Zoundream: The Venture Leader Technology translating the meaning of babies' crying

01.03.2024 09:00, Rita Longobardi

Meet Roberto Iannone, CEO of Zoundream. The ICT startup employs AI to investigate infant crying through multiple methods such as sound analysis, brain signals, and facial expressions. Roberto and the other nine Swiss National Technology Team members will fly to Silicon Valley in April.

Name: Roberto Iannone
Location: Basel
Nationality: Italian
Education: M.Sc. Engineering, MBA
Job title: CEO
Number of employees: 13
Money raised: USD 5M 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: 2020
 

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Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Our AI solution analyzes infant cries and sounds in real-time, pinpointing reasons like hunger or tiredness. Crucially, it detects early signs of conditions like autism non-invasively, offering lifelong benefits for babies and families. It's a cloud-based tool compatible with common devices like baby monitors and voice assistants, making it easily accessible for most households.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
We target the global market. As of today, just a mere two months after launch, we already have users in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and even the Middle East. Long term, we aim to reach any single family with a baby, anywhere in the world.
Our vision is to entirely redefine and improve infant care, in the first years of life of a baby. Not replacing the current standards of care, but improving and enhancing them, by gathering a wealth of information about the baby before he/she can talk, non-invasively, and 24/7.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
Becoming a father to two girls changed my life overnight. We live far from our grandparents and lead busy lives. Parenting brings immense responsibility, heightened by modern challenges and the desire for control. Spending on babies rises annually, reflecting this reality. I felt a deep sense of duty to nurture and protect my child, aware of the need for constant vigilance. This experience inspired me to create Zoundream, aiming to support parents worldwide.
 

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What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
We run the company 100% according to the Silicon Valley mindset and way of working. Therefore, Silicon Valley is the perfect place for us to grow our reach, network, visibility and presence. We already have a market presence in the US. But we are now also expanding with a physical presence (office, and employee) this year. I’m sure this roadshow will help us get closer to that.

What are your team’s key achievements to date?
We developed the most advanced technology in the world for the analysis of infant cries. We are the only company globally who were able to launch at a large scale and already partnering with the largest baby brands and home consumer electronic companies globally. We are now generating growing recurring revenues, with our user base growing by over 25% week-over-week.
We have had ongoing collaborations, for several years now, with some of the best pediatric hospitals, clinics and research in the world, supporting our research. 

Is there a key principle or value that guides you as you build your company?
From the beginning, I wanted Zoundream to be the dream company that I would like to work in as an employee. If people are happy, feel valued, and are motivated by doing something amazing together, then the company can fly.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
The life of a founder is not really as bright and shining as it looks from the outside. It’s stressful, tiring, and consuming. It can also feel miserable from time to time – and it periodically does. But if you as a person are up for the challenges that being a founder provides, then unfortunately you have no other option, as you would not fit in any other job or career. You simply would feel out of place anywhere else.

What is your favorite productivity hack or tool and why?
As a CEO, I try to always give the highest priority to those tasks and activities that might be blocking other people's work. And that can enable the team to work at their best. This includes providing the team with all visibility about the strategy, the goals, and how everything they do fits into the big picture. Because only when everybody is clear about all this, he/she can take the right decisions about their piece of work.

Tell us something people don't know about you.
My first job, 20 years ago now, was actually in China, in a factory, in the quality department directly on the production line. I would do it again!

Do you recommend a podcast or a book you want to share with us?
I recently got quite addicted to “The Startup Podcast”, a podcast about Silicon Valley startups. It’s very good, and I strongly recommend it.