Parents, meet Winnie.
When I brought my baby daughter home from the hospital one year ago, my world suddenly felt very small. I felt like a prisoner in my own home. What if I leave the house and need a place to nurse or change her diaper? Even though I had been living in the exact same apartment in San Francisco for 5 years, having a child changed the way I saw the world around me. I was scared to go anywhere because I didn’t know whether they’d have the right facilities for me to care for my daughter, or whether we’d even be welcome there.
As I talked to other parents I realized I wasn’t alone. The tricky thing about parenting is that every milestone your child reaches brings new things you need to know. Is this playground enclosed? What do other parents think of this preschool? Where can I host a birthday party for 20 first graders?
It turns out it’s not easy to find this kind of information. You have to figure it out yourself through trial and error or talk to other parents and learn from them, much the same way my parents got information about the places around them when raising me. It seemed crazy to me that even with all our advancements in technology, parents today don’t have significantly better tools than they did 30 years ago to navigate the world. We founded Winnie because we want to change that.
A Better Way
Parents, meet Winnie. As a mobile app, Winnie gives you a modern interface to the information you and your family need to know, wherever you are. As a service, it is a central, trustworthy source of local information for parents. Winnie is available today on the App Store and we’re excited for you to try it out. We have detailed metadata for parents on over 100,000 locations throughout the United States, and are adding more places each day.
The real power of Winnie, though, lies in stories. We provide a place for parents to share their adventures, big and small, good and bad, about the places they visit with their kids. Sometimes you have an amazing experience at a local park or museum, and sometimes just a simple trip to the grocery store can be a big achievement.
Winnie is not just an app for us, or people like us. It democratizes information through technology so that everyone can learn from each other. We are building a platform for all parents — single parents, transgender parents, families with disabilities, parents on a budget — so that no one has to go on this journey alone.
The Big World
This is just the beginning, and we have so many things planned and already in the works for Winnie. But what remains central to us is the idea that supporting the mothers, fathers, grandparents, caregivers and teachers who are raising the next generation of people is not just an important mission. It is the most important mission.
No parent should have to feel isolated or stuck at home. The world of experiences you can share with your kids is vast. Go download Winnie and take a look!
