The Evolving Role of Technology in Daily Life

Technology has profoundly reshaped numerous aspects of our lives, frequently through deliberate innovation and the emergence of new technological advancements. Currently, we increasingly depend on collaborative platforms and digital workspaces professionally. However, the impact of technology on our home and family dynamics often appears as an unintended consequence of broader trends, rather than a planned evolution.

Introducing Maple: A Platform for Family Management

Maple, a newly launched startup, intends to address this imbalance. Founded by Michael Perry, a former product director at Shopify and co-founder of Kit (acquired by Shopify in 2016), Maple is positioned as “the family tech platform.” Its core aim is to alleviate the pressures of parenting, enabling parents, relatives, and children to dedicate more quality time to one another.

The startup is rolling out its application on both iPhone and Android, initially onboarding users from a pre-existing waitlist. Having secured $3.5 million in seed funding within its first seven months, Maple demonstrates significant early investor confidence. This funding round was spearheaded by Inspired Capital, with additional participation from Box Group and several angel investors – notably, former Shopify President Harley Finkelstein.

The Vision Behind Maple’s Creation

Perry, alongside his co-founder Mike Taylor, also a Kit co-founder, departed from Shopify to pursue a vision of a platform designed to streamline family life management. This platform integrates a social component, a shared responsibility task list, and a growing service marketplace – mirroring the ecosystem Shopify cultivated for empowering e-commerce businesses. This similarity is intentional, according to Perry.

Inspired by Shopify’s Success

“We anticipate significant inspiration from Shopify in this product’s development,” Perry explained. “We envision ourselves as the back-office infrastructure for every family.” He further stated their goal is to create an app ecosystem encompassing various services that will fundamentally change how parenting is approached.

Core Functionality and Initial Partnerships

Currently, Maple’s central interface for parents is a task list outlining daily responsibilities. Upon initial setup, Maple inquires about typical household duties and utilizes machine learning to generate a personalized schedule for completion. The platform has already established partnerships with three initial service providers.

These partners include Yumi, a food and nutrition brand for infants founded by Evelyn Rusli; Lalo, a direct-to-consumer brand specializing in baby and toddler furniture and gear; and Haus, offering date night packages for parents seeking respite.

Collaboration and Appreciation within the Platform

Maple facilitates requesting assistance with tasks from family members or partner organizations. The platform also encourages positive social interactions, such as expressing gratitude for completed tasks or offering general appreciation. Perry emphasizes the importance of this feature in the product’s design.

Daily Recaps and Positive Reinforcement

“Each day at eight o’clock, we provide a family recap,” Perry described. “This recap displays who completed tasks, how much help was received, and allows users to send ‘Thank you’ messages and express appreciation directly within the app. We aim to foster a dynamic environment that promotes love, appreciation, and makes parenting more rewarding.”

Future Development and Data Privacy

Perry acknowledges that the current iteration of Maple is just the beginning, outlining ambitious plans for the platform’s future. He envisions building a “family graph” – a comprehensive dataset used for intelligent recommendations, advanced machine learning, and providing partners with tools to better serve families.

Addressing privacy concerns, Perry assured that the team will proceed cautiously regarding data sharing with partners, prioritizing user privacy at every stage. He emphasized his personal commitment to privacy as both a father and a husband.

Expanding Access and Addressing Economic Disparities

Currently, partners like Yumi only receive information shared directly by users through their own accounts, with a basic attribution token sent back to Maple upon task completion. Perry’s long-term vision extends beyond these initial partnerships.

He aims to make Maple accessible to families across diverse needs and income levels. He notes that many existing parenting support services are primarily available to higher-income households. Perry’s personal experiences growing up in a financially constrained environment fueled his desire to create a more inclusive solution.

Democratizing Access to Family Support

“There are 125 million households in America, 3 million children born annually, and 30% of households are single-parent families,” Perry stated. “It’s challenging. Many couples work multiple jobs. Technology has consistently aimed to increase accessibility. Shopify, for example, once required substantial investment to launch an online store; now, it can be done for $20 in minutes – an impossibility 20 years ago.”

Maple’s Potential and a New Approach to Parenting

Perry believes Maple can achieve a similar shift in the economics of parenting, creating a network of family services encompassing goods, care, and leisure. The startup plans to eventually enable parents to offer services to one another, generating part-time income and fostering mutual support.

He anticipates that some may question the application of optimization techniques to personal lives, but argues that failing to leverage technology in these areas represents a missed opportunity. “We uniquely believe we’re entering an era where we can create more time for people,” Perry concluded. “Maple’s distinctiveness lies in its focus on creating more time for families to spend together.”

Disclosure: I was employed at Shopify from 2018 to 2019 during Perry’s tenure, although our roles did not involve direct collaboration.