The idea for kid.studio — and its first product, Avery — started in a hospital parking garage. My son, Avery, was about to go into surgery, my wife was eight months pregnant, and she'd bought him a new Tonie figure to help him feel brave. We put it on the Toniebox and got: "Uh-oh! The download has stopped too soon. Please check if I'm still connected to the internet." We spent fifteen minutes in that parking garage trying to get it working on a hotspot, on hospital wifi. Nothing. Right when we needed it most, the thing failed us.

Avery was strong about it. He didn't know what he was missing. But I was heartbroken. A two-year-old heading into surgery, his mom eight months pregnant, and the one thing we brought to comfort him wouldn't work because it needed to phone home to a server first.

That moment stuck with me. And it wasn't the only frustration. Every kids' audio player on the market felt like a trap. $15 for a single story. Locked ecosystems. No way to play the content we already had.

So I started building one myself. A screen-free audio player that works with any podcast, any Spotify playlist, any RSS feed — plus personalized stories starring your child. No proprietary cards, no locked ecosystem, no hidden costs.

I'm Michael — a dad of two boys in Santa Cruz, California. After years as a product manager in tech, I was laid off and decided to do something different: stay home with my kids two days a week and spend the other three building something I actually believed in.