Parentool – Any Parent’s Trusted Friend
Parenting is hard business, especially when doing it for the first time. And unfortunately, while there are schools for just about any skill, there are few places to learn how to be a good parent. And how to take care of yourself while doing it, too.
Luckily, Parentool has great plans for Romanian parents and the statistics are only there to show just how much a solution like this is needed. In Romania the parenting market is still in its early stages. Parents are now at the border between communist models and modern trends. This leads to an increased level of confusion about what is best and what to choose. They are confused, lost and in desperate need of quality information.
More than this, 63% of children are still punished physically by parents and Romania is also on the 3rd place in the European Union when it comes to bullying. All the facts presented above can give you a glimpse of the social context. This is where Parentool comes in – to educate parents so we can make changes for a better society with autonomous adults.
Parentool is an online platform and curator of psychoeducational content personalized by using Machine Learning and AI, using information about the parent’s personality and the child’s development phases. It is a prevention tool that helps the parent craft their own parenting style and get the help they need from the specialists on the platform.
Most of the apps on the market focus on the child. Parentool is the only product of this kind that focuses on the parent and personalizes the experience of the user, based on childhood behavioral patterns and child development stages. Moreover, it is the only content curator of parenting topics, while also addressing mental health and raising awareness regarding the importance of medical assistance.
And maybe, most important of all, Parentool was created as result of a personal experience and of a very strong belief that parents have the power to shape the future and make the world a better place. Like most great startups out there, it all started with witnessing the problem directly, as Petruta Tuliga, co-founder and CEO of Parentool explains:
“Everything started with a personal experience and belief that parents are the ones that have to power to change the world. That each and every one of them still has their younger version inside, screaming to be heard, understood and finally receive the love they deserve. We wanted to build a tool to help parents understand more about themselves, their kids and the world they live in. Parentool is our way of contributing to a better world. The world as we see it: kind, empathetic and full of confident parents and happy kids.”
Together with her team of mothers and psychologists, Petruta went through all the highs and lows of managing a fledgling startup, but it was all worth it:
“Although we hit some bumps on the road (and definitely there are many more to come), we are happy with our small successes. First of all, the competitions: from being selected as finalists of Future Makers and Changeneers to being nominated for best newcomer for Startupper of the Year, World Summit and CEE Awards and to winning the prize for Social Impact Award. But besides the prizes and competitions, we are happy that for the past year, we have increased the size of our team: from 2 to 6. Also, we already have some important partnerships with organizations from Romania all ready to go. More than this, we managed to finish the prototype and we run an amazing round of pre-testing the content from the app with great feedback.”
But even more importantly, the main target group responded very positively to the opportunity.
“One of our key learning points since we ve started working for Parentool is the power of asking for help. We were amazed to see how many people are interested in helping. Actually, everything we’ve done so far: from the team, prototype, partnerships, and online presence was done by volunteers from the community.” – explains Petruta.
Overall, we could say the future looks pretty good.
“We already have great plans for 2020, when the main focus will be to develop the app (MVP phase) and work on building a community around Parentool. In the long run, our vision is for Parentool to become the go-to place for all the parents in Romania and across the world.” – says Petruta.
As for other young people thinking about starting their own initiative:
“GO FOR IT! We know it’s scary and that you have so many questions in your head, so many doubts and people around trying to make you give up. But remember, you only have one life and is it up to you how you want to live it. For us, the best way to live it is by trying to make the world a better place. Piece by piece. Every parent at a time. Are you with us?” – concludes Petruta.
