From planning a kid-friendly vacation to finding a local playground, new startup ZuZu For Kids makes exploring family-friendly activities quick and simple.
ZuZu’s mission is to “bring kids and families together to enjoy family time,” according to Zachary Potter, co-founder and CEO of ZuZu For Kids.
Potter began his Raleigh-based startup from his grievances with family planning in the past few years. Potter found that before ZuZu, advertised activities were limited to adults and teenagers, and he struggled to find fun and affordable opportunities for his family.
Although there are sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor, “there’s never been a site just honed in on kids and kids activities,” said marketing coordinator Viviane Edwards, a fourth-year studying business administration and marketing.
To conquer this issue, Potter and his co-founders, Mandi Biondi and David Fine, assembled a website directory of kids and family activities for any location in the U.S. and Canada. The team has worked for two and a half years collecting data for the January 2022 launch of ZuZuForKids.com.
Edwards joined the team in November 2021 in the early stages of data collection. Her career goals along with her babysitting experience led her to ZuZu For Kids to help market parent-child bonding.
“Whenever you have a community and a goal focused on bringing something good in a world where you don’t have to read the fine print, it’s awesome to watch it grow and take off,” Edwards said.
ZuZu focuses on all the details of an activity like age range, distance to a central location, community feedback and more to find the exact experience a family desires so they’ll continually utilize the site as a vital resource for family planning.
“It doesn’t have to be hard to have these experiences or make your kids eager to do something,” Edwards said.
Plus, ZuZu is completely free to use. Potter knows from experience how aggravating it can be to find kids’ activities so he wanted to make it accessible to the public.
Since its launch, ZuZu has proven to be a key resource for many parents in need of finding parent-child bonding activities. As of July 2022, ZuZu reported traction with over 1,000 new users each week. Additionally, with its roots in Raleigh, local users constitute 60% of the website’s traction.
ZuZu goes beyond the original intentions of showcasing kid-friendly activities by also offering parents the opportunity to plan itineraries and find pre-existing trips. The website has also evolved into a social media platform with the opportunity for parents to post about their experiences and connect with others “so they don’t feel totally alone in a parenting world,” Edwards said.
Not only is ZuZu positively impacting the community by bringing families together for new and exciting experiences, but it’s also impacting local businesses by drawing in more customers.
Even though Potter enjoyed starting up the site, going through the entrepreneurial process was a big learning curve. He and his team of NC State students and graduates had to learn to solve problems they didn’t foresee.
Fortunately for Potter, ZuZu was accepted in NC State’s 2022 Andrews Launch Accelerator, which aims to turn NC State founders’ visions into reality. Potter was extremely grateful for the program and found it to be very beneficial in filling the gaps that were missing, like connections, resources, stipends and more.
ZuZu’s team is largely made up of NC State students and graduates, which has been great for Potter to bounce ideas off of and work with as well.
“Since it’s a startup we all kind of wear different hats at different times,” Edwards said.
Additionally, she said the tight-knit group and community that has been made from the site has been cool to see. She has seen many people come in and provide knowledge and support where ZuZu For Kids needed it from the NC State Accelerator program.
Potter has worked diligently to start up the website and his next goal is to transition to marketing.
“We feel like we have our product together and so now we are moving to the new phase, which is letting people know that the product exists,” Potter said.
ZuZu For Kids exemplifies the potential for connecting with and feeding off of the community to create mutually beneficial opportunities for everyone. Potter and his team excelled in their startup by enhancing parent-child bonding, while also bringing traction to some lesser-known children’s activities.
Head to the ZuZu For Kids website and check out the search-by-location feature to see several top-rated activities in Raleigh, including museums, parks and more.
