Birdzie.app
[Birdseye is] A lightweight app, meant for everyday life integration, that's crowdsourced safety data and a friend-like feel to better personal safety and higher situational awareness.
Inspiration
If you've ever called a friend to stay on the phone you walked home, or sent a "made it!" text at midnight, you already know why Birdzie exists. For so many us, personal safety isn't just about emergencies, it's about just feeling comfortable in our normal, everday lives. I started Birdzie because I was frustrated by safety apps built by people who just didn't really get it from a woman's point of view, or really any marginalized-minority point of view. As a woman, a mom, a friend, and (I'd like to think) good person - I'm constantly thinking about my family, my friends, even just the people around me) and wanted to create a solution that felt human, supportive, lightweight, and easy enough to use everyday. Something I'd- we'd-want to use everyday.
Quick story
I was walking the two blocks from my office and to my parking lot and along the way, right before I got to the lot, I saw an individual, mostly minding their own business, but fiddling around with something. As I approached, I saw that it was a gerber-style knife! Immediately, I thought about how I was going to stay safe, "Walk across the street? Just walk past faster and be aware he could follow me? What about the people behind me? Do I tell them? If I say something will the individual hear me and will it trigger a violent response? They have a huge knife!" Birdzie was my answer.
What it does
Birdzie is a lightweight personal safety app that provides:
- Crowdsourced, real-time incident reporting on an interactive map
- Alerts & Custom Zones that provide you with safety guidance in your most important locations
- Instant SOS alerts to trusted contacts
- Anonymous reporting for sensitive events
- Custom visual map icons easily identifiable markers for different types of incidents and threat levels
- Conversational AI a bailout from bad dates/sketchy rideshares/scary situations
How we built it
- Frontend: React Native (Expo) for fast cross-platform deployment
- Backend: Supabase for real-time data and authentication
- Maps: Google Maps API for reliable, detailed mapping
- Audio/AI: Eleven Labs for voice-enabled features and call simulations
- Custom assets: All map icons and edge functions are stored in Supabase storage
- Deployed with: Bolt + Netlify + Entri
Challenges we ran into
- Implementing report features and saving historical incidents
- Designing custom map icons that are both informative and accessible
- Integrating multiple third-party APIs (maps, audio, authentication) seamlessly
- Building a prototype that feels real with zero coding background
- Running Conversational AI with an Edge Function + API learned a lot about signed.URL and signed_url
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Successfully created a live, interactive safety map
- Integrating third party APIs
- Actually building something that works
- Established an MVP that is ready for demo and future testing
- Living out a dream this is the foundation for a long-time dream of making the world a better place
- Doing. This. Hackathon. For. Real.
What we learned
- The importance of accuracy
- How databases, APIs, SDKs, languages, and AI work together
- The value of rapid prototyping and focusing on core features first
- How to prompt effectively and linearly
What's next for Birdzie.app
- Website Click Feature Roadmap
- Gamification: Incentivizing more reports and engagement with points and avian avatars
- Enterprise dashboards develop for the B2B world organizations to monitor large groups or events
- Deeper AI integration for smarter incident categorization and response
- Expanded geographic coverage and language/localization support
- User research and pilot programs with schools, companies, and event organizers
- Make it real apply to accelerators, talk to VCs, and find funding (I also would love a CTO if you know anybody)
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