Can today’s startups help parents raise happy, healthy, independent adults?
By Ben Shor
We believe the anxieties of modern parenting are powerful and pervasive. Parents today spend twice as much time with their children as 50 years ago and 4 in 10 describe themselves as “overprotective.” Many wonder, are they doing enough? What are the exact products to best help their children learn and grow? Their children are exposed to online content like never before, and those parents are inundated with sprawling advice from self-styled experts on social media.
As thematic investors, we spend considerable time researching and developing viewpoints on how technology enables shifts in consumer behavior and vice versa. Technology for parents ranges from multi-billion dollar corporations to early-stage startups, and the proliferation of parenting tools can leave parents wondering how to ensure their child’s success.
In this article, we explore the growing field of FamilyTech and the ways we believe startups can play a productive role—enriched by my own recent experience as a new parent. I’ll touch on 4 consumer trends that have caught our eye 1) the influencer mom-economy, 2) screen time, 3) the promise of EdTech and 4) … AI parenting?
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Ben worked on M&A transactions across a range of consumer verticals. Ben previously spent two years in the military before attending Columbia University where he studied economics and business management. He’s the proud father of two young children.
The influencer mom-economy
Today, parents are exposed to a great deal of “influence.” Many seek advice from friends and family who nudge them into the parental blogger vortex, much of it via social media platforms, which quickly figure out their new status. (The CDC says social media is now a leading source of parenting advice.)
It’s difficult to sort through all this advice, and parents’ decisions are complicated by online comparison—they often see what others purchase. Most new parents today are digital natives: 80% with children under 12 are millennials and a large majority of moms in that demographic say it’s important to be “the perfect mom,” a higher rate than among Gen X parents. How are these unusually driven, uniquely digitally connected parents using technology to manage that journey?
Some call this the “mom economy” and estimate it generates a staggering $46 billion across everything from homes to education, toys, media, and more. A family can spend anywhere from $10,000-$20,000 per year on their newborn – we view this as a major market, making this a unique opportunity for startups to cement enduring, early relationships with parents.
Screen time may look like a disaster, but perhaps it’s controllable
How can startups support children, given how much of life has moved onto screens? Screen time is often depicted as the opposite of “green time,” or time outside and tactile play. High levels of screen time are associated with…
- Slower language development – National Library of Medicine
- Interrupted social and emotional growth – National Library of Medicine
- Eating disorders – IJED
- Depression and anxiety – National Library of Medicine
- Poorer executive functioning and academic performance – NIH
…to name a few. Many of the papers cited recommend imposing parental controls—both as a feature and by removing devices from children’s reach—but this strikes me as unrealistic because we adults are subject to the same allure. We can find screens everywhere from entertainment tablets at restaurants to schools. Eighty-one percent of primary schools in the U.S. used computers in the classroom before the pandemic, and devices are so integral to learning that 45% of schools say they provide home internet for children who don’t have it.
What can parents do? One way is to help parents distinguish between passive and interactive screen time. Are children watching or problem-solving? Engaging intentionally or incidentally? Some studies suggest that educational apps that prompt children to engage increase persistence, reading skills, and creativity.
Startups have a role to play in creating the next wave of educational content that nonetheless engages and entertains children in constructive ways.
Could kids’ content better stimulate engagement?
Animated children’s content is the leviathan you’ve never heard of until you have children or know people who do. Eight of the 10 top-grossing franchises of all time are largely animated, a Blackstone-backed firm purchased the maker of the hit show Cocomelon for $3 billion, and children’s content programs took 2 of the top 5 spots in 2023 Nielsen viewership last year.
As a parent, I find too much of this content mindless; my son could watch it forever and gain little. I think parents may prefer to direct their kids toward more immersive experiences or co-viewing. I believe there can be a parallel between what Pixar did for animated movies with cheeky references for adults and what educational media startups could do for today’s parents whose children are watching on tablets. Similarly, what choose-your-own-adventure books did to help kids see themselves in the story, I similarly believe AI-powered startups could now do for kids at scale, visually, and much more immersively. This tracks with a growing desire for personalized media with diverse representation—84% of millennial parents prefer diverse casts in children’s entertainment.
At the same time, AI can introduce safety concerns we cannot overlook. AI hallucinates, and may invent scenarios where “viewer discretion is advised”, which is increasingly concerning when children are in the picture. Startups in this space face the challenge of strict compliance with regulations such as COPPA, but these are protections parents (like me) are likely glad to have.
AI can help adapt and personalize educational content
As parents, we want to provide our children with the best possible resources for success. When a student receives one-on-one instruction, their performance can potentially leap significantly. We see generative AI disrupting and supercharging the $250 billion children’s learning market.
In the early 2000s, a generation of edtech startups launched to help children learn by digitizing content and developing flexible learning pathways. Unfortunately, we believe many of these platforms featured workflows that relied on teachers inputting content and adjusting curriculum. These software systems couldn’t help teachers who were already spread too thin, and we are skeptical they have collectively done enough to improve student outcomes, which by NAEP metrics have largely stalled since 2012.
Source: NAEP, Point72 Ventures research
It is possible that generative AI can finally fulfill the promise of edtech. Focused AI applications, in our opinion, will help modulate the order, delivery, and pace of learning materials for each student in a way that’s adaptive and helpful, while aiding teachers at scale across disciplines—in math, reading, writing, language, music, and more. Perhaps AI can and will supply a personalized tutor to every child who needs one.
Can AI help us co-parent?
One of the more prevalent anxieties I experience as a parent is ensuring my child is developing at the same rate as others. I tend to think this is unique from prior generations of parents, in part because we now have access to much more data: parents I know panic if their child doesn’t roll over by eight months, frequently scanning reddit posts and blogs to find others in the same boat. I find this anxiety is heightened by the fact that much of the information online is often written by companies selling products and not necessarily professionals or academics. Sometimes, however, having this data on our children can be useful.
For example, our baby monitor helped us discover that my son preferred sleeping with his head tilted to the left side. When we consulted the pediatrician, they diagnosed him with a slight case of torticollis—a condition where stiff neck muscles cause the head to lean to one side. Left untreated, torticollis can cause the skull to solidify unevenly, and my son would have to wear a helmet for 23 hours a day – never fun for a 6-month old. We were able to do daily exercises to fix this issue within a few months.
An industry is developing around building insights and providing advice like this. Companies may act as quasi copilots for parents, answering questions about the noises they hear or the causes of spitting up. Can technology summarize all that wisdom for scenarios that don’t quite justify a hospital visit, and make it available to all parents?
The future of FamilyTech
As we think about FamilyTech as a subset of the consumer market and population, we’re not just looking at what the tech can accomplish, but at what we believe are large shifts in consumer behaviors. What do people want? How are younger generations thinking about being a parent? How can companies best support parents in this journey? At Point72 Ventures, we’re engrossed in this topic and if you’re a mission-driven founder or researcher in this space, we’d love to hear from you.