App Created by Cary Father Helps Parents Streamline Kids’ Activities
Cary, NC – After dealing with frustration when planning and paying for his children’s activities and classes, one Cary parent created an app to help streamline the process for himself and other parents.
Making It Easier
Amit Pradhan created the app KidCircle to, among other things, give users a central place to pay for and schedule activities for their children for camps, lessons and more. This all started when Pradhan saw his wife try and sign their son up for an activity.
“Observing her, it took an hour to book and pay for it. There was no central place to manage all of these activities so it triggered the idea for a marketplace for activity providers,” Pradhan said.
With KidCircle, Pradhan said this streamlines the process for parents and guardians and as he created the app, he looked for the places where most time is spent.
“When signing up our kids, most of the information we have to put in is repeated: their name, their address, their grade, their medical information. The app retains that information so it can be shared quickly. It also reminds the parents when a new year starts and asks them to renew or update information,” Pradhan said. “It also streamlines the payment processing, using the latest technology, and it doesn’t store the credit card number. There’s no sharing over the phone.”
This information is also stored directly to the mobile device and not online or in a “cloud,” Pradhan said, so people can always have access to the app’s important information about their children even when there is not an internet connection.
“Those problems should not get in the way when it comes to our kids,” Pradhan said.
There are also safety features included in KidCircle so authorized people can check in with the activity or business when picking up their child. As Pradhan put it, this means the activity providers can always make sure the correct person is taking home the children.
Working with Businesses
When KidCircle started its development, Pradhan said he met with local activity providers to get their input on what the app should include.
“After those talks, we developed and then rolled out KidCircle and it has been a great experience,” Pradhan said. “The good thing is, there are lots of things to do in the area so there are lots of opportunities to use KidCircle.”
As Pradhan continues to talk with businesses and activity providers, KidCircle will be rolling out new features at the end of September with features for businesses such as control over their website maintenance including sample website domains and a place to securely post photos so parents and guardians can see the facilities for themselves and check in on the process.
Other new features include integration with Google Home and Amazon Alexa as well as an interactive chat feature.
“That helps with concerns or questions that a parent may bring up on a daily basis,” Pradhan said.
He is also working on putting a system in place so parents can see what programs their children’s friends are signing up for so they can try and stick with their friends.
“It’s a feature that differentiates us from just being another mobile platform,” Pradhan said.
Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of KidCircle.
