New Tech Startups Are Focused on Building Tools for Families

In the booming tech industry, more entrepreneurs are finding themselves focused on creating tools that they see a need for in their own lives. This has brought a new crop of developers into the tech industry: new parents. End Quote

When you are a young start up, you have to wear many hats and do many different tasks and really, parenting is great preparation for that.

(1888PressRelease) January 17, 2012 - Necessity is the mother of invention for new crop of entrepreneurial parents

New parents may seem an unlikely population to seek out the rigors of entrepreneurship but research by The Founder Institute recently determined that entrepreneurism at an older age can translate to a higher rate of success. Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Institute says, "Older individuals have generally completed more complex projects-from buying a house to raising a family."

It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Looking for an easy, mobile dashboard to manage their day-to-day life outside of the corporate world was why Megan Brown and Kirsten Bischoff, co-founders of www.HATCHEDit.com developed their site last year. "Both Megan and I were firmly entrenched in corporate life and I don't think two years ago either of us thought that we would find ourselves launching our own business," says Bischoff. "After looking for a tool to help me coordinate pickups and dropoffs for my daughter's afterschool activities I quickly determined that nothing existed that would let parents easily communicate with their inner circle and the idea for HATCHEDit was quickly formed."

"Certainly it's challenging being an entrepreneur and also a mom, but in a way, moms are perfectly suited to entrepreneurialism," says Jen Sieve-Hicks co-founder of KIDzOUT, a GPS- based smartphone app that helps families know where to go. "When you are a young start up, you have to wear many hats and do many different tasks and really, parenting is great preparation for that kind of fast-paced environment where you have to adapt and learn new skills quickly."

Launching KIDzOUT was what Sieve-Hicks and her husband and co-Founder Robb found themselves doing after a family vacation. "Our infant daughter had a diaper emergency and after looking for a changing station, we finally gave up drove back to our hotel. After that, Robb and I started brainstorming about a sort of parents' atlas that would show where diaper changing stations and kid-friendly restaurants were. We knew that other parents had the same frustrations and needs as our young family. And with mobile phone technology, an 'atlas' just naturally morphed into a map-based app," says Sieve-Hicks.

Developing a series of apps that new parents would find handy was what Michael Kale did as a new father. His firm, Early Bird Software has developed apps including Milk Maid (a lactation tracker) and Baby Timer (to track feedings, changes, etc). Notably, Baby Timer was listed by Babble as one of the Top 25 baby care apps.

"I love making mobile apps. I'm building a small business and keeping my skills fresh should I ever want to find a traditional job again." As a stay-at-home dad, software development allows for a flexible schedule that includes time at home with the kids. "I'm lucky to work in a field where I can do all of this from my kitchen table. Being a parent and building software exercise very different parts of my brain too, so I can go back and forth to keep from getting burned out on either side."

Filling the need he saw as a new parent helped Kale develop his series of apps. "I got started because I was keeping a lot of notebooks - first labor contractions, then notes about the baby, and finally notes about expressed milk after my wife went back to work," says Kale. "I thought it would be nice to build a series of apps which help with all the record keeping. A lot of parents carry a smartphone around with them everywhere so it's the perfect spot to record and browse through all of this information."

About HATCHEDit.com
HATCHEDit.com is a mobile whiteboard for managing your personal life. We bring online, social collaboration tools into the home. The site is centered around a dashboard of tools that not only allow the user to manage their personal schedule but allow them to better leverage the social collaboration aspects of the Internet. Our aim is to fundamentally change the way people manage their life online. The site is the brainchild of two moms, Megan Brown, a former executive at JP Morgan, and Kirsten Bischoff, a former senior editor at a hedge fund trade publication. Contact: Kirsten.bischoff ( @ ) hatchedit dot com

About KIDzOUT
KIDzOUT is a a mobile application to help parents find nearby diaper changing stations, kid-friendly restaurants, play areas or medial services using a proprietary database of over 260,000 locations. Know where to go when "it" happens. KIDzOUT is available for the iPhone. Contact: jsievehicks ( @ ) gmail dot com

About Early Bird Software
Michael Kale is an independent software developer whose list of apps includes: Baby Timer (available on iPhone and Android), Labor and Contraction Timer (available on iPhone and Android), Milk Maid (iPhone), Retirement Calculator (iPhone), and Anagram Blaster. Notably, Baby Timer was listed by Babble as one of the Top 25 baby care apps. Contact: mkale ( @ ) earlybirdsoftware dot com

http://www.hatchedit.com

###

Visit Hatchedit.com Website

space