I had a chance to talk with Aruni Gunasegaram, the owner of Babble Soft, a company offering software for new parents. The whole concept sounded so interesting to me, that I wanted to know more, especially after reading all the reviews thankful parents had written about Babble Soft products.
Katja: Tell us about Babble Soft.
Aruni: Babble Soft offers web and mobile software tools that facilitate communication between caregivers by enabling them to record information about feedings, baby sleep, diaper changes, medicine intake, and immunization records as well as provides breastfeeding support, pumping, and medicine dose schedules for Mom. We also offer the ability for parents to create a baby first year album with milestones and family tree.
Katja: Wow, that sounds amazing, I remember how those first months just like flew by, and it was difficult to remember all details.
Aruni: I know, I had a challenging time establishing breastfeeding with our first son.
Katja: When was your son born, is that when you also started Babble Soft?
Aruni: Yes, I started researching the idea of Babble Soft back in 2004 a year or so after our son was born. We looked for a tool that could help us record his activity so we can make better decisions, but we could find anything. So my husband hacked up an early mobile application and we found someone to help us with the PC application. After a year or so, it became clear to us that we needed to turn this into a web application so we could help more people. Our web and mobile application was available in 2007 and Baby Say Cheese was available in late 2007. Interestingly, since I was doing this part time and on a very low budget our sleep and immunization recording features weren’t available until January 2008.
Katja: That’s really impressive that you have gone so far in such a short time, and working only part-time. I can understand what it is to be a new enterepreneur while having young children.
Aruni: We’ve also grown the company entirely by self-funding. Now I work full time and I am looking at creative ways to grow it.
Katja: Tell us about the software products you offer to modern parents. I would like to know more about the Baby Insights Web and Mobile, and Baby Say Cheese.
Aruni: Baby Insights helps caregivers keep track of baby’s breast & bottle feeding, sleep periods, diaper changes, medicine doses, and immunization records, as well as mom’s breastfeeding, pumping and medicine intake. Having important information stored in one location makes communication between parents, their nanny, babysitters, grandparents, or doctors seamless and reliable and gives new parents insight into their baby’s patterns to help with crucial baby care decisions. Baby Say Cheese lets you create a wonderful online baby’s first year photo album with milestones and family tree that you can share with friends and family.
Katja: That sounds really helpful for new parents. How can parents can learn more about them? Is there a way to test them?
Aruni: Parents can easily sign up for a free trial to see if Babble Soft applications will work for them, their nanny, or other caregivers. In fact, we encourage people to sign up for a trial before the baby is born so they can set it up (takes a couple of minutes to enter mom and baby’s info) and have it ready to go when they come home!
Since this is still a fairly new concept, I encourage people to check out our Parent Stories page to see how others feel Baby Insights helped them when they came home with a new baby!
Katja: What is the best part of Babble Soft for you personally?
Aruni: The best part for me is when parents email us and tell us how useful and helpful the applications have been for them. If we can reduce the amount of stress and sleep deprivation even just a little bit, it’s all worth it! I’ve also enjoyed being able to work from home and work on Babble Soft part time and now full time.
Katja: What has been the highlight of Babble Soft so far?
Aruni: I think as I mentioned above, it has to do with our customers and parents who have been able to use our applications and as our tagline says “Making the transition into parenthood a little easier™”.
Katja: Helping other people is such a reward itself, I can understand that. Where do you see Babble Soft in five years?
Aruni: Great question! This may be a lame answer, but honestly, I don’t know. 5 years is such a long time from now. Ideally, I’d love to build a social community for new parents around our web and mobile applications. I think time, the market, my family situation, and the economy will all play a factor on how it will all pan out.
Katja: I hope Babble Soft will be a social community in a few years, I want to wish all the best for your business. Thank you for helping so many parents, and thank you for doing this interview.
Aruni: Thank you, and all the best for you too.
