Why did you found Zoundream?
I founded Zoundream because of my daughter who was born in November 2017. It was difficult for us in the beginning. It was not only about sleep deprivation but also because we were never sure if things were normal, if she was okay.
At some point, I had the idea to use technology to better understand my daughter. My wife had asked me to read a book – on understanding baby cries. I remembered thinking, oh wow, I didn’t know my daughter was trying to tell me something.
I then tried to understand what she wanted from her cries which is something that is natural, but we have lost that instinct. Things were difficult for us, so I thought why not try to use technology to help?
Did you always know that you would be an entrepreneur?
Not at all. When my daughter was born, I was doing my executive MBA, and there was one topic I didn’t like – Entrepreneurship. My objective back then was to find the biggest company I can find and get to the top. But during the MBA I realised I was not that person.
There were many things I suffered through my career that I did not realise until that point. For instance, that I do not enjoy reporting to people.
I also realised that I was always giving my best result when I worked for myself, not when someone told me to do something. I also thought I think I can do something great together with other people. As I also wasn’t enjoying myself in my last job, I decided to quit and try this.
What were the biggest challenges you faced at the start?
Till today, it is leaving the safety net of a job, a good salary, especially as I had just spent a fortune on the Executive MBA and had just had a daughter.
What was I doing this for? At the beginning it was just a crazy idea.
Practically and in a mindset point of view, we are trying to do something that has never been done before. Can it really be done?
How does Zoundream work and how have you developed the product?
We first collected data from public sources but that was not enough. When we realised we needed more data, we tried many approaches.
We used Youtube but that was not enough – both in terms of quantity and quality. We bought microphones with long battery life and gave them to people with small babies, asking them to keep it close to the baby for as long as they could. We collected the data manually and listened to them. That was the first version. Translating baby cries and distinguishing sounds that are baby cries and not baby cries.
We then took the software and put it into a machine and gave it back to the parents. It filters out sounds that are not baby cries. We then filtered the data, refined it and got better data. The first year was developing the tools to collect the data.
Now we have a technology that works. Cry detection which translates baby cries (baby is hungry, sleepy, etc.) and now we are looking into pathologies and development disorders. In real time, we can understand if babies have development disorders.
We are trying to help parents. The entire concept is that we want to help parents by giving them some practical help, explaining why their baby is crying. And by using the same technology, they can potentially diagnose a potential pathology or development disorder and can check that with the pediatrician.
Can you share your views and experience on failure?
I’m very competitive. When we go for a competition and we don’t win, or worse when we come in second place, I will go crazy for days thinking about why we didn’t win first place out of hundreds of startups.
If we fail, we would have wasted a lot of money and a lot of time. It is at the back of my brain, but it doesn’t stop me from doing what I do.
You learn more from failures than from success. If you succeed, you don’t think about what you can do differently, because you won.
There was a competition where we ended up really badly last year. I didn’t understand why we weren’t taken seriously. We changed our strategy, how we presented, what we thought wasn’t important but actually was.
What does a typical day look like for you?
These days, a lot of emails and video calls. Meeting people, applying to grants, applying to competitions, financing, fundraising, contacting the lawyers, etc. We are seven people, 6 are tech people, I’m the non-tech person, so I have to do everything else.
What I like least is applying to grants/competitions. It is always the same thing but answering in a slightly different way or a certain number of words. What I like most is talking to people and pitching.
What are your measures of success?
We have a plan but this changes over time. Is it growing as fast as we can? Can we build this company to a size/dimension where we can exit at some point? I want to build something valuable for parents, but also to have an exit at some point.
Who or what has shaped who you are?
My daughter. She’s not even 3 now but since the moment she was born, I became a different person. I care about things that I didn’t used to.
For instance, I always enjoyed traveling, also solo. Now the idea of traveling without my daughter… WHY? Now there are things that I want to do but I postpone them so I can do them with my daughter.
My parents, family and the MBA have also shaped me. I wouldn’t do what I am doing now without having done the MBA. We had to do a lot of exercises about our motivation and understanding our values. It made me realise that I was wrong for the company I was working for. It just wasn’t a good fit.
How has coronavirus impacted what you do?
I cannot travel and meet people. But the main thing, we were about to close a seed round which we had to postpone and look for other investors as some defaulted. That slowed us down a bit.
Any advice for other budding entrepreneurs out there?
Don’t underestimate what are you getting into.
If you are 100% convinced, you will hate it anyway. But if you’re not… do it.
I will never go back.