Innovator of the Week – Where Are They Now?
Dave Coffin
Co-Founder & Developer of Cubby Notes
It feels like a lifetime ago that my wife Jen and I decided to start a company dedicated to improving the way parents get info about their kids and communicate with their caregivers. After experiencing so much frustration finding and dealing with care for our now 3 year old daughter, we felt there had to be a better way, so we founded Cubby Notes. We found out we were accepted into Alpha Loft’s Accelerate NH program an hour after our son Noah was born, and the next 3 months were a whirlwind. Ending the rewarding, eye opening, and humbling experience was our biggest honor yet, winning Live Free & Start’s Ultimate Connection Challenge, awarding us a sit-down with Governor Hassan and a bunch of hand-picked industry leaders.
And now here we are, 8 months later, with a new focus, a revitalized vision, and more enthusiasm than ever thanks to that one meeting. Live Free and Start opened so many doors for us, but more importantly dusted the cobwebs off our way of thinking and sent us down a path that we believe will change the way parents communicate with their kids’ caregivers.
Our core mission remains the same: Make parents lives better and caregivers’ jobs easier. Thanks to the valuable advice we got in Concord that day, we decided to branch out and create a mobile app for parents and nannies, called Pocket Nanny. It’s an app that streamlines communication between parents and nannies, and much more. Parents and nannies can share photos, communicate in a group messaging thread, and track crucial data about their kids. Its basically a mini social network, focused around your kids, and private to parents and nannies.
The newest feature we added allows parents and nannies to track working hours within the app. Both nannies and parents can add shifts, and the app automatically tallies up how much is owed, how much has been paid, and even calculates overtime for you.
It was an intense half a year of learning how to create mobile applications and jumping through the hoops of getting it in the app store, but we’re happy to announce that it is available and getting rave reviews. We’re so excited for the future, and cannot thank Live Free and Start and the Ultimate Connection Challenge for affording us the confidence, advice, and connections to move forward with our business confidently.
I couldn’t be more optimistic about our future. We’ve received so much feedback from parents about how much our company improves their lives and the lives of their kids, and that’s why we started this company. As long as we are making peoples’ lives better, I know we will succeed.
Check out Cubby Note’s original Innovator of the Week profile here.