Parentree named one of India's 25 Hot Web 2.0 startups, by Dataquest magazine

Parentree (www.parentree.in) today announced that it has been named to Dataquest magazine's India's 25 Hot Web 2.0 Startups list.

Dataquest magazine's editorial team and Indianweb2.com, a startup focusing on the Indian startups market created the list based on publicly available information and essential Web 2.0 criteria like collaboration, user participation, rating, and user-generated content.

Gita Dayal, a Founder of Parentree, said "At Parentree, our focus is on building a community by bringing together the voices and opinions of parents across India to facilitate the easy exchange of information on the practical aspects of parenting. Parentree's selection to the Dataquest list shows the importance of this collective approach and the power of our user community"


http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/online-multimedia/2009052025679.htm

Parentree in The Hindu Business Line

Parentree was featured in The Hindu Business Line today

Parentree in The Hindu Business Line

Originally posted at:
Parentree in The Hindu Business Line

Parentree launches online growth tracking charts for Indian children and babies

For the first time in India, parents can store and track their child's growth online and compare it to the growth standards for height and weight published by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics. The new service was launched on Parentree's website - www.parentree.in.

Surveys have shown that one of the major concerns of Indian parents is how well their babies and children are growing. Previously growth records were maintained on paper and often lost. Measurements also had to be plotted on a paper based growth chart to check if the child was keeping up with the prescribed standards.

Using this new service, parents can store the date of measurement and the height and weight of the child online. As the child grows, additional measurements can be added. This provides an easy and convenient record of growth that can be accessed at any time. The growth tracking charts display the child's height and weight growth over time and also compare those measurements to the published standards.

Shobha Durairajan, a Founder of Parentree, said "For Indian mothers like me who track and monitor their children's growth closely, knowing at the click of a button that their child is keeping up with the growth standards is a very satisfying feeling. We are very excited to bring this new service to Indian parents".

The growth tracking charts for babies (0 to 36 months) and for children (0 to 18 years) can be found on www.parentree.in.

(http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/online-multimedia/2009031121292.htm)


Originally posted at:
Parentree launches online growth tracking charts for Indian children and babies

Parentree - New look

Today, we launched a new look for Parentree.

Why did we change?

To make the site easier to interact with. Our community thrives through parent to parent interaction and the new look makes it easier for you to find and share information.

Here are some significant changes

1. Our front page shows the latest activity in each of our 3 major sections - Journals, Groups and Reviews. Since comments are also part of the dialogue, they are also shown in the Journals section.

2. The Groups page now shows all the discussions across the site. This makes it easier for users to see and comment on discussions across the site. Of course, if you are interested only in particular groups, you will find them listed on the left sidebar of the Groups page and you can click through to them.

3. We have gone to a 3 column layout on most pages. Slim left and right columns flank a wide middle column. The middle column carries the primary content of a page while the left and right carry other information you maybe interested in.

4. My Page has now become a slimmer more relevant cockpit. It shows your inbox messages, what your friends have been up to, new responses in discussions you have participated in etc., all in one page.

5. We have taken our article collections and compacted them along with some of our most popular content, to the sidebars on various pages.

6. We have made Buzz slimmer and more relevant to what has been popular over the last 7 days. And now we are showing all types of content - journals, groups and reviews on the same Buzz page.

There are many more changes on the site, which we are sure you will discover.


Originally posted at:
Parentree - New look

Business World writes about Parentree

BusinessWorld featured an article about Parentree on October 24 2008

Here is the link to the article (http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/Web-Exclusives/Braving-The-Storm.html)

Here is the PDF of the article

Originally posted at:
Business World writes about Parentree

Times of India writes about Parentree

Times of India (Chennai) featured an article about Parentree on Oct 16.

Link to article

PDF of article


Couples start networking online for parenting tips

Kamini Mathai | TNN

Chennai: With all the social networking sites doing the rounds these days, you wouldn’t think that starting a parent networking site would get you listed as one of the hottest startups in the country by TATA NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network). But that’s exactly what happened to Chennai based ex-Silicon Valley techies Sathya Narayanaswamy and his wife Shobha and a few other parents who decided to launch www.parentree.in in August, aiming it to be “a community of involved parents”.

“When we returned to Chennai with our children, we were lost. We had questions on everything from what’s a good playschool to day-trips for children and found that the best and most practical answers we got were from other parents in our son’s class,” says Sathya. “That’s when it struck us — why not share this information with all the parents out there who were also looking for answers?”

For most people, it’s always nice to know there’s another parent out there in your city feeling the same way. Or better still, a parent armed with just the answer you are looking for. That’s where networking with other parents helps. And that’s the niche need area techies with kids are trying to cater to.

Parentree deals with the practical aspects of parenting, focusing on how and where to get things done in the city you live in. The articles are written by parents who have been there, done that. “In fact, one of the founding members is Gita Dayal, who is the moderator of a yahoogroup called Bangalore Parents Group,” adds Sathya.

Another entrant is Yokibu.com, started last December by Chandrasekar Balasubramaniam and Saranathan K, both former employees at McAfee.com. They returned to Chennai with their families after a 10-year stint in the US and felt the need to connect with other parents and schools to ensure they were updated on their children’s activities.

Yokibu, though, is more than a parent networking site; their objective is to bring schools, parents and children together. Yokibu is strict about who gets to join, it’s by invitation only and although it’s free for both schools and parents, you can join only if you have a child. And only after your information has been verified and authenticated.

“Where do you get outfits for fancy dress days in school? Is there anyone in the city who offers French tuition? These are questions that every parent has, especially those who are new to the city,” says Chandrasekar. “This website will connect parents with each other and give them answers.” The site gives parents a constantly updated list of activities, camps and workshops in the city that are relevant to their child’s age group. If the child’s school is part of the network, then everything from the circulars to the activities of the school will be sent to the parent. “The idea is simple,” says Chandrasekar. “Every parent connects with the 30-other parents in his child’s class.” They currently have over 800 members.

Has it been useful? Smitha V, the principal of Sprouts Montessori School in Alwarpet and a Yokibu member, thinks so — thanks to the network she managed to inform all the parents of her school about the sudden holiday declared by the state government on September 15 this year. She found out about it on Sunday night, got on Yokibu and informed all the parents of her school. Similarly, Arul Maniyan, a parent at Aarambh, a playschool in T Nagar, posted a message on Yokibu asking his child’s classmates’ parents what he missed at the PTA meeting. Parents from his child’s class wrote him detailed messages.

Another Chennai-based site, www.yocee.in, attempts to network parents through their children. Says Revathy R, a freelance financial consultant and parent who started the site two years ago: “I found that children liked to talk about events in their schools and the city. Most of the content on my site is written by schoolchildren.” Revathy also has a “student reporters” programme where students get to write for the site.

“But I make sure that parents are present at the meetings so they get to meet each other,” she says. The site lists everything from student achievers to teacher profiles to city events. And if you think parent networking couldn’t get better — Yokibu plans to add immediate absence notification services and online PTA meetings to their site.

kamini.mathai@timesgroup.com



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Times of India writes about Parentree

Economic Times profiles Parentree

The Economic Times (Delhi and Ahmedabad) profiled Parentree on October 13 2008. We are still looking for the online link but here is the text of the article.

HAPPY HOMECOMING

THE MOOD may not be upbeat for those headed home today, but it has been a happy homecoming for many foreign graduates and first generation entrepreneurs who returned to India six to seven years back. They are smiling that they did. When Shashank Verma graduated from Oxford in 2005, he decided it was time for him to give his experience of working on clean projects a practical shape. “Our research on India showed there is a huge potential for clean energy,” he recalls. “We had started when oil was $40-50 per barrel and we knew it was going to go up in a big way and we have been proved right, so has our business decision.” He returned back to India the same year and was joined by two of his colleagues on the project. They launched Regena Star which makes bio-fuel conversion kits to help diesel engines run directly on plant oil. Today, Shashank is visibly happy at what he has achieved. His company has already tied-up with 1,000 farmers who will cultivate oil plants and reached out to companies who are interested in clean technology. It plans to produce oil for captive needs of companies till the time outlets are set up for general consumption.

There are many like Shashank, who have made a quiet success of their homecoming. Nandan Kamath, a Harvard law School Graduate came back and set up a sports management company, GoSports, in 2006 to connect high promising but needy sportsmen and the sponsors.

Similarly, Sathya Narayanaswamy, a Chicago Business School alumni, whose own need helped raise a company catering to young and inexperienced parents — Parentree — provides a platform to share experiences of each other and know everything about parenting.

Increasing numbers of those who chose to return to their motherland are setting up ventures to pursue their dreams of meaningful engagement and helping the society at large. “The need and trigger for such efforts could be varied but one thing is for sure, youngsters today don’t hesitate to take that chance and with better funding scenario, they will surely be better off.” says Laura Parkin, executive director, NEN.

Nandan Kamath’s, always rued the missing connect between sportsmen and sponsors that led many youngsters to quit their sporting careers. And that gave birth to his firm, GoSports. Says Kamath, “As youngsters all of us have played serious sports and we knew the challenges talented athletes face in securing access to funding and highquality services, hence we hoped an initiative in this direction would be a great success.” GoSports helps promising athletes by securing access to training, advisory, monitoring and representation services, sponsorships and other personal development opportunities. The sporting and consequent financial success of the athlete becomes the financial success of the company as the company retains a stake in their future earnings from various sources. GoSport already has a dozen players as its clients and aims to be 3-4 times its own size by the next Olympic.

Similarly, Parentree was also the outcome of a lesson learnt the hard way. Sathya Narayanaswamy, struggled to source the right and authentic information as an young parent. That gave him an idea and he launched Parentree, a site devoted to the practical aspects of parenting in India like reviews of schools and pre-schools, good books, reliable coaching classes and sports camps, good parenting practices, child development focusing on intelligence and parent to parent interaction et al. “It’s an organised approach to tackle those problems,” says Narayanaswamy. “I have gone through it myself and could well understand the need for such a venture.”

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Economic Times profiles Parentree