It rained this year at Mamapalooza, so we had a little product left and a lot more shout outs to make. So, yesterday at the Museum Mile Festival in NYC, we tagged along with M.O.M. and shared a lot more information about the Museum of Motherhood’s sponsors, Deb Whitefield and Barry Hanson of GYMBOREE and gave away our friend’s Working Mother Magazine’s Disney Vitamins! We had FUN! Thanks for joining us and thousands of New Yorkers. xo

“A real estate firm dedicated to working exclusively with buyers leaving NYC heading out to the suburbs – Westchester, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey…

“What our firm values is helping each client truly consider all options in the NYC suburbs that make sense for their specific needs, and then to really help them understand what it will be like to live there… to capture the ‘personality’ of the town.”

The Suburban Jungle Realty Group was founded by Alison Bernstein: “Alison Bernstein is the founder of The Suburban Jungle Realty Group, a real estate firm exclusively focused on buyers leaving NYC for the areas many suburbs. The firm conducts business in all towns within commuting distance to Manhattan, covering Westchester, Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey. What is unique about the firm is that each buyer works with a combination of consultants and real estate agents to determine the right fit both for town and home. Ms. Bernstein built the business based on the knowledge that even neighboring towns are very different from one another, and it is very difficult to determine the differences at first glance, looking at statistics or when solely focused on a home search. Many buyers start out asking great questions, but not all of the questions that are pertinent to finding the right suburb.”

• The Suburban Jungle Realty Group’s website
• The Suburban Jungle Realty Group on Facebook
• The Suburban Jungle Realty Group on Twitter

Want to see your business featured in this space? Click here or email mamazinamag@gmail.com!

The first time she walked into a Babies ‘R’ Us, she burst into tears. Allyson Downey recalls what happened: “I looked up at a ten-foot wall of baby bottles and realized how completely unprepared I was for the hundreds of choices I’d have to make for my baby. So when I got home, I started sending emails: what kind of car seat do you have? What diapers do you use? Do I need to be able to collapse an umbrella stroller with one hand? As my inbox flooded with advice from my in-the-trenches friends, I started to feel a little less overwhelmed… and a little bit more ready.”

Allyson remembers thinking, “Isn’t there a web site where moms rate their favorite go-to items for babies?” With more than 4 million first born babies born in the US each year, she thought, “If this doesn’t exist maybe I should create it.” When she told her husband, he thought her idea had enormous potential.

When the couple visited with a college friend and his wife, Melissa, who was on bed rest, pregnant with twins at the time, they shared their idea. And Melissa shared her experience, “I want to be ready for the babies so I’ve been spending countless hours online asking my friends, who are already moms, what I need and which brand.” Melissa’s mom friends would each send a list of their tried and true choices for bottles, wipes, strollers, car seats, carriers, breast pumps, pacifiers and everything else a new mom would need. The three began to see some synergy in what they could do together.

Melissa had worked for American Express in their web site development division and she was facing commuting again after the twins were born. So listening to what Allyson and Jack wanted to create, she wanted to get involved. With Allyson as CFO, and Jack COO, Melissa would be perfect person for web communications.

The team started with a survey of 500 parents who could comment on their favorite products. Coming up with a name, weeSpring, they created a way for users to rate baby products: “love, regret, have, want.” They hired a coder to develop the web site, self-funding their start-up, but quickly got their first investor through word of mouth. Going live in December 2012, validation came almost immediately. “We used Facebook to tap into the mommy network. Everyone wanted to help new moms with advice and our numbers grew to 16,000 users in a month. We knew we had something.”

Moms love to give advice and users can create a profile as well and leave comments. Allyson says, “It’s your friends who will tell you what you shouldn’t buy and what doesn’t work. Being a new parent is expensive enough without buying things you don’t need or that don’t work.”

weeSpring’s first contest, “Want It, Win It,” which offered an Amazon gift card, got hundreds of entries. With a very engaged user base, the team reached out to mommy bloggers dubbing themselves, “The Cliff Notes for Babies.” When asked about a revenue stream, Allyson and Melissa feel that if they get the web experience right, the revenue will come. Whether from ad sales, product placement, previews, gift registry or something else, with their numbers, the possibilities are endless and they are exploring those now.

Having just been chosen by TechStars as one of ten start-up companies (out of 1700 entries) to be a part of the acceleration program this spring, weeSpring is on its way. “This is scary but we have a strong sense of what we want this to become. We plan to stay true to what we believe in.” Seems they are on the right spring board for success.

Contact: weeSpring online

VentureMom Tip

Validate your idea with actual users.

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More about VentureMom.com and Holly Hurd:

Holly Hurd

Holly Hurd has always been at the forefront of entrepreneurism. She began in her teenage years and went on to many different business ventures from a by-mail library of historical investment books, to authoring a book on trading, to a post card advertising pack, and even a line of glass furniture.

Hurd’s father taught her to trade commodities and futures when she was in her teens, and she started her first investment company in her twenties. Early on, she was ranked as a top-ten trader in several national trading championships, and when she was only twenty-five, she was featured in Futures Magazine, USA Today and in Fortune’s “People to Watch” column for her exceptional work managing her own futures fund.

In the 80’s and 90’s she ran her investment firm starting in Boston and then New York, finally selling in 2002. Not getting out of the investment world completely, she currently helps to oversee a small futures fund.

Her most recent venture though – one that she is the most passionate about – is VentureMom.com, a website she created to help moms get ideas and inspiration to start their own business ventures. And VentureMom.com has an on line store to showcase the mom products and services she features, offering followers discounts and bonuses.

Since founding VentureMom.com, Holly has become a sought-after expert in the field of entrepreneurism. She recently spoke at the Women and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Conference in New York City, numerous CT venues, and has been featured in the New Canaan/Darien Magazine.

She has put her exciting life experiences to excellent use by creating VentureMom.com – a virtual community that gives ideas and inspiration by spotlighting moms who have started a venture often times out of thin air. Holly has interviewed hundreds of “venturemoms” and is a master at helping mothers figure out what they want to do and showing them how they can turn a passion into a money-making business.

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The Museum of Motherhood sponsors the MamaBlogger365 project across the M.O.M. blog, Mamapalooza, and Mamazina. Visit us New York City for art exhibits, play space, moms groups, Meet the Expert series, special events and performances, and more! More info and hours at MOMmuseum.org.

Here’s more about Zipcar:

“Car sharing seems like a simple enough idea, but there’s a reason that Zipcar has become the leader for cars on demand—we took a simple concept to new heights. It’s not just about fewer cars, less congestion and less pollution (though we’re not complaining), it’s about understanding why those things are a problem, and finding sustainable solutions. We’re idea people acknowledging that this is something bigger than all of us, something that can take over the world (literally) if we’re smart about it. And it’s not just a theory. We have the industry’s gold standard service, allowing our members 24/7 access to thousands of cars around the globe. We’re working daily to take things to the next level, and we’re not slowing down anytime soon.”

Learn more at http://www.zipcar.com.

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