We're proud to back Joy, which launches today to provide consumers with the essential companion guide for navigating parenthood. Congrats to the team on the $10M seed round!
At Forerunner, we’re big believers in building for enthusiast communities: sets of consumers with a deep, burning passion for a certain element of life, who sweat the details and expect excellence in the support and insights they seek out. Few demographics embody this dynamic more than new parents, who are navigating one of the most profound and all-consuming parts of life — but without much standardized care. We’ve long wanted to invest in the parenting space, but were stuck on the inherently amorphous nature of the parenting journey (as soon as you’re done with one problem, you’re onto a completely new one) — making the lifetime value of customers very challenged. Joy Parenting Club immediately stood out to us for its opportunity to grow with parents throughout the many stages of parenting, being the essential companion guide that brings together specialists, experts, parenting coaches into a single service. Joy’s initial product, Joy on Call, features 24/7 text-based access to a wide range of resources — from feeding and lactation specialists, sleep experts, financial experts and shopping assistants — ready to answer day-to-day questions like finding the best daycare, setting up life insurance, starting solids and sleep training, getting great deals on gear, and more. In the coming years, Joy will expand further down the parenting life cycle to help toddlers, young children and beyond — building on the trusted relationship it forms with parents in the earliest stages. As a mother of two young kids myself, I know firsthand the kind of impact Joy can have. I’ve panicked wondering if my baby was getting enough food, sat for hours on hold with my pediatrician’s office weekend advice nurse, and been up at 2am down the google rabbit hole only to become more worried about an issue I didn’t know that worrying was warranted. I craved an expert source of readily available, empathetic support to help me through these moments with guidance specific to my babies, my family, and my needs. Instead, like so many others, I pieced it together manually — stitching disparate services and referrals from friends in a hurry, and often shelling hundreds for out-of-network specialists over the course of my kids’ earliest years. We are so proud to partner with Alan Charming Chan, Emily Greenberg, Charlie Carpenter and the entire Joy team on the important mission to help people navigate parenting with confidence. Check out http://Joy.co and send it to the parents in your life!