Can you imagine the frustration new parents experience when considering what baby gear to purchase? A frustration that is certainly not alleviated by going to the usual retailers such as buybuy Baby or Babies “R” Us, but rather exacerbated by their litany of options. weeSpring is a social shopping network for expecting and new parents. It allows expecting parents to view and share product reviews with their friends, through a rating system of love, regret, have or want. By centralizing the advice and exchange process through a social platform, weeSpring personalizes the baby gear checklist and facilitates a more confident purchasing decision.
Over the past few weeks, InSITE fellows David Benhamou, Joshua Leddy, Marije van Mens, Cindy Puente and Leanne Ta had the privilege of working with weeSpring founders Allyson and Jack Downey. The InSITE fellows helped refine weeSpring’s pitch deck for its first round of seed funding. Specifically they helped research the market size, revenue models and brainstorm user acquisition channels. Over the course of the semester, these topics were discussed during weekly meetings.
The InSITE fellows presented the revised weeSpring deck to venture capitalist Robert Greene, managing partner at Contour Venture Partners. Mr. Greene provided valuable advice on the deck for the entrepreneurs. As well highly interesting for the InSITE fellows, Mr. Greene expanded on several important topics, such as the vibrancy of the startup community in NYC and the defining aspects of entrepreneurs and startups that he uses to guide his investment decisions.
weeSpring has strategically poised itself in an accelerator programs. In fact, it is currently a semi-finalist in NYU Stern’s $200K Entrepreneurs Challenge. This opportunity will help weeSpring further refine its business model and reach its funding goals. As weeSpring moves along the startup ladder, the InSITE fellows feel privileged knowing that they were part of its journey, if only for a little while.
This post was written by Cindy Puente, PhD 2015 Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
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