Welcome to the 'Village' of single parents!!! :) Yay!!!
This is going to be awesome and I hope you join us for the ride :)
Hi Everyone,
It’s REALLY good to have you here! :)
My name is Diana and I am the founder of the Village app (at the moment we are potentially thinking of changing the name since there are some 9 other ‘Villages’ on the app store, which means that we are competing with their businesses because our name is the same, ha). I am writing this to you because you have indicated, in some way, that you’d like to more about the app we are building, for single parents, you’d like to help us build it, or you want to get notified of when it will be released. Yay!!! I am super, SUPER, I mean like super excited to have you here and that you want to be part of our little growing family. This is so exciting! I mean truly, it is :).
I think that one of the main reasons that I wanted to start this newsletter, is because I wanted to start engaging with you, our audience, AND, I wanted to give you a window into our world, into the startup world, and what it takes to get an app like this one off the ground, and if you’d like you could come along for the ride with us by receiving and reading our newsletters (which we’ll try to send out once a week at least), by being part of our journey and our progress, and if you like, you could help us shape it by testing it (when it’s ready), giving us your direct feedback, or even being part of our team, if you’d like to help us get it out, in whatever way you can and want (even though at the moment we’re not able to afford to pay people, but soon, hopefully, haha :)).
Today I had this idea that letting our audience in on our progress and letting them see everything, from the beginning to the end, letting them see how much we’ve grown in a short amount of time, is like a person who is overweight and who posts pictures online for their friends to see. Over time, perhaps the next 6 months, this person posts a picture now and then with some updates of what they’ve been doing and how they’ve been feeling and the like, and then at the 6-month mark, the audience gets the last picture, showing them how much this person has changed and how much weight they have lost. So, if you look at this example I just described, I can tell you that we are currently quite overweight, haha. I would say that we’re at least 50 pounds overweight and working on losing weight so that we can get to the best and the healthiest shape of our lives, as a team. You know something funny, as I am writing this thing about losing weight, I, myself, the founder, am actually on a health and weight-loss journey myself. So, perhaps by the time 6-month mark, which for us is February 14th, not only the app will be done, ready, and published, but also me, Diana, will be able to wear a 2 piece bikini and feel very at ease and comfortable in my skin :).
I think I also, personally, wanted to get to know you better and let you get to know me, through these words and letters, so that we can have a personal communication and connection on some level, no matter how many subscribers and readers we get :).
Anyways, I think that at this point I should probably tell you more about the app itself, what it does, and a bit about my story and journey of coming to get it made (still working on this :)).
The focus of the Village app is to VERY MUCH help single parents find other single parents around them, locally, build a community close to them of others going through what they are going through, and help with sharing and finding local resources (recommending parenting, legal, health, mental, organizations, housing, food, finances stuff that is within your community, or your village that you are part of), AND single parents helping one another with various tasks by exchanging favors via Favor Coin concept that we are building within the app - we are doing this so that single parents can help each other with things without having to pay for them, like help with tutoring each others kids, household chores, car help, cooking and groceries, etc. (we are still compiling a list of what those favors should be, and we are VERY open to your guys’ suggestions and input on this, and we will very likely test this concept out within the app very soon :)). So, that’s the app we are building, in a gist. What do you guys think of it? Do you want it? Do you think this will help you? I would really love to hear any kind of feedback and input from each and every one of you :).
As far as my own story, here it goes haha :)).
As I’ve mentioned already, I am a single mum to the MOST AMAZING 4-year old boy Lukas. He is the love and the light of my life; in fact, the reason that I named my son Lukas is because I learned that this name means ‘someone who brings light to you’, and I looked at this as him bringing light into my life. Even when he was just in my belly for a couple of months, I already loved him so much, to the point that I was actually considering if someone else could make better parents for him. I remember thinking to myself at the time that ‘I am living with my parents, I have no job, I have no money at all, and I struggle with mental health and depression. I don’t know if I can give him all that he truly deserves, and someone with more means and more stable health would probably be that much better for him’. I have never, EVER wanted to give my son up - I think that had I done it, it probably would have really broken me, but I was willing to do it if it meant that my son would have a better life and a better future. But, in the end, I didn’t. I think that #1. I just couldn’t do it and lose him, no matter what and no matter the thoughts I was having, and #2. my mother - I told her about my thoughts and my fears, and she told me to not even think about it or go there and that we will do this together, basically. My mother was definitely a very strong supporter of me having my baby. I guess it is funny how excited she was when I told her that I am pregnant, and I wasn’t dating or in a relationship at the time either. I think she was so happy because, well, I was almost 30 at the time, I was never in any kind of very serious or long-lasting relationship (and you usually need those and marriage for a baby to happen), AND I honestly didn’t think I’d ever have kids because of my constantly failing and failed dating experiences that never led to anything very meaningful (expect to me getting really depressed usually).
I will end this newsletter with something else my mother told me, which really changed the way I looked at myself and my pregnancy (and just the way that I started to treat myself after this conversation with her). I remember not too far into my pregnancy I was very, very depressed, lying in bed all day, unable to get out of bed for days, because of a guy that ended things with me because of me finding out that I was pregnant (no, not the biological dad, which is yet another story). I thought I really liked this guy and he liked me too, a lot - I thought, so it hurt a lot when he abandoned me because my pregnancy was too much for him (which in retrospect I do understand, though at the time we actually thought that he was the father, and he still abandoned us). Anyways, as I was lying on my bed in my bedroom, very, very depressed, and this was happening for days by that point, my mother walked into my room and sat down on my bed. She was pretty calm about it, but then she started to talk to me about what I was doing and how it was affecting me and the baby. Basically, my mother said to me,
‘Diana, you cannot keep on doing this to yourself. Whatever you do to yourself and however you behave and treat yourself, is also, directly, affecting the baby. So, right now, your baby is also experiencing the things that you are experiencing and going through, and is this what you want him to feel and go through? The way you eat right now, he is also consuming, and is that the way that I want to treat and feed my baby? Because, in the end, Diana, you are no longer living just for you anymore - this baby, right now, is depending on you, to every extent of the word’.
The conversation that I had with my mother that day and the things she said, completely changed my mindset going forward. It was like even though I was super depressed and it was very difficult for me to love myself, it was impossible for me not to love my baby. However, my baby was literally inside my body, which created quite a dilemma for me, because I couldn’t love my baby fully and the way he deserved, if I still hated or didn’t love me. I had to start loving me, or at least start learning to, if I was going to give my baby everything he deserves. I think that day and all the days to come I came to realize that in order for my son to have a good and happy life, I need to have a good and happy life, AND I need to become the best me I can be so that he can become the best he that he can be, and hopefully be a happy kid along the way, which I think he very much is today, at 4 years old :). In fact, my teammate and my co-founder, Julie, told me the other day (after I shared these experiences and stories with her), that my son is the most well-adjusted, happy, really easy to be around kid, super smart, and just a really good, great boy overall, that she was really happy to babysit when I didn’t have anyone else at the time. Julie - thank you for being there for us when we needed someone and you stepped in :).
I don’t want to go into any more of my story right now, the things that happened to me, what I ended up learning along the way, or the origins of this app, since this letter has been quite lengthy already, to begin with. However, I do promise to continue telling you my son’s and my story in the following letters that find their way to you, my friend, and I really do look forward to hearing from you (I will share more of the way to get in touch with me and my team towards the bottom of this thing :)).
We are also asking for help in building our app, if anyone is interested, and it really doesn’t matter what skill set you have (or you think you don’t have haha), I am welcome to anyone and everyone who does want to help us, truly :). However, the more specific skill sets that we are seeking for right now (after asking my team about this) are these (if you can help us or you know of someone who can?):
Research people of any kind (UX, market research, anything and everything along those lines).
Developer people - app and web :)
Anyone interested in social media stuff - helping us with posting, promoting, content, helping with creating a social media plan and strategy stuff :))
Anything related to marketing and the like :)
Anyone who can help us with paperwork and documentation and excel spreadsheets things, etc. yay!!! :)
UX Architect and Engineering people
Anyone to help us with financial management stuff (we have NO ONE on the team who knows and understand money at all lol… huh).
Anyone who can help us with business, business management, business plan, all the jazz haha :)
Visual designers, UI people, and Illustrators, graphic design etc. yay!!! :) lol :)
Software engineers (my product managers knows more about what that is).
And, I guess teachers and educators too - anyone who could give us workshops and lessons about different things, thus helping us learn and grow (this would be really, really appreciated).
Oh, and maybe anyone who might also know about team management and leadership and the like who could also help us grow and learn
And lastly, anyone who might know about startups, helping us with funding (teach us about crowdfunding, different grants or organizations, investors, etc.), and just getting a totally new business off the ground.
And, maybe someone who would know how to make a really awesome Roadmap thing? - because I think that these aren’t easy, mmm….
Oh, and if anyone wants to support us financially in any way, that is always welcome, hahaha.. :). But for real, lol :).
I also have to say that we do really need help with these things, to help us grow and get there faster, because we will get there, and we do need your help guys. However, right now, I am really not able to pay anyone for their help (I’m sorry!), I just don’t have the money myself. But once we and the app does make money, which WILL happen, I have no problem compensating everyone for their work. I just wanted to say this up-front and how all of us have worked on this so far, as a team ::).
THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS!!! Really, really - thank you!!! This is awesome and I love this, especially if you are still here, reading this - thank you; thank you for still being here and believing is us to have read all the way to the bottom.
If you’d like to get in touch with me about anything, please connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot me a message here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-cepsyte/
You can also get in touch with our co-founder & project manager, Julie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jshannon-design/
And our product manager, Sukaina, here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukainaasmieda/
Please also join us and let’s start a conversation about the life of a single parent via our social media platforms, like our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/JtNFn6E5Np
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vllage.app/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsztNcjOlNSOmqbFWCvAusQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppVllage
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vllage/mycompany/verification/?viewAsMember=true
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vllageapp
And our current website, for now, is here: https://joinvillageapp.com/
If you’d like to contact us via our app’s email, you can do so by writing us via joinvillageapp@gmail.com
Yay!!! :)
And, once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for being here. Thank you!!! You and awesome and amazing and incredible and I truly cannot wait to hear from you guys. Yay!!! This is so awesome, haha :)
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