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