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02/27/14 | Uncategorized

My Big Journey: Bringing the Top Activities for Kids Under One Umbrella

A Founder Friday London speaker reminds us that it’s not about the destination, but the journey.

By Yasmine Mahmoudieh (Founder & CEO, myKidsy)

It’s been a great year for our startup. We’ve been featured in The Times and taken one more step to reaching our first round of funding with an amazing team of 12 people working round the clock to bring busy parents top activities for their children. One thing that I’ve learned, it’s not the destination that counts but the journey.

It all started one and a half years ago while I was on holiday in Greece and was looking on the internet to find a yoga class for my then ten-year-old daughter. I could not find anything, and had spent several hours on the internet for two days looking.
 It took me another few hours when I got back to London and started looking at other classes for my children. I then realised that all mothers, especially working mothers or entrepreneurs needed a tool that would help them save time in a very efficient way. This is how myKidsy was born, from the love and patience I have towards my kids I knew that something had to be done.

Time flies by and it’s time for me to sit back and analyse what I have learned from this career detour.

Go for It

You can be anything you want to be. Many people may question why I made a change in my career at this point in my life. With all the uncertainty, stress and fear of outcome that come with a startup, there is always that part that challenges you and brings you one step further to achieving your goals. At the end of the day, it all comes down to looking back at what you’ve achieved so far. It’s about the things you learn, the goals, the people, the journey.

Start Looking for Motivation

I remember when I started with myKidsy, a major boost for me was reading ‘Mummy’ blogs. Having two children of my own, these blogs seemed like the perfect place to start looking for challenges that parents face nowadays. I have found not only amazing stories but an immense source of motivation to help me get started.

Sally Whittle does this extremely well on ‘Who’s the Mummy’. She writes resource-rich, original content about her journey with her daughter. I realise that what motivates me is my vision that one day myKidsy will become the top destination for parents planning their kids activities.

Choose Your Hires Wisely

I did not believe how difficult it would be to get a good developer for the website. Hiring someone to do the job and halfway to the deadline realising that he doesn’t know what he is doing is a big mistake. Then I thought of this amazing idea to plug the UK tech skills gap by teaching kids how to code. I’ve had plenty of support from wonderful people and we’ve managed to create the first-ever after-school class for teaching children how to create Christmas apps.

After a successful year with myKidsy I am looking forward to new challenges, I can’t wait to see what happens next. It’s just like traveling to a new country every day, you don’t know what to expect. The easiest way to be happy is doing things that you love, combine this with vision, passion, motivation and you can achieve anything.

To hear from speakers like Yasmine, register for the next Founder Friday in your city here.

Photo via mykidsy Facebook.

YasmineAbout the guest blogger: Yasmine Mahmoudieh is the founder & CEO of myKidsy, a website that helps parents find & discover fun educational activities for their children. She is a world renowned architect and interior designer.  Follow her on Twitter at @Mahmoudieh_Arch and her startup at @mykidsy.

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