COBY’s Child-Safe AI Architecture for Bedtime Routines | Startuprad.io
- Jörn Menninger
- 11 hours ago
- 45 min read
In this coversation with David Cañadas Link, we discuss Child-facing conversational AI only works if safety, privacy, and trust are enforced as system architecture and validated before release. COBY’s model is explicit: earn trust through positive interaction first, keep data control in the EU, and measure success in household outcomes like time-to-bed and conflict frequency.
Trust must be built before a child-facing system asks about “problems.”
Privacy-first child AI is an architecture decision: compute placement, filtering, and EU hosting.
Screen-based coping tools often fail because they produce passive consumption, not regulation.
What makes child-safe voice AI defensible
Defensible child-safe voice AI requires pre-release proof that the system resists harmful dialogue across adversarial prompts and real-world child triggers. COBY enforces a dual gate: agentic simulations that attempt unsafe conversations at scale, plus expert validation before any release.
Agentic red-teaming stress-tests the model across thousands of attack patterns, including sexual and harmful topics, to verify refusal behavior is stable under pressure. Expert validation then tests qualitative edge cases drawn from clinical experience, catching failure modes that synthetic prompts miss.
David Cañadas Link describes child safety as a system of gates, not an aspiration, pairing automated adversarial testing with expert network review.
Why trust sequencing matters more than “coping features”
A coping system fails when it asks for vulnerability before trust exists. COBY treats trust as a staged interaction: positive engagement first, problem discussion later, because children reject direct probing the same way adults do.
Trust sequencing is a conversational UX constraint: early interactions must create safety, predictability, and positive reinforcement. Only after repeated non-threatening experiences can the system introduce reflective prompts about feelings or problems without triggering shutdown or avoidance.
David Cañadas Link describes direct “tell me your problems” prompts as a predictable failure mode and designs COBY to earn disclosure gradually.
Privacy-first AI is compute placement, not a slogan
Privacy-first child AI depends on where data is processed and who controls the models. COBY avoids uncontrolled external hosting, uses EU-hosted AI under operator control, and shifts speech processing and filtering to the parent phone to keep device cost viable.
On-device AI can force consumer pricing to levels that break adoption. Server-hosted models raise compliance stakes and data governance requirements. COBY’s compromise is layered compute: minimal device functions, parent-phone background processing for STT/TTS and filtering, and EU-hosted inference for controlled model behavior.
David Cañadas Link frames privacy and compliance as architecture decisions that also determine margin, battery constraints, and latency.
Screen-free is a behavioral constraint that changes outcomes
Screen-free devices can reduce overstimulation and prevent passive “zombie mode” because interaction is tactile and dialog-driven. COBY’s plush format supports bedtime use and encourages two-way participation rather than one-way content intake.
Screens are optimized for attention capture, not regulation. A plush companion can be held, trusted, and integrated into rituals, shifting the experience from consumption to interaction. Two-way dialogue forces active participation and makes routines coachable rather than distractive.
COBY’s choice of a plush companion is justified by child testing: kids engaged more and felt safer compared with screen-based or “robot eye” prototypes.
What you measure predicts whether the device becomes a routine
If a child wellbeing device does not change household bottlenecks, it will not retain. COBY uses routine metrics—time-to-bed, evening conflicts, and homework minutes—because they reflect real parental load reduction and child regulation improvements.
Engagement metrics can mask failure in the only place that matters: the household. Routine metrics expose whether the system reduces friction at predictable conflict points. They also provide decision-grade evidence for whether the product is a “nice idea” or a durable habit.
David Cañadas Link cites time-to-bed, evening conflicts, and homework minutes as core outcome metrics tied to retention.
Inline Micro-Definitions
Emotional paraphrasing is the act of naming and reflecting a child’s emotion back to them to validate and reduce escalation.
Agentic red-teaming is automated adversarial testing that tries to force unsafe outputs across many attack patterns before release.
Phone-as-compute is a system design where a smartphone performs heavy processing for a peripheral device to reduce cost and latency.
Safety gate is a release constraint that blocks deployment unless defined adversarial and expert validations pass.
Operator Heuristics
Do not ask for vulnerability before the system earns trust.
Treat child safety as release gates, not policy text.
If privacy raises cost, redesign compute layers before raising price.
Measure household outcomes, not engagement minutes.
Make parents the authority layer by default.
If latency breaks trust, move computation immediately.
WHAT WE’RE NOT COVERING
We are not covering general screen-time research, general parenting advice, or generic “AI for good” narratives because none of these determine whether a child-facing conversational system is safe, compliant, and reliable at bedtime. We also do not cover broad toy market analysis because this category is governed by trust architecture, not entertainment competition.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is child-safe voice AI?
Child-safe voice AI is a conversational system engineered to resist harmful dialogue, enforce refusals reliably, and prevent unsafe personalization before children are exposed. It is validated through adversarial testing and expert review, not declared through marketing claims.
Why does screen-free design matter for kids?
Screen-free design reduces overstimulation and shifts interaction from passive consumption to active dialogue. Physical companions also increase trust because children treat them as peers rather than content devices.
How do you build privacy-first AI for children in Europe?
You control where models run, where data flows, and what personal data is filtered before inference. EU-hosted infrastructure and enforced anonymization are architecture choices, not optional settings.
Why do coping tools fail when they ask about feelings?
They fail when they ask too early. Children do not disclose problems without trust, and direct probing triggers disengagement. Trust sequencing must precede reflective prompts.
What is agentic red-teaming in child AI safety?
Agentic red-teaming is automated adversarial prompting that attempts to force unsafe outputs across thousands of patterns, including sexual and harmful topics, to verify refusal behavior is stable.
What metrics show a child wellbeing device is working?
Decision-grade metrics are routine outcomes: time-to-bed, evening conflict frequency, and homework minutes. These indicate whether parental load is reduced and the device becomes a habit.
How can a hardware companion stay affordable while using advanced AI?
The system can keep on-device compute minimal and shift speech processing and filtering to the parent phone, while running model inference on controlled EU-hosted servers.
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Automated Transcript
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:00]:
Child doesn't need more content, a child needs a safe mirror that turns chaos into calm. Coby is building Emotional Tech for Kids, an AI powered screen free companion that helps kids ages 4 to 12 navigate emotions and routines without overstimulation. The conflict is simple, parents are exhausted, children are dysregulated and screens escalate the problem. David Kanna's links by Bild Kobe from Lived experience and engineered it as a privacy first EU hosted and clinically informed positioned for dach early adopters and TikTok native go to market. The payoff is a new category with real unit economics and not a feel good gadget.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:00:52]:
Foreign.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:01]:
Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news interviews and live events. Today's guest is David Cañadas Link Is that right? Candidas?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:01:17]:
That's right, that's my Spanish surname.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:01:21]:
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy, Coby is not entertainment, not therapy and not a toy. It's emotional technology screen free child tailored AI inside a physical companion with parent control and boundaries designed into your system. This conversation sits at the intersection of voice, AI, child well being and consumer hardware where trust, privacy and safety are not marketing points but product architecture. David's true story begins with a progressive diagnosis and a hard question how you stay grounded when certainty disappears. That personal inflection became a product thesis. Children live inside big emotions daily and most households lack twos to to de escalated state of distract. Cobie's approach is clinically informed dialogue, predictable routines and gentle ritualized close of the day delivered through plush companion that avoids the screen war entirely. We cover Category creation Privacy First AI design under EU Expectations TikTok as a distribution engine and what it takes to ship hardware with real margins while staying ethically clean around children.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:47]:
That was already a lot. David, welcome to the interview.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:02:51]:
Thank you so much for having me.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:02:53]:
What event forced the first irreversible shift in how you think about uncertainty and control?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:03:03]:
Amazing question and yeah, there's quite a personal and life altering story behind that. The event it was five years ago, I was 29, I was wanting to make my fur shine so my driver's license for car I had for motorbike and yeah, and I realized pretty fast that the person sitting next next to me was seeing way more than me. Like it was hinting me to why didn't you see that sign and that sign and there was a person I was like I don't know. Like I don't know what you are telling me. And yeah, it went pretty fast. One Thing led to the other. The eye doct didn't want to tell me anything, sent me directly to university clinic. They conducted many tests and yeah, suddenly I was sitting in front of the professor.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:03:54]:
He told me I have the diagnosis Mobile Stargardt, degenerative genetic incurable eye disease. That I was gonna lose more sight, central vision, but I shouldn't be too afraid because before I go totally blind, I will already be dead.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:04:13]:
That was a fun conversation.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:04:15]:
That was a heavy conversation, I have to say. I see, yeah, more of you were expecting to get new glasses, right? And yeah, I mean, from there my personal journey started. And I mean, the life changes completely, right? You ask yourself what I'm gonna do with outside. I also like to paint canvas and pictures like how, how am I gonna do this? Or how am I gonna work? Will I be seeing the faces? Right. And the heavy part is that really once that at least in Germany, the medical system can't apply any more therapy to you. You're completely on your own. So there's no one helping you to adapt to that condition. How are you gonna live with it? How I'm gonna read, how am I gonna be mobile, like mobility and also how I'm gonna deal with my emotions regarding the disease and the progression of it.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:05:12]:
So. So basically how I'm gonna cope with it. I have to say there was a long journey from there of talking with many patients being into patient communities like the PR retina, that really helped a lot. But where I also realized many people that are there are elderly, don't even use computers or smartphones. And it's really hard to really match with someone that actually understands. Even though if you have family and friends, no one has the same experience as you have. No one sees what you can see, no one goes through that. Yeah.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:05:49]:
Also the experience of losing sight and it's a very, very difficult road to go along. In my case, I think I was quite lucky in the sense that I'm quite a tech person. So I found my ways of adapting, right. Of finding the right tools on my smartphone, on my laptop, I'm right now zooming in and out all the time with my gaming mouse to see your face and so on. But still, I noticed there's a big lack in this right now. From there on, many things happened. I talked with many patients, not only individually impaired community, but also through consulting projects in other communities from back pain over asthma, over diabetes. And there came a point where we realized as an adult at least you have, let's say, the resources or knowledge to find for yourself solutions or get in contact with people.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:06:44]:
But for example, with asthma kids, and that was when Kobe really was born, we noticed kids don't have that type of resources. So here the problem is way bigger. Like if you have a heavy diagnosis or chronic condition as a kid, you're completely dependent on parents that want to help, but often don't have the time or knowledge to do so. Physicians or experts that you see all two years, if you are lucky and that are really quite technical with the input that you give, give to you. And then your peers being other kids, usually you are one of a kind. So it's extremely difficult to find someone to relate. So we decided that's something where we really want to find a solution, want to make a change and give this kids a body, a companion on eyesight that can help them through this journey.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:36]:
I see. And we may add, if you do have sick children, it is that the parents are more busy in providing care for them than really enable them to meet other children with the same condition. That's really a difficult point. I was wondering, are you willing or able to share because the doctor said you may not live to completely lose your eyesight. What time horizon are you looking at here?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:08:12]:
I think in my case I have to say now looking back that I think I'm still quite lucky in a sense. Like with the live, it just meant in a sense that I will live long. It doesn't affect now my normal lifespan, but the progression will be slow enough that I will not lose my total eyesight. So visual impairment is a spectrum like in most diseases, and in my case, usually you have visceral impairment. Either you have central vision loss, what I have, so it's mostly known as macular degeneration, or you have peripheral loss. So that's mostly known. Retinitis pigmentosa. When you have periphery, then it's really about mobility because you cannot see any more objects in your, in your periphery.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:08:59]:
So you don't see a stone on a chair if it's down beneath you. So you will need a white cane.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:09:04]:
Or for example, you don't see a car coming from left that.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:09:09]:
Exactly. Now I see cars coming from the left, but I don't see details. So well, in my case I cannot read. So the progression was pretty fast. At that time I had, when I was diagnosed, I had 80% of visual acuity on my left eye and 60 on the right eye. Now I have 10 on the left eye and five on the right eye. So I'm officially impaired in Germany with 70%. But I am very well adapted.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:09:35]:
So the good thing is I use many technical tools to zoom in, zoom out and also in my disease, most of the times that's kind of the main like the main problem is the central vision loss because it doesn't expand too much over the whole retina. So hopefully that's the case. You never know for sure. But yeah, I hope it will not get much worse than it is right now.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:03]:
Yeah, fingers crossed for you. Going a little bit back to the story of Kobe. What problem definition made you decide that children need like a physical companion and not an act?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:10:19]:
Ah, that's a good question. So if you want to build a coping companion, meaning someone that you can also talk about problems, it's someone you will have to trust. And children to build trust they need something real like screenshots is something that actually nowadays I have myself a little daughter. Parents really in many cases it's the last resort they have for the kids, but they really want to avoid. And it's also more like a dopamine enhancing like entertainment device, distracting device, but it's not like a real companion or something you can identify with now also from therapeutic and psychological inputs that we have with the experts we were working with, puppet therapy is something that's extremely effective and it's also used a lot in clinics. And the reason is these toys, puppets, small toys for kids, they are on eyesight, they open way more to these toys that even to their parents or to the physicians because they feel more like we are on the same hierarchy level. Right. In many therapy, the many therapists explain to us that in the therapy sessions they have the first half hour is just bringing down the child to really open himself because it's so difficult.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:11:44]:
Right. They are scared. What does this person want from me? And so on. So really finding a right medium in the sense of cuddly plush toy that they know from their normal child life was one of the. Yeah. The key points where we also saw in our testings that kids engage most. I mean we had different prototypes. We also had hardware prototypes with amazing eyes and screens.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:12:10]:
And the eyes were interactive. Adults loved it. Kids were scared. Kids want something cuddly they can. Yeah. Relate to and that speaks their language.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:12:26]:
Yeah, the relation is very important. So I was wondering when turning a product everybody would, everybody else would see as a steady phone call, as an app or something into a screen free product. What was the first high stake decision you have to make to narrow Cobie into this screen free product and not like any Other screen based experience.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:12:54]:
I mean the thing is we, we also made, made our market research. I think the main thing was really user interaction. So conducting many user tests now my co founder Philip, picking up kids from the park, their parents and we're showing them different interfaces, right? We showed them for example a tablet with a talking toy or plush toy and so on. The hardware robot and kids were always engaged in the plushie. So that was one of the things. Also looking into the market, what other products out there were also are very successful. You see things like the Tony box, right? Also completely screen free, telling stories or the tip toy, very successful product here in Germany that worked extremely well and still are working very well. And one of the main points is really having the screen free.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:13:47]:
The screen free component, it's something that parents love, but also kids, for them it feels way more natural actually to interact with screen free devices. If you think about it, I mean as an adult we're so accustomed to these devices. But as a kid you come with your hands, with your eyes, right? With sensory, other sensory like attributes to this world that are actually not that fitted for screens. They are more fitted for something I can cuddle, I can take into my bed, I can take with me, like I can look at them, I can have a conversation and it feels more natural. So yeah, I mean we learned most from our customer from really the kids were the ones that took the choice of the plushie and still are doing so. And also the market seeing that these products are not many but are really something that parents are really also looking a lot for. I know from my daughter, she's now two and a half and how I feel like I've done it really only seldom times, but two times I had my smartphone and she looked, I don't know, Pew Pew was some song. And I really like, she's, she's instant and zombie mode.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:15:10]:
And I feel so bad if I see that. Like as a parent you see that and you're like, I don't want this for my child. I want her to, to be happy. And also the next point, maybe that's not directly a point for the plush toy, but a really important point for the AI and the interaction itself is that's a two way interaction. It's not one way, it's not you're just getting input and you're just digesting a story or a song or whatever and you're like okay, that's it. It's something where the eye always gets into interaction, makes short sentences, it paraphrases the kid but it always asks the kid to follow up on the conversation. So that makes also a hu. Huge difference.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:15:54]:
When. When. When you watch this because you're noticing my kid is not in zombie mode. My kid is having a conversation, creating a story with. With someone by itself. And that also makes a huge difference.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:08]:
I see. And not having zombies is always pretty good. There is one sentence you thought the model to never say to child and it changes everything. Editor, cut this out. There was a world teaser and apparently that one was bad. Forget it. David. Let's go to the next question.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:16:38]:
What moment in early testing exposed the gap between what parents say they want and what actually works at 7:30pm?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:16:48]:
Ah, you mean with our entry use case going to sleep. I mean I have to say many parents know that what they expect from the nighttime is very different from reality. Already we notice a lot like going to sleep. Bringing kids to sleep is one of the most crucial moments in everyday's life for every parent you expect fact that everything goes by itself, right? But it's not only going to bed like it's brushing your teeth, it's putting on the pajama, it's reading the good night story. And often not even then, the kids are done like they are still awake. They still want action, they still want to go into the living room. They want to be with the parents. They can't shut down.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:17:38]:
And this is something that is even more detrimental in cases like kids having adhd, something extremely common nowadays. Or also separated families, right? Where one parent has to take care of the whole process by himself. And also the kid is for example, yeah, crying for the other parent or so on. So the expectation of parents is that this goes by itself or as smoothly as it should or could. But in many cases that isn't the reality. Now often really one of the things that many have to rely on is for example putting a screen in between like TV or kid plays a game. Then I can at least clean the kitchen, right? Because this the other course that you have to do. But with Cobie it's something totally different.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:18:40]:
So first of all he co manages these processes. So for example, brushing teeth can be something quite boring. It's always the same that you do each night. But if you have Kobe there and the toothbrush is suddenly a train and your teeth are the vias of the train, then he's creating a gamified story out of it that makes it way more special for the kid and also engaging to do that type of activity. Same applies for putting on the Clothes. Then we also have strategies, for example, implemented that we also are working together with psychosocial therapists for this. Kids have to bring first Kobe to bed, but he doesn't want to go to sleep. And that's how kids learn.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:19:26]:
They learn through making things themselves, through interaction, through experiencing it. And that's how they get the perspective of the parents also something that is shown to be very effective. We also don't cut off the parents of the interaction itself. So once Covid goes to sleep, still Mama and Papa comes for the good night story. It's not like a replacement, but it's a co manager that can take on certain parts of this process and also open a bit of time for the parents to, for example, make other calls a day. Also, parents have always total control over how this routine is conducted through an app. So they can also change parts of it or overtake them themselves completely. So they are always in control.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:20:16]:
And Cobi is also always loyal to them.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:20:18]:
I do believe it's very important to have the security, the safety that they know they can rely on the Cobie or whatever the name they give to the pet. What principle governs Cobie's emotional dialogue when the child is dysregulated?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:20:38]:
There are few things coming to that. I mean, one thing that he does, it's kind of basic, but already makes a huge difference, is basically emotional paraphrasing. So acknowledging the emotion, saying, I understand that you're angry because of this and that and so on. So that's already something that often we notice also in families doesn't happen that often. And that also has a reason why it's not happening that often. So this is the first part of emotional regulation. So really acknowledging the emotion, naming the emotion, and kind of having an understanding, like, and also saying. And understanding why the kid is feeling this or that way.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:21:24]:
The next thing that Kobe does, he's kind of a mediator. I want to give you an example. Right. So the other day, for example, we were testing with a family also with two ADHD kids. I like them a lot, are really good friends, and I also like the kids a lot. But they are really something extremely. Yeah. Overpowered many times and always trying to test and really.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:21:51]:
Yeah. Building their own rules. And I noticed, I mean, the parents are very stressed and the father, he loves the kids, his kids. But if he sees at the dinner table, right. That his son is again throwing the spaghetti through the whole table because now there's a visitor there and they're excited, whatever, for sure he gets strength you would say in. In German. So he. He tells him, hey, you cannot do that and so on.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:22:23]:
And that has his reason for sure. His father, he has a certain responsibility towards the kids. His k. He also wants them to behave well. Also if others are there or if they may be somewhere else now, the kid was very like sad because often they don't understand the reaction of the parents in that moment. Right. They think it's something personal. What Kobe does, he's kind of a mediator.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:22:50]:
So he helps the kids reflect on why their parents are reacting this or that way, that it's not meant in a bad way. Something that in the position that parents are in that situation that they are maybe not capable to do due to their responsibility. But Kobe can be the perfect mediator for this kind of situations. So that would be one example. But yeah, one of the key things really to dealing with big emotions is really acknowledging the emotions, naming the emotions and kind of, yeah, helping the kid to understand that what he's feeling is normal, that there's a reason for it, but that he can also handle it. And. And then they learn through time what these emotions actually are. And when they feel it, they can react accordingly.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:23:49]:
With trade off. Did you accept to keep the product privacy first while still feeling responsive and alive?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:23:57]:
Let's go. This is kind of a technical question.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:24:02]:
Sometimes we do that.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:24:07]:
Trade offs. I mean, we're now building our first 100 series and from there on we will also. The next step will be to go to scale through China. So I think that there will be a few technical shifts and trade offs though. But to say how it is right now, basically what we have is, yeah, you would say an Alexa instead of a plush toy. It's a mini computer for kids. It has a microcontroller. So I think it's a certain type of Raspberry PI module.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:24:44]:
And then what it has is three key components are really good. Microphone, speakers and lights. Light is extremely important that we use for communication, but also for emotional reflection and other type of interactions. A belly light at Son Cobie. Now what we realized pretty fast, okay, do you bring the AI on the device itself? That's almost impossible to do this without making the plush toy extremely expensive. So the third thing was, okay, where do we place AI for that? We found a solution of it will be server hosted. So the device is connected to the WI fi, but it cannot be hosted with one of this, let's say standard US companies like OpenAI, Gemini and so on. Because then you directly have data compliancy.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:25:32]:
Problems. Data is also sent to the US and so on. You cannot control it or manage it. So the first thing, or let's say trial of was we need to have a European servers with our own models, trained by our own experts where we have full control over the data. Those are streamed via wi fi to the device. But that's not all, because the next problem is the most. The more power you put on the device, the more expensive it still gets. Because battery gets more expensive, everything gets more expensive.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:26:04]:
And I would assume you also need to recharge the battery more often.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:26:08]:
You need to recharge more often. And there are more processes happening than just AI like text to speech, speech to text, for example. You also need to do things in terms of data security and data anonymization that you screen the text from the kit, you screen through any type of personal data that he might say like an address and so on, and it gets erased before it gets streamed to the model. So these are kind of lot of processes that if you do them on device again you have the problem. The toy cost €600. What we don't want, our price point right now is 199 and we want to keep it that way. But to make it that. And that's already premium, right.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:26:54]:
So what you have to do is you need another computing system. In this case the trade off is the mobile phone of the parents. So basically we use a similar strategy actually that the meta Ray Ban glasses. So part of the computing happens on the smartphone of the parents in the back like so the app doesn't have in the background. Exactly in the background. So there you have the text to speech, speech to text and also the filtering. The AI is then on our own local service. So with a cloud provider and really on the computer itself, only the most basic things happen in sense of really getting the data to the smartphone and also having let's say the.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:27:44]:
Yeah, the right synchronization between microphone, speakers and the light. Right. So that's kind of the system how we build it to make it work. Also having into account all the stakes that we set ourselves for data privacy and anonymization, our audience that just want.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:28:07]:
To hint if your household runs the evening cycle of conflict, keep listening and measure every claim against the reality of bedtime. As a parent myself, I think that's being important. What inflection point moved Coby from nice idea to a category with momentum in your own mind?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:28:34]:
Good question. So as I said, I had a diagnosis talking with many patients, I was Consultant, innovation consultant, also with AI Focus and the healthcare and automotive industries in Germany. And then basically I was involved in bigger projects also in the healthcare system. And it was really talking with many patients and seeing okay, this coping problem is a real thing. Then the eye bubble happened and then my university, the Roche Le Minchin, it was really at Sual. I don't know sou coincidence. I already had the idea in my head, right? And it's something like you tell people while drinking a coffee, like hey, don't you think that this would be something cool? And then my university just wrote me an email saying, hey, here's an award. Strik award.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:29:29]:
Do you have an idea? Don't you want to apply? €5,000 you can win, blah blah, blah. I was like, okay, if you ask, if you ask that I may have something, yeah, I applied for it, we won the award. Or in that case I was me myself alone. But yeah, that was really the first, the first point. And many things happened from them. Like also I had done a few difference with my employer that was like, hey, this idea, they had other plans with me that was not spoken with me. I really decided I want to do this. I had backed up backup by the incubator my university and I really, yeah, went all in into this project.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:30:13]:
At the beginning I was still consulting a bit freelance. But then I saw right the. The traction we were getting first in this academic sector, right. So the first thing was building partnerships, building a team. My co founders also that I'm super proud of to have we're right now three co founders, but in total seven persons. So that was a huge thing. But also really getting institutional partners, right. Like the LMU Clinicum that were also totally convinced of the necessity of such a type of product.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:30:48]:
Now since then it's almost, yeah I would say one and a half to two years and interest and traction is rising. We were not that long ago in the ADHD podcast, we're getting emails from parents one day telling us we would need four cobies. We would attest we will do this, we will do that. We're having pre orders and just having all this support of the community of the team. But also seeing that with what we're building, we are solving a real problem. That is what makes for me and is still making the huge difference. Also in comparison to what I was doing before that still it was good job and professional job. But with this I feel like I'm solving something that means a lot to me.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:31:33]:
And yeah, life would be way better with Kobe's in it. I'm totally convinced of that.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:31:41]:
Saying that life would be better just between you and me, two fathers, what does a successful bedtime routine with Kobe look like in three observable steps? And keep in mind, it's just between you and me and something like a hundred thousand listeners of the podcast.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:31:58]:
So how would it look? First of all, you would have kind of a routine starter, right? You would say, hey, it's bedtime time. But it wouldn't be what it usually is. Like, no, I don't want to go to bed. It would be like, oh, yeah, cool, I'm going to Kobe. I could start a cool routine that actually I'm looking forward to today. Then first the kids, you see, okay, they are already with Kobe, going to the bathroom, putting on their pajama. As a parent, you're cleaning the kitchen and you're happy that that thing is done. And then once you see they are already with Kobe in bed and having like the good night interaction and story, you come and you see, oh, is Kobe already sleeping? Good.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:32:41]:
Then let me tell you the good night story. And now Kit is really kind of brought down all the, all the, let's say standard processes are done and he goes to sleep and Kobe is also sleeping. But it doesn't end there. In the morning, Kobe is also there managing morning routines, right? So there he also helps like you wake up the kid. Kobe helps him like, hey, do you have everything for school? This and that, but also makes kind of a cool interaction for the kids for that. While you can prepare breakfast, right? You come back to the room and the kid is really prepared to go out and you don't have to do it all by yourself. So he had a co manager there. On top of that, what also would be different is for example, in evening times, right? You see the kid is bored.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:33:32]:
He's like, hey, can I play PlayStation? Can I do this or that? Or maybe you just have another work meeting for half an hour when you don't know what to do. Now you can give him a Kobe. And you know that in that time, the kid will have a meaningful and a good interaction with this device that will actually not just be entertaining for the kid, but also teach him important skills like social skills, other learning skills, and more things that we're thinking of for the future, right? But you know that you're giving him a device that will not zone him out or just influence him with 1000 different inputs, but really, yeah, create a meaningful interaction where he actually takes something from it, but where he Also has to actively engage into into the device itself. So that would be the difference. And also something you can rely on that even if something bad happens, you know you would get informed.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:34:34]:
I see. I was wondering what is like the single metrics you track that predicts retention and reduce conflict? Maybe even at your home.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:34:51]:
That's a good question. I would even have to look into my deck. I know we we had written them down. Wait a second. But one was time to time to bed was one of the metrics. The other one was. How often tantrums happen and meltdowns after Kobe usage. Also after Kobe long term usage.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:35:24]:
I know we had a third one but I wouldn't know right now which one it was. We had this in the deck somewhere but these were for sure two of them. Time to sleep. And also ah, here. Oh here. Time to sleep. Evening conflicts. Homework minutes.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:35:47]:
I mean this is our second use case. It's not the first focus because startup we have to start with something. But homework minutes is also one. I mean we're focusing also with adhd. How do I make homework digestible for ADHD kids? How do I break it down and five minutes categories and so on. So that would also be one.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:36:11]:
Just wondering how many of our listeners are entrepreneurs that tracking KPIs at home themselves. Just a quick teaser here. This episode is supported by Startup Rate IO where professionals get the signal. Next, we talked about the contrarian reasons most child well being fails. And even with great intentions. What is the most common failure mode you see in a screen based coping tool for children?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:36:44]:
What fails the most? Yep, pretty clear. If you start asking directly for problems, let's say the coping mode. We have different modes. Storytelling, giggly mode and so on. Always when even more if kids get to know Kobe, you start engaging into coping more. This is like hey, did you have any problems? And so on. That's never seen good and there are good reasons for it. It's like getting to know a new human being.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:37:13]:
Even as an adult. If you get to know someone and like third or fourth question in it's like what are your problems? You would be like sorry, but I don't know you even. Why should I tell you that? So this is something where we really know to get to the point to have the trust to talk about the problems with the toy. You have to go over a set of other type of interactions and positive experience to get to the level. So this is one of the major turn. Also it depends always on when you put it on the journey.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:37:48]:
What decision did you make that put you at odds with standard consumer growth playbooks.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:37:53]:
Yeah. So let's say when we started we were working together with the LMU clinicum, so really thinking of putting COE in a clinical setup. So also motivated right from my diagnosis, the big dream was always, hey, you get a diagnosis and you get for free a Kobe.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:38:13]:
We may add that LMU is one of the premier universities in Munich and they do have a university clinic for everybody who's not familiar with them. Sorry for interrupting.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:38:22]:
One of the biggest in Germany, actually, the clinicum. And there it was like we had extremely high data security, let's say requirements. So it would have meant to have our own servers, something extremely expensive. If you don't have a lot of users, you would have to have them implemented in the clinic itself. So that was something that it was really not feasible as such an early stage startup to set up and would also have been a high risk if we would have invested the money actually in that hardware at that time. From there on we started looking for other solutions. ABS actually was a good solution because they have the European hosted service and also kind of as a big company can apply to the regulations. Now the good thing also in our case is that we are noticing there are many other players coming on the market also in European network, with whom we are also talking.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:39:25]:
Also smaller startup, but good invested startup players that even add more layers of security with mathematical algorithms for data anonymization, et cetera, et cetera, where we are also thinking into merging one day. And one of the biggest advantages of this AI, let's say stream that we're in is that you can train on large cloud servers like AVs, but once you have your trained your model there, you can basically copy it anywhere you want. So I think this is like we learned that going the hardware yourself way wasn't the right way. Going the cloud way is a good intermediary way, even if you go with the big ones. But because the models that you have, you can always copy and transfer them to another solution once those new solutions get on the market. And that's what we're seeing right now. And also always digging deeper into it.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:40:23]:
I see what internal rule do you use to separate clinically informed from therapy theater. From therapy theater, just theater. All the stuff that influences really do reach sometimes say, and that are not really grounded in any science. What rules do you use to separate that?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:40:53]:
So first of all, in our team from the work with the clinicians, we got to know Sonia Fischbach and Sonia Fischbach has over 25 years of experience as a puppet therapist in clinic context and actually also explained to us all the complexity when it comes to interacting with children and conversations. Like there are many things like which words you can use, for which age group, when and whatnot. So first of all, we got the knowledge by having many conversations and interviews together and then we build a strategy to how do we make our models safe and also clinically informed. For that there are basically two major, yeah, let's say security thresholds that we use for that. First of all, we use agent systems. So we're for sure our native prompt engineering of Cobie, also our fine tuned model with synthetic child conversations. But now we use agents that kind of simulate attacks, right? They simulate having conversations about sex or harmful conversations. And we really make sure that doesn't matter from which angle you attack the model with agents with thousands and thousands of prompts.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:42:07]:
It never fails in this type of situations. So that's the first thing to do. The second thing we do to make it also clinically informed is that through the collaboration with Sonia and also with the clinic, we have now an expert network. And always before we release any type of Cobie system to kids, it first gets validated through them. So they get the Cobie first at hand. They test them on all varieties of conversations or all varieties of triggers they know from their lifelong experience as child experts to see if they can bring to CA something harmful or do something bad. And we think that's a really good approach. So we have the qualitative and the quantitative approach to say so to make it as secure and clinically informed as possible.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:43:01]:
What must be true by March for you to claim Cobie is positioned exactly how you want it, meaning like end of Q1, 20, 26.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:43:16]:
Exactly the time where we want to also start for the bigger preset round by then.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:43:22]:
What a coincidence. Maybe I.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:43:24]:
What a coincidence. So actually it's just that we execute and we're doing it already on all the plans, on our milestone. So that means we will have our full functioning prototype, at least one version. But by then we should have more like up to number is switching, but I would say up to 50 versions built by ourselves. So the hardware, we're building it really in our office, the Plushto in Hungary. So they are standing in our office and the first of them are already in the hands of these experts and trusted families that are, let's say, deep testing them. That's the first thing. The second thing is that the AI is already completely set up on Our servers, the agentic tests have already been conducted and also everything regarding voice interaction works properly.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:44:19]:
Also it's a big and important field. We're in the midst of this trend, have learned a lot there. But this is smooth and latency free and these early stage prototypes really give a seamless experience to the kids, but also to the parents.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:44:33]:
We've been talking TikTok before and everybody knows there TikTok shop is around. So what's your go to market thesis for TikTok shop without turning the product into novelty.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:44:48]:
So when it comes to TikTok, first thing to say is we've grown an organic community For Kobe on TikTok in the last four months of over 14,000 followers, all parents. And we've done that not by selling our product, but by talking of the problems and stress factors that parents experience every day with kids and also giving their already practical coping tips on how to manage positively those situations. And with that we got really quite a lot of traction, many engaged users. The most engaging case was going to sleep. And we also have built an organic funnel to our website. So right now in December, we have already 100 pre orders. But the interesting part about this pre orders is that we have spent zero euros on ads, but we have also never even said that it's possible to pre order Kobe. So they are absolutely organic.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:45:52]:
These are really people seeing us on Instagram on TikTok or hearing us on a podcast and going on our website and pre ordering. So we're really proud of that. We think we can leverage that number substantially once we invest more and also proclaim more that we're actually selling Kobe. And we'll also then use all the different strategies that one gets in this TikTok shop. Right? But the main part, I think it's less about marketing and ad strategies and it's more about trust. It's like for us, it's important to build trust with the community, to keep them updated, to show them how we're building this product, how we care to bring. Also the experts, like we're doing videos with them and showing like, hey, these are the people that are building this product. This is the actual way we want to go to.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:46:44]:
And we also see these are all the type of customers that we get that really see that we care about this and engage a lot into our products and our mission.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:46:56]:
I was wondering, a lot of VCs are talking about defendable modes. So what mode matters most in your market? Proprietary, child safe, AI, brand trust or distribution?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:47:10]:
Actually all of those are really Relevant distribution. We got it. That's one of the most important modes. So we could sell directly quite a lot of cobies. Then the next thing is proprietary AI. There are two parts of it. One is making child safe AI. But the other thing that we're doing, and it will be the first one in Europe I can tell for sure, is making also expert trains.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:47:36]:
So we're also using rack traffic training and so on. We'll have our own library for it. So we want to be the most trusted and safe AI toy in Europe, trained by experts. So really having both of that to have this expert trained AI, you also need the expert network to do so. Also a big proprietary mode. And besides that we have. And I think like from all the other toys I've seen, they don't bring this. We have a real story.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:48:09]:
Koby is a chameleon dragon. He comes from the forest of colors where colors are emotions. And he comes to help kids to learn those. And stories are what really drives kids and families. And the Kobe character that we're building is building up this brand and storyline. It's not just the next plush toy next to the other 15. He really has a character and we want to build a personality behind it that people can relate to and remember also as a real entity. So these are the main ones, distribution AI innovation and also story, character and design to say so and we have a patent that's on top.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:48:56]:
But yeah, we have a few patents also that I mean maybe to make it more investor friendly.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:49:03]:
Thinking about like all the hard decisions you have to do. What is the hardest compliance expectations you are designing for and what did it force you to change?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:49:14]:
I mean the hardest compliance is really. And that's what we're getting asked most in investor things is the, the safety, the safety warriors when it comes to AI. What we had to change, I already said a bit. We had to change the strategy of going from the clinic, going to the other. We had to learn a lot about what does a high risk AI system even mean in the European Union. And also a lot of. We had to do tech things right. So having cloud based models that are on European land that apply all these security measures, having anonymization and third anonymization meaning that you don't get any type of personal data of the user.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:50:04]:
We only need the email address and bank account one day. But all the other things get abstracted. Having the technical layers like what I said before or screening the conversation. So I think this was the biggest thing, like seeing how important it is to have the secure AI system and what you have to therefore do on a tech base to to really achieve that.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:50:37]:
You always have to do important and difficult decision. As an entrepreneur, we just talked about modes, we talked about compliance. But what wretch do you most serious do you take most seriously over the next 12 months? Is it a competitor, is it regulation, is it manufacturing or just erosion of trust in your product?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:51:00]:
That's a good one. It's not competitor. I can tell that directly we focus on the customer and the most important thing is that we are building a product that solves a problem for our customer that our customers love. That's the first thing that we're doing. That's the point where we want to be with our first own made in house prototypes. That's the first big thing. Once I see really there's a high engagement for a long time and customers also give us back that they love it and it solves a problem. I think that's the first big milestone.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:51:38]:
Once we have that then it will be manufacturing. That's also a funny one. I'm really happy to get to know anyone. I mean we are startup we. No one of us has really built a big manufacturing process through for example China or others. I think it will be the next one. But still the main focus is really the customer solving the problem for them, building a product they love. That's the most important part.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:52:06]:
And then the second part will be the manufacturing part for sure. Also translating our hardware requirements to Chinese or Vietnamese requirements. We have experts on board that will help us in this process. But still it's a big thing. We know that. We're looking forward to it.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:52:26]:
I was just thinking, I'm pretty sure one of your competitors is listening. And I was laughing when he said, oh, we're not worried too much about our competition. Okay, I see that's some self confidence sometimes. You're a parent. I'm a parent. So I was watching, I was wondering what belief about parenting did you hold early that you had to abandon as CEO slash father. Mostly a CEO. But also give us a hint about being a father from your point of view.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:53:01]:
Yeah, I think that maybe. Let's talk about being a father. I thought really like I'm quite an empathetic fat person. That's all that have this little daughter. And one thing was I thought like I will figure everything out. I will kind of feel what she needs or wants or whatever. She will tell me that's not the case. Like I was really like kids, they say they want this or that.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:53:30]:
But actually what lies behind is a need that you really have to understand. And, and I, I was impressed how important, how difficult it is to get back to it. My daughter always asking for milk at night. She was not needing a milk like there was another strategy of doing it. And that was something I really had to learn as a parent and it was not that obvious. I was really astonished about that and was also thinking that I think also my parents there might have been many needs that I wasn't able to communicate in the right way and they didn't even see. And I think this leads to many yeah, maybe not that that happy memories of how things could have been done. And I'm trying to do my best as a parent to really understand like my kid, the, the who she is, how she is, what she actually needs.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:54:26]:
Make the right interpretation but also behave in the right manner to, to yeah let's say race her to, to the most beautiful and powerful woman she could ever be.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:54:43]:
Talked about difficult situations here. What mental model do you use to stay decisive when the product sits inside? Vulnerable moments.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:55:00]:
You always have to be positive. Vulnerable moments. I think it's, it's also a bit of abstraction of yourself of the issue itself. So really analyzing what are the key problems or issues that you actually have prioritizing is extremely important to really understand what should I spend most of my time with what is the most important problem to tackle right now? I think these are some of the parts of the mental model also not taking every hit as a low. It's always a learning journey. I think it's so important to learn about from each mistake but on top of that and I think that's the difficulty as a founder is you have to do it in the team. So it's never enough if you learn alone. You have to take the other people met on your journey and that starts with the co founders that are extremely important and also give you a lot of resistance when, when one tackles these issues and problems that come along the way and I don't know, I've heard once and I think this, this helps me sometimes a lot to think of that the brightest, the best moments they will pass and the worst and, and really baddest moments they will also pass.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:56:27]:
So all will pass. Just take it like that. It's never as good and it's never as bad as you think. It's always a part of the journey and you just have to keep walking there.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:56:40]:
There are two sayings that always helped me was doing projects and I Was doing international high pressure, high stakes projects for one and a half decades. One of them is the typical saying. It works in German, it works in English. Sometimes you're the tree, sometimes you're the dog. It always helps to put this in perspective. And the second one, I read it in the book five years from now. You laugh at everything that annoys you, that stresses you out, that keeps you up awake at night. But why wait?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:57:16]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Let me add one of these from my father always. I think it's a Chinese one. If you have a problem, there are two ways. Either you can solve it, then you shouldn't worry about it, or you cannot solve it, then you also should worry about it.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:57:38]:
Good one. Good one. We'll close with the two frequent questions. Are you open to talk to new investors?
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:57:46]:
Yes, we are super happy and open to talk to new investors. We're funded with exist now also applying to other fundings in Germany, but really people in the field also angel investors also told about manufacturing and so on. Would be super happy to talk with them and bring some people on board that also care about what we're doing. Also about the B2C products. Something not that usual at least in Germany. And yeah would like to join our impact journey.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:58:21]:
Awesome. Great. I think you are also looking for talented employees to join you.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:58:26]:
Yes, that's always the case. Talent employees. The focuses that we always are looking for is AI is always super interesting but also people that are good into hardware, mechatronics, robotics. But even up to things that go into design or interaction for children is also super interesting for us. Child games, conversational games. I mean we're a voice AI system. So everyone from that field is always super happy. Even as an employee, but also as partners as chameleons.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:59:03]:
We are super collaborative and cheerful collaboratives in the market.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:59:08]:
Second, this interview will go live as the Last1 in January 2026 but we're recording it pre Christmas so I skipped saying Merry Christmas, Happy New Year because it's all in the past for us now. David, thank you very much with such a pleasure having you as a guest here. Really enjoyed it.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [00:59:30]:
Jan, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. It was a pleasure to talking to.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:59:35]:
You Is building emotional technology for children with a screen free companion privacy first AI hosted in the EU and parent control routines designed to reduce conflict at home. David Link is clear on the category line. No entertainment, no therapy, not a toy. Emotional tact that translates feeling into calm and predictable closure. You can find Coby at Cobie Care if you want the next layer, the decisions you don't publish publicly. Founders World is where that lives. That's all folks. Find more news streams, events and interviews@www.startuprad.IO.
Jörn "Joe" Menninnger | Founder, Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [01:00:24]:
remember, sharing is caring.
David Cañadas Link | CoFounder & CEO of COBY - The Coping Buddy [01:00:33]:
Sam.
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