Preserving Voice Memories

Geoffrey Stern, Founder and CEO of VoiceGift, is the visionary behind the iconic Build-A-Bear voice module, a technology featured in over 60 million bears. Since then, he has become the trusted audio partner to leading global brands, with more than 4 million products shipped to specialty retailers worldwide. The pandemic highlighted the universal need for human connection through voice, inspiring Geoffrey to expand into consumer products. Today, families use VoiceGift’s screen-free devices to capture milestones, share heartfelt messages, and create timeless keepsakes. Positioned at the forefront of the analog audio gifting category, VoiceGift helps people connect meaningfully through voice, not screens.

1. What does innovation mean to you?

For me, innovation rarely starts with a blank page. It usually emerges from a shift in perspective – a willingness to look at something familiar and see it with fresh eyes. Many of the most meaningful innovations are not radical replacements, but subtle re-imaginings of what already exists. Take the printed book as an example. In a world where entire libraries now fit into a single handheld device, one might assume that the traditional book is obsolete. And yet, for those of us who have a visceral connection to the smell of paper, the feel of a page turning, and the notes left in margins by previous readers or even our younger selves, a printed book holds something irreplaceable.

To innovate in that space doesn’t mean discarding the book in favor of the screen. It means asking how we can preserve the qualities that people cherish while enhancing the overall experience. It means honoring continuity while opening up new possibilities. Innovation, at its core, is about elevation – taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary without losing its essence.

2. How do you and your team generate new ideas? Are there any rituals or practices you rely on to reset creativity?

Our products are built around everyday rituals, so it’s only natural that new ideas often spring from the fabric of daily life rather than from brainstorming sessions. One of the simple but surprisingly powerful practices we’ve embraced is starting each team meeting with casual conversation – sharing updates about our families, recent travels, or side projects. These exchanges might seem tangential, but they often spark unexpected associations that lead to new product concepts or creative variations.

Still, the richest source of innovation for us has always been our customers, especially those from communities that are underserved by mass-market solutions. We’ve learned from an elderly customer who wanted a simple way to record a reminder before climbing the stairs so he wouldn’t forget his purpose upon reaching the landing. We’ve been inspired by special needs educators who use our devices to give voice to students who cannot otherwise communicate. And we’ve been moved by immigrant grandparents who record the songs, prayers, and poetry of their youth so that future generations can stay connected to a cultural heritage that might otherwise fade.

These stories remind us that innovation is less about imposing our vision and more about listening carefully, empathizing deeply, and creating tools that honor the diverse ways people live, love, and remember.

3. How are you leveraging AI in your innovation process, and what unexpected benefits or challenges have you encountered with AI adoption?

We’ve always put a premium on listening to our customers, because their questions, frustrations, and creative uses of our products are the raw material for innovation. But as our customer base grew, we faced the challenge of keeping up with the sheer volume of interactions. That’s where AI has become invaluable. We now use AI to generate draft responses to frequently asked questions, to monitor patterns in customer queries, and to help us translate across languages.

This doesn’t mean we’ve handed over our customer service to machines. Every member of our team still spends time in the customer chat, reading, responding, and learning. But AI helps us work smarter. It highlights recurring issues so we can refine our manuals, FAQs, and even the products themselves. It allows us to converse fluently with users around the world in their native languages, strengthening the intimacy of the relationship. And by automating the repetitive, AI frees us to focus on the moments of empathy and creativity that no algorithm can replicate.

The biggest benefit, therefore, isn’t speed or efficiency – it’s insight. AI has given us a clearer window into the collective voice of our customers. The challenge, of course, is to ensure we don’t become overly reliant on it. For us, AI is a tool for listening better, not a replacement for the human connection that has always been at the heart of VoiceGift.

4. How do you identify trends, and what resources does your team use to spot emerging consumer insights?

Our perspective on trends was shaped long before VoiceGift became a consumer brand. For years, we were behind the scenes, providing audio technology to partners like Build-A-Bear Workshop. Selling over 60 million sound modules taught us a great deal about how people use voice to personalize products and experiences. In fact, Build-A-Bear’s signature concept of “retailtainment” – blending retail with entertainment to create immersive, memorable experiences – was one of our early classrooms. We learned firsthand how customization and emotional connection drive consumer loyalty.

Now, as we’ve launched VoiceGift® directly to consumers, our trend-spotting is even more immediate. We read every review, every comment, and every story our customers share. We pay close attention to how people adapt our products to fit their lives, sometimes in ways we never anticipated. That’s how we began to see patterns emerge, like the rise of audio journaling, or the use of our devices for affirmations, meditations, and wellness routines.

In other words, we don’t think of trend identification as scanning the horizon for abstract predictions. It’s more like cultivating a listening post at ground level, where real people are already shaping the future through their daily choices.

5. What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to innovating?

Our biggest challenge is paradoxical: we are a company built on technology, but we don’t want the technology to be visible. The true measure of success for us is when the electronics fade into the background and the user is left with nothing but the immediacy of a voice, a memory, or a piece of music. Designing products that are powered by advanced technology but feel simple, intuitive, and even analog is incredibly difficult.

It’s tempting, in the world of consumer electronics, to showcase the tech itself – to dazzle with features and specifications. But we believe that our value doesn’t lie in the circuits. It lies in the human moments our products make possible. So the challenge is to keep refining, simplifying, and stripping away anything that gets in the way of that experience. It’s a discipline of restraint, and one we take very seriously.

6. VoiceGift began with the iconic Build-A-Bear voice module, and has since grown into a trusted partner for global brands. Looking back, what key decisions helped you scale from that first breakthrough to millions of products worldwide?

One of the most important moments in our journey happened almost by accident. I met Maxine Clark, the visionary founder of Build-A-Bear, when she was still experimenting with her very first pilot store. We had both approached a supplier to create custom T-shirts for our plush dolls, but when she saw that mine included a miniature voice recorder, she asked if she could purchase just the recorder.

That simple request shifted my entire perspective. I realized that my real passion wasn’t in selling plush toys, it was in enabling people to capture, preserve, and relive the sounds and voices that mattered to them. From that point on, I committed to building tools that others could integrate into their own products and experiences.

That decision opened doors to entirely new industries. Suddenly, our voice modules were not only in teddy bears, but also in floral bouquets, photo albums, and craft supplies. By positioning ourselves as enablers of creativity rather than sole creators, we scaled far beyond what I initially imagined.

7. The pandemic highlighted how people crave connection through voice. How did this moment influence your decision to expand into consumer products, and what surprised you most about the response?

When Covid struck, the requests we received were heart-wrenching. Assisted living facilities called, asking if we had a way for grandparents, isolated and alone, to hear the voices of their children and grandchildren. At the same time, the world was discovering the intimacy of voice through podcasts, audiobooks, and new platforms like Clubhouse. Suddenly, people were rediscovering what I had always known but perhaps taken for granted: the human voice carries a unique power to comfort, to connect, and to create presence even at a distance.

Those calls became the catalyst for our shift into consumer products. We realized there was a profound unmet need for simple, tangible ways to exchange voice messages outside of digital platforms. What surprised me most was how quickly people embraced it, not just as a temporary pandemic solution, but as a lasting way to stay connected. It confirmed for me that voice isn’t a novelty, it’s a timeless medium that becomes even more essential in moments of crisis.

8. With Gen Z and Millennials embracing voice notes for mental health, connection, and screen-free interactions, how is VoiceGift tapping into these cultural shifts?

If the pandemic revealed the power of voice to combat isolation, younger generations are showing us its role in self-expression and self-care. Gen Z and Millennials are discovering that recording and listening to voice notes – whether affirmations, meditations, or simply personal reflections – can be deeply therapeutic. In a world where notifications constantly fragment our attention, voice offers a rare experience of focus, presence, and intimacy.

VoiceGift speaks directly to this need by offering devices that are deliberately single-purpose. They don’t ping, distract, or demand attention. Instead, they create a safe, screen-free space for voice in its purest form. Whether it’s preserving a family story, capturing a mantra before a workout, or recording a message of love, our products allow people to unplug from the noise and carry something profoundly human with them wherever they go.

9. Wired headphones are making a comeback among younger generations, partly as a pushback against “always-on wireless.” What does this say about the future of analog or tactile audio experiences?

The return of wired headphones is part of a broader pattern we’ve seen before: vinyl records, instant film cameras, printed books, and even museums and travel – experiences rooted in time, place, and physicality – all have staying power in a digital world. These comebacks tell us something important: people don’t just want convenience; they want connection.

As parents, we see how children glaze over in front of screens, absorbing media passively while their senses shut down. Adults may be better at disguising it, but the effect is real for us too. We need to engage our senses fully, to hear, see, smell, taste, and touch in ways that bring us back into the present moment. Audio, in particular, has a primal place in this spectrum. It is the first sense we encounter at birth and one of the most powerful triggers of memory and emotion.

The resurgence of tactile audio experiences is not a fad. It’s a response to the limits of digital life. It suggests that the future of audio will not be defined solely by technology, but by how well it reconnects us to our humanity.

10. As the global consumer audio market grows toward $139 billion, where do you see the biggest opportunities for VoiceGift to lead in the analog audio gifting space?

At the heart of gifting lies a universal truth: it’s not the object that matters most, it’s the thought behind it. Yet in practice, gift-giving often becomes an anxious search for the perfect item at the perfect price, leaving the sentiment as an afterthought. Too often, people delay or avoid giving altogether because the process feels overwhelming.

VoiceGift proposes a different approach. We call it a “New Way to Gift®” – one where your voice, your emotion, your message comes first. The gift itself, whether physical or experiential, becomes secondary, a vessel for what really counts. This simple inversion has the power to remove the stress from gifting and turn it into something people look forward to doing more often.

Looking ahead, we envision a future where voice gifting is built into every gifting transaction, as fundamental as wrapping paper or a gift card. Whether in-store or online, consumers will be prompted to record a message alongside their purchase. Our aspiration is that VoiceGifting® becomes a universal layer of human connection woven into the very fabric of how we give.