From Stay-at-Home Mom to Co-Founder of a Top Parenting App
On the show today we have S.J. Kurtini, co-founder of Tinybeans an all-in-one app that provides a safe and loving space for parents to document their children's lives through photo sharing, journaling, milestone tracking and photo album printing.
S.J. shares her incredible story of how she went from being a stay-at-home mom to co-founding one of the top parenting apps. She is proof that if you follow your dreams and put your heart into it you can make your wildest dreams into reality.
S.J. and I talk about Tinybeans and what it means to people who are far away from their families, how she stays connected with her own family even though she works long hours and the challenges entrepreneurs face on a daily basis.
She also shares great advice on how to build a truly amazing team, a team it’s fun to work with every day, how to network when you’re in a new city and don’t know anyone and so much.
Show Notes:
- [04:09] Welcome to the show J.S Kurtini!
- [04:30] When she started working on Tinybeans she didn’t think too much about the future, much less than 3 million people would be using the app.
- [05:38] When she met her co-founder Stephen O’Young she was on maternity leave, she had just had her 2nd baby.
- [05:43] She was working from home and a friend asked her to manage some facebook accounts. She started making a name for herself doing that and that’s how she met Stephen.
- [09:10] What's the best part of being an entrepreneur? What's the worst part?
- [11:48] The challenges never get easier, once you get over one another bigger one comes along.
- [13:15] She was looking for people that had the right mindset, a learning mindset is most important, be humble and be fun to work with.
- [14:30] They have offices in NY and Sydney so they have a challenge with the time zone differences.
- [15:35] Tinybeans is private, it isn’t on social media. When they post pictures, it is with the permission of the owner.
- [16:45] She does do personal networking but since she moved to NY she has had to be very intentional about it because she didn't know anyone. She makes 5 to 10% of her week about getting out and meeting people.
- [23:02] Eddie was very instrumental in getting the funding from investors because of his business background, it was a long process but they succeeded in the end.
- [25:28] It was a little stressful with finding the right investors. They now have investors that know it is a long term investment.
- [27:27] How did you get the company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange? How long was the process?
- [31:25] S.J tends to internalize stress which makes her lose sleep so she does yoga and tries to laugh at things to relieve stress.
- [33:40] S.J’s husband stays home with the kids while she works. She uses her app to stay in touch when she can.
- [35:02] She keeps her life balanced and organized with two apps - SaneBox, an app that keeps your inbox zero and Wunderlist.
- [38:32] Her advice for doing something different in your career is to go with your gut, try it and simplify your life before you start it.
- [39:44] S.J’s father told her to have an FU fund, that way if you don’t like the situation you are in you can just walk away.
- [41:05] Tinybeans is a free app and you can find it at www.tinybeans.com.
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