Pioneering Screen-Free Play

Mélanie Heyberger is a French-Canadian entrepreneur committed to creating companies with positive social impact. After supporting early-stage founders, she co-founded From Rachel in 2014, a pioneering e-commerce brand acquired in 2021. She is now the co-founder of Fabli, an immersive and screen-free audio companion for children that fosters imagination, autonomy and emotional development. Fabli is locally manufactured in Quebec and actively engaged in sustainability initiatives, including B Corp and 1% for the Planet. As a mother and stepmother, Mélanie’s personal experience shapes her mission: to build innovative products that help children grow differently, while promoting more conscious, human-centered ways of doing business.

1. What does innovation mean to you?

For me, innovation means creating solutions that truly address human needs, not just something new, but something meaningful.

At Fabli, innovation happens where technology, design, and emotion intersect. It’s about finding ways to support children’s development screens, while nurturing their imagination, emotional growth, and helping them become more fulfilled adults.

2. What inspired you and your team to create Fabli, and how did you identify the need for a screen-free, evolving audio companion for children?

The idea came from our own experience as parents. We were searching for an alternative to screens, something interactive, playful, and kind-spirited that could evolve with our children.

We realized there was plenty of digital contents for kids, but very few products designed to foster active listening, creativity, and emotional and cognitive development.

There’s a lot of entertainment out there, but often fast entertainment. Fabli was born from the desire to offer something deeper: a sensory, immersive, and interactive experience that supports each child’s social, emotional, and cognitive growth.

3. How do you and your team generate new ideas? What resources do you rely on to forecast trends and consumer insights?

Our ideas often come from observation, from parents, children, educators, therapists. We spend a lot of time listening to our community and watching how families and educators actually use and interact with products.

We also rely on child-development research, expert collaborations, and emerging cultural trends, from pedagogy and mental health to inclusivity and sustainability. And of course, our creative team loves to experiment! Often, the best ideas are born during moments of play and exploration.

4. What is the biggest challenge you face when innovating?

One of the biggest challenges is finding the right balance between technological innovation and simplicity of use. Fabli must feel magical for the child, yet intuitive for the parent.

Developing a locally manufactured electronic product is also a huge challenge. Prototyping, sourcing components, and launching production require major investment and can take anywhere from one to three years.

We also work in a field where safety, durability, and social responsibility are non-negotiable. Every innovation must be carefully designed to have a long-term positive impact.

5. Fabli’s content is created and validated by early-childhood specialists. Can you tell us more about this collaboration and how it shapes the educational and emotional impact of the product?

This collaboration is at the heart of what we do. We work with psychologists, speech therapists, psycho-educators, storytellers, and teachers who help us design content tailored to each stage of child development.

This ensures that every story or audio game is not only fun but also supports self-confidence, empathy, language, listening, and emotional regulation.

It’s what makes Fabli truly unique: it’s a playful companion, but one with purpose.

6. Fabli is described as an audio companion that “grows with the child.” How does the experience evolve from newborn to 10 years old?

From birth, Fabli accompanies calm moments with soothing music and soundscapes. Around age 2 or 3, children start exploring their first stories, songs and sensory games. As they grow, the experience becomes more interactive, with interactive roleplay adventures, podcasts, educational games, deeper stories for your teenagers, licensed content, quizzes, meditations, and more.

The journey evolves with the child’s needs, from sensory to cognitive, from play to learning. Fabli comes preloaded with 10 hours of audio content, and parents can later enrich it through the Fabli content store with new stories, games, and songs. They can also record their own stories or upload MP3s, creating a truly personal experience.

7. Fabli is designed in Quebec with durable, non-toxic materials. How do sustainability and design philosophy influence your product decisions?

Sustainability is part of our DNA. Manufacturing locally in Quebec allows us to support the local economy, reduce our carbon footprint, and ensure ethical production. Every design choice, from materials to packaging, is guided by safety, durability, and sensory pleasure.

We want Fabli to be an object that children keep, repair, and pass on, not another disposable gadget.

8. Looking ahead, what’s next for Fabli in terms of new features, partnerships, or expanding your storytelling universe?

We’re currently developing new interactive audio adventures in collaboration with local and international creators, publishers, and media companies. Some very exciting projects are on the way!

In the long run, our goal is to bring Fabli to families around the world while staying true to our mission: offering children a different way to grow up screen-free, imaginative, and emotionally rich.