I am an engineer by qualification, a product manager by profession, but would better choose to be known as mom to my naughty two year old son, Kabir.
My journey so far- from USA to Lucknow has certainly been the most adventurous, unpredictable but definitely interesting one. A lot changed over the course of the period, however, the one significant factor that altered my way of perceiving things around me is when I embarked on the beautiful journey of motherhood.
To begin with, I never had imagined that I’ll don the role of a mother so soon in my life. Nevertheless, when it happened, I gladly accepted what fate had planned for us, and I couldn’t agree more that it was the best decision of our lives. Well, our fancy plans of a trip to Amsterdam did come to sudden halt, I would unhesitatingly say that it was worth it
During the time of my pregnancy period, while I had the guidance of elders and had a complete to-do and not-to-do list, what I craved for were conversations with girls who were in the same phase of life. To have someone by your side, experiencing the same pain and pleasure as you is definitely a very reassuring feeling, and at times, during that period, that is all that you need.
Now a pregnant-lady’s wish never goes unfulfilled!
One day, at a party, I met a girl who had the same due date as mine. We instantly became very good friends, and started sharing little details, our experiences, answered each other’s questions, clarified doubts, et all. Later, I was added in a whatsapp group of mothers who were expecting. In the due course of time, we all became very good friends, making the journey of motherhood more meaningful, joyful and fulfilling.
Since then, I realised how profoundly these friendships affected my mental state as now I felt I had my tribe to lean back to and seek support. For instance, once I was in dire need of a food processor, and nowhere was it available. To my rescue came my mom’s friends, who instantly got me in contact with a wholesaler of the same. Such incidents recurred time and again, making me realise even more the crucial roles mom friendships play in our lives.
It was this realization that sowed the seeds of the idea of setting up a platform, and I soon discussed with some of my friends, who also had recently acquired motherhood. We realised that there existed no platform that would serve as a bridge between two women, who were on the same stage in life, and wanted to connect. Therefore, to bridge this gap, I decided to create Momly (@themomly)- an app for all the women who are either trying to conceive, who have already conceived and those who have become mothers to make new mom friends living around their area.
It’s been now 6 months since is I started momly with my friend Supriya. We first launched our app (Android and iOS) in March and have so far got 150 active users across different cities in india. Our vision is to make momly your go to friend through motherhood journey. We are constantly improving the app with new features and great user experience. It’s an app by mothers, for mothers.
A few challenges we faced while startup was finding right people to help us on tech and marketing front. Coming from a tech background, building an app was fairly straight forward but what we struggled with most is marketing. Digital marketing is great but it requires constant experimentation to understand your audience and keeping up with the latest trends. We fortunately found a good team of mothers who want to help build the platform with us.
Motherhood is a wonderful journey but what makes it all the more joyous is when you have some amazing mom-friends, cheering for you, supporting you and being there with you when you need them the most.
