Speaking of Famous Fathers – Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
Jun 3 2007

For the first time in 20 years Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Steve Jobs (founder of Apple, NEXT, and Pixar) sat down for a joint interview on May 30, 2007 for the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital D5 Conference.   The interview is hilarious and awe inspiring!  Bill and Steve have achieved such outstanding professional success and their companies have affected many of our daily lives more profoundly than any other high technology companies to date.  Microsoft and Apple laid the groundwork and helped train individuals who have since created companies of their own that have enabled email, blogging, Internet browsing, mobile devices, and Internet search (don’t tell Google) for the masses.   Being an entrepreneur, I can appreciate how much effort, energy, and passion it takes to build even the smallest of businesses and for each of them to make it from Founder/CEO and still be heavily involved with their company’s decades later (even though Jobs had a little break during his career at Apple) is down right jaw dropping!

Bill married Melinda French in 1994 and they have 3 children born in 1996, 1999, and 2002.  Steve’s first child was born in 1978.  He later married Laurene Powell in 1991 and they have 3 children who were presumably born after 1991.  Babble Soft released its first PC/Pocket PC version of Baby Manager in 2005 (just after our second child was born) and we released Baby Manager Web and Mobile in March 2007 so it’s unlikely we will have the chance to say that two of the most famous dads in the technology world used our software when their kids were born.  Oh well, maybe some other up and coming dads in the tech world will discover us before their babies are born!

I’d like to think that if the technology behind mobile devices, the Internet, and Babble Soft had existed when the children of these well known dads were born that Bill and Steve would have enjoyed playing around with Baby Manager Web and Mobile.  I could just see them and/or their wives giving their nannies a mobile device and showing them how to easily input information with a touch of a screen or click of a button.  Later, they or their wives could log in to a web application to see how things were going at home and leave notes to their nannies, spouses, family, and friends.  Or they could use their mobile device and sync via cradle or over-the-air to Baby Manager Web and get a real time update on baby.  An entrepreneur can dream, can’t she? 😀

Baby Manager was created using Microsoft technologies.  The application works with the most commonly used browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox) and the latest Microsoft OS based PDAs and Smartphones.  One of the reasons we created a web application was because expecting parents were emailing us asking when we would have a version that ran on the Mac.  In 2005, I was barely holding my head above water with 2 little ones, so we put PR on hold until recently so we could more effectively use our limited resources to reach all the interested, Internet savvy new parents in the world.  We do use our Mac to create graphics and design product literature.  However, the PCs in our office outnumber the Macs…but if Macs start running Windows then the ratio might change.

The most interesting observation I can make about these two famous dads is that they have very different personalities, followed their own paths, have different strengths & weaknesses, and achieved financial success by being true to their own visions.  As someone who also interviews people on the topic of success, this observation further affirms my belief that ‘people should follow their own path to success, not try to mimic someone else’s.’  Every second that passes the world is different, and what has worked for others in the past may not work in the present.  There’s a reason we all have different fingerprints!

Happy Father’s Day Bill and Steve! 8)

Aruni

A great gift for Dad: 20% Off Baby Manager for Father’s Day
May 31 2007

In honor of Father’s Day, Babble Soft is offering 20% off on subscriptions of Baby Manager during the month of June 2007 using coupon code FATHER#1.  

We thought about offering 15% off for Fathers’ Day because we have noticed that dads generally need less incentive to try out new technology and gadgets.  However, in the interest of fairness and to acknowledge men’s more active roles (check out Daddy Clay’s blog) in the parenting gig, we decided to match our Mother’s Day offer.  Plus since about 42% of customers who purchased Baby Manager in the past were guys (who we assume were new fathers) we thought they deserved the same discount. 😎

In this day and age men are much more involved in parenting and although they can’t have babies or breastfeed (yet), overall they are generally more helpful around the house and with a new baby than their dads were (i.e., change diapers, get up at night, feed the baby, do dishes, etc.).  So if you know a new or expecting dad, get them a subscription to Baby Manager for Father’s Day and give them an excuse to play around with cool, new technology while helping out their spouse (which may be you)!  You can even take it for a test drive by signing up for a FREE Trial.

Dads, you now have a reason to replace your existing phone with a cool, new Smartphone; to assist the mother of your child in ways neither you nor she ever expected you could.  Imagine your wife asking you when and how much you last fed the baby and you being able to drag your mobile device off the nightstand and say in a sleep-deprived tone of voice “Honey, she had 3.5 oz of breastmilk/formula at 2:42 AM and I changed her diaper at 2:30 AM.”  She then replies “oh, thank goodness it’s 3:00 AM and I can go back to sleep for a little while longer…you’re the greatest!”  This scene can be a reality for all the tech savvy, new dads out there if you choose wisely and give them a subscription to Baby Manager for Father’s Day!  For a wonderful testimonial from a dad user see below.

Happy Father’s Day to all you Super Dads out there! 😀

Testimonial
“My wife and I are missionaries in Bolivia. Our first child was born here while our extended family was in the U.S. On our own for child care, we found that waking up every few hours to feed and change the baby was challenging.

Since we wanted to put our baby on a schedule, we decided it was best to take shifts at night. My wife took care of him from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m., and I took care of him from 3 a.m. until about 10 a.m. We shared responsibilities during the daytime. We learned quickly that it was not helpful for me to get up with the baby at 3 a.m. only to have to wake up my wife and ask her when he was last fed. When we downloaded Baby Manager for Pocket PC, it transformed childcare in our house.

First, we no longer needed to bother the other person with questions about diaper changes, bottle feedings, and breast feedings. It was all there. Second, since my wife breastfed our baby and pumped, Baby Manager provided an easy way to ensure she was “keeping up” with the baby by pumping as much milk as he needed. Finally, not only did we have the answers to our pediatrician’s questions, she was actually impressed with the level of detail and information we had from the reports on bottle feedings, breast feedings, diaper changes, etc.

Baby Manager helped us get through the first difficult months of child care. We needed to develop the good habit of recording important information about our baby, and Baby Manager helped us do that. In turn, it helped me and my wife to communicate better about baby care. It is the best solution for a single parent, or for a family with multiple caretakers, who need to collaborate and share this vital information.

We are now expecting our second child and are excited that we can count on Baby Manager to help from day one!”

-J. Eggen, La Paz, Bolivia
http://eggens.blogspot.com

Baby Manager on TV!
May 24 2007

On Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Baby Manager was the featured Cover Story on KEYE-42, the local CBS news station’s 5:00 pm news.  Originally they were scheduled to do the interview on Thursday, May 17 but as luck would have it, they had to reschedule.  Thank goodness, because as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, my son was home sick Tuesday-Thursday of last week.  They ended up coming out Monday, May 21 which gave us time to clean up the house and make sure everyone was reasonably in good health. 

It felt good to be back in the limelight again even if for a few minutes and it felt even better that the reporter, Elizabeth Dannheim,  did such a great job producing the story!  For not being a parent or a PDA/Smartphone user, she asked very relevant questions. She and her team did a wonderful job at pulling the whole story together.  Maybe by the time she decides she wants a baby we will have convinced her to get a Smartphone. 😀

To me the most amazing thing about the interview was that our kids behaved nearly perfectly.  They wanted some shots of me playing with the kids and the kids cooperated wonderfully.  They were polite and took turns playing with the toys….often it’s a grab fest with each of them shouting ‘it’s my turn!’  Their good behavior (for me) was the highlight of the interview.  I was thankful for the exposure for Babble Soft and Baby Manager but I was even more thankful for looking like a ‘mom whose kids listened to her’ (i.e., a good mom) for a little while (on TV no less) and that feeling was priceless!  Maybe we should have a TV crew in our house all of the time. 😀

Needless to say, I gave them a bunch of hugs & kisses and promised them some ice cream after dinner.  When dinner time came around, our son reminded me that I had told him he could have ice cream and my daughter started getting the illness that our son had last week so she was home sick two days this week.  The wonderful ups and downs of parenthood…. 😉

Motherhood doesn’t have to get in the way of a high tech career
Apr 30 2007

On April 27, 2007 the Austin Business Journal printed an article written by Aruni, co-founder of Babble Soft.  If you have a subscription to the ABJ, you can read a version of the article here.  If not, following is the complete version:

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As a Tech Mompreneur running Babble Soft™, a company geared toward new parents, I get to combine my love for my kids with my love for running a business.  Every mom loves talking about their kids, and I get to do that every day!  And I don’t have to worry about whether people think I’m too “into” my family and not enough “into” my career.  Unfortunately, many women have to be careful of how often they discuss their kids at work and how often they take off time to spend with them.

Before having kids, I felt like I had something to prove and was on a mission to make a difference in this world.  I was the founding President/CEO of Isochron® (a Web and wireless company creating solutions for the bottling industry).  We raised $15 million in equity financing, grew the company to 35 people, and closed accounts with large, reputable companies like Coca-Cola.  Isochron survived the dot-com crash and was sold in 2002. After leaving in 2001, I taught entrepreneurship at the UT McCombs School of Business, consulted, and wrote.  I thought I knew what tired meant at this stage in my career, but didn’t truly know the meaning of the word until after my son was born in August 2002.

We left the hospital happy that we had a healthy baby, but emotionally and physically drained.  Our son decided he didn’t want to come out, so we induced six days after his due date and I ended up having an emergency C-section. 

When my husband went back to work, I started to panic, asking myself, “How will I remember everything I need to do now that my normal brain function is compromised by lack of sleep?”  I kept wondering out loud, “When did I last feed him?  And on what side?  How many times had I already pumped and how much had I pumped that day? When will this horrible pain (from the breast infection I’d contracted) go away?” Because I’m a “need-to-know” person, coming up with a system for tracking our son’s care became crucial to my coping with the topsy-turvy world of new parenthood.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we weren’t the only ones using pen and paper to track the progress of their babies. We sympathized with friends and acquaintances over their frustrations about keeping months of notes on their newborns organized.  So we thought, “Why don’t we create something?” And, out of this need to know, Babble Soft and Baby Manager™ were born.  Now, I still want make a difference, but my desire to prove something to someone else has been tempered with my desire to be a great mother.

In 2005, Baby Manager was ready for our newborn daughter to be the first test case. Having a way to easily record her activities on a PDA was liberating.  Being able to take it everywhere, and having the information at my fingertips to reassure me my daughter was progressing normally, made the whole experience of taking care of a newborn much easier than the first time. Things went so well that I donated to the Mother’s Milk Bank at Austin (MMBA), a nonprofit organization that collects, pasteurizes, and dispenses donor milk for premature and sick infants.

During this time, we spoke with pediatricians and other birth specialists and realized that parents of premature babies would be particularly well-served by Baby Manager so we added features to better meet those parents’ needs.  We launched the new Web and mobile application in March 2007.

For me, starting Babble Soft has felt like a crusade to help new parents. Some people have questioned the need for Baby Manager, wondering if it was too much to know the time of every feeding and every diaper change, but for those with sick, premature, or multiple babies it’s a lifesaver.  And for those like me who “need to know,” it can bring a little sanity into an often very chaotic time.  I believe that informed parents are often more secure parents, and my goal is to continue creating products to help parents feel more secure.

So do moms and technology mix?  Yes, they do — now more than ever!  Women tend to have more education, make higher incomes, and have easier access to technology than their mothers did.  There are websites and community sites popping up everywhere, catering to this new type of mom who wants to stay connected to the world while spending more time with her kids.  I helped co-found the Tech Moms group within the Association for Women in Technology – Austin organization the year after my son was born to give moms who work in the technology field a forum for sharing their experiences.

Moms are using technology to run home-based businesses and to contribute on a part-time or full-time basis to other companies.  The availability of technology enables mothers to continue using their years of institutional education and work experience and stay connected to both the adult world and their kids.

Obviously, there’s no degree on how to raise your child correctly.  There’s a lot of learning on the fly. But it’s a great time to be a mom, whether today’s technology is a critical part of your professional career, your career as a parent, or – for people like me – both.

Happy Mother’s Day from Babble Soft
Apr 19 2007

To help celebrate Mother’s Day, Babble Soft is offering 20% off on purchases of any Baby Manager subscription during the month of May 2007.  Baby Manager is a wonderful and unique gift that is especially helpful for first-time parents, parents of premature/sick babies, or parents of multiples.  Gift cards and Email gifts available!  Please enter coupon code MOTHER#1 on the Purchase Form.

Babble Soft Introduces Web and Mobile Software to Ensure the Health of New Babies
Mar 6 2007

Babble Soft has announced the launch of its Baby Manager Web and Mobile software. Helping parents keep up with breastfeeding, pumping, bottle feeding, medicine doses, and diaper changes, Baby Manager keeps families connected and focused on the health and well-being of their newborns. Family members, caregivers, friends, or health care professionals anywhere in the world can log on to watch the growth and development of baby. Users can even share pictures and exchange notes.

When babies are born they become the true managers of our lives . . . especially the first several months after they enter our hearts and homes! Baby Manager is a software application, with Web and mobile options, designed to help parents figure out their baby’s patterns and cues to ensure his health and happiness. No more wondering: “When did baby last eat?” “When did mom last pump or breastfeed?” or “When did baby have his last dose of medicine?” Caregivers can quickly look up the last time baby ate, took medicine, or had her diaper changed to determine whether she might be hungry, tired, need another dose of medicine, or just wants to be held.

What’s more, for busy breastfeeding moms, keeping track of pumping and medicine intake helps with the management of stored breast milk. Also, when asked, “What did you do all day?” breastfeeding moms can proudly and confidently show a report online, on a mobile device, or on paper the time they spent feeding their baby which can range from 3 to 6 hours per day (i.e., 20 to 40 hours per week!) depending on the baby and the mom. The application summarizes the data in easy-to-read graphs and reports that can be printed out to show friends, family members, or health care professionals.

Babble Soft’s president, Aruni Gunasegaram, a serial entrepreneur and mother of two, explains, “What’s advantageous about Baby Manager Web is not only its ability to help parents easily keep up with the basic information required by most pediatricians in the first months of a baby’s life, but also its ability to keep families connected.”

“The Windows Mobile platform allows people to customize their devices to meet their individual needs,” said John Dietz, group product manager for Mobile and
Embedded Devices, Microsoft Corp. “Applications like Baby Manager Mobile continue to expand the ways people can manage both their workstyle and lifestyle all on one device.”