Maple Sweetens Parents’ Struggles
It’s no secret that parents are busier than ever — you need only look at a white-boarded weekly timetable of a multiple-kid household, swamped with work, school, sport and other extracurricular activities.
You know, the schedules that don’t include house management, bills and all-important “me-time”!
But today sees the launch of new platform that’s all about assisting parents with that constant juggle.
Founded by former Shopify executive Michael Perry, San Fransisco-based Maple is an AI technology-aided platform that offers households the support systems they need, so that “parents can easily receive and give help to one another, appreciate one another, and experience more of life’s best moments”.
Maple builds daily and weekly personalised plans for parents, and over time, uses machine learning to make smarter recommendations. Its cloud-based system allows parents to sync their plans with others — families can look at each other’s days, and directly take things off each other’s lists — while a database of registered helpers can bridge the gap where needed.
Parents can even buy shopping items directly through Maple’s app through its brand partnerships.
Time is the most precious commodity for modern parents, and also their most scarce resource…
Michael, a product and marketing technology professional who founded the virtual marketing assist Kit prior to being acquired by Shopify in 2016, says the main inspiration for Maple was his son – who was born after a lengthy battle by he and his wife to conceive.
“After becoming a father, my entire view on life shifted 180 degrees. I realized that the most valuable thing in life is experiencing as many moments as possible with your children.
“I wanted to find a way to personally do less of the things on my to-do list—while still crossing them off—and instead experience more moments with my son. That is the service that Maple now provides.”
Michael says Maple, which has already had more than 3,000 parents sign up, is very much a family-first company. He has built a team around this culture, proactively hiring stay-at-home parents and establishing ‘family flexibility hours’ for team members.
“Time is the most precious commodity for modern parents, and also their most scarce resource,” Michael says.
“If we can find a way to give parents more time, I can go to bed at night feeling very satisfied about what we’ve accomplished at Maple.”
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