera.
From the beginning, the coredesign intent behind the product
was that the camera is modular.
We call it a nature cameffectively.
You know, the purpose or kindof the ambiguity there is
intentional because we want thisproduct to be broader, right?
It's not just for birds.
It's also for, you know,potentially butterflies and bugs
(05:19):
and, you know, all nature onyour home.
We've launched a hummingbirdfeeder last year, right?
We're now going to startshipping the birdbath product.
So, and even the birdbath, Ialmost kind of see as a water
product, right?
Because it's a nutrition forall wildlife, like butterflies
need water, right?
And all sorts of features needwater in your backyard.
But yeah, bottom line, helpingpeople connect with all nature
(05:40):
in their home, around theirhome, right?
And we're trying to design theecosystem in a way that is very
flexible and adds value to ourcustomers kind of across
multiple years yeah
Steven (05:50):
yeah it's clear that you have a passion for this and
that idea to create thisobviously came from somewhere we
have four worlds here that welike to discuss inspiration
creation innovation andproduction and the theory is
that all of those drive oneanother so when we're talking
about this idea what inspiredthat creation
Franci (06:12):
so i mean that's That could be a very easy story or it
could be a super complex story.
I can just say like two wordsand I can explain it and the
other one is pretty long, butI'll try something in between.
So effectively, BirdBuddyhappened over a beer.
I came back from LA in 2019because one of my previous
(06:32):
startups was invested in bySnapchat, right?
So I spent some time in Veniceworking with them.
Beautiful product, I still loveit, but it was very hard to
find like a proper productmarket fit for.
And I came back to Sloveniajust looking for something to
do, right?
And we were drinking beerDecember 2019, and an old friend
of mine just casually throwsout this idea of a birdhouse
with a camera, right?
It stuck to me immediatelybecause the product I was
(06:54):
building previously, or thestartup I was working on
previously with Snap, right, wasabout creating kind of these
Pokemon Go experiences in thereal world, right?
So a platform for buildingexperiences in the real world
with elements of chat fictionand augmented reality and
location-based.
And the purpose was to getpeople to engage with the
outside, right, and to kind ofuse digital to get you to engage
(07:15):
with the physical.
And this is exactly whatBirdBuddy is, right?
And that's always been mypassion.
Any project that I've everworked on was kind of in this
direction.
I guess it has something to dowith the fact that my dad was a
founder of one of the largestnational parks where I come
from, right?
So in Slovenia.
He took me out a lot, you know,and got me excited about
conservation and biodiversityand, you know, preserving
(07:35):
habitats.
And as I grew up, I fell inlove with all things digital.
And this is kind of my, youknow, I guess, passion to try to
merge those two thingstogether.
So in It kind of felt like ithad to happen that way, but it
also feels kind of random.
But at the end of the day, it'sprobably not very random,
right?
Steven (07:50):
Right.
Look, everything happens for areason.
It seems like it's more thanoften over a drink or two.
So we love that.
So just hearing about thatstory of how you were created,
where that idea came from.
Let's talk about the productsitself.
You know, one of your mainstaysis the SmartBird feeder.
We touched a little bit onthat.
(08:12):
Dive a little more deep intoits capabilities and what users
could actually experience withit.
Franci (08:18):
Totally.
Yeah.
So BirdBuddy is a smart birdfeeder.
It takes photos of birds.
It recognizes them through AI.
One of the core pillars of theexperience today is that you can
invite more than one person toyour product.
So basically, if somebody buysit for themselves, for their
household, or again, it's boughtas a gift, right?
Everybody can enjoy the sameexperience.
And we're kind of really tryingto double down on that social
(08:41):
piece of it, right?
There is is a bespoke andsomething we've invested in
quite a bit, which right now issomething that probably you can
do with various different LLMsreally well.
And we're also trying toinvestigate that.
But we have custom profiles foreach bird, right?
So basically, if you kind ofcollect or unlock Northern
Cardinal or a Blue Jay, right,you will get a custom profile
(09:05):
that has this, I think, a prettyfun mix of educational and fun
content, right?
That's not too dry.
One thing we really try toavoid is to link people to
weekend Wikipedia, right?
Because that's just not, youknow, we're trying to get people
excited about nature and we'retrying to kind of reduce the
barrier of entry, you know, ormake it just, you know,
compelling enough and richenough that it's nice, but not,
you know, too overwhelming.
(09:26):
But yeah, so you can learnabout birds.
You can connect with peoplethat are kind of in your social
circle, right?
Especially people that youreally love, that you're sharing
kind of this experience with.
And then one of the things thatwe're right now trying to
explore that's kind of not onthe hardware product side,
because on the hardware productside, the exploration for us is
really how much nature can weunlock, right?
(09:47):
So how much we can allow you toget close to everything that's
living around your home.
There's like a hundreddifferent species of life around
like an average US household,right?
And we just want to unlock asmuch of that as we can.
But on the software side, thegoal is to try to connect people
through the BirdBuddyexperience that are also outside
of your household, right?
One thing we've learned fromour customers is that people
really care about the naturethat's in their neighborhood,
(10:10):
right?
Especially that's around theirhome, but also in their
neighborhood but you are muchless connected.
And that makes a lot of sense,right?
But it's not something that'smaybe like immediately obvious.
You feel a lot less connectionwith something that's like in
another state or country, right?
It's nice to look at like a BBCor whatever documentary, right?
Where there's like, yeah, someexotic species that you're
learning about, right?
(10:30):
But if it's kind of generalpurpose nature, right?
Or something that's prettybroad, right?
You're not gonna really paythat much attention if it's not
really around your home.
So really trying to figure outhow to get people connected
within the BirdBuddy platformthat are close to each other,
that really care about kind ofthe same nature that's close to
them, right?
That's kind of at the core ofit.
Other than that, right now,family is the main unit.
(10:52):
That's a beautiful experience,right?
Really sharing the love ofnature that's within the
household.
Steven (10:56):
No, that's really special because it really
connects you with what's rightoutside your door.
You use BBC documentaries as anexample.
That may be in a differentcountry, but it really makes it
special when it's in your ownbackyard.
It really does.
Yeah, totally.
And talking about those speciesand in unlocking them.
I loved your reference tosomething like Pokemon Go
unlocking these species.
(11:17):
Where does the speciesidentification end?
Is it endless?
How many does it identify?
Franci (11:24):
Well, that's, you know, I guess fortunate for us, right,
is that BirdBuddy has, youknow, we started in 2020.
We started shipping product in2022.
This is kind of peak period forAI evolution and innovation,
right?
So effectively, we are a majorbeneficiary of all the
investment that's being done ingen AI and various different
(11:47):
LLMs around the world right now.
So I can't give you a straightanswer to that, because I don't
know.
I don't know where that ends,ultimately.
But right now, it seems prettyendless, which is really
compelling and reallyinteresting to me.
And really, I think for us as abusiness, but also for us as
the source of value for ourcustomers, it's so exciting.
Because it's just like everyday, it feels like there's a new
(12:09):
door that opens on what kind ofvalue you can provide.
Because ultimately nature, isever changing, right?
It's evolving.
It's super interesting.
You don't know much about it,right?
And, you know, up until I guesstoday, right?
Or maybe like a couple of yearsago, you have to know somebody
who was kind of specialized andknew how to really take you on
that journey, right?
AI these days can really act asthat, you know, intermediary,
(12:31):
right?
So we're really trying tofigure out ways where we can
leverage AI that is really notjust for kind of recognizing
species, right?
Because that is reallysomething we can probably do,
you know, pretty easily movingforward for any species, right?
But really adding that layer ofvalue, interpretation, an
opinion, some sort of guidanceto get you excited and to get
(12:51):
you on the journey is probablywhere AI will add the most value
over the next couple of yearsfor BirdBuddy as a product or a
brand, but also for other peoplewho are in the space of making
something that's super beautifuland compelling, but also very
complex, more understandable anddigestible.
That's where
Steven (13:06):
AI does really well.
And it's obvious that you'reutilizing AI in a very special
way.
And at CES this year, you werepretty busy kind of launching
and teasing at some newproducts.
If you want to talk a littlebit about that, the Wonder
brand, the Petal, Wonder Blocks,give us a little bit of
information about those.
Franci (13:24):
Totally.
So quickly on Wonder, right?
Like the whole idea, and thisis something that we've kind of
struggled with for a while.
Like we've always seenBirdBuddy as a entry-level
product, right?
Helping people connect with allnature around their home,
right?
And we've also always struggledon like, okay, what does the
brand look like?
How do we kind of evolve,right?
because BirdBuddy clearly isfor birds.
(13:46):
You know, you can't like have aBirdBuddy that's for, I don't
know, like butterflies.
Squirrels or something, yeah.
Or squirrels, yeah, correct,yeah.
So there was always this searchfor something that makes sense
as an umbrella brand, right,where we can kind of, you know,
have like a broader mandate ofwhat we're actually here to do,
right?
And Wonder came up last year.
I think it's wonderful.
(14:07):
I think it's beautiful.
In essence, right, there's kindof the underlying thesis,
right, is that the world is fullof wonder.
Everything around us is reallywonderful.
Nature is around you.
It's wonderful.
And us humans are also full ofwonder.
We wonder about nature.
What is it?
How does it work?
Why does it do that?
There are so many questionsthat are there.
(14:28):
And it's really hard for us toget to the bottom of that or
really kind of, I don't know,exercise that muscle or really
go deep because there's nobodythere to take us on the journey.
It ends almost there unless yougo on Google and search it out.
And that can be a pretty dryexperience.
So for us, what I've just saidkind of outlines what we are
here to do as a brand withWonder, right?
So birds are a beautiful, likea gateway product for that,
(14:51):
right?
But ultimately, Petal, which isthe product you mentioned,
right, that we've hinted at orkind of teased at CES this year,
is I guess the first productthat really kind of doubles down
on that concept, which is it'sa nature camera, right?
It's a nature camera that'stiny, beautiful, right?
You can put it anywhere aroundyour home.
It'll understand what natureit's looking at and it'll
interpret it for you, right?
(15:11):
It'll give you daily alerts.
If there's beautiful contentlike butterflies flies bees bugs
you know you name it birdsright it'll share that it'll
also tell you if flower iswaning or if it's flowering and
you should go check it out rightso really you know basically
trying to bring that wonder toyou instead of you having to
search it out, right?
And connect you with nature atthe same time in a really kind
of more meaningful and deep way.
(15:32):
So that's Petal, right?
And it's a beautifulflower-shaped camera that I hope
we can get like a really goodgrowth with because I just want
it.
I want it for myself.
I want it for our customers.
It's a beautiful product.
And on the other side, there'sWonder Blocks, which is Petal is
kind of like a camera thattakes shots of all the action
and it kind of capturesbeautiful stuff.
(15:53):
Wonder Blocks are the stage,right?
We're trying to make it supereasy for our customers to have a
space in their yard, in theirgarden that's for nature, right?
And it's for butterflies andit's for bees and it's for bugs
and it's for flowers.
And basically Petal, you justput Petal, you know, on top of
it, right?
It captures all this beautifulaction and evolution and kind of
daily happenings.
(16:13):
And then Wonder Blocks are, youcan think of it like a really
beautiful, playful, modular set,like almost like a, you know, a
base for planners, right?
It also has has these modulesfor bee hotels and bug hotels
and butterfly feeders.
And yeah, to me, it feels likean adult Lego set for building
(16:33):
beautiful natural spaces, right?
And they work in tandem.
Steven (16:37):
So what's really interesting about that is
focusing on insects, theirecosystems.
There's a lot of bad stigma,right?
Around bees, around bugs.
So how does this kind of openup people's interest in these
insects, in their role in anecosystem, in their role in a
wildlife.
Franci (16:55):
100%.
And I think that this issomething that we'll have to
figure out.
I don't have an answer to thatyet.
So I know that even for birds,right?
So I'll use squirrels as anexample because I think they're
a great example in this case.
So our customers, right?
So bird buddy customers, peoplethat buy a bird buddy, smart
bird feeder, people that feedbirds in general don't really
(17:18):
like squirrels that much, right?
And the reason for that is thatyou put seeds in a bird feeder,
whatever bird feeder, andsquirrels come and they mess it
up, they destroy your birdfeeder potentially, right?
And it's just a, you only seemess coming out of it, right?
What happens if you have a birdbuddy, and we've seen that with
a lot of our customers, whichis kind of, again, something
that we didn't expect, but it'sbeautiful, is people tell us
(17:38):
bird buddy has changed ourattitude towards squirrels,
because, okay, we see a mess,but we also have really cute
photos that come with it, right?
So basically, you know,bringing people closer to that,
right, and making themappreciate it, seeing the
personality in these kind oftiny little creatures, right,
really changes the perception ofit, right?
And it's no longer, to yourpoint, like an insect, right?
Because the insect really haslike a bad connotation, right?
(17:59):
But it's like a beautifulbutterfly or it's a bug or it's
a, you know, caterpillar or likeit's a, you know, bee.
All of these things are reallyspecial, right?
And the more you know aboutthem, but again, you know,
knowing is not like a Wikipediaarticle, but it's like a very
carefully dosed, you know,stream of information, the more
you appreciate it, right?
And beautiful photos help aswell.
(18:20):
So that's kind of the bet,right?
Is that we can do for bugs whatwe've done for squirrels
Steven (18:25):
you see and that's kind of what i was was asking and and
i think that it's going to dothat job in my opinion i think
it's gonna you know open uppeople's minds about the little
parts of the ecosystem andlittle parts of the wildlife
that we may forget or maybe alittle scared of
Franci (18:42):
yeah totally right and we take it for granted but it's
like it's a critical piece ofthe biodiversity around us right
so there's there's a lot oftalk about the you know die off
of bees right and and otherimportant pollinators and it's a
like that is is actually a hugeagricultural issue as well.
You know, there are hugebudgets for agricultural
companies, right, that are allabout supporting pollinators,
(19:03):
right?
But that's for business, right?
And here, like, you know, withWonder, with Petal, with Wonder
Blocks, we're kind of trying todemocratize that a little bit,
right, and give everybody thetools to be a part of that
solution.
And they actually can, right?
If everybody had, like, alittle bit of a space for nature
in their yard, and all itreally takes is, like, a flower
bed, right, with native plantsand berries and things like
(19:24):
that.
Life comes if you have that.
We're trying to make that supersimple and maybe even beautiful
and compelling from a kind ofproduct experience point of
Steven (19:32):
view.
Which is a great point andseamlessly goes into my next
question.
How does BirdBuddy aim to kindof contribute to bird
conservation and scientificresearch and wildlife
conservation in general?
Franci (19:43):
Totally.
So the the biggest impact thatwe're already making and I think
we'll always be making is justgetting people to appreciate it.
Right.
So getting people close,getting people to connect is
you're changing kind of heartsand minds effectively.
Right.
So people that buy BirdBuddy,right, all they do is talk about
birds then.
They're really just by thenature of having it and
(20:06):
engaging.
Right.
They become an ambassador forbirds.
Right.
So that's I think that'sbeautiful on its own.
And ultimately, what you needto do to drive change is to
change people's perceptions andtheir intents and things like
that.
So I think that's the numberone thing that we're doing.
And I think that's always goingto be the least tangible
because that's hard to quantify,right?
But I think that ultimately themost important impact that
(20:27):
we'll ever make.
So the other piece of it is wehave a ton of data, right?
Like I think at this point, wehave like 2 million birds per
day detected by cameras, right?
And we have yet to figure outexactly what the best way to
engage with academia is to makethe best use of that data sets,
right?
Or those data sets.
But We've seen our customersactually take that data because
it's live.
(20:47):
People can download it and theycan use that data to analyze
bird migration pattern changes,bird population changes.
The more that global warmingand climate change in general
creates major changes inhabitats, the more that's
important because it's prettyhard for analog ways of
(21:08):
measuring bird populationchanges and bird migration
pattern changes is you have tocapture a bird, you have to ring
it, you have to release it, andyou have to capture it again,
right?
And look at the ring.
So that is extremely laborintensive.
It's expensive.
It's also not super, you know,scalable.
And it's something that we canwork around and help make
better, right?
And it's something we'vealready done.
But like, keep in mind, right?
BirdBuddy has been on themarket for two years, right?
(21:31):
It's a relatively new concept.
It's a relatively new product.
And it'll take a while for, youknow, researchers and academia
to kind of catch up and startreally leveraging this data as
much as they can,
Steven (21:41):
right?
That was exactly my next point.
I mean, this is still, youknow, at the faces of it, a very
young company.
So there's still so much roomto gather that data and try to
contribute to other things forconservation efforts as well.
Do you have any personalstories or maybe someone close
to you with someone's experienceusing Bird Buddy and how they
(22:05):
connected with nature?
Franci (22:05):
Totally.
Yeah.
I was just in Phoenix with afamily that has gotten to
appreciate exactly what I saidearlier.
So they'll live in like anoutskirts of Phoenix.
They have a bird buddy.
I think they got it as a gift.
Before having a bird buddy,they, especially the mom, I
(22:27):
think really didn't appreciatebirds as much because it was
only doves, like morning doves.
And it wasn't really pleasantfor them.
So they got a bird buddy.
And so I was blown away by thediversity of species that they
have in Arizona and in Phoenix,like in general.
Because they have a beautifullypositioned house on like the
edge of the desert with like acouple of bushes.
(22:47):
And we were kind of standingthere and looking at the bird
body.
And I think I saw like seven,eight beautiful different
species of birds visiting whilewe were chatting.
Right.
So the bottom line is they wentfrom a bird's cupcake or
whatever into a bird lovingfamily.
And again, it's really, youknow, it's a big piece of the
(23:09):
family conversation, which iskind of beautiful.
And then there are otherinstances where, again, people
reaching out to us and tellingus their stories, right?
How important BirdBuddy is forthe people in their care at
hospitals, right?
Or hospices or schools, right?
Where people just can't go out,right?
And they can't engage and theycan't connect.
And having a BirdBuddy that'soutside that they can see,
(23:31):
right?
But then have this content cometo their phone is beautiful,
right?
And it's like things like thisare things you don't expect,
right?
But I guess are things thatmatter the most at the end of
the day when you think about theimpact you're making with the
product that you're building Andthere are a lot of stories like
this that are veryinspirational, I guess.
Steven (23:51):
Right.
I mean, it just opens up somany avenues.
I mean, just as the example, asan education purpose, having it
in a classroom and putting iton a projector or something like
that.
It really just opens up somuch.
So we're here at Tomorrow'sWorld today.
We love sustainability.
Where does sustainability rankin BirdBuddy's business model?
(24:11):
I know there's the solar roofattachment that could use.
Are there any other sustainableefforts that you'd really like
to highlight?
Franci (24:17):
So I'll be honest, it ranks too low, right?
It ranks too low, but that is anecessary evil for like getting
product to market, right?
Sure.
I would lie if I said that wecould, we had the opportunity to
kind of prioritize sustainablesupply chain and all that in the
first couple of years, becauseit is just, it is impossible.
(24:38):
It is becoming, however, like amajor point of conversation in
the business, right?
Your point, there's a solarroof that people can use.
They don't have to chargeeverybody almost ever, depending
on how much sun they have,right?
The fact that we are, we'vedesigned the product in a way
that where it's modular, right?
So you actually have the camerayou can put into, you can put
the same camera into ahummingbird feeder or into a
bird bath, right?
(24:59):
Is a piece of us trying to, youknow, offer our customers a way
to not have to buy likemultiple cameras from us, right?
So it's adding value and kindof increasing the use case of
our product without having tobuy too many electronics, right?
We are currently exploringoptions to ship biodegradable
units, right?
Which that is super compellingto me, but it's something we
(25:21):
have to test with the marketbecause, you know, it's an
outdoors product, right?
It has to be weatherproof,obviously, right?
And then if you make itbiodegradable, by nature, it'll
degrade.
So a couple of years and it'llstart falling apart.
But, you know, we can give ourcustomers the choice, right?
So you can buy this, it's goingto be slightly more expensive,
but, you know, for 10 bucks inthree years, we'll ship you a
(25:43):
new one, right?
So you have that peace of mind,right?
And that's something we'rereally kind of now trying to
innovate on But it is definitelyhard to make that into the top
priority or in the toppriorities because there's a lot
of challenges in gettingproduct to market without that.
And that almost makes itimpossible to price it at a
level where people would
Steven (25:59):
buy it, right?
Right.
No, I appreciate yourtransparency on it.
And you know, again, We'll goback to it.
Young company.
I mean, in the future,technology will advance.
You really don't know whereit'll go.
So maybe more avenues may popup.
Another thing that we reallylike to talk about is as failure
as a necessary step intocreating something.
(26:21):
Are there any challenges thatyou could think of starting the
company, coming out with newproducts that you faced and how
did you kind of overcome that?
Franci (26:29):
So Burt Buddy on its own, right, was a total outlier
when it comes to that stuff.
Because it went from abirdhouse with a camera in
December 2019 to doing someproduct market fit testing and
building a website and trying tofigure out what it is the
demand for product.
And everything was justinsanely well performing.
(26:50):
So clearly we've hit onsomething that there was a lot
of energy there that nobody wastapping into.
So that's very rare.
So you rarely get anopportunity to start something
that just has this major massivepull from the market.
BirdBuddy is not my firstcompany.
And I've learned that failureis a normal part of building
(27:10):
businesses.
And even within BirdBuddy,after we've had the original
Kickstarter campaign and thenstarted shipping, we have done a
lot of searching, like soulsearching, right?
And product market fitsearching and like wonder,
right?
Who are we, right?
What are we here to do?
And that was a massive processof iteration, right?
And we're very, I'm verycomfortable with failure, right?
(27:31):
And that's kind of a naturalpart of evolving even within
BirdBuddy, right?
So BirdBuddy, the first kind ofiteration of it, right?
And just the fact that therewas so much excitement around
the core kind of product conceptwas special that way, right?
After that, if you don't fail,you don't try basically, right?
And obviously you have to beready for that and that you
(27:53):
should almost kind of want it,right?
You wanna try it, you wanna seeif it works, it'll likely not
work, but that needs to be kindof a part of the process, right?
Yeah, yeah, I really think thatfor any entrepreneur, right?
The biggest inflection point isgetting to a point where you're
very comfortable with failureand you're very comfortable with
letting go because when youstart something, it's your baby,
(28:16):
right?
special it's my idea orsomething right and then it
doesn't quite work out the wayyou wanted it right but you
still wanted to make it work andthen you spent like five years
working on something that nobodywants right and that's i guess
that's a natural like rite ofpassage for for a for an
entrepreneur you have to gothrough that right but once
you're through it i think youshould really embrace it and
just be okay with things notworking out the way you've
(28:37):
intended
Steven (28:37):
and just using trying as an initial step leads us into
the future are there any avenuesor opportunities with
technology as it advances,implementing those new
technologies, a little moreadvanced technologies for, let's
say, augmented reality, virtualreality.
(28:58):
Are there any plans for that?
Is that something thatinterests you for BirdBunny?
Franci (29:03):
I think at the core, our goal right now is to try to
find ways to make real things ascompelling as we can.
To find what's the least amountof alerts or notifications or
outreach that we can do to keepyou engaged and excited and
engrossed in a way.
(29:23):
One of the ways I like to framewhat we do is we want to give
nature a chance to compete forour attention.
Our attention is under aninsane attack.
Everybody's trying to stealfive minutes of screen time here
and there.
Everybody's competing for oureyeballs.
It's all about advertisements.
Our senses are under assaultand it's one of the major
(29:47):
reasons is why we're having asuper hard time to connect with
real things that are around us.
And the more we can get thatbalance better, the better.
And I think that AI is a hugeelement of this.
Whatever's happened in the pastfour years, and I think we kind
of know where it's kind ofgoing.
I think leveraging it to helpnature reach out and help you
(30:08):
connect and help you appreciateis where I think we should
really innovate the most.
VR is super exciting to me as aconsumer.
they are, right?
All these things are really, tome, have a lot of potential
benefits and like a naturalplace in society and the world,
right?
But they're, again, likescreens, right?
And if we can use them to getpeople more connected, right?
(30:31):
And ultimately to get them togo out and check the real thing,
right?
We'll use it, right?
But only if it achieves that,right?
Steven (30:38):
Sure.
Sure.
And keeping all of that inmind, you mentioned, you know,
four years down the road.
Let's go five years.
How do you see bird buddyevolving over those years as,
again, technology continues tochange.
Franci (30:53):
Yeah.
Super small cameras, like tinycameras, really, right?
That don't need to be powered,like maybe like if it's solar
powered and with a tiny solarpanel, right?
Something that's very easy toput anywhere around your home
and close to nature, right?
And that can be a bird's nestor a fountain or a pond or a
bird feeder, right?
(31:13):
It doesn't matter, right?
Just put it there.
So like these tiny littlelittle cameras that get you very
close to nature and get youreally connected, right?
I think, you know, technologyis clearly moving in that
direction, right?
Everything's getting smallerand more power efficient,
batteries are getting better,right?
So I think that's in thefuture.
And I think that's the way Isee us really kind of delivering
(31:34):
the most value to our customerswhile at the same time building
the biggest business we can,right?
Because obviously that's also agoal.
And I think that that's really,for BirdBuddy, one of the most
beautiful things is that I seeour success and our growth as
that's directly related to theimpact that we're making.
So it's kind of easy to beextremely ambitious on the
growth side and genuinely wantthe best for your customers as
(31:56):
well.
So it's a nice place to be in.
But yeah, ultimately tinycameras that do all of these
things.
And then the big excitingchallenge really is how do you
build a customer experience, auser experience that really hits
on all the right notes withoutmaking it overbearing.
Just kind of this beautifullayer of connection with all
(32:18):
living things around you, right?
And that's what kind of wonderis really
Steven (32:22):
there to do.
No, that's incredible.
And we're really hitting homeon the future of uncertainty.
What is the future look likethat you know of that people
should be excited for anythingthat you are working on that
people could expect in the nearfuture?
Yes,
Franci (32:39):
in the near future, we have a couple of things.
Yeah, so I've already talkedabout Petal and Wonderblocks,
right?
So Petal, this beautifulflower-shaped camera that gets
you close to nature.
WonderBlocks, effectively a,like you can think of it like a
beautiful raised bed forpollinators, right?
But really beautiful andmodular.
But anyway, like these are veryclose.
(33:00):
We're actually going to belaunching a Kickstarter campaign
for those.
We are also working on a truekind of Gen 2 bird body product,
right?
Which is an entirely newcamera, like a new feeder,
right?
And a couple of other things.
I don't think I've talked aboutthat publicly yet, but it is
really exciting.
expecting us to be doing this.
So it's not something I need tobe hiding.
(33:20):
But yeah, like that I'm superexcited about, right?
Because it really doubles downon that modularity piece of it,
right?
Even to our earlierconversation about
sustainability, the new productwill be totally detachable from
the battery, right?
So effectively you will be ableto just buy a battery
replacement, which to me like isthe biggest, you know, negative
sustainability impact, I guess,for the current product line,
(33:42):
you cannot remove the battery,right?
So basically when that dies,the product dies, right?
With this new product, you'llbe able to do that which I think
is great.
But that's really for kind ofthis year or let's say the next
16 months, right?
Getting a new product to marketthat is really a major kind of
Gen 2 upgrade for the BirdBodyproduct line.
And then working on Petal andWonder Blocks kind of, yeah, as
(34:06):
a, I don't know, like maybe as aGen 3 kind of product, right?
Sure,
Steven (34:10):
sure.
Now we're excited to see whereit goes.
We really encourage everyone tobe excited and follow what
you're doing and just be readyfor you know those new
advancements and those newproducts now let's talk about
the meat and potatoes as we uhwrap these this thing up you
know how can people order a birdbuddy where can they find you
and talk a little bit about thatsubscription tier and how that
(34:32):
works as well
Franci (34:33):
awesome yep happy to so uh bird buddy you can buy it on
birdbuddy.com uh sobirdbuddy.com or mybirdbuddy.com
you can also find us on amazonit is a beautiful product i
think that one of the key thingsthat we really strive to do
from the beginning is we want tooffer a free experience.
So what I mean by that, nosubscription, right?
No monthly or yearlysubscription ties, right?
(34:55):
That offer 90% of theexperience, right?
I want our customers to be ableto have the core BirdBuddy
experience as much as we canafford to allow it, right?
Without having to pay us anymonthly subscriptions.
But there are things that weare offering that we just cannot
subsidize effectively, right?
Because like we're selling youa hardware product, right?
(35:16):
you're using it on a daily,which is also beautiful, right?
But at the same time, it meansquite a bit of cost to us.
So BirdBuddy has an amazingretention, right?
When somebody buys it, youknow, most of our customers are
using it like every day for ayear, two years.
So there's a lot of actionhappening.
All of it is video and imagesand that costs, right?
(35:37):
So, but all of that is free,right?
And then what we do is we offerthe AI piece of it, which I'm
super excited about.
We call it Nature Chat.
And that effectively means thatwhen a bird lands, lands, you
can start a conversation withit, right?
You can ask it like, are youhungry?
Are you sick?
Are you okay?
Like, you know, have you seen amate recently?
And basically based on all thedata that, you know, our cameras
(35:59):
are ingesting and using LLMsand we're testing various
different LLMs from, you know,to anthropic, like basically all
of them, right?
To try to create this layer ofinterpretation, right?
Where effectively we'reallowing our customers to go
extremely deep, right?
Into a conversation and askquestions and engage and And
that is something that we'recharging for, like extra, right?
So there's a premium tier forBirdBuddy.
(36:21):
There's a family premium tierthat unlocks that for the whole
family.
It's very often like a familyexperience, right?
But the core feature set isfree, and this is something that
we intend to keep forever.
It's really important to usthat if you buy a BirdBuddy, you
can have a really compellingcore experience without any
extra cost.
Steven (36:38):
Now, that's great.
We're really excited to seewhat the future holds for
BirdBuddy, and I'm sure you areyourself.
Thank you again for jumping on,joining our show.
This has been a wonderfulinterview, Francie.
Thanks to you.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Four Worlds
Podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
(37:00):
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtoday.com.
Follow us on Facebook andInstagram and be sure to
subscribe to our YouTubechannel.
Welcome to the Four Worlds Podcast from Tomorrow's
World Today.
We're diving into the latest intech, science, and
sustainability, from nature'smysteries and the world of
inspiration, to the hands-oncrafts of creation, the bold
breakthroughs of innovation, andthe scaled-up wonders of
production.
This is your ticket to thestories shaping tomorrow.
(00:23):
Francie, thank you so much forjoining us and hopping on the
show.
We're really excited to haveyourself and BirdBuddy on with
us
Franci (00:32):
thank you yeah i'm very excited to be here uh always
great to talk about bird buddyand meet people who are
interested in
Steven (00:38):
bird buddy absolutely and i think you're reaching the
the right target audience forthat one let's jump right into
it with talking about who youare and who bird buddy is
Franci (00:49):
okay so uh my name is francie i'm one of the
co-founders and the ceo of thebusiness uh i am for whatever
reason, super excited aboutgetting people connected with
nature through digital stuff.
I've founded a couple of otherbusinesses before BirdBuddy that
were all very much in thisarea, right?
So getting people excited andconnected with real things,
primarily nature through digitalkind of means.
(01:11):
Yeah, BirdBuddy started in 2020with a beautiful Kickstarter
campaign, right?
That was a very, like, it wasjust amazing.
Like thinking back, right?
How many people actually camein in to support us and to
engage.
We built like an audience ofabout 50,000 people in a matter
of two months as we kind ofstarted to go out with this
(01:33):
idea.
Right.
And it was really kind of anorganic thing that just kind of
happened once we started showingit to people and get people
engaged.
Launched the Kickstarter late2020, funded it in 2021.
So that's when you complete itbecause it was like a two month
campaign.
And then, yeah, very quicklygrew to where we are today,
which is a team of about 60, 70people doing amazing work and
(01:55):
shipping hundreds of thousandsof units that get people
connected with nature andexcited about birds.
I feel extremely fortunate tobe able to build this business.
Steven (02:04):
You took my next question out of my mouth.
How did BirdBuddy start?
But hearing about that journey,that very quick journey that it
took What did that mean to you?
And how did that feel when youcome up with this idea, get it
ready on Kickstarter and thenquickly get it and make it come
to fruition?
What was that feeling like?
Franci (02:23):
It's such a blur, honestly, because it was all so
intense and so fast.
Building a hardware business ishard, period.
Whether you love it or you hateit, it's easier if you love it,
but it's hard regardless.
So there was a very short, likethe honeymoon period was very
short, I'm trying to say.
right so i was like yay this isa beautiful business people
(02:47):
love the product right now wehave to build it and then you
know everything happens which isextremely uh intense and
complex kind of trying to pulltogether everybody that's
required to be able to buildthis product right which is a a
uh not a you know supersophisticated uh like
electronically type of productbut it's sophisticated enough
and it's a complete noveltyright you have nothing to lean
(03:08):
against right there was noproduct like bird buddy there
were no products helping peopletake photos and AI recognition
of birds and nature around thehome.
We were really trying to inventthis from scratch.
That was hard.
Even today, being the categoryleader and a bit of a market
(03:28):
maker in this space is actuallyhard because you have to really
think hard about what peopleactually want and then try to
build it.
Steven (03:36):
Just hearing about that and hearing that journey,
hearing how it all started,let's go into what a eventually
BirdBuddy became and what youdo, what you make.
Just give us a quick overviewof some of the products and what
they do and how it connectspeople with nature.
Franci (03:54):
Totally.
Yeah.
So BirdBuddy is a connectedbird feeder, right?
It's effectively you can thinkof it as a bird feeder with a
ring type doorbell camera,right?
That as a bird lands, it takesphotos, it sends you a
notification, it recognizes thespecies through AI.
And it also well, at thispoint, it's a pretty compelling
experience.
Actually, it started out as apretty kind of bare bones as
(04:14):
I've described it.
But right now, there's a lot ofmeat on that bone as well.
You can go pretty deep, you canengage, you can learn, right?
You can share.
It is very much a familyexperience is what we learned,
right?
BirdBuddy is a householdproduct.
People very often buy it for aloved one, for a spouse or a
parent, right?
And they enjoy it together,which is beautiful, right?
And we've had a lot of peopleshare.
(04:35):
So for example, like a childbuying it for a parent, we've
had a lot of people sharestories about how they're now
texting their parents more thanthey have in a year years
because they're both connectedto this, you know, beautiful
product and they both got thesame content.
And then you chat aboutnorthern cardinals and flickers
and all that stuff.
And it's really, there's a lotof emergent stuff that happened
over the past couple of yearsthat we didn't, you know, quite
(04:57):
expect and they surprised us,but they're beautiful.
But yeah, so that's the heroproduct, right?
It's a bird feeder with acamera.
From the beginning, the coredesign intent behind the product
was that the camera is modular.
We call it a nature cameffectively.
You know, the purpose or kindof the ambiguity there is
intentional because we want thisproduct to be broader, right?
It's not just for birds.
It's also for, you know,potentially butterflies and bugs
(05:19):
and, you know, all nature onyour home.
We've launched a hummingbirdfeeder last year, right?
We're now going to startshipping the birdbath product.
So, and even the birdbath, Ialmost kind of see as a water
product, right?
Because it's a nutrition forall wildlife, like butterflies
need water, right?
And all sorts of features needwater in your backyard.
But yeah, bottom line, helpingpeople connect with all nature
(05:40):
in their home, around theirhome, right?
And we're trying to design theecosystem in a way that is very
flexible and adds value to ourcustomers kind of across
multiple years yeah
Steven (05:50):
yeah it's clear that you have a passion for this and
that idea to create thisobviously came from somewhere we
have four worlds here that welike to discuss inspiration
creation innovation andproduction and the theory is
that all of those drive oneanother so when we're talking
about this idea what inspiredthat creation
Franci (06:12):
so i mean that's That could be a very easy story or it
could be a super complex story.
I can just say like two wordsand I can explain it and the
other one is pretty long, butI'll try something in between.
So effectively, BirdBuddyhappened over a beer.
I came back from LA in 2019because one of my previous
(06:32):
startups was invested in bySnapchat, right?
So I spent some time in Veniceworking with them.
Beautiful product, I still loveit, but it was very hard to
find like a proper productmarket fit for.
And I came back to Sloveniajust looking for something to
do, right?
And we were drinking beerDecember 2019, and an old friend
of mine just casually throwsout this idea of a birdhouse
with a camera, right?
It stuck to me immediatelybecause the product I was
(06:54):
building previously, or thestartup I was working on
previously with Snap, right, wasabout creating kind of these
Pokemon Go experiences in thereal world, right?
So a platform for buildingexperiences in the real world
with elements of chat fictionand augmented reality and
location-based.
And the purpose was to getpeople to engage with the
outside, right, and to kind ofuse digital to get you to engage
(07:15):
with the physical.
And this is exactly whatBirdBuddy is, right?
And that's always been mypassion.
Any project that I've everworked on was kind of in this
direction.
I guess it has something to dowith the fact that my dad was a
founder of one of the largestnational parks where I come
from, right?
So in Slovenia.
He took me out a lot, you know,and got me excited about
conservation and biodiversityand, you know, preserving
(07:35):
habitats.
And as I grew up, I fell inlove with all things digital.
And this is kind of my, youknow, I guess, passion to try to
merge those two thingstogether.
So in It kind of felt like ithad to happen that way, but it
also feels kind of random.
But at the end of the day, it'sprobably not very random,
right?
Steven (07:50):
Right.
Look, everything happens for areason.
It seems like it's more thanoften over a drink or two.
So we love that.
So just hearing about thatstory of how you were created,
where that idea came from.
Let's talk about the productsitself.
You know, one of your mainstaysis the SmartBird feeder.
We touched a little bit onthat.
(08:12):
Dive a little more deep intoits capabilities and what users
could actually experience withit.
Franci (08:18):
Totally.
Yeah.
So BirdBuddy is a smart birdfeeder.
It takes photos of birds.
It recognizes them through AI.
One of the core pillars of theexperience today is that you can
invite more than one person toyour product.
So basically, if somebody buysit for themselves, for their
household, or again, it's boughtas a gift, right?
Everybody can enjoy the sameexperience.
And we're kind of really tryingto double down on that social
(08:41):
piece of it, right?
There is is a bespoke andsomething we've invested in
quite a bit, which right now issomething that probably you can
do with various different LLMsreally well.
And we're also trying toinvestigate that.
But we have custom profiles foreach bird, right?
So basically, if you kind ofcollect or unlock Northern
Cardinal or a Blue Jay, right,you will get a custom profile
(09:05):
that has this, I think, a prettyfun mix of educational and fun
content, right?
That's not too dry.
One thing we really try toavoid is to link people to
weekend Wikipedia, right?
Because that's just not, youknow, we're trying to get people
excited about nature and we'retrying to kind of reduce the
barrier of entry, you know, ormake it just, you know,
compelling enough and richenough that it's nice, but not,
you know, too overwhelming.
(09:26):
But yeah, so you can learnabout birds.
You can connect with peoplethat are kind of in your social
circle, right?
Especially people that youreally love, that you're sharing
kind of this experience with.
And then one of the things thatwe're right now trying to
explore that's kind of not onthe hardware product side,
because on the hardware productside, the exploration for us is
really how much nature can weunlock, right?
(09:47):
So how much we can allow you toget close to everything that's
living around your home.
There's like a hundreddifferent species of life around
like an average US household,right?
And we just want to unlock asmuch of that as we can.
But on the software side, thegoal is to try to connect people
through the BirdBuddyexperience that are also outside
of your household, right?
One thing we've learned fromour customers is that people
really care about the naturethat's in their neighborhood,
(10:10):
right?
Especially that's around theirhome, but also in their
neighborhood but you are muchless connected.
And that makes a lot of sense,right?
But it's not something that'smaybe like immediately obvious.
You feel a lot less connectionwith something that's like in
another state or country, right?
It's nice to look at like a BBCor whatever documentary, right?
Where there's like, yeah, someexotic species that you're
learning about, right?
(10:30):
But if it's kind of generalpurpose nature, right?
Or something that's prettybroad, right?
You're not gonna really paythat much attention if it's not
really around your home.
So really trying to figure outhow to get people connected
within the BirdBuddy platformthat are close to each other,
that really care about kind ofthe same nature that's close to
them, right?
That's kind of at the core ofit.
Other than that, right now,family is the main unit.
(10:52):
That's a beautiful experience,right?
Really sharing the love ofnature that's within the
household.
Steven (10:56):
No, that's really special because it really
connects you with what's rightoutside your door.
You use BBC documentaries as anexample.
That may be in a differentcountry, but it really makes it
special when it's in your ownbackyard.
It really does.
Yeah, totally.
And talking about those speciesand in unlocking them.
I loved your reference tosomething like Pokemon Go
unlocking these species.
(11:17):
Where does the speciesidentification end?
Is it endless?
How many does it identify?
Franci (11:24):
Well, that's, you know, I guess fortunate for us, right,
is that BirdBuddy has, youknow, we started in 2020.
We started shipping product in2022.
This is kind of peak period forAI evolution and innovation,
right?
So effectively, we are a majorbeneficiary of all the
investment that's being done ingen AI and various different
(11:47):
LLMs around the world right now.
So I can't give you a straightanswer to that, because I don't
know.
I don't know where that ends,ultimately.
But right now, it seems prettyendless, which is really
compelling and reallyinteresting to me.
And really, I think for us as abusiness, but also for us as
the source of value for ourcustomers, it's so exciting.
Because it's just like everyday, it feels like there's a new
(12:09):
door that opens on what kind ofvalue you can provide.
Because ultimately nature, isever changing, right?
It's evolving.
It's super interesting.
You don't know much about it,right?
And, you know, up until I guesstoday, right?
Or maybe like a couple of yearsago, you have to know somebody
who was kind of specialized andknew how to really take you on
that journey, right?
AI these days can really act asthat, you know, intermediary,
(12:31):
right?
So we're really trying tofigure out ways where we can
leverage AI that is really notjust for kind of recognizing
species, right?
Because that is reallysomething we can probably do,
you know, pretty easily movingforward for any species, right?
But really adding that layer ofvalue, interpretation, an
opinion, some sort of guidanceto get you excited and to get
(12:51):
you on the journey is probablywhere AI will add the most value
over the next couple of yearsfor BirdBuddy as a product or a
brand, but also for other peoplewho are in the space of making
something that's super beautifuland compelling, but also very
complex, more understandable anddigestible.
That's where
Steven (13:06):
AI does really well.
And it's obvious that you'reutilizing AI in a very special
way.
And at CES this year, you werepretty busy kind of launching
and teasing at some newproducts.
If you want to talk a littlebit about that, the Wonder
brand, the Petal, Wonder Blocks,give us a little bit of
information about those.
Franci (13:24):
Totally.
So quickly on Wonder, right?
Like the whole idea, and thisis something that we've kind of
struggled with for a while.
Like we've always seenBirdBuddy as a entry-level
product, right?
Helping people connect with allnature around their home,
right?
And we've also always struggledon like, okay, what does the
brand look like?
How do we kind of evolve,right?
because BirdBuddy clearly isfor birds.
(13:46):
You know, you can't like have aBirdBuddy that's for, I don't
know, like butterflies.
Squirrels or something, yeah.
Or squirrels, yeah, correct,yeah.
So there was always this searchfor something that makes sense
as an umbrella brand, right,where we can kind of, you know,
have like a broader mandate ofwhat we're actually here to do,
right?
And Wonder came up last year.
I think it's wonderful.
(14:07):
I think it's beautiful.
In essence, right, there's kindof the underlying thesis,
right, is that the world is fullof wonder.
Everything around us is reallywonderful.
Nature is around you.
It's wonderful.
And us humans are also full ofwonder.
We wonder about nature.
What is it?
How does it work?
Why does it do that?
There are so many questionsthat are there.
(14:28):
And it's really hard for us toget to the bottom of that or
really kind of, I don't know,exercise that muscle or really
go deep because there's nobodythere to take us on the journey.
It ends almost there unless yougo on Google and search it out.
And that can be a pretty dryexperience.
So for us, what I've just saidkind of outlines what we are
here to do as a brand withWonder, right?
So birds are a beautiful, likea gateway product for that,
(14:51):
right?
But ultimately, Petal, which isthe product you mentioned,
right, that we've hinted at orkind of teased at CES this year,
is I guess the first productthat really kind of doubles down
on that concept, which is it'sa nature camera, right?
It's a nature camera that'stiny, beautiful, right?
You can put it anywhere aroundyour home.
It'll understand what natureit's looking at and it'll
interpret it for you, right?
(15:11):
It'll give you daily alerts.
If there's beautiful contentlike butterflies flies bees bugs
you know you name it birdsright it'll share that it'll
also tell you if flower iswaning or if it's flowering and
you should go check it out rightso really you know basically
trying to bring that wonder toyou instead of you having to
search it out, right?
And connect you with nature atthe same time in a really kind
of more meaningful and deep way.
(15:32):
So that's Petal, right?
And it's a beautifulflower-shaped camera that I hope
we can get like a really goodgrowth with because I just want
it.
I want it for myself.
I want it for our customers.
It's a beautiful product.
And on the other side, there'sWonder Blocks, which is Petal is
kind of like a camera thattakes shots of all the action
and it kind of capturesbeautiful stuff.
(15:53):
Wonder Blocks are the stage,right?
We're trying to make it supereasy for our customers to have a
space in their yard, in theirgarden that's for nature, right?
And it's for butterflies andit's for bees and it's for bugs
and it's for flowers.
And basically Petal, you justput Petal, you know, on top of
it, right?
It captures all this beautifulaction and evolution and kind of
daily happenings.
(16:13):
And then Wonder Blocks are, youcan think of it like a really
beautiful, playful, modular set,like almost like a, you know, a
base for planners, right?
It also has has these modulesfor bee hotels and bug hotels
and butterfly feeders.
And yeah, to me, it feels likean adult Lego set for building
(16:33):
beautiful natural spaces, right?
And they work in tandem.
Steven (16:37):
So what's really interesting about that is
focusing on insects, theirecosystems.
There's a lot of bad stigma,right?
Around bees, around bugs.
So how does this kind of openup people's interest in these
insects, in their role in anecosystem, in their role in a
wildlife.
Franci (16:55):
100%.
And I think that this issomething that we'll have to
figure out.
I don't have an answer to thatyet.
So I know that even for birds,right?
So I'll use squirrels as anexample because I think they're
a great example in this case.
So our customers, right?
So bird buddy customers, peoplethat buy a bird buddy, smart
bird feeder, people that feedbirds in general don't really
(17:18):
like squirrels that much, right?
And the reason for that is thatyou put seeds in a bird feeder,
whatever bird feeder, andsquirrels come and they mess it
up, they destroy your birdfeeder potentially, right?
And it's just a, you only seemess coming out of it, right?
What happens if you have a birdbuddy, and we've seen that with
a lot of our customers, whichis kind of, again, something
that we didn't expect, but it'sbeautiful, is people tell us
(17:38):
bird buddy has changed ourattitude towards squirrels,
because, okay, we see a mess,but we also have really cute
photos that come with it, right?
So basically, you know,bringing people closer to that,
right, and making themappreciate it, seeing the
personality in these kind oftiny little creatures, right,
really changes the perception ofit, right?
And it's no longer, to yourpoint, like an insect, right?
Because the insect really haslike a bad connotation, right?
(17:59):
But it's like a beautifulbutterfly or it's a bug or it's
a, you know, caterpillar or likeit's a, you know, bee.
All of these things are reallyspecial, right?
And the more you know aboutthem, but again, you know,
knowing is not like a Wikipediaarticle, but it's like a very
carefully dosed, you know,stream of information, the more
you appreciate it, right?
And beautiful photos help aswell.
(18:20):
So that's kind of the bet,right?
Is that we can do for bugs whatwe've done for squirrels
Steven (18:25):
you see and that's kind of what i was was asking and and
i think that it's going to dothat job in my opinion i think
it's gonna you know open uppeople's minds about the little
parts of the ecosystem andlittle parts of the wildlife
that we may forget or maybe alittle scared of
Franci (18:42):
yeah totally right and we take it for granted but it's
like it's a critical piece ofthe biodiversity around us right
so there's there's a lot oftalk about the you know die off
of bees right and and otherimportant pollinators and it's a
like that is is actually a hugeagricultural issue as well.
You know, there are hugebudgets for agricultural
companies, right, that are allabout supporting pollinators,
(19:03):
right?
But that's for business, right?
And here, like, you know, withWonder, with Petal, with Wonder
Blocks, we're kind of trying todemocratize that a little bit,
right, and give everybody thetools to be a part of that
solution.
And they actually can, right?
If everybody had, like, alittle bit of a space for nature
in their yard, and all itreally takes is, like, a flower
bed, right, with native plantsand berries and things like
(19:24):
that.
Life comes if you have that.
We're trying to make that supersimple and maybe even beautiful
and compelling from a kind ofproduct experience point of
Steven (19:32):
view.
Which is a great point andseamlessly goes into my next
question.
How does BirdBuddy aim to kindof contribute to bird
conservation and scientificresearch and wildlife
conservation in general?
Franci (19:43):
Totally.
So the the biggest impact thatwe're already making and I think
we'll always be making is justgetting people to appreciate it.
Right.
So getting people close,getting people to connect is
you're changing kind of heartsand minds effectively.
Right.
So people that buy BirdBuddy,right, all they do is talk about
birds then.
They're really just by thenature of having it and
(20:06):
engaging.
Right.
They become an ambassador forbirds.
Right.
So that's I think that'sbeautiful on its own.
And ultimately, what you needto do to drive change is to
change people's perceptions andtheir intents and things like
that.
So I think that's the numberone thing that we're doing.
And I think that's always goingto be the least tangible
because that's hard to quantify,right?
But I think that ultimately themost important impact that
(20:27):
we'll ever make.
So the other piece of it is wehave a ton of data, right?
Like I think at this point, wehave like 2 million birds per
day detected by cameras, right?
And we have yet to figure outexactly what the best way to
engage with academia is to makethe best use of that data sets,
right?
Or those data sets.
But We've seen our customersactually take that data because
it's live.
(20:47):
People can download it and theycan use that data to analyze
bird migration pattern changes,bird population changes.
The more that global warmingand climate change in general
creates major changes inhabitats, the more that's
important because it's prettyhard for analog ways of
(21:08):
measuring bird populationchanges and bird migration
pattern changes is you have tocapture a bird, you have to ring
it, you have to release it, andyou have to capture it again,
right?
And look at the ring.
So that is extremely laborintensive.
It's expensive.
It's also not super, you know,scalable.
And it's something that we canwork around and help make
better, right?
And it's something we'vealready done.
But like, keep in mind, right?
BirdBuddy has been on themarket for two years, right?
(21:31):
It's a relatively new concept.
It's a relatively new product.
And it'll take a while for, youknow, researchers and academia
to kind of catch up and startreally leveraging this data as
much as they can,
Steven (21:41):
right?
That was exactly my next point.
I mean, this is still, youknow, at the faces of it, a very
young company.
So there's still so much roomto gather that data and try to
contribute to other things forconservation efforts as well.
Do you have any personalstories or maybe someone close
to you with someone's experienceusing Bird Buddy and how they
(22:05):
connected with nature?
Franci (22:05):
Totally.
Yeah.
I was just in Phoenix with afamily that has gotten to
appreciate exactly what I saidearlier.
So they'll live in like anoutskirts of Phoenix.
They have a bird buddy.
I think they got it as a gift.
Before having a bird buddy,they, especially the mom, I
(22:27):
think really didn't appreciatebirds as much because it was
only doves, like morning doves.
And it wasn't really pleasantfor them.
So they got a bird buddy.
And so I was blown away by thediversity of species that they
have in Arizona and in Phoenix,like in general.
Because they have a beautifullypositioned house on like the
edge of the desert with like acouple of bushes.
(22:47):
And we were kind of standingthere and looking at the bird
body.
And I think I saw like seven,eight beautiful different
species of birds visiting whilewe were chatting.
Right.
So the bottom line is they wentfrom a bird's cupcake or
whatever into a bird lovingfamily.
And again, it's really, youknow, it's a big piece of the
(23:09):
family conversation, which iskind of beautiful.
And then there are otherinstances where, again, people
reaching out to us and tellingus their stories, right?
How important BirdBuddy is forthe people in their care at
hospitals, right?
Or hospices or schools, right?
Where people just can't go out,right?
And they can't engage and theycan't connect.
And having a BirdBuddy that'soutside that they can see,
(23:31):
right?
But then have this content cometo their phone is beautiful,
right?
And it's like things like thisare things you don't expect,
right?
But I guess are things thatmatter the most at the end of
the day when you think about theimpact you're making with the
product that you're building Andthere are a lot of stories like
this that are veryinspirational, I guess.
Steven (23:51):
Right.
I mean, it just opens up somany avenues.
I mean, just as the example, asan education purpose, having it
in a classroom and putting iton a projector or something like
that.
It really just opens up somuch.
So we're here at Tomorrow'sWorld today.
We love sustainability.
Where does sustainability rankin BirdBuddy's business model?
(24:11):
I know there's the solar roofattachment that could use.
Are there any other sustainableefforts that you'd really like
to highlight?
Franci (24:17):
So I'll be honest, it ranks too low, right?
It ranks too low, but that is anecessary evil for like getting
product to market, right?
Sure.
I would lie if I said that wecould, we had the opportunity to
kind of prioritize sustainablesupply chain and all that in the
first couple of years, becauseit is just, it is impossible.
(24:38):
It is becoming, however, like amajor point of conversation in
the business, right?
Your point, there's a solarroof that people can use.
They don't have to chargeeverybody almost ever, depending
on how much sun they have,right?
The fact that we are, we'vedesigned the product in a way
that where it's modular, right?
So you actually have the camerayou can put into, you can put
the same camera into ahummingbird feeder or into a
bird bath, right?
(24:59):
Is a piece of us trying to, youknow, offer our customers a way
to not have to buy likemultiple cameras from us, right?
So it's adding value and kindof increasing the use case of
our product without having tobuy too many electronics, right?
We are currently exploringoptions to ship biodegradable
units, right?
Which that is super compellingto me, but it's something we
(25:21):
have to test with the marketbecause, you know, it's an
outdoors product, right?
It has to be weatherproof,obviously, right?
And then if you make itbiodegradable, by nature, it'll
degrade.
So a couple of years and it'llstart falling apart.
But, you know, we can give ourcustomers the choice, right?
So you can buy this, it's goingto be slightly more expensive,
but, you know, for 10 bucks inthree years, we'll ship you a
(25:43):
new one, right?
So you have that peace of mind,right?
And that's something we'rereally kind of now trying to
innovate on But it is definitelyhard to make that into the top
priority or in the toppriorities because there's a lot
of challenges in gettingproduct to market without that.
And that almost makes itimpossible to price it at a
level where people would
Steven (25:59):
buy it, right?
Right.
No, I appreciate yourtransparency on it.
And you know, again, We'll goback to it.
Young company.
I mean, in the future,technology will advance.
You really don't know whereit'll go.
So maybe more avenues may popup.
Another thing that we reallylike to talk about is as failure
as a necessary step intocreating something.
(26:21):
Are there any challenges thatyou could think of starting the
company, coming out with newproducts that you faced and how
did you kind of overcome that?
Franci (26:29):
So Burt Buddy on its own, right, was a total outlier
when it comes to that stuff.
Because it went from abirdhouse with a camera in
December 2019 to doing someproduct market fit testing and
building a website and trying tofigure out what it is the
demand for product.
And everything was justinsanely well performing.
(26:50):
So clearly we've hit onsomething that there was a lot
of energy there that nobody wastapping into.
So that's very rare.
So you rarely get anopportunity to start something
that just has this major massivepull from the market.
BirdBuddy is not my firstcompany.
And I've learned that failureis a normal part of building
(27:10):
businesses.
And even within BirdBuddy,after we've had the original
Kickstarter campaign and thenstarted shipping, we have done a
lot of searching, like soulsearching, right?
And product market fitsearching and like wonder,
right?
Who are we, right?
What are we here to do?
And that was a massive processof iteration, right?
And we're very, I'm verycomfortable with failure, right?
(27:31):
And that's kind of a naturalpart of evolving even within
BirdBuddy, right?
So BirdBuddy, the first kind ofiteration of it, right?
And just the fact that therewas so much excitement around
the core kind of product conceptwas special that way, right?
After that, if you don't fail,you don't try basically, right?
And obviously you have to beready for that and that you
(27:53):
should almost kind of want it,right?
You wanna try it, you wanna seeif it works, it'll likely not
work, but that needs to be kindof a part of the process, right?
Yeah, yeah, I really think thatfor any entrepreneur, right?
The biggest inflection point isgetting to a point where you're
very comfortable with failureand you're very comfortable with
letting go because when youstart something, it's your baby,
(28:16):
right?
special it's my idea orsomething right and then it
doesn't quite work out the wayyou wanted it right but you
still wanted to make it work andthen you spent like five years
working on something that nobodywants right and that's i guess
that's a natural like rite ofpassage for for a for an
entrepreneur you have to gothrough that right but once
you're through it i think youshould really embrace it and
just be okay with things notworking out the way you've
(28:37):
intended
Steven (28:37):
and just using trying as an initial step leads us into
the future are there any avenuesor opportunities with
technology as it advances,implementing those new
technologies, a little moreadvanced technologies for, let's
say, augmented reality, virtualreality.
(28:58):
Are there any plans for that?
Is that something thatinterests you for BirdBunny?
Franci (29:03):
I think at the core, our goal right now is to try to
find ways to make real things ascompelling as we can.
To find what's the least amountof alerts or notifications or
outreach that we can do to keepyou engaged and excited and
engrossed in a way.
(29:23):
One of the ways I like to framewhat we do is we want to give
nature a chance to compete forour attention.
Our attention is under aninsane attack.
Everybody's trying to stealfive minutes of screen time here
and there.
Everybody's competing for oureyeballs.
It's all about advertisements.
Our senses are under assaultand it's one of the major
(29:47):
reasons is why we're having asuper hard time to connect with
real things that are around us.
And the more we can get thatbalance better, the better.
And I think that AI is a hugeelement of this.
Whatever's happened in the pastfour years, and I think we kind
of know where it's kind ofgoing.
I think leveraging it to helpnature reach out and help you
(30:08):
connect and help you appreciateis where I think we should
really innovate the most.
VR is super exciting to me as aconsumer.
they are, right?
All these things are really, tome, have a lot of potential
benefits and like a naturalplace in society and the world,
right?
But they're, again, likescreens, right?
And if we can use them to getpeople more connected, right?
(30:31):
And ultimately to get them togo out and check the real thing,
right?
We'll use it, right?
But only if it achieves that,right?
Steven (30:38):
Sure.
Sure.
And keeping all of that inmind, you mentioned, you know,
four years down the road.
Let's go five years.
How do you see bird buddyevolving over those years as,
again, technology continues tochange.
Franci (30:53):
Yeah.
Super small cameras, like tinycameras, really, right?
That don't need to be powered,like maybe like if it's solar
powered and with a tiny solarpanel, right?
Something that's very easy toput anywhere around your home
and close to nature, right?
And that can be a bird's nestor a fountain or a pond or a
bird feeder, right?
(31:13):
It doesn't matter, right?
Just put it there.
So like these tiny littlelittle cameras that get you very
close to nature and get youreally connected, right?
I think, you know, technologyis clearly moving in that
direction, right?
Everything's getting smallerand more power efficient,
batteries are getting better,right?
So I think that's in thefuture.
And I think that's the way Isee us really kind of delivering
(31:34):
the most value to our customerswhile at the same time building
the biggest business we can,right?
Because obviously that's also agoal.
And I think that that's really,for BirdBuddy, one of the most
beautiful things is that I seeour success and our growth as
that's directly related to theimpact that we're making.
So it's kind of easy to beextremely ambitious on the
growth side and genuinely wantthe best for your customers as
(31:56):
well.
So it's a nice place to be in.
But yeah, ultimately tinycameras that do all of these
things.
And then the big excitingchallenge really is how do you
build a customer experience, auser experience that really hits
on all the right notes withoutmaking it overbearing.
Just kind of this beautifullayer of connection with all
(32:18):
living things around you, right?
And that's what kind of wonderis really
Steven (32:22):
there to do.
No, that's incredible.
And we're really hitting homeon the future of uncertainty.
What is the future look likethat you know of that people
should be excited for anythingthat you are working on that
people could expect in the nearfuture?
Yes,
Franci (32:39):
in the near future, we have a couple of things.
Yeah, so I've already talkedabout Petal and Wonderblocks,
right?
So Petal, this beautifulflower-shaped camera that gets
you close to nature.
WonderBlocks, effectively a,like you can think of it like a
beautiful raised bed forpollinators, right?
But really beautiful andmodular.
But anyway, like these are veryclose.
(33:00):
We're actually going to belaunching a Kickstarter campaign
for those.
We are also working on a truekind of Gen 2 bird body product,
right?
Which is an entirely newcamera, like a new feeder,
right?
And a couple of other things.
I don't think I've talked aboutthat publicly yet, but it is
really exciting.
expecting us to be doing this.
So it's not something I need tobe hiding.
(33:20):
But yeah, like that I'm superexcited about, right?
Because it really doubles downon that modularity piece of it,
right?
Even to our earlierconversation about
sustainability, the new productwill be totally detachable from
the battery, right?
So effectively you will be ableto just buy a battery
replacement, which to me like isthe biggest, you know, negative
sustainability impact, I guess,for the current product line,
(33:42):
you cannot remove the battery,right?
So basically when that dies,the product dies, right?
With this new product, you'llbe able to do that which I think
is great.
But that's really for kind ofthis year or let's say the next
16 months, right?
Getting a new product to marketthat is really a major kind of
Gen 2 upgrade for the BirdBodyproduct line.
And then working on Petal andWonder Blocks kind of, yeah, as
(34:06):
a, I don't know, like maybe as aGen 3 kind of product, right?
Sure,
Steven (34:10):
sure.
Now we're excited to see whereit goes.
We really encourage everyone tobe excited and follow what
you're doing and just be readyfor you know those new
advancements and those newproducts now let's talk about
the meat and potatoes as we uhwrap these this thing up you
know how can people order a birdbuddy where can they find you
and talk a little bit about thatsubscription tier and how that
(34:32):
works as well
Franci (34:33):
awesome yep happy to so uh bird buddy you can buy it on
birdbuddy.com uh sobirdbuddy.com or mybirdbuddy.com
you can also find us on amazonit is a beautiful product i
think that one of the key thingsthat we really strive to do
from the beginning is we want tooffer a free experience.
So what I mean by that, nosubscription, right?
No monthly or yearlysubscription ties, right?
(34:55):
That offer 90% of theexperience, right?
I want our customers to be ableto have the core BirdBuddy
experience as much as we canafford to allow it, right?
Without having to pay us anymonthly subscriptions.
But there are things that weare offering that we just cannot
subsidize effectively, right?
Because like we're selling youa hardware product, right?
(35:16):
you're using it on a daily,which is also beautiful, right?
But at the same time, it meansquite a bit of cost to us.
So BirdBuddy has an amazingretention, right?
When somebody buys it, youknow, most of our customers are
using it like every day for ayear, two years.
So there's a lot of actionhappening.
All of it is video and imagesand that costs, right?
(35:37):
So, but all of that is free,right?
And then what we do is we offerthe AI piece of it, which I'm
super excited about.
We call it Nature Chat.
And that effectively means thatwhen a bird lands, lands, you
can start a conversation withit, right?
You can ask it like, are youhungry?
Are you sick?
Are you okay?
Like, you know, have you seen amate recently?
And basically based on all thedata that, you know, our cameras
(35:59):
are ingesting and using LLMsand we're testing various
different LLMs from, you know,to anthropic, like basically all
of them, right?
To try to create this layer ofinterpretation, right?
Where effectively we'reallowing our customers to go
extremely deep, right?
Into a conversation and askquestions and engage and And
that is something that we'recharging for, like extra, right?
So there's a premium tier forBirdBuddy.
(36:21):
There's a family premium tierthat unlocks that for the whole
family.
It's very often like a familyexperience, right?
But the core feature set isfree, and this is something that
we intend to keep forever.
It's really important to usthat if you buy a BirdBuddy, you
can have a really compellingcore experience without any
extra cost.
Steven (36:38):
Now, that's great.
We're really excited to seewhat the future holds for
BirdBuddy, and I'm sure you areyourself.
Thank you again for jumping on,joining our show.
This has been a wonderfulinterview, Francie.
Thanks to you.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Four Worlds
Podcast.
Until next time, you can catchup on the latest innovations
(37:00):
shaping our world attomorrowsworldtoday.com.
Follow us on Facebook andInstagram and be sure to
subscribe to our YouTubechannel.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.