Winnie

An excerpt from our conversation with Winnie Co-founder and CEO Sara Mauskopf

You launched Winnie to enable anyone who cares for children to successfully navigate the world with kids. Can you share an example of Winnie in action? What is your most popular feature?

My favorite way people use Winnie is when they use it to do things they enjoyed before having kids. Once I had a child I stopped dining out as often. It turns out that there are a lot of really accommodating restaurants to dine out with your kids. Some will even give you private space to nurse or provide books and toys to restless toddlers. I personally discovered through Winnie that House of Prime Rib, where I had gone numerous times, is a great place to take my daughter. Other examples are movie theaters that have family matinees or date night showings where you can bring your baby. We’re seeing a real behavior shift in the parents who use Winnie. It’s easier to get out and try new things when you can check an app and find kid-friendly places. So far our most loved feature is Stories: A place where parents can share experiences and tips from the places they go with their kids. Parents love seeing what other parents in their area are doing and use it as a discovery tool to find new things to do with their own kids. It’s a virtuous cycle that makes Winnie more useful over time.

What behavior and feedback has surprised you the most on Winnie so far?

We were initially surprised that half our users are male. It’s atypical for a parenting product and we’re super excited about it. We reached out to a lot of the dads using our product and the feedback we’re hearing is that Winnie is the first parenting app that they felt wasn’t just aimed at moms. It was our intention to build something for all parents, especially those that were underrepresented with other solutions. Dads have been traditionally left out mothers groups where moms get this information. They’re excited to finally have a product that appeals to them. There’s no reason that fathers shouldn’t also play an active role.

On a big picture level, how do you believe technology can enhance parenting? How do you see and would you like to see it evolve to better serve parents’ needs?

Parenting is a job and arguably one of the most important jobs. Just like we have tools for other jobs, parents deserve great tools. There’s been a lot of “invisible” work in parenting that has historically been done by women. A lot of the problems we’re solving at Winnie — researching local places, figuring out what to do with your children, planning outings, etc. — was historically women’s work. It’s real work. As more and more households have both parents working there will be no one to take on this invisible labor and they will need tools to help.