Interview with KADDZ – the smart collar for cats
KADDZ is a smart collar for cats. The device was founded by young entrepreneurs from Biel. Learn more about the background of the start-up and the special gadget for cats.
We hear a lot in the Medias about „the smart collar GPS Cats“, „the SMART Cat“ or „the mobile contract for Cats“. We are curious and want to know: What’s behind KADZZ?
KADDZ is a smart collar for the cat with an integrated GPS sender. It is a smartphone without display built in a collar. You can find out where your cat is and what she is doing.
How does the technology work?
The collar is an autonomous computer with an own power supply. The dates are sent over the integrated SIM card. As an owner you can look at the sent data in an App. Did you know, that 90% of all lost pets are cats?
Did you receive feedback about connection problems?
The GPS function only works outdoors. This development is still working and in the near future it will be possible to track indoor. Problematic are places, where no mobile reception takes place, because the data can’t be sent. Through the automatic recording of the movement profile you know exactly, where the cat has been.
Are there negative consequences for the cats?
There are cats, that never worn a collar and don’t want one. The clients want to send back the collar, because we have offered a 14 day right of return. The most cats don’t have any problems. Our collar is at the moment only available for full-worn cats. Young cats shouldn’t wear it. The radiation isn’t high because the dates are sent every 5-15 minutes for a short second.
How many users do you have at the moment?
At the moment 2‘200 clients are using our product. About 80% of our customers are using the collar and App daily. Some are drawing with KADZZ the territory of their own cats and know where you have to search. These clients don’t use the collar daily. We receive a lot of responses from our clients. This is for the further development extremely important.
How does it look geographical? Are you only using this technology in Switzerland or also in other countries?
We started in the DACH area and expanded to England. The most clients are coming from Germany especially from Berlin. Expanding is extremely complex because you need to adapt to the language. This includes changing the app and providing a local service. At the moment we are working on our expansion to the French area. As a start-up we always have to weigh how far we can go. We also have Scandinavian clients which are using our English solution.
Does the Swiss target group differentiate from others around the world?
We see differences in the online buying behavior. In Switzerland the clients want a bill. We have to send reminders to receive the payment. In England the clients pay immediately through PayPal. We realized that the German clients are more price sensitive.
Which Marketing instruments are u using to become famous?
Really famous we aren’t at the moment. But we are working on this topic. We use social media and online-marketing. We operate a large Facebook community for missed cats. Here we have approximately 48’000 users in the German speaking area. Monthly 1’500 missing’s are posted. We offer together with the community solutions to find the cats. The solution can come with our collar or not. In the coming weeks we will combine the App with Facebook to for example add missed pictures of cats that are posted automatically to Facebook.
Let us come to your USP’s. Is there competition and if yes, how do you differentiate?
There is competition. We differentiate with KADZZ that our product is only for cats. Conventional GPS aren’t developed for cats. We have analyzed the activities of cats and tailored our solution. We have also thought, what could make it easier to find lost cats. That’s why we have installed LED lights, which you can turn on with the App for searching the cat during nights.
How will you finance yourself long-term? How does the model work?
We have on the one hand the buying price of the collar, on the other hand the abo model for further services. Our value is created by the subscription. This is actually a value subscription, comparable with a Sim card that you can order for 3, 6 or 12 months.
Tell us the 3 largest challenges before, during and after your founding!
Before the founding the most challenging task was to find the correct team. The people have to add to each other. Afterwards we had the challenge to implement the project. Looking back I would also regulate the distribution of shares to a late point because you really realize who is on. After the founding it is difficult to find investors. Especially in Switzerland the expectations are large, but taking risk appetite is low.
What do you think about mistakes? What was your biggest mistake but best learning?
We made a lot of mistakes. The biggest mistake happened at the first financial phase. We had a fix price in our head which we wanted to collect in 3 to 6 months. We underestimated the time extremely. At the end we had 9 months to finance 50% of our goal.
We had a lot of luck with the law issues. One of our team member is lawyer. This helped tremendously. The topic is important and some o fuss hadn’t a clue. We could profit from the lawyer and learn a lot. I suggest to have experts on board especially during the financing phase because there are several dirty tricks.
Have you got an entrepreneur role model?
I don’t have an explicit role model. I am impressed by Elon Musk. He has a lot of power and heart blood in every project. He also was once bankruptcy and came stronger back.
How does it look like with future visions? Where do you stand and where do you want to go?
At the moment we are checking application possibilities, when once several cats wear KADZZ collars. We thought that we could collect environmental data and offer to governments and interesting companies. But also other data could be collected.
Another application would be the finding of stolen equipment. The predators eliminate quickly the GPS that nobody can track them. But the Bluetooth connection is still working and you could find the area of the predator. Cats would be spies!
What are your next steps?
At the moment we want to further penetrate the market. The second topic is a next financing phase. We are looking for another 1 to 2 million to further develop the hardware and recruit.
What do you want to recommend potential starters?
I would like to tell an anecdote of our founding phase. When a Swiss Software startup goes to Silicon Valley everyone is impressed. We are located in Shenzhen the high-tech area of China. In this region 70% of the worldwide electronic is produced. Even Apple produces I-Phones in Shenzhen. Nevertheless we always have to justify why we are producing in China.
A payable electronic good you can only produce in China. The most don’t make this step and believe they could produce in Switzerland. A product with producing costs of 50. – You can’t produce locally.
Is there a funny or unbelievable moment you had with KADZZ?
Once we received a phone call and a client asked: „My cat came back with a collar of your company but I didn’t buy one. Can you explain this to me? “
We asked her to look at the collar and to send us the number. We tracked the number and found the owner lives one km away. We called him and explained the situation. He told us every Thursday to Sunday the cat would be far away. It would only be from Monday to Wednesday at home and that’s why he wanted to know where she is. We called again the other client and she told us that she owns a restaurant which is only open from Thursday to Sunday. The cat lived now two years in the restaurant and was spoiled. Monday to Wednesday it became the normal cat food. The cat was famous in the restaurant and even the clients knew her. The original owner is visiting now the restaurant frequently and has accepted the situation. The restaurant owner though the cat wouldn’t have a home and adopted the cat. We have introduced the definition Catnapping.
Which quote has followed you during your startup time?
Quote: „You have to leave your comfort zone to reach something. You can’t change the world from an office. “
What’s your opinion on digital transformation? I mean you have an online platform but are you using in marketing the digital media?
In Marketing we do everything online. Our service structure we outsourced to Amazon. The digitalization is moving and China is ahead of us. If you want for example transfer money this goes only seconds with micropayment-technology. Several Chinese order everything online, from the shampoo to the noodle soup for lunch.
