Smartbird: Allbirds' Bold AI Shift Without Employees

Allbirds Reinvents Itself as Smartbird, an AI Company Without Employees

Last April, Allbirds, the shoe manufacturer known for its minimalist and eco-friendly style, surprised the world by announcing a radical shift towards artificial intelligence. This pivot was seen by some as a parody of Silicon Valley excesses, where struggling companies seek to ride the latest trends to restore their image.

This strategy is reminiscent of Gamestop, which managed to capture the attention of retail investors by embracing popular trends. For Allbirds, this transformation has been fruitful: the company sold its shoe division for $43 million and raised an additional $100 million in the stock market, rebranding itself as Smartbird.

Nadia Carlsten at the Helm of Smartbird

To successfully lead this transition, Nadia Carlsten, a former AWS executive and engineering PhD, has been appointed CEO of Smartbird. Before joining Smartbird, she led the European computing company DCAI. Carlsten has taken her position in Amsterdam and is determined to build a new team for this AI venture.

She told TechCrunch that one of her first priorities is to recruit a leadership team, particularly to oversee infrastructure operations. The official closure of the shoe division marks the beginning of a new era for Smartbird.

An AI Infrastructure-Focused Business Model

Smartbird positions itself as an AI infrastructure provider, responding to the growing demand for computing power to train and execute deep learning models. Unlike neo-clouds, which constantly optimize chip costs and GPU time, Smartbird aims for more controlled deployments.

Smartbird's ideal clients are those who require direct control over their servers for political or economic reasons. These clients prioritize data sovereignty over the scalability offered by public cloud services.

A Market Still Developing

Carlsten admits that the AI infrastructure market is still in a developmental phase. Many companies are still experimenting with AI tools. At DCAI, she collaborated with companies like Novo Nordisk, which place a high value on data sovereignty and the use of custom models.

Smartbird does not seek to directly compete with cloud giants or neo-clouds, but rather to offer an alternative to companies' internal projects. Established players like Hewlett Packard and Equinix already provide similar services, raising questions about the growth potential of this model.

Measured Ambitions

Carlsten plans to deploy computing clusters for several clients by the end of the year. Unlike other startups like General Compute, which recently announced a massive chip order, Smartbird focuses on more modest needs, ranging from hundreds to thousands of chips.

The emphasis is on agility and control of infrastructure rather than massive scale. Smartbird does not aim to compete on price with cloud services, which optimize chip usage to offer the cheapest possible computing.

A Thoughtful Transition

The demand for AI infrastructure continues to grow, driving up stock prices for chip manufacturers and cloud providers. However, Carlsten insists that Allbirds' transition to AI has been carefully planned.

She emphasizes that this change is not simply driven by the AI trend, but by the possibility of building a sustainable long-term business. Carlsten was attracted to this project with an annual salary of $700,000 and stock options worth $9 million.

A Long-Term Commitment

By pivoting to AI, Allbirds has also abandoned its status as a public benefit corporation, which highlighted its commitments to sustainability. This change shows that PBC charters are not immutable.

The board of directors of Smartbird has made a long-term commitment to execute its AI strategy. Carlsten wonders if other companies pursuing AI have the same level of commitment behind their efforts.