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Name: Neelam Chakrabarty
Business: Yoyochimp, an online marketplace for parent to find activity classes and programs for their children
Industry: Children’s Goods & Services
Location: Fremont, California, U.S.
Reason for starting: As a working mom of two kids, I was always frustrated that I could not easily find good after school activities and summer camps for my kids. I had to spend days and days, browsing, searching, yelping and what not to find, plan and book these classes. It was very time consuming and somewhat of a painful experience. Summer was especially hard! I saw my friends complaining about the same thing and I realized that it was a universal problem that didn’t have a solution. Remembering the saying by Mahatama Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” I decided to build a solution.
Related: Read about another Children Goods and Services entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? Success to me is a sum total of lots of small milestones and accomplishments, each individual one may not mean much but is important as it propels me forward towards the next one.
In terms of company growth, I want to grow my business to be an amazon.com (in scale) of children services, where parents can find anything from diaper service for their little ones to driving school for their teenager. We want to be able to serve kids right from the time they are born to the time they leave the nest. Parenting is hard and I want to make that experience fun and enjoyable for parents. My brand is anything and everything related to happy families and kids.
Biggest Success: Each one looks like your biggest success until you achieve your next one. Until now it has been raising fantastic kids and having a happy family. We work really hard raising families but never realize when we have done a good job. Starting Yoyochimp is my most recent success, until I find my next one.
Related: Read about another mompreneur here.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My top challenge is the same as many other startups – resource constraints. Since I am bootstrapped, funds are very tight and that leads to many other problems such as the lack of access to good talent, marketing, etc. I am a very good hustler, so far I have managed pretty well to find resources for free, either by helping others in exchange or being creative at doing things.
Who is your most important role model? I think that would be my dad. My dad was orphaned at a very young age and he left his small town to move to the big city when he was only 14. He started his own business at a very young age and grew it into a large, successful empire very quickly, despite having no school or college education. People respected him for this grit and determination. I can never become like my dad, but he is definitely an inspiration for all of us.
[box_light]Website www.yoyochimp.com
Twitter www.twitter.com/yoyochimp
Facebook www.facebook/yoyochimp
Tumblr yoyochimp.tumblr.com
Pinterest www.pinterest.com/yoyochimp[/box_light]
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Read about another Children Goods and Services entrepreneur here
Edited by The Story Exchange