Start-up Society #66: Huckleberry
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Welcome to the 66th edition of Start-up Society! This blog highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
Huckleberry
HQ: Irvine, CA
Founded: 2017
Total Employees: 18 (on LinkedIn)
This week, we are doing an exclusive podcast and article for our recent conversation with Jessica Toh, Co-Founder & CEO of Huckleberry Labs.
Huckleberry is the new way for parents to get effective, custom sleep guidance to help raise happier and healthier families, without having to invest in expensive consultants.
The National Sleep Foundation finds that 76% of parents would like to change something about their child’s sleep. The app pairs the best in data science, pediatric sleep experts, and AI to create an easy-to-follow guide for each unique family. Parents simply take a questionnaire and track their baby’s sleep for 3 days. The app’s AI-powered algorithm and the team’s pediatric sleep experts then analyze the data, predict the next optimal nap time based on a child’s natural sleep habits and age, and create a custom week-by-week plan. The app has been used by more than 1 million parents and has a 4.9-star rating on the App Store.
For the full conversation, tap into the podcast here!
What is Huckleberry Labs?
Huckleberry makes a good night's sleep possible for every family. Users tell us it's like Voodoo & Blackmagic! Parents use Huckleberry to help their kids sleep through the night. We have a grand vision to make a magical experience beyond sleep. In between what teachers and pediatricians can help you with, Huckleberry is here to fill the gap.
Can you talk a little bit more about the inspiration for Huckleberry Labs?
If you had asked me in college what kind of company I would start, I would not have said that it would be around children! It’s a good thing babies and kids are so cute because it takes superhuman strength to be a parent. My son woke up every 1.5-2 hours every night for 18 months. I read multiple books, spoke to pediatricians and after trying it all — nothing worked! I leveraged my Undergrad at UC Berkley and my industry experience in software to solve the problem. I leaned on my background and said “let me track everything and see what patterns emerge,” after combining the data with the right human expertise the insights started revealing themselves.
Did you co-found this venture with your husband?
Yes and it works great for us, but I couldn't imagine my own parents starting a business like this successfully. It is the ultimate work-life harmony because everything meshes together. Starting and running a company takes a ton of time. If one person in the relationship is spending all their time on it, it's tough. But if both are working on it, it brings you closer together. We were working to improve our own family and wanted to extend that to other parents.
When you talk to husband and wife teams it's recommended that each partner focuses on a different aspect. My husband, Seng Oon Toh, is the CTO and although I have a technical background I am more interested in other parts of the business. I was originally interested in business, but I tried out engineering at UC Berkley instead. I was naturally drawn to psychology and leading organizations. I value my technical foundation but lean into my personal passion for business and management.
How did Huckleberry become so popular and maintain its near-perfect rating in the App Store?
We have a really great product, that is the first step. What got the ball rolling after that was actually a Toronto Facebook mom group. A friend of ours tried the app and loved it! The app started spreading all around Facebook and parents genuinely saw the value in the app. We got a lot of word-of-mouth marketing because this problem is something that all parents struggle with and moms share a lot of resources it helped foster our launch. On one hand, a lot of companies are trying to access the ‘mom market’, on the other hand, when the community finds a good product it’s a major hit.
How did you know when to quit your job and start full-time on Huckleberry?
As a kid, I played business owner instead of fireman or astronaut. I sold things and in high school, I did a summer entrepreneurship program. I always had that dream of running and owning a business. I was waiting for the right idea and was scared of taking the plunge. It's hard to leave the comfy corporate ladder. I concentrated in Entrepreneurship while at my MBA program and thrived by surrounding myself with other founders. I think that people are influenced by what other people do and what other people consider normal. Huckleberry was really a culmination of my academic, professional, and personal experiences.
What was your reasoning for going through an MBA program?
Some people say save your money, but I think if I had a startup idea I would have allocated the capital to the business. I didn't have that and I didn't have a business undergrad degree in business. I knew enough to know that I wanted to learn more and seek out experts. For me, the MBA was really helpful in providing me those opportunities to learn more. I was fortunate enough to not go into debt as a result of my decision to go to Business School. I did my MBA at the University of Cambridge and I thought I would be staying in England and I wanted to set my roots there. But, we ended up back in the U.S. anyway!
How did you find the right people to join you working on Huckleberry?
In the beginning, we relied on our personal networks. It's hard to find someone crazy enough to join you at level 0 when the person doesn't know you on some level. We also did not have a budget, so that made things a little bit more difficult. A great dream and a really great mission are what we had. Our Marketing Director heard what we had and left Nike to join us because she believed in what we are striving towards. You need true believers early on. There were certain roles I wished we hired for as opposed to me pushing through it myself.
What would you say are Huckleberry's greatest milestones to date? What’s next in the story?
I am most proud of my amazing team and our impressive growth. I love the 4.9/5 stars on the app store with 80% of our user base as organic. I see that and I know we are building something of value. We are tangibly helping kids and parents with the mental health and physiological problems associated with no sleeping. We are going to triple our headcount so that we can continue to help parents in every way that we can.
Where did the name Huckleberry come from?
We were looking for something that felt fresh. Not too techy, not too childish. There are three references that inspired the name.
- In the movie Tombstone, Doc Holliday says, “ I am your huckleberry” — the right person for the right job and the right time. We are that for parents!
- In the song Moon River, there is a phrase, “My Huckleberry Friend” and we are your friend too!
- The last inspiration is the adage “ The huckleberry to your persimmon.” It means it is that little extra bit that makes it special. We can make life that much easier and better for parents with Huckleberry.
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.
Authored by Arteen Zahiri and Rumeer Keshwani
