There are few activities or processes which sound easy and in reality are easy, while some sound easy but are difficult. But there are a few, which sound difficult and in reality are difficult, like – PARENTING.
Parenting is a long process right from before the child is born till she/he becomes an adult and even after that. Parenting involves planning, nourishing, and protecting the child. It is a responsibility to develop the child physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. There is a huge age gap between parents/guardians and their/children. Therefore, a swift change in role is required while dealing with your babies/children. One can’t shout, scream, beat or say horrible things at them. It affects the baby/child. It remains with him/her throughout life. A child is like a glass, we must handle them with care or they will break.
Parenting in contemporary times is a whole lot different as compared to several decades earlier. Take your own example about how you were raised, who all looked after you, who all fed you, which toys you played with, what your parents and elderly in your house taught you, what were discipline rules were, when were you scolded, were you beaten for doing any mischief (yes, Asian children gets hammered sometimes people 😀), how did you make your first friend, your birthdays and parties which were hosted at your house; exams, holidays, the family meets at grandparents’ or uncle’s house every vacation; we all have learned many lessons from childhood to adulthood.
Imagine how did you cope up with changes in your body with time, how did you matured? Friendship, trust, laughter, security, jealousy, kindness, selfishness, sorrow, anger, heartbreaks, breakups, and patch-ups with your close friends (or more popularly called Katti-Batti), trust issues, learning to hide, learning to be strong all alone, etc, etc, etc. I hope, your entire journey from childhood to adulthood appeared in front of your eyes at the last minute.
Now your child will undergo that process too what you went through, slowly and steadily. You would have already decided – what to do and what not to, what to teach and what not to, perhaps you would have already decided various types of freedoms, boundaries, and restrictions as well. Even you would have decided whether to make your child a gentleman/gentlewoman or the most badass person ever known. Also, some of you would have already imagined your child as your video game partner or a literature person. Whatever it may be, your sole aim would be to be the best parent in the world.
Now, parents of the contemporary generation are tech-savvy and often visit search engines like Google, various parenting blogs, YouTube, and other social media pages and channels to get parenting advice and suggestions. You don’t have to worry, Seema Bhattacharjee with her venture “SUPERPARENTS” is at your disposal. It is an online parenting community working towards helping new-age parents with data-driven, quality content and information.
SUPERPARENTS – HOW THE IDEA CAME?
Seema says, “I took a break from my long career in IT to spend quality time with my just born daughter. That is when I realized a one-stop solution for parents is a need of the hour. I started with writing tips for new parents but that was obviously not enough. That is when I decided to build an ecosystem around parenting that would enrich them. Parents nowadays spend a substantial amount of time online searching for various products and services for their children and experimenting with different solutions. There simply wasn’t enough reliable information out there for new parents. So I felt the need for technology disruption in the parental sector.”
It took Seema about 7 months from the conception of the idea to the actual realization of the idea.
SUPERPARENTS – THE ONE-STOP PLATFORM FOR CONTEMPORARY PARENTS
SuperParents is an online parenting community platform working towards bringing a positive environment around parenting. In today’s fast-paced life and very little work-life balance, parenting has often become a stressful journey. SuperParents is a unique platform where parents can join and lift each other to make parenting fun essentially.
It solves :
- Parental and childcare information is very scattered over the web and there are no one-stop solutions for parents;
- In this fast-paced life, parenting has often become a stressful journey particularly for new parents in a nuclear family. There is a potential need to bring in a positive ecosystem around this.
THE BUSINESS MODEL OF SUPERPARENTS
There is a defined buyer persona of SuperParents. The information is non-chargeable for the targeted readers i.e. parents for younger kids, which are the major organic user base. Also, the revenue is generated from the brand association, events, and product reviews.
There are two types of target audience:
- New-age parents of younger kids that consist of 80% of their user base;
- Service providers in childcare and parental sector, product and brand owners.
SuperParents have two main revenue streams – brand partnerships and service provider associations.
“With SuperParents, the data is personalized, relevant, and unique. We understand the need for crisp and clear information for lesser screen time and lesser stress. We provide content, product review and information keeping that is mind”. – Seema on why SuperParents is better than other similar services available in the market.
THE CHALLENGES
During the initial days of SuperParents, the main challenges were to find the first set of team members with complementary skills, passion, and experience. Seema’s own experiences and everyday encounters with various other parents helped in shaping the first phase of the product, but it wasn’t enough to keep going. Also. they collected data from parents, schools, child care service provides, parental coaches, and influencers to have more insights into the sector and make their product more market fit.
“Every decision that keeps you going and working towards your goal is bold in some way”.
SUPERPARENTS – THE FUTURE GOAL
Currently, SuperParents is based out of Gandhinagar, Gujarat. But they want to focus on the city for up to two years. After two years, they want to cover all Tier-1 cities. But in the next five years, they are planning to go global.
“Apart from the social media marketing for creating awareness and customer acquisition, we also put a lot of stress on quality content for customer retention”. – Seema Bhattacharjee
Our ultimate vision is that every parent should reach to us for getting their parenting problems and queries.
SUPERPARENTS – THE TEAM
“The role requirements are first to be looked at. But, we also put a lot of stress on the right attitude because it requires a lot of effort for a startup to become a venture and the right team is very essential for that”.
Therefore, to be part of the SuperParents team, one must have complementary skills, the right attitude, and passion. But currently, the team is small and mostly has product development members. But the marketing of SuperParents is mostly outsourced.
THE SUPPORT SYSTEMS
The spark-up Fund was received from iCreate, a govt. of the Gujarat entity. Also, a big contribution also comes from GUSEC – Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council. There are several direct and indirect mentors also contributing to SuperParents. The mentors help in refining and structuring the product. Besides giving advice, they also provide funds or arrange funds.
“I definitely get inspired by my parents. I often think about how effortlessly and amazingly they raised me. To name someone as my biggest motivator, so I want to mention Miss. Chavvi Mittal”.
SUPERPARENTS – THE SUCCESS STORY
“SuperParents which was just a thought, also an idea from my own struggles and experience, is now a parenting community forum with parents, influencers, schools on board. But we would keep the baton running and build an ecosystem around parenting that would impact and enrich the everyday lives of parents”.
Following are some of the successes to date –
- Covered in feminsta
- Incubated at GUSEC
- Prototype funded at iCreate
“Work hard. Nothing comes easy so you need to be willing to put in the effort for the expected outcome”.
Seema Bhattacharjee’s advice to young entrepreneurs
Very Nice Information.