We were thrilled to win the New Venture Competition at UCSB at the end of May, and you can see the complete video of the competition on YouTube now.
Video of Birdeez Win at UCSB’s New Venture Competition
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Category Archives: Press
Birdeez Makes Birdwatching/Bird Identification Easy – Social Impact Marketing
I had a chance to sit down with Robin Eschler at Social Impact Marketing after an event put on by Startup SB. She really understood what we are trying to accomplish at Birdeez and summarized it nicely:
Jeff and his team, Patrick Toerner and Thomas Kuo, also hope to improve bird conservation and help our nation deal with “Nature Deficit Disorder.” By making birdwatching easy, the hope is to get more people enjoying the hobby and sharing it with their children. By encouraging children to go outside and learn to observe, not only will kids get up from the games to go outside, they will learn to appreciate nature and conservation while having quality time with Mom and Dad.
We talked about a bunch of things from environmental education to how Birdeez will work!
Read the rest and listen to the interview at Social Impact Marketing.
UCSB Announces Winners of Venture Contest – SB Independent
We’re still glowing after the win of the Market-Pull category at UCSB’s New Venture Competition! We’re thrilled to appear in this week’s Independent with our fellow winner, aPeel Technology!
Birdeez, a smart phone social networking application, has become popular already with bird watchers who can use the app to identify and report sightings. Birdeez project members are working to secure funding to further their venture.
Well, that’s not quite true. We’re just getting started, but she is right on when it comes to funding. And I like where she is going with our popularity among bird watchers too!
Read about the New Venture Competition and aPeel Technology on the Independent.
UCSB’s Bren School Incubated Birdeez, Covers our NVC Win!
I attended UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, where I first developed the idea for Birdeez. When I met my two awesome technical co-founders, Patrick and Thomas, we had a team that could make this idea reality.
The Bren School recently featured our win at the UCSB Technology Management Program’s New Venture Competition!
A team of would-be eco-entrepreneurs, including third-year Bren School master’s student Jeffrey Simeon, received the first-place, $5,000 prize in the market-oriented category of the competition, for his smart-phone application called “Birdeez.”
Read their perspective and about another great Bren Project on the Bren School website.
Birdeez Takes First Place – Daily Nexus
We were interviewed by the UCSB Student paper after our win at the New Venture Competition. They have great coverage of the event.
Teams faced extensive questioning following their presentations as judges proposed major points of concern, such as the questionable amount of market demand faced by Birdeez.
When the bird watching-enthusiast company received their first place prize of $5,000, TMP Program Manager Mike Panesis said the team was most impressive for its ability to overcome some of the greatest doubt facing competitors.
Birdeez Wins Market Category – Pacific Coast Business Times
Wow! We did it! Amazing to think won against such a great field of competitors! We’re thrilled, and happy for the coverage in Pacific Coast Business Times.
In the marketing-oriented category, the $5,000 top winner was Birdeez, a smart phone application that helps bird watchers locate and identify birds then log and share their findings. While the idea sounds fanciful as a business, the judges and audience were persuaded…
“At first we though, Birds? What?” said Mike Panesis, one of the event’s organizers. “But this team impressed us every step of the way, with both their technology and their business.”
Read the rest and about the other winners at PacBizTimes.com.
Bird-watching apps and Electric Porsches: Startups Pitch Ideas – Pacific Coast Business Times
Great coverage of the New Venture Competition, which we are happy to announce we ADVANCED TO THE FINAL! Very exciting to be in the Pacific Coast Business Times. Patrick even got his picture in there!
Among the more novel ideas was Birdeez, a smartphone and Web app to help bird watchers identify, log and share their sightings. Patrick Toerner, one of the students behind the idea, notes that “birders” often spend fanatically on binoculars and camera gear – and a full-color bird identification book. “That’s what we’re trying to get rid of,” he said.