Entrepreneur Victor Chang is going to let you in on the secret of how to rocket to Amazon’s top sellers list and land a promotional interview on a popular TV talk show: make sure your product is focused on solving a specific problem.
In his case, the challenge was lonely, home-alone pooches and the people who love them.
When Chang and his wife, Maggie Cheung, would leave their toy poodle, 'œhe would give us the saddest puppy eyes,” said Chang, 31. “It would break our hearts.'
So the couple decided to build a product that would allow dog owners to see their pets via a wide-angle camera, talk and listen to their animals, and launch them treats. In 2014 they founded Tomofun, a startup based in Bellevue, Wash. Two years later they released Furbo, a device billed as “the only treat-tossing dog camera designed specifically for dogs.” Chang is CEO of Tomofun and Cheung is chief marketing officer.
Tomofun, which has grown to 50 employees, launched new Furbo features this fall. That includes AI that can detect when a dog is barking, pacing or chewing and automatically alert owners when certain behaviors are happening. Furbo costs about $200 on Amazon.
A few weeks ago, a Furbo helped save a dog in a home that was filling with carbon monoxide gas from a fire. The pup started barking, and the device sent an email alert to the owner who rushed home to save her pet, Chang said.
But Furbo wasn’t an instant commercial success.
'œIn the very beginning, it was maybe ridiculed because it's a new product for pets. Pets are not respected in the tech space,' Chang said. He’s seen more interest and a better reception for baby-related technology.
There are other dog camera and treat dispensers available, but Furbo is a market leader. A local teen entrepreneur pitched a similar product called iCPooch at the 2014 GeekWire Summit. But the effort foundered and Bondgy, the parent company, filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
Chang said some people have suggested that they branch into human applications or serve other pets '” Purrbo, anyone? '” but Tomofun is staying focused on canines and improving features to serve pups and their parents.
'œThe one thing we can’t do better than a dog sitter,” Chang said, “is take them out to pee.'
We caught up with Chang for our Startup Spotlight, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.
Explain what you do so our parents can understand it: “Furbo is a smart camera that lets dog parents see, talk and toss treats to their precious pups while away from home.”
Inspiration hit us when: “When our dog Gobi kept giving us those sad eyes when we would leave for work. We knew there was a way to use technology to help relieve the separation anxiety that both pups and parents feel when away from home.”
VC, Angel or Bootstrap: “Crowdfunded. We launched our Indiegogo campaign in 2016 and became one of the fastest growing crowdfunding campaigns in history. Crowdfunding not only provided us the funding we needed to bring Furbo to market, but a massive amount of brand exposure giving Furbo a major advantage when it came time to officially launch.”
Our ‘secret sauce’ is: “Being hyper-focused on dogs. Where competitors attempt to provide devices that serve all types of pets, we know that dogs have unique needs and therefore should have a unique product.”
The smartest move we’ve made so far: “Participating in the Amazon Exclusives program, which also enables us to sell through our own website. We've been approached by several major big-box retailers to sell Furbo in physical stores, but from a logistics perspective, Amazon gives us the global reach and marketing exposure to effectively connect with our target audience.”
The biggest mistake we’ve made so far: “An early version of Furbo dropped treats as opposed to how it now tosses treats, which was a major feature request that came through in customer testing after we already invested a lot of time and capital into R&D under the original ‘dropping’ product desig