Building in community
Eleven years after building my first app, We Read Too, I'm now embarking on making a new app. With We Read Too, I struggled with connecting with my users because I never narrowed the focus of who exactly I was building for. For my new app, I have a customer focus and I'm starting this journey by connecting with them.
As a second-time founder, I'm focused on a pain point I've experienced directly and building for a community I'm actively a part of. The idea came from my experience of becoming a mom last year. The reality of being the primary source of nutrition for my baby was different than I had imagined. My plan before birth was to exclusively nurse for the first few weeks and then introduce a bottle occasionally so my husband could help out with feeding. Then when my baby was born, she ended up needing NICU care for first 6 days of her life. I had not expected nor prepared for that. Exclusively nursing was no longer possible. I was then pumping as much as I could so nurses could feed her breast milk. Once we were able to take her home and throughout her first 6 months, we continued feeding her breast milk through a mix of me nursing her and pumping before I switched to exclusive pumping.
Throughout those months I read countless forums, blogs and lurked on all the Facebook groups. There was so much to figure out, from how many times I should be pumping vs. nursing, when is the best time to pump, how to drop pumps and more. I tried to track everything in some of the existing apps, but none of them quite fit. I'd use one app, but as my feeding journey changed, I'd have to switch to a new app or give up trying to track everything I wanted to. I'm not alone in the ups and downs of breastfeeding, The Motherly reported nearly 70% of women have challenges with breastfeeding. Mothers need more support and resources than we currently have access to in the U.S. I believe that moms deserve technology that is built with us in mind. I want to create a product that works for moms no matter what changes they decide to make in their feeding journeys.
As a mom and engineer, I feel that I'm uniquely positioned to build something better that helps moms manage, understand and track their baby's feeding journey. I'm starting with getting insights from as many moms as I can on the experience with the apps they used. If you're recently postpartum within the last 3 years, I'd love your feedback. I want to build this app in community with moms and create a product they know is genuinely made for and with them. I plan to share regular updates on my building journey so if you're interested in following along, sign up for my free newsletter.