I’m not exactly sure how I missed Trixie Tracker‘s launch last month, but the great thing about this blog and PDX Web Innovators is that I’m making some great connections with people here in Portland and this new network is a great place to learn about new things.

Anyway, I mention Trixie Tracker, because I’ve been following Family 2.0 applications like Trixie Tracker, Minti, Amiglia, and Families.com. I’ve had similar ideas in these areas, so it’s been interesting seeing them pop up.

Trixe Tracker attemtps to solve a piece of what I thought was missing in the existing apps; baby tools (tracking, sharing). You probably figured I’m big into tracking, being that’s what NetworthIQ is all about. Trixie Tracker doesn’t take care of it all though, I think there’s still some good opportunities in this area. But, Trixie Tracker appears to be a very useful app focused in on babies eating, sleeping, and you know what else schedules. The graphs and charts look very cool. I think it’s a bit too spendy (personally, I’d consider say a $20 annual subscription), but I respect them for charging off the bat for it. I’ve come to the conclusion (excuse me for stating the obvious) that if you’re going to bootstrap, charging is the best way to go. You may get away with a freemium business model, which is where we’re heading with NetworthIQ, but a pure ad-based revenue model will be a tough climb (NetworthIQ was never intended to be a pure ad-based model, but that’s all we have at the moment).

I enjoyed the launch post, this hits a bit close to home:

“It’s really hard to do anything else when you’re taking care of a baby/child/toddler”

and

“I could reliably count on writing about 3 or 4 lines of code a week.”

I know the feeling well, as idiot me managed to wait until we had a baby to get inspired enough to start building something. The absolute worst. timing. ever.

They even use a pretty similar “Track. Share. ….” slogan I coined for NetworthIQ. Just a coincidence? Who knows, I’m either flattered or know there’s somebody who thinks like I do. Either way is fine with me.

Update

Missed Cingo and MyHomePoint the first time around. Both are trying to provide tools to keep families organized. I’ll have to check these out a little more. For myself, I might really like them as I’m still trying to nail down a calendar app (even though there’s no shortage of them). But I’d have a hard time convincing my wife to keep it updated.

Update 2

TechCrunch has word about another parenting site in the works, Maya’s Mom.

Update 3

JotSpot has released JotSpot Family Site, which looks to be an easy way to get a family web site going, complete with a calendar, blogs, maps, etc. (via MOMB). They make no mention of ‘Wikis’ which is a smart move as I’d guess that a large percentage of people know what one is.

Update 4

A couple new ones to mention:

  • MothersClick – I’ll indulge with a link even though they issued a press release mother’s day weekend when the app isn’t even available yet. I thought that was a bit tacky.
  • Ookles – Billed as Flickr+YouTube+Riya for parents. The current intro page is incredibly annoying though. They’ve got a long way to go.

Update 5

Rachel Cook from Minti has started a blog, family2point0, to track these apps. Look there for new stuff.