My Kidsy : Activities made easy

Interview with Yasmine Mamoudieh, the visionary and ambitious founder of MyKidsy.com, a website with a new and innovative approach in helping parents finding trusted courses for children in their neighborhood and to support children’s creative and intellectual development. This might revolutionise the way most parents look at their children’s extracurricular education.

Just launched in London very recently, mykidsy.com is creating the largest comprehensive digital guide to children’s activities. It helps parents finding the best activities for their children, and it is not only about the typical ballet and piano lessons, but also about new activities and workshops that challenge kids. Think computer programing, scientific experiments, film making, etc. It also helps motivating kids into hobbies and activities that will really distinguish themselves, educate them to become world citizens of the future society. After London, mykidsy plans to launch in all the major cities around the world.

Yasmine Mahmoudieh is a high profile internationally acclaimed designer and interior architect, award-winner for innovative design and architectural concepts for some of the world’s most outstanding luxury hotels, as the Kempinski hotel in Moscow, the Intercontinental in Berchtesgaden, the Radisson Blu hotel in Copenhagen and Berlin. She has also worked on office complexes, shopping centers and private residences worldwide as well as on the interior concept of the Airbus A380 and the first design hotel for disabled people in the world.

How did the idea of mykisdy.com come to you?

I started working on MyKidsy.com since April last year. I was vacationing in Greece and I was looking on the internet to find a yoga class for my then 10 year-old daughter. I could not find anything, and spent several hours on the internet for 2 days.
 It took me another few hours when I got back to London and I started looking at other classes for my children. I realized all mothers, especially working mothers or entrepreneurs needed a tool that would help them save time in a very efficient way.

So mykidsy was born to facilitate the project management of children in today’s life.

 Mykidsy is still in a “launch phase”. What more will be achieved in the next months?

We have already 900 events on the site. Most of them are after school activities, and weekend activities and holiday activities. The structure of the website is clean and easy to navigate, allowing to find all within a few clicks. No clutter, no hours of searching. The site is also very visual which was very important to me, as an architect.

But MyKidsy is much more than just an activity finder. I have the ambition to change the world and help each child to discover their unique talents.

Let’s take the example of coding classes. I believe each child form 6 years onwards should learn how to code. This is the literacy of the future. The important thing however is to teach that in a fun and engaging way that will stimulate the child and make him feel he is not in school, but in a special place that is bringing him extra talents and power.

In that respect I was very happy to meet Alan O’Donohoe from Raspberry Jam, a worldwide respected expert, a thought leader and mentor whose classes are listed in mykidsy.

Further more I will host the first course at Techhub, where I am renting a desk space in Google Campus. Once a week and free of charge, I will have a meeting room where children from 9 years onward will be invited to attend classes. Alan O’Donohoe is a myKidsy advisor and will be helping with the rollout of the coding classes.

Teaching children how to become an entrepreneur is also something I want to develop. I am working on a collaboration with Adam and Matthew Toren who wrote the bestselling book ‘Kidpreneur ‘ in America.

I hope to confirm soon classes with  the British author of “The Enterprising Child”.

I strongly believe in the words of the Toren brothers : “It is never too late but it is never too early!” Children are so eager to learn; they need to be fed at an early age in order to benefit at an older age because it will make life so much easier for them.
 By understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur they will understand the meaning of going to school why the whole learning process is so important. It will lift the theoretical relationship children have towards learning into being engaged and understanding why one has to learn algebra or chemistry or any other abstract subject.

What further ambitions do you have for MyKidsy?

I will develop a section on family travel to make travel with kids more economic and less of a hassle to organize. It will save time and money for parents! Then e-commerce will feature well-edited products and many of them will be linked to the activities: the best musical instrument, judo outfit, tennis racket, etc., and educational apps and cartoons.

What is the most challenging part in this adventure?

To grow quickly and spread this mission of early education in as many countries as possible. To build up a great team of passionate people and to have the best of the best joining in each subject and each area of expertise. And of course finding an angel investor/s in the next 3 months! I am looking for active partners and strategic investors sharing my vision and my interest in education.

What was your best moment so far?

There are many great moments and it’s such an exciting adventure!  The enormous positive and almost overwhelming reaction is very encouraging. There is a proof that there was really a need for a product that would help parents and challenge them and their kids. A need to help children become producers of technology and not only passive consumers which is were we are today.
We need to empower our children to be on top of technology and guide technology, not be guided by it.

Why did you decide to switch from a carrier as an architect to the one of a web entrepreneur?

I was travelling around the world , designing hotels, shopping centers and office buildings in many countries. I realized when my son was 4 that I missed out of many beautiful moments with my daughter because I was constantly away from home. 
I did not want to repeat this and realized my main joy and fulfillment in my life are my kids. I was also so interested by the internet since 2008, when I was ready to launch a company called easydesingservice .com. But the economic crisis came and I was also so busy with many projects around the world that I had to drop it.

I love the idea that one can come up witha concept and spread it over the globe through the web.
Today I am as fascinated by that start-up environment I am part of now as I was when I started at age 26 my own design company in LA. Life is too short to hold on to one passion only!