Startup Hablo | Hacker News Reader

Startup Hablo

2 pointsMousser18 comments

HI everyone !!!! I am Mousser Rahmouni cofounder of startup HABLO. I would like to share with you our solution that will be launched on October and i would like to have feedbacks.

HABLO is a device placed near babies that detects crying. It’s connected to a mobile application that analyzes, decrypts and alerts parents through an algorithm of AI

What do you think ? Any suggestions ?

Thanx ;)

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I have a one year old baby. I can already know with 100% certainty when she is crying, and most of the time it's quite clear what she wants.

What does this device add to that?

Some people are more susceptible than others to feeling bad when accused of bad parenting due to their use/non-use of baby monitors...or any other parenting idea that has two or more alternatives (which is nearly any parenting decision a parent makes in good faith).

For many people, accusations of bad parenting have real world consequences...imagine your social media "admission" of non-use in the context of application for social services, court supervision, or child protective services investigation...or if you or someone you love tweeted about their non-use.

The needs that baby monitors meet are generally not those of the baby. Babies don't have Amazon Prime accounts.

Hablo provide a guide for babies . So when your baby is crying will know exactlly why he/she is crying and we also advices and recommandations for each type of cry for example when your baby is crying because hunger , we give you how tp make a bottle preparation ( new parents don't know how to do it ) so you can react quickly.

Baby monitors already exist. I don't see how adding this into the mix fulfills a market need.

HABLO isn't a baby monitor . Today , Parents precisly new parents are almost engaged ( work, meetings... ) +baby crying is like annoying and depressed things so we propose a solution that could be a relief for this problem and genrally parents don't know why his baby is crying so we can facilitate the communication between them

Yes plus the baby cry is perfectly tuned to wake you up, so any alert this does will be inferior. Plus if you recognise types of cry you’d lose that fidelity through this.

I’d consider pivoting this into a sleep study device. Ie collecting stats so that you can reflect on the quality of baby/toddler sleep with recommendations to see a doctor if appropriate.

Yes we will be precise for the alerts after we will match the baby with his approriate doctor (teleconsultation ) but now we need to collmect data to improve our deep learning model

I know this is not very constructive but I think if you made the same thing but for dogs or cats it would make a mint.

But really it can exist.we can treat any wave and each wave has his own characteristics so we can analyse it

Why is it needed?

What problem does this solve?

One possible problem is distribution. It seems likely to me that smartphones and babies are more widely distributed than baby monitors. Due to segmentation of the baby products markets baby monitors appear to be upmarket.

For example, a quick check of Walmart.com for store available baby monitors near my zipcode has the cheapest monitor at ~$35.00 and the rest at $80-100+. Because the $35.00 monitor is not available in stock at all the Walmarts near my zipcode, distribution and segmentation mean new parents not enjoying the benefits of relatively lavish baby showers and other gifts face a substantial consumer purchase...more than 10 hours at minimum wage.

As described, a minimum viable Hablo probably might require <$5.00 of hardware...microphone, power supply, and wireless. So I'd say there might be an underserved market in the US. Outside the US, I'd expect the same.

This is of course a possible problem that might be solved. With the caveat that the shape of the baby monitor market might reflect absolute requirements for profitability...but I think that's more first world economic theory than reality on the ground.

I'm not sure what list you were looking at, but I'm seeing many baby monitors for sale for under 20 dollars. And with 9 months to plan, I suspect that it is OK to get one shipped if it is not in stock locally. I'm just not sure how big the market is for people who cannot afford a monitor, yet live in homes so large that they cannot hear their baby.

I think deaf parents might be a better angle to take with this product, as it could give a non-auditory cue back to those parents.

A visual LED cue is pretty standard on baby monitors, at least on the 2 cheapo ones I got on Amazon.

I also appreciate that neither monitor relies on my Wi-Fi network working.

I filtered Walmart.com by in store availability near my zipcode. What a new parent would find on the shelves if they walked into a local store earlier today and probably what they would find on the shelves at 2am tomorrow after deciding a baby monitor solves their problems. The fact that $100 is a normal price for a baby monitor even at Walmart suggests market inefficiencies. The plausibility of the arbitrage described in your comment is premised on market inefficiencies.

Please keep in mind that I described a feasible answer to "what problem does it solve?" That doesn't mean the OP's business is viable or likely to experience hockey stick growth. It's just that after a little reflection, I realized the basis for my initial dismissal was mostly "a $100 baby monitor isn't a big deal for most people I know well." They tend to have bank accounts and Visa cards and internet access.

They tend to be better off than many people I see in Walmart.

As i said the production will be in tunisia so we can have control on price .For the distribution we have two channels the first will be through online marketplace Amazon .The second through the babies shops. What do you think ? Now we want to collect data to know how american market react on our product because we're gonna launch firstable in french market and after we look to test the US Market

In the US, a lot will depend on the price point.

The problem that we solve is the communication between baby and parents. for distribution we are now developping the hardware in tunisia and the device is like a station to pass the cry but the analysis of cry is in the cloud .The production of the device will be in tunisia so the price will be for sure under 10 $ so we have the control on the price but the app will be for free and it's like one shot

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