Anushka Salinas Transcript
Clint Betts
Anushka, thank you so much for coming on the show. It means a lot to have you here. You have an incredible company on your hands that does life-changing work. If you ask me, tell me about Nanit.
Anushka Salinas
Yeah, thanks for having me, Clint. It's really exciting to be here with you. So we are Nanit, the leading parenting platform powered by our pro camera, which is a smart baby monitor that allows you to see your child from anywhere and gives personalized insights and smart alerts on sleep, breathing, speech, and developmental milestones. So it's a really groundbreaking category-creating product. And our mission is to advance the future of family wellness. And we see this come to life in some of the data. For example, Nanit families sleep 10% longer on average than non-Nanit families. So that means 36 more nights of sleep a year. It's a lot.
Clint Betts
That's invaluable. I can't think of any... As someone who's gone through having four children and the amount of lost sleep there, my word.
Anushka Salinas
Exactly. What would you have not given for 36 more nights of sleep when you had young children?
Clint Betts
I know that's incredible. So tell us exactly how it works though. How does the product do all of that? That's got to be some sort of technological breakthrough there that you guys have created in order for it to do all of those things.
Anushka Salinas
So, we use computer vision technology to capture the crib and all the events that are happening in the crib. Then, we build incredible algorithms that generate insights for parents that help them and really make the parenting journey a little bit easier. Give them, almost give a voice to your child so that they can tell you whether they had a good night's sleep, whether they were breathing or not, whether they woke up in the middle of the night or were coughing, things like that. So, really deep insights come from computer vision. One of the things that I love about this business is that it was founded by two dads who, by day, were building computer vision systems to monitor silicon wafer manufacturing. Really exciting stuff. They became dads, and they wanted to use this technology to monitor their children so that they could get some sleep. And that's kind of how the whole business was born.
Clint Betts
What brought you to the company?
Anushka Salinas
Well, I spent my career mostly in retail and consumer technology companies, and I really think about building technology with consumers at the center, which is something that I've been doing for the majority of my career. I started my career, as I said, in retail, but I spent a large chunk of it at a company called Rent the Runway. I was there right after it was founded and spent 11 years there building that category-creating business from the ground up. I just developed this love for these data-rich businesses that benefit consumers in a really meaningful way.
And fast-forward to meeting the team at Nanit, I saw this incredible opportunity with technology that was sort of changing the game of parenting. And modern parenting has become really challenging. Often, you have two working parents who are really busy. I think the expectations that parents put on themselves in this day and age are too much, I would almost say. But tools like Nanit, I think, really help ease that for parents and bring what we like to call a digital village of support into the app and really provide the insights to help.
Clint Betts
So, what is the future of consumer tech, particularly as it relates to AI and various business models? How is this going to shake out? I know that's probably the 60 million question.
Anushka Salinas
Yeah, probably more. Listen, when I think about a product like Nanit, people don't think about AI in baby monitors or AI in children. It could sound super scary. I think if you look at us as an example of how leveraging AI and technology tools in the right way can seriously change the game for people. I think it's a great example of how to use it correctly. For us, that means we have very sensitive and personal data, but we have a very high level of security, and that data is only used to benefit that individual family and child. And so that's obviously different than, say, the way LLMs are used or other applications of AI.
So I think there's tailored solutions for different problem spaces that can hugely benefit consumers. I think it's important that folks remember that not all AI is the same, and the way that companies like Nanit use AI is unique and different. And our goal is a hundred percent to make parents' lives easier. And so I think there's a huge amount of opportunity there over time in the way technology advances to benefit consumers.
Clint Betts
Not only is all AI not the same, it's not all new. This has been happening for quite some time. And I imagine you've learned a lot over the years to get to the point where you can really integrate AI with the product, right?
Anushka Salinas
Definitely. Yeah. I mean, the company was founded 10 years ago. That's when the two founders came up with this concept, but they were using computer vision for similar purposes in the business world for several years before that. So it's not new. The advances in the technology have been really, really significant. Obviously, we're able to serve that through a really slick, fast app. The connectivity is really fast and strong, such that you could be halfway across the world and still check in on your child. So, some of those advances in technology have been pretty significant. But the core computer vision applications and algorithms that weren't developed yesterday, that's actually been around for a long, long time.
Clint Betts
Yeah. How much are you putting AI into your product versus integrating AI inside of the business around customer service and customer support and things like that?
Anushka Salinas
I mean, I'd say both. Listen, the core of the product has been an AI-driven product from the beginning, all the algorithms that we develop, which really started with sleep at the core of what the business was founded on, but we've expanded into breathing and health and developmental milestones and things like that as well. And, of course, memories. I don't want to talk about that. We capture some of the most amazing, adorable memories that you otherwise would not have your eyes on. So that's super important, too.
So that's been the core of what our actual product has been since the beginning. I think that, on the business side, we are also evaluating more and more ways to use some of these advanced tools. Customer service is, of course, an obvious application. We've had a system in place there for, I think, about 18 months already, but we're looking at new ways to integrate AI. So we've got an AI email responder that actually has some of the highest scores from customers in terms of the service they receive out of any way that we communicate with customers. So I think it actually tells you a lot that things like speed matter a lot, and AI can give a response in one minute.
Clint Betts
Yeah, that part is super incredible. Given all the data and everything that you can do for babies, have you thought about broadening this out for everyone to track everyone? I mean, and there's a lot of companies that do this, a lot of wearables, even beds, like high-tech beds, things like that. But it seems like your technology is unique enough and probably provides different type of insights that it may be useful even beyond the baby category.
Anushka Salinas
Oh, a hundred percent. I think the power of the platform that we've built extends way beyond baby monitoring. I think that's the market that we've started in and one that we're really passionate about. I think I've said it probably a dozen times already in the time we've been talking, but it's very important to us the mission of furthering family wellness and really being that support system for parents. So we are focused on that right now, but we believe that the opportunity and the applications for what we've built are massive in other verticals and other spaces, certainly.
Clint Betts
What does a typical day look like for you as CEO?
Anushka Salinas
Oh my god, I think everyone would probably say this: there is no typical day. I think a typical day for me could be really headed down internally, spending time with the team in meetings and strategy sessions and really going deep on various parts of the business. That really depends on what area needs me the most, where I have the most questions, and where I see the most opportunity. And then there's the external side, conferences, meeting other leaders and CEOs, investors, things like that. And I think my mental model is at least 25% of my time should be spent externally because it really helps bring perspective, I think, as a leader. If you're spending too much time internally, then I think you can lose some of that perspective, which is super, super important for you to bring back to the team.
Clint Betts
Yeah. What do you read? What reading recommendations would you have for us?
Anushka Salinas
Oh my god. All right, well, I just finished last night. I stayed up late, which I don't normally do, but I've been reading this beautiful fiction book called The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. I highly recommend it; it's very sad, though. So, in the fall and the winter, I tend to read more fiction, and at the beginning of the year, I tend to read nonfiction. So, my nonfiction kind of work pick would be a book called Working Backwards. I don't know if you've read this. It's written by early Amazon leaders, and it talks about Amazon's operating principles and the way they do business. And even if you're a tiny company and you're not ready for it, I think it's so valuable to just go deep and really understand at what point in their business they started adopting some of these principles like monthly business reviews and just the way they think about writing documents and stuff like that. So, I highly recommend that one for any business leader.
Clint Betts
So, as you have been a leader for all this time, how do you think about culture, building a culture within your company, and how do you manage in terms of... The big debate right now outside of AI in the business community is work from home, hybrid, and everybody in the office. How are you managing all of that?
Anushka Salinas
Yeah, I mean, I have a pretty strong point of view on this personally, which is that I think people made it work during COVID, and it was a very specific moment in time where, I think, more often than not, for businesses, the sort of mandate of what had to happen was pretty clear. And people had the political capital of having worked together previously. So, I think the first 18 to 24 months of COVID was pretty effective. And then the wheels started falling off the bus a little bit.
Growth, new strategies, creativity, building consensus, and all those different things, I think, are very hard to do when you're not in person with people. And so I am a believer in person. When I came into Nanit, they were remote. And so we've transitioned into a hybrid model. So we're in the office two to three days a week and work remotely two to three days a week. And I think it's going really well. I've actually gotten very positive feedback from folks who have said, "Wow, I feel like I actually really have built a ton of trust with people, and we're coming up with way better ideas." So, successful so far.
Clint Betts
Yeah, there's nothing quite like being in person, being in an office with someone, building together. I mean, obviously, it can work, and a lot of companies do make it work fully remotely. It does seem like hybrid is where a lot of companies are landing like you have. But yeah, this idea of building trust with each other, working side by side with each other. If there are leaders out there who are trying to figure out which one of these should we do, we're trying to pick this and give them the case for why this is the right approach.
Anushka Salinas
I used to sort of think, okay, maybe it's more of a startup thing. I think it's an everyday company thing, and it is sort of my assessment. There probably are some exceptions to that, maybe where the mandate is very, very clear, and the majority of people are individual contributors. I think there may be some edge cases, but for the most part, I think in a business that requires strong collaboration, which is the most creative thinking and problem-solving, most businesses build trust, which I think is actually one of the most important things. The more leadership roles I've had, the more I realize there's no way I can ever win if I don't have trust in my leadership team. And I think that's true for every team.
So, to me, the case is that it doesn't have to be five days a week. I do think that that model is not required anymore, but there has to be a really significant amount of time that people are spending together doing the work together so that when you're not together, there's enough trust built up that the misinterpretation that happens over a Slack message or a Zoom call where you're not getting the full person's body language, that you can sort of put that aside because you've spent enough real time together to build that relationship and build that trust.
So to me, it's few and far between that I can think of a company that wouldn't benefit from some amount of time together.
Clint Betts
What is the state of consumer tech right now economically, and what is its future? And part of that is a broader question about how CEOs are expected to comment and talk about things that are well beyond what they do at their company. And so, as you're looking to 2025 and thinking about the marketplace and economics of that, how are you thinking things are going to shake out?
Anushka Salinas
Well, there are a couple of questions wrapped up in there, but if I can just comment on your question about the sort of leaders being expected to weigh in on things, it's been such a challenging time to be a leader over the last four years. I think that we went through a real period of time where leaders were expected to have an opinion on every single topic regardless of whether it was relevant to their business or not. Regardless of whether they had an educated opinion on it, I think folks oftentimes don't. And so I'm happy that we've come back to a place where I think the pendulum has swung back. And I think leaders, and consumers too, have sort of come to realize that if you run a baby monitor business, you shouldn't necessarily have an opinion on wars that are happening all over the world to communicate to your customers. Or you shouldn't take a side politically necessarily because you probably have customers that are 50/50 on both sides of the aisle.
And so I'm personally, as a leader, really happy that the pendulum has come back to the center. And I think that expectation is now reasonable. And back to what does your brand stand for? What does your company stand for? What is the mission? Then, there might be one or two specific topics that it makes sense for you to weigh in on, and you should weigh in on those as they make sense to your brand and your consumer set. But otherwise, it's kind of like it's not really your place.
And I think building culture, to your question there, internally for your team, there may be beliefs and values that you uphold internally that mean you might speak to more things internally than externally. And I think that nuance is really, really important.
The state of consumer tech broadly, I would say, I think it depends. We've been in this malaise of whether the economy is booming or if we are going into recession. This sort of uncertainty that we've been sort of navigating for the last couple of years, it seems like maybe cautiously, we'll be in the soft landing scenario, and things will kind of continue. But what I've observed personally in the consumer space over the last couple of years is that because of this kind of uncertainty on the consumer side, there are winners and losers. There are some brands that are continuing to do really, really well. And I think those are the brands that have extraordinary product market fit, and the product is matched to the new future that we're living in.
And I think Nanit is one of those companies. If you think about the adoption and ubiquity of wellness tracking and smart tools, I'm an Aura Ring user myself, but you can think about Apple Watch or Whoop or things like that. I think a product like Nanit is really well-matched to the future and adoption of technology. And then I think there are losers too, the companies that just maybe don't have that quite strong product market fit or aren't necessarily matched to the moment in time. And so I think the answer is sort of like it depends, and I expect 2025 to be a similar story of it depends. I don't think everything's going to be booming or everything's busting.
Clint Betts
By the way, Aura Ring wearer as well, yeah, so I'm on board with you there. As CEO, how much time are you thinking about product development, launching new features, digging in on that versus customers, interacting with customers, and getting their feedback? I mean, there's this interesting balance that you have to do as a CEO. How do you approach that?
Anushka Salinas
Yeah, I think it has to be a balance. I think I'm a big believer that we're developing the product for customers, so you have to listen to what they say and hear their concerns, but you don't necessarily have to build exactly what they ask for. I think you have to listen really carefully. You have to dog food all the data, see what people are saying about you, and read the app comments, Amazon comments, and all of that. And then you have to put that through a filter of how I can uniquely solve that problem based on the capabilities we have as a business. And so it's not just building what they say; it's often hearing the problems and thinking about what is the best, most exciting, and innovative way that we can solve that challenge for consumers. And so I think we do that pretty well here. We have a really good rigor around tuning in and listening to customers. We've got a bunch of different mechanisms for doing that.
Clint Betts
Yeah, that is really interesting. The balance is so hard to strike between internal and external and everything else in between. It's really fascinating. How do you keep grounded? From that perspective, how do you kind of keep sane?
Anushka Salinas
Yeah, I love that question because I think about it all the time. For me, and I think it's different for everyone, but for me, it's sleep and movement. And so often, I talk to people who have a different sort of way of thinking about this. When things are really busy at work, they sleep less, and they cut out exercise. And for me, it's the opposite. It's like when things are really crazy, and I'm really stressed, I make sure I'm in bed by 11:15 at the latest, and I have to find a way to do movement in the morning, even if it means getting off the subway two stops early and walk the extra 15 minutes. I think that's my version of meditation; it's like moving meditation, walking. For some people, they can sit there for 20 minutes and meditate. I just have never been great at that.
Clint Betts
Yeah, same. What role do you think empathy plays in leadership? You've described it in a lot of your answers here, but what do you think about empathy?
Anushka Salinas
I think it's important and needs to be present in everything that you do, but it also needs to be checked. I think too much, and it can paralyze you from making decisions that are ultimately good for the business and good for the people. An example of that is if someone's really not right for the team and too much empathy might be like, okay, I'm not going to let them go because it's going to be hard for them to find another job. In reality, that's not right for the teammates. It's not right for the person, it's not right for the business.
So I think empathy has a place in business and in management, but it needs to be sort of modulated against business needs and ultimately thinking about what's going to be right for the team. I think customer empathy always has to be there. It has to be at the core of every single thing that you do, and you have to be thinking about how to make things better for the customer every single day. And that's a big piece of the way we think here at Nanit. What can we do to make the app just even three milliseconds faster? What are the biggest pain points that they are feeling at three A.M. when they're up with their baby? What could we possibly be doing to make this experience better? So I think that has to be in and around all the time.
Clint Betts
Finally, we end every interview with the same question, and that is at ceo.com, we believe the chances one gives is just as important as the chances one takes. When you hear that, who gave you a chance to get you to where you are today?
Anushka Salinas
Oh my God, this is an easy one for me. The co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, who I worked for 11 years, hands down, is probably one of the people that I'm most appreciative of in my career, which I started with when I was in my late twenties. And she just saw something in me that, honestly, I never even totally saw in myself, and she continued to create opportunities for me that I wouldn't have even raised my hand for necessarily and gone for. And so I've said this publicly before, but it's like she pushed me up the ladder instead of me having to claw my way to the top. And so I'm really grateful, and I think it's shaped the way I think about giving people opportunities as well. Maybe earlier in my career, I was a little more literal about what experience you needed for this specific role, and I think it's shaped me to give people opportunities that maybe they're not a hundred percent ready for yet, but I know they're going to get there.
Clint Betts
Yeah, that's incredible. Thank you so much for coming out. Seriously, Nanit is just an incredible company and an incredible product. I love the whole mission and everything you're doing. It really is wonderful. Thank you for coming on and talking to us.
Anushka Salinas
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Edited for readability.