These 4 Startups Are Taking The Pain Out Of Parenting Encouraging right balance between care, love, discipline, education and enjoyment during parenthood.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
There's an old saying "once a parent, always a parent". Being a parent, especially when you are working or living in a nuclear family, is a big challenge. Parenthood is an exciting, joyful and fulfilling phase of life. But at times, it becomes overwhelming, exhausting and unbelievably puzzling.
Taking care of another life, especially a life that can't take care of itself is an immense responsibility. Getting the right balance between care, love, discipline, education and enjoyment can be extremely difficult- almost a craft.
Parents usually come up with the questions like what does it mean to be a good parent; how does one deal with eating disorders, allergies, illness and unhealthy lifestyles etc. To answer all these queries our entrepreneurs have come up with some innovate startup ideas to make parenting experiences more memorable.
Here are few startups which will help you to find out answers to these questions during parenthood phase.
Making Parenting A Less Tedious Affair:
Recognising the market potential, the young duo, Naiyya Saggi and Mitesh Karia founded Baby Chakra in 2014 to tap this emerging segment.
Baby Chakra is an online platform for parents to discover care for their babies, making parenting a less tedious affair. The platform enables parents to discover and select local services like OB-Gyns, maternity hospitals, cord blood banks, pediatricians, play schools. daycares, activity centers, event managers and many more. With the help of their page, MomStar, platform recommends services and products to the users suggested by hundreds of moms and dads.
This startup had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai Angels, Patni Family Office and Singapore Angel Network. The company expects its revenues to grow 3 times year on year (YOY) for the next 5 years. Moreover, they plan to scale up to 10-15 cities in India by 2017 and explore international expansion by the end of 2017.
"As a parent, your life revolves around choosing nothing but the best care, education and other activities for your child. Most parents today look for these services online, but due to massive information they are left even more confused creating the white space that existed. Coupled with the potential that existed in a market worth billions of dollars, led Naiyya, my childhood friend and Harvard Business School graduate and I to start BabyChakra in 2014," said Mitesh Karia, Founder, BabyChakra.
A Seamless Experience For Parents
Parenting social network platform, Tinystep is on their way to building parenting community by allowing users to interact on a platform where they can ask, share and connect with other parents. Whether it is about planning for a baby, being pregnant or the best breakfast for a 2-year-old child, you can get all this under a single digital roof.
"Tinystep provides a vibrant platform for parents to come together, collaborate and help each other to raise their children in the most effective manner. It can be the much-needed vertical social network around parenting; connecting parents, doctors and other providers not just in India but all over the world," said Suhail Abidi Founder and CEO, Tinystep.
Parenting Is Not An Easy Task
A digital-age parenting platform, Kid Social Shell (KIDSS) helps in kids' growth and makes parenting easy.
KIDSS is seed funded with a mission for a global parenting hub in an age where parenting is no easy task. With the help of such platform, parents can keep a tab on their kids' growth and discuss their progress. The parents can discuss the same with experts and with anyone who is instrumental in the kids' learning.
The company is led by a talented bunch of writers, marketers, designers and developers who share a common vision of creating impeccable and useful apps irrespective of age. Its mentors include founders of Classteacher Learning Systems, Rohit Pande and Sameer Buti. The venture is currently looking at raising Series-A capital with a mission to offer a platform which makes parenting efficient and easier.
Let Your Kids' Imagination Fly High
It is often said that "Children learn as they play' – the Chennai-based eCommerce education startup Flintobox has turned this into reality by selling toys conceptualised by educators, prototyped by designers, and manufactured by top-of-the-line printers, all shipped in a box to little customers every month.
Isn't it an interesting concept of learning? Especially, if it is a box full of toys that can set your imagination soaring. "90 per cent of brain development happens by the age of six. Early experiences and positive interactions during age of 3-7 determine the overall development of children for years to come. However, in these busy days with nuclear families, parents don't have the time to ensure that their children are engaged effectively. And this constraint makes children resort to the easy way of watching TV," said Arunprasad Durairaj, Co-founder and CEO of the company.
Today's generation has no time to play. They are burden under the bulky textbooks from the beginning of their school life, leaving parents more concerned about their holistic growth and development. This startup is solving this problem for parents by providing a perfect fun discovery box that inspires children to explore and feed their curiosity for new things every month. "Parents will receive, right at their door, a carefully crafted and designed set of activities based on fresh themes every month," Durairaj.
So if you are expecting or having difficulty in balancing between your work life and your child then do explore these startups. You never know these startup turn as a life saver you.