New App Helps Parents Monitor Children Online And On The Road, Tampa

Megan Hendricks | Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Now there’s an easy way for parents to keep track of their children and monitor their online presence regardless of their technical expertise. The recently launched MamaBear app is the first of its kind to combine location tracking with monitoring of both social network usage and driving speed.

The inspiration for MamaBear came from a conversation co-founder Stuart Kime had with a parent who described keeping up with a child as a fulltime job. The parent company, geoWaggle LLC, had already designed location-based technology through GeoMofo, a customer loyalty app. The social media piece was added, ad MamaBear was born.

“Parents don’t realize the level of importance they should put on social monitoring,” says Robyn Spoto, president of MamaBear and a graduate of the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa. “There are some pretty explicit, open, public things our children have access to.”

The app’s four founders are all parents from the Tampa Bay region. “Our passion for wanting to protect our children became a big commonality, and MamaBear just took off,” says Spoto. “We knew it was going to help other parents.”

Those parents include a single mom of a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old. She uses the app to keep an eye on her children while she’s traveling for work, and a mom with an autistic son who was hesitant to give her son a phone, but now has a level of comfort she didn’t have before.

The app was recently recognized in the “GEW 50” – a list of the 50 most innovative new companies showing high-growth potential competing in the Startup Open during Global Entrepreneurship Week – and was also selected as one of 25 highlighted by CNBC.

The founders credit the connections they made in Tampa Bay with contributing to their success. “There’s talent here,” says Spoto. “To recognize that is really important. Many times we think we need to look outside of our own backyard for talent in the tech development area, but if you look hard enough you’ll be able to find it here.”

Writer: Megan Hendricks
Source: Robyn Spoto, MamaBear

Read more articles by Megan Hendricks.

A Florida native and longtime Tampa Bay resident, Megan Hendricks graduated from the University of South Florida with a master's degree in business administration. She worked at the USF College of Business and has extensive community experience including the Tampa Bay Partnership's Talent Dividend Advisory Board, Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Emerge Tampa Bay, Ekhos, and Bar Camp Tampa. She is a former board member and newsletter editor for Creative Tampa Bay. Megan enjoys telling the stories that make Tampa Bay a unique, diverse cultural experience.