Crystal McGregor, Tech Ready Women’s Program Lead, caught up with founder Brianna MacDonald, founder of The Care Co. The Care Co combines the best of paediatric research with mindfulness activities, in the form of a gamified app that works with young people between the ages of 5-12. The app teaches young people mindfulness and self-regulation skills. 

The idea was a long time in the making–first sparked when Brianna was working in an environment with kids with trauma informed backgrounds–while they were older, it made Brianna think of other ways to do a similar thing digitally, for a younger age group.

Brianna started with a fairly simple idea, with self-made paper sketches and mockups done on Microsoft Word. With Tech Ready Women, Brianna was able to bring her background and experience in entrepreneurship and the product, to create something in the end that was a solution. 

Brianna feels she did not face many challenges in her journey in tech entrepreneurship, especially starting her entrepreneurial journey quite early in life; but she did find it challenging to amalgamate that entrepreneurship experience with an end-product.

Aside from the structured program of Tech Ready Women, Brianna found a sense of camaraderie with other founders and a network during her program–other female founders doing the same thing she was, on similar journeys.

Brianna is about to start a new program for founders who are in the pre-revenue stage tech startups and is excited about meeting peers and being a part of another community, and learning from others’ experiences. Brianna is also excited by the fact that her Advisory Board, a combination of what she values–”good people who are also really good at what they do”–is all female. 

For the Tech Ready Women community, an ask Brianna has is comms related–she’d love a fresh set of eyes and feedback from the community on her pitch deck to ensure it is as clear as possible for everyone across the board. If you would be interested in taking a look and offering some feedback, please reach out to Brianna via her LinkedIn!