Calgary company Biopod builds smart habitats, shatters crowdfunding goals

June 22, 2016 Entrepreneurs, Start-ups, Small Businesses, Fintech Services, Fundraising, Investing, Trading, Innovation and Resources, Online Funding / Investing Campaigns No comments

CBC News | By Falice Chin | June 21, 2016

BioPod 300x188 - Calgary company Biopod builds smart habitats, shatters crowdfunding goals

Duo behind the invention started the business after the price of oil plunged

There is a beautiful, lush rainforest in the office of a tech startup in Calgary, filled with bromeliads, ferns, tropical moss and orchids. A tiny blue frog perches atop a branch inside the so-called Biopod — a self-regulating "microhabitat" the size of a 36-gallon fish tank.

"This is a dendrobates tinctorius azureus," Biopod co-founder Jared Wolfe explained.

"It's from Suriname, known as the blue poison arrow frog. In the wild they have some mild toxins."

In the world of frog-keeping, this particular subspecies is considered a "beginner frog." Nevertheless Wolfe said the Biopod is able to precisely replicate its habitat.

Not just frogs

Sunshine, oxygen level, humidity, rain and even wind — all of these conditions can be set with a single tap on a smartphone. There's even a built-in HD camera, so Wolfe can check in on froggie any time of the day.

But frogs are just one possibility. The Biopod supports hundreds of other potential settings for herbs, butterflies, lizards and fish.

See: Crowdfunding has changed, but these three things you should know to succeed haven’t

Billed as the "world's first smart microhabitat," the wow factor around this invention has catapulted the Calgary-based company to the top of Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

Since 2015, Biopod has raised close to $1 million on the internet, making it one of the most successful crowdfunding projects ever to launch in Canada.

"We started with Kickstarter — it was kind of an idea at the beginning to test the market," said Tom Lam, the other half of Biopod.

"We had some pretty modest goals with it. Fifty-thousand dollars was our initial goal. We blew by that within four, five hours."

Idea came as oil prices plunged

The two co-founders of Biopod — Lam and Wolfe, 39 and 40 respectively — met at their children's kindergarten. At the time, both fathers were still working mainly in real estate and oil and gas.

"Jared told me about Biopod and I'm like, 'Hmm! This is interesting,'" said Lam.

Turns out, Wolfe had been tinkering on a prototype for years as a hobby. He had studied frogs as a young biology student back in university.

After graduation, Wolfe entered what many would consider a "typical" Calgary profession — dealing with real estate and oil and gas.

But when energy prices began to plummet, Wolfe got another idea.

See: Things To Do in Calgary

"I had a contract that was basically terminated with the drop in oil prices, so that kind of opened the door for me to pursue [Biopod] full time."

Lam had also previously worked in residential real estate, owning a business at one point. He had also spent some time in Silicon Valley, launching two startups there before returning to Calgary.

Lam said the marketing side of his brain lit up immediately after hearing Wolfe's pitch for Biopod.

"So much more potential than just the pet industry," Lam said.

"Now we've grown it into a herb garden, where you can grow vegetables or you could just have it for home decor."

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