Birdeez Launches from UCSB to Change the World – SB Audubon Society

Thomas Kuo

Birdeez Team Launching Into Action to Change the World!
Left to Right – Thomas Kuo, Jeff Simeon and Patrick Toerner.

El Tecolote Logo - Santa Barbara Audubon SocietyA version of this article originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Audubon Society‘s news letter – El Tecolote for June-July 2013.

If numbers are to be believed, only a quarter of those reading this sentence can identify birds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service reports that 74% of people who watch birds can identify fewer than 20 species by sight. We at Birdeez hope to change that and, in the process, change the world.

Birdeez is an iPhone app, but you can think of it as the un-iBird. Instead of being an encyclopedia, we built Birdeez to be the easiest app for anyone to pick up and start learning local birds. The app knows where you are and what birds are near you at any given time of year.  Enter a bird’s shape, size and color and you’ll get a short list of birds that match. You can even save your bird sightings right in the app. We designed it to help anyone from 7 to 70 years old learn their birds. By connecting more people to the birds around them, we hope to create the next generation of environmental stewards. Continue reading

Birdeez a “Feather in the Cap” – UCSB’s Technology Management Program

TechnologyManagementProgramLogoWe’re very excited for the future of the Technology Management Program (TMP) at UCSB. They are now going to be offering Master’s Degrees, and they gave us a shout out in their announcement:

Joined onstage by a live falcon to help prove their product, the team of UC Santa Barbara alumni behind bird-identification app Birdeez took a top award at last fall’s DEMO conference, a prestigious Silicon Valley pitch competition.

So landed another proverbial feather in the cap of UCSB’s Technology Management Program (TMP). The Birdeez group –– at the time still students –– won TMP’s New Venture Competition mere months earlier, earning acclaim and cash to go with their potentially viable business. Future TMP-bred winners of the popular campus start-up contest may walk away with another prize still: a master’s degree.

Read the rest about this innovative program that launched Birdeez on UCSB’s Website, or the Santa Barbara Independent.

UCSB Grads Create Winning App Birdeez – SB Independent

Santa Barbara Independent LogoEmiyl Carlson at the Santa Barbara Independent did a great write up about the team at Birdeez and our origin through UCSB. Our company is EcoLek, but for now we’re focusing bringing disruptive change to the birding market.

Their first project: an intuitive smartphone app that allows you to describe, identify, and catalog any and all bird sightings in your area, appropriately named Birdeez.

Read the rest on Santa Barbara Independent’s “For the Birds”.

Birdeez is a Startup HERO! – Startup America Partnership

suap-logoWe are very honored to announce that the Startup America Partnership (Startup America), has named Birdeez one of their Startup Heroes! Startup America ran the contest that Birdeez won to attend DEMO Fall 2012 and gave us the chance to win the DEMOgod Award. We’re super thankful to have their support and look forward to working with them in the future!

Birdeez is an iPhone app that makes it quick and easy to identify birds, then collect and share your sightings. Today’s featured startup, EcoLek, launched Birdeez at DEMO Fall 2012 and went on to win a DEMOgod award for their innovative product and presentation. A DEMO first, the Birdeez team was accompanied on stage by a live falcon for their presentation. (Watch the video below). Learn more about how and why this Startup California startup makes bird watching simple and mobile from its founder, Jeff Simeon.

Read the rest from my interview on the Startup America Website (s.co).

Thomas Kuo ECE Ph.D. and DEMOgod – UCSB

UCSB ECE LogoThomas got a great shout out today from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) at UCSB. And why shouldn’t he? He’s finishing excellent research in computer vision AND winning DEMOgod awards with us at Birdeez.

A team of UC Santa Barbara students including ECE Ph.D. student, Thomas Kuo, has landed a DEMOgod award for their app “Birdeez” at the DEMO, The Launchpad for Emerging Technology and Trends, Fall 2012 competition.

Read the rest on UCSB’s ECE website.

New Venture Wonder Team Wins Big at DEMO with Birdeez App – UCSB TMP

UCSB Engineering LogoAww, shucks! Wonder team? Sure, we have the brains, the birds and the mustache to power this team, but we were still blushing from this compliment from UCSB’s Engineering Department.

A team of UC Santa Barbara alumni that took first place in the 2012 New Venture Competition market track has landed a DEMOgod award for their app Birdeez at the DEMO Fall 2012 competition.

Well, that’s just true. We guess we won’t fight it.

Read the rest of their coverage on the UCSB Engineering website.

DEMO God Birdeez iPhone App Makes Birding Easy – Social Impact Marketing

I got to talk with Robin Eschler of Socially Conscious Investing again recently. This time it was about our recent DEMOgod Win and what this means for Birdeez. As she said:

Birdeez makes birdwatching fun and accessible for novices and experts alike. It not only quickly identifies wild birds through geolocation, a recent sightings list of birds and some quick entries regarding size, shape and color, it also helps scientists track birds to gain more data from every sighting. Plus, it is the intent of the Birdeez team that it will promote greater interest and understanding of our natural environment by making birdwatching fun and easy for children and adults alike.

Listen to the interview below!


Or read about it on Social Impact Marketing, the home of Socially Conscious Investing.

An App for the Birds – UCSB’s Bren School

BrenSchoolLogoI hope to continue to make the Bren School, and the Eco-entrepreneurship Program there, proud with Birdeez!

Bird watchers know birds, right? Not necessarily, according to Jeff Simeon (MESM 2012), who says that most self-identified birders can name only twenty of the 900 bird species found in North America.

Simeon knows this from research he conducted for his Bren School Eco-E project, which was to develop and market Birdeez, a new iPhone app that makes it easy to identify, record, and share bird sightings. Things are going well for CEO and design presenter Simeon and his partners on the technical side, UCSB undergraduate economics student Patrick Toerner and PhD student Thomas Kuo, who studies computer vision.

Read the rest on the Bren School’s website.