Company: Onoco
Website: https://www.onoco.com/
About Margaret & Onoco
Margaret Zablocka is the CEO of Onoco – a super-app in the parenting space which combines baby trackers, routine planners and developmental milestones in one easy to use and simple app.
The idea for Onoco came to her in 2020, while balancing her role in product management with that of being a parent. She was experiencing the usual hallmarks of raising small children, especially sleep deprivation, and found herself struggling to retain a routine that benefited their needs as well as her own. Add on top of this the fact there was no app or tool that her husband (or, when I returned to work, nanny) could share, they were constantly juggling written lists between them and always having to ask each other when the children had last been fed, napped or changed. The idea for Onoco grew from here!
You’ve probably spotted the significant date of 2020 already – and yes, she started Onoco two months before the lockdown started. This presented a host of unique challenges that quickly had to be remedied to ensure Onoco’s success. To start, their minimum viable product was developed by a fully remote team, which was a huge challenge to overcome while many of them were still acclimatising to only a new way of working but a new way of living too.
There was also a lot of financial insecurity across industries due to Covid-19; Onoco was bootstrapped at the beginning and she knew that they would need funding to fuel growth and ensure they are able to produce innovative solutions. On top of this, Covid-19 also supercharged app development and over 200 new apps were launching every day, making it a noisy space to cut through. With all of this in mind, it was very satisfying to see Onoco as No1 in new parenting apps on Google Play on the day they launched, and for their growth to have continued since then to over 12,000 families!
The challenges never really stop, especially with rapid growth meaning they need to prepare for quick scaling, but this is why she thrives on being an entrepreneur; there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing Onoco take on speed and success, and to be able to celebrate this with the team and the community.
Looking forward, plans for the year include: the roll-out of our premium membership; the addition of Onoco’s AI which will be able to predict the next optimal nap time for little ones (something that would have been a life-saver with my two!); a new funding round for them to be able to continue growing; and the provision of in-app support available from childcare consultants specialising in sleep, nutrition and healthcare to further enable parents and families to feel confident in their child’s development. And after that? The ambition is to be able to provide all the services parents could need in one place. To make their lives a bit easier and ensure they can focus on what matters; their families, their children, and their happiness.
