Can you tell us about your team? What do you do?
We are an international team with a diverse set of skills and experience in design, engineering and business. We have a common passion to develop tangible solutions to customer problems and that’s exactly what we are doing in our startup PramBag. Our startup’s mission is to empower parents to explore the world with their baby. We are based in Helsinki, Finland and our first product is a baby stroller, that transforms quickly and easily into a baby-carrying backpack. All while the baby is inside safely and comfortably.
In the industry you are working in, what do you think is the biggest opportunity?
We are aiming to disrupt the baby pram and stroller industry, which hasn’t changed as much as we’d like to believe in the past few decades. There hasn’t been any significant innovations in this field since the invention of the stroller in the 70s. We believe this is the perfect time to change this industry as urbanization is growing, with more and more people in the world living in cities. People are interested in health and wellbeing, and focus on improving their lifestyle. PramBag taps into these opportunities – the importance of which will only grow in the future. It is a big market to be in, and in the recent past there has been a steady increase in the demand for baby products aimed at active modern parents.
What impact can your product make?
With its fast & easy-to-use features, PramBag is targeted towards active young parents in crowded cities who want to experience more convenience and accessibility. It enables them to explore the outdoors while being hands free. Our vision is to create a lifestyle solution with which parents can solve most hassles of parenting and focus on what matters the most: time together and living. We believe that this is a solution to a real problem faced in several countries across the world.
How did you come up with the idea of the product?
Our founder has a passion for travelling. He saw and felt the problem first hand while travelling in several countries across Europe and Asia. Everywhere, parents were not getting the convenience they need to maintain an active lifestyle. In countries like India, the problem is more profound. However, in Europe it exists to a large extent especially in cities like Paris, London and Amsterdam. In Finland, public transport is one of the best in the world and even then, parental mobility problems can be seen everyday with parents travelling in buses and trams.
After encountering the problems, interviews and studies were conducted with parents and we came up with the idea of a lifestyle solution, which gives parents the power to choose what type of product to use when.
In your project, can you describe what was already done?
After identifying and validating the problem in Helsinki, we focused on effective execution. This summer we were in the Summer of Startups accelerator program in Startup Sauna. During this period, we designed, engineered, selected materials and manufactured three prototypes ourselves. This was accompanied by receiving feedback from parents in our focus group. This pace and user-centric approach is unique to this industry which has long product cycles. Our engineering and design expertise goes a long way in innovating novel solutions for this industry.
early prototypeFurther reading
Another interview, with more engineering details, is here.
If you are interested in more lightweight travel strollers – visit this post
For reviews of canvas travel backpacks visit this post.