[00:10] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. This is Jami on the Keep 'em Healthy podcast. Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Tyler and Gabrielle Silk, who are two sister in laws that created the Bump Date app. Women, we are not meant to do pregnancy and motherhood alone. The Bump Date app provides you an outlet and a resource to stay connected with your friends and family and celebrate all the milestones of your pregnancies, the birthdays of your children, and also provide resources, recommendations, blogs of stories of people's experiences, and just a way to stay connected in this phase of pregnancy and motherhood. We all know the saying, It takes a village. In this episode, Gab, Tyler, and I really promote reaching out and connecting with people your friends, your family, your neighbors, and to create that community to support you during this phase of pregnancy and motherhood. You really don't realize how important it is until this taken away. And today we're going to hear Gabbs and Tyler's story during the pandemic, where they were isolated when they were pregnant, and that was the moment in time where they couldn't have their husbands come in to their appointments. And so this episode really highlights their journey and how they want to support women now in the future so that they will never feel alone. So, without further ado, let's meet Tyler and Gabrielle. All right, everyone, we're here to welcome Tyler and Gabrielle from the Bump Date app. Girls. Welcome to the Keep Them Healthy podcast.
[01:55] Speaker B: Hi, Jamie. Thank you.
[01:57] Speaker C: Hi, Jamie. We're so happy to be here.
[02:00] Speaker A: I'm excited to get talking with you girls today because today is a special day in my world, just in general, because we welcomed a new baby into our family when my sisters had her third baby boy. And so talking about the Bump Date app and pregnancy and friendship and just love of this whole phase of life, it's an exciting day for me, and I'm so thrilled to line up and have this interview with you guys. Do you guys want to get started about giving us what your story is and what sparked your idea and creation of the Bump Date app?
[02:33] Speaker B: Yeah, this is Gabrielle. I'll jump in. I'll start. And also, congratulations for being an aunt again.
[02:41] Speaker A: Thank you.
[02:42] Speaker B: What number is this for you?
[02:44] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. This is number I believe 14. Yeah, I believe it's 14. Yeah, we got it going on. We got a lot of babies. All right, go ahead.
[02:56] Speaker B: More to love. I'll start off by sharing just the story of Bump Date and kind of how it came to be. So I was working for a tech education software company at the time, and it really taught me the power and impact in solving problems with technology. And at the time, it was, I can't believe I'm saying this now because I don't know where the time goes, but at the time, it was early 2020, and, you know, we were in the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and my friends were all getting pregnant with their first. And I remember thinking to myself how hard it was to keep track of how far along they were in their pregnancies. And it was important to me because we couldn't connect with each other in person and I wanted them to feel special. And I remember specifically a time sitting in the doctor's office by myself and a friend remembered that I was about to enter a scan that I was particularly nervous about, and they just shot me a text message just to say, good luck and I'm thinking of you. And that just meant so much to me, and I wanted to share that feeling with my friends and remember and be there for them too. So fast forward. I give birth to my first son in December 2020, and I dedicate my maternity leave to building out this project and this passion of mine and this idea. And I found a development team and started wire framing the idea and whatnot. And fast forward to bringing in my sister in law into the project, who I'm sure she'll talk more down the line about building community and kind of like her passion and what brought her into the project and building this business with me. But we went live on the App Store last February, so it's been about a year now, and it's just been a wild journey. And it all started with just caring about your friends and celebrating the pregnancies and how far along they are in those little milestones. And it becoming a particularly special thing during the Pandemic because everybody was so isolated and that social support was just more important than ever.
[05:09] Speaker A: It's amazing, actually, what personal experiences and also just as being a mom, like what your experiences with your kids and the pregnancies and all that. Everything changes, all your mindsets and everything changes. And so you're in this moment where you're like, I really could use friends and people and support. And it was during the pandemic in this moment in time that was not a normal moment in time for people. And I love that you took that moment and you're like, well, this is the problem and I'm going to solve it, and I am going to use my tools and the people I know and I'm going to make it work and also take care of a newborn baby. Like high five. Like what?
[05:47] Speaker B: When I say I dedicated my maternity, I also dedicated into raising my nursing him and all of those things too. Don't want him to sound like he was neglected during that period, but yeah, no, I think the pandemic, a lot of really amazing businesses came out of it. And it was a time when we were put in a situation where we had to rise above in a lot of ways and be more independent and strong than ever and I was talking to Tyler about this earlier, and we've kind of become desensitized to needing someone to come with us to doctors appointments or whatever. We just would do it on our own, and it was no big deal, and that was that. So, yeah, it definitely changed our perspective on things.
[06:36] Speaker A: So I do want to circle back onto all the pandemic influences and that, but before we do that, I want to kind of stay on target about the Bump Date app. So how exactly does it work? Who uses it? Is it just for pregnant women? Is it for their family and friends? How do we use it? Can you give us kind of how to and who would for the Apple, please?
[07:03] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So it's free to download on the App Store and Google Play. When you download it, you log on, you enable access to your contacts, which is how it recognizes who you would share this information with and connect with. You create a profile, and you would add if you have an existing pregnancy or if you have existing children with names, date of birth, and you want to share that with your family and friends. You'd add that to your profile, add a picture, and then you'd invite your friends to connect and follow your journey. And people would use it to remember how far along you are in your pregnancy, remember your life events, certain appointments you choose to share when you get notifications on when your friends are entering new trimesters, it would include their baby registry links. And one of our favorite features is you get notifications for birthdays. So for your nieces and nephews birthdays, for your sister's, your friend's birthdays, anybody you follow at the parent level and at the child level, you'd get a notification at 07:00 a.m. That morning that it's their birthday. So you can shoot them a quick text. If you choose to send a gift or however you want to show them love and support, you can do that. I think the Concentric Circle lives around the expectant parent, but who makes up their village? Maybe it's a neighbor coworker or grandmother or an uncle. Everybody's village looks different. So all of those people would live on Bump Date.
[08:41] Speaker A: That's awesome. I love it, and I love that it's free and you just go to the App Store and you can download it, and anyone can download it onto their phones. And it's so interesting because when I think about my village and how much it expands out, you're right. There's people that are old neighbors of mine that keep up with my kids, and so I can see the value in having an easy resource versus making sure you put in your calendar or whatever, however they remember it. God only knows. Their brains are amazing to me in my eyes, because I have five kids. Right, but your village shows up for you. They just do. So I love that this app makes it more efficient and easier for those people who want to show their love. That's it.
[09:22] Speaker C: And I think that a lot of people this is Tyler. Now, I think a lot of people rely on Facebook to keep track of their friend's birthdays, but that doesn't include our children, right? And it means so much when somebody in our village and our support circle remembers our kid's birthday. That's a big deal to us, right? And when they reach out and say, oh, my son's name is river. I know River's birthday is coming up next week. What does he want? Or what's going on? It goes such a long way. And having all of that information, what you said, you have 14 kids in your family right now. You would have all of that right in there and a notification every single time that there's a kid's birthday. So you know for sure you're not going to forget it.
[10:06] Speaker A: Absolutely. And so the other part, and I don't know if you mentioned this, Gabrielle, but you went on a phone call, you talked about how it encourages kind of communication about different baby items that they use or recommendations or to reach out. Can you explain that portion of the app?
[10:25] Speaker B: One of the things I frequently say, and I think it rings true during pregnancy and parenthood and just that particular life phase, is that your friends are your biggest influencers. And what I mean by that is, when we look for advice in pregnancy and early parenthood, we tend to lean on our friends who are in it with us or who we admire, who has done it before. And we go to them for recommendations on anything and everything from lactation to sleep to hospital, bag, checklist, you name it. And bump date helps, remembering and sharing those resources with your community a little easier. So within your profile, you can create lists of first trimester must haves or best gifts, post pregnancy or second birthday gifts for boys or whatever is fresh in your mind for the life phase that you're in right now or lactation must haves if you're nursing. And we all know that there are certain things that just make your life so much easier. And there's also stuff that feels like junk, especially when you've done it five times, you know, like you're seasoned. So it's like when your sister just has a baby and comes to you for advice, she's looking to you as really eliminate all the fluff. Tell me really how to help myself and what I need most. So it's a way to help store your recommendations. Anyone who follows you has visibility into those lists. You can make them public or private to your audience that follows you. And then it's really easy to just share them in whichever way you'd like through the app, which is if you want to text them or email them. It includes the hyperlinks for the resources that you list in there. So that's a section of the app that we believe in and we think will be important to our users is recommending things to each other and figuring out ways to make that easier for people too. Because one of the things that we constantly remind ourselves of is that our user doesn't have a lot of time. So we need to make things easier on them. We need to put information front and center so that they can remember and be thoughtful in the ways that they choose to be. But if it's too difficult, they're not going to do it. So it's important to us to constantly look at ways to make remembering those must have lists easier. Remembering birthdays, remembering the life events, et cetera. So that's the section there on the app that covers it. And then there's also an area that we're developing in the Perks Arena. That's our community's favorite brands and products, partnering with them to offer exclusive discounts and gifts with purchases for our users, just to sweeten any purchases that they do make.
[13:27] Speaker A: So many things I want to talk about from that segment that you just said. So number one, let's start with the friends, our biggest influencers. There is so much information out there. You can go on the Internet and you're like, looking for a baby seat. And I mean, you can spend all day with the different options, right? And there is something to be said about reaching out to a friend that either just had a baby or had multiple babies and you're like, I don't have time and I'm in the brain space. Tell me what to do, tell me what to buy, and I'll do it. Right?
[13:57] Speaker B: You're just like, you're out, you're with.
[13:58] Speaker A: Them, you're exhausted, you're nursing, you're not sleeping, all these things. And I've been there for people in that regard as well. And quite frankly, when I started my journey as a mom, I started on the younger end. And so there wasn't too many resources of friends, basically that could help me or even my sisters at that time. They were still in school and all these things. So I would have loved an app that was an instant connection with maybe if you can make it public like you were saying, some people can. If you're like, I'm a mom of six. This worked from every single one of my kids. I'd be like, oh my God, let's buy five. Let's do it. So I can totally see the value in that. And you trust other women because there is this like, we're all in this together and it's a very vulnerable moment, motherhood right? And so we need each other and we can't deal with all the fluff and all the chaos of all the information. And so this is a really intentional app for this moment, this phase in time of these moms that they need support and they need trusted information. So kudos to you guys on that.
[15:04] Speaker C: I was going to share that. I always say the best thing that I ever did was have a baby four months after Gabrielle because she had to go through all of it first and then tell me what worked and what didn't work. So I always feel like I could come to her with every single question, every single product, and she would say, no, not that Viper Pale, get this one. And it would just completely take the thinking out. So that is something that we know that that's extremely important, and being able to share that with our users and give them that resource was extremely important to us.
[15:36] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, what a gift, right? Yeah, what a gift. And like, sorry, Gab, but you're like.
[15:44] Speaker C: Oh, it's great for me.
[15:45] Speaker A: It's great for me. But let me tell you something. That type of experience continues on as you continue raising your kids. You literally look for the mom that has the kids already in middle school, and when you're ready to dive in to figure out next phases, right? And you go to those moms that have already been through the trenches because you're like, okay, they've lived this, they experienced it, and I trust their take on what I should do because we're terrified as mom at any new face. We're like, we want to do it well. We want to do it right. But who knows, right? So I love that, and I can appreciate Tyler that relationship for sure. I do want to talk about because you guys had babies during the pandemic, and I was done having all of my children before the pandemic hit. And so I would love to hear your experiences and talk about what changes happened during the pandemic for pregnant women and new moms. What was your experience?
[16:43] Speaker C: Obviously, we did not expect our first pregnancies to happen during a pandemic where we were completely removed from our support systems. For me personally, being pregnant and working from home, none of my coworkers ever saw me pregnant. They just saw me from the shoulders up on our Zoom calls. So I didn't have that experience. I didn't have anybody touching my belly. I didn't have anybody seeing me in person. So there's that thing that's kind of like, out of sight, out of mind. It was really just like, one day, maybe I announced on my Instagram that I'm pregnant, and then like, oh, I have a baby. And it's like this black hole of time that we all lived through during the pandemic that kind of robbed us of these milestones and these personal experiences that we expected to have during our first pregnancies. And we went to doctors appointments alone. We had Zoom baby showers, if we had one. Most of the time we didn't. And we really learned to rely on technology to keep us connected to our support systems. And I think that something that we really realize is how important time with people is and how important it is to stay connected. I think the pandemic, that was maybe a silver lining of it that we scheduled Zoom's family holiday parties. We reached out via text or FaceTime, and everybody learned, like, if I want to keep these connections, I really need to rely on technology. Our grandparents were learning how to use Zoom, right? And that's how we were all staying connected. And before the pandemic, I actually worked at a cancer center at a hospital, and that was a really challenging work environment, because there were a lot of people who would come to appointments alone, right. And we always learned, treat all of these patients as if they were your loved one. So we would always go the extra mile to just hopefully peek our head in and say, hey, I see you. Do you need anything? I'm here. I can sit with you. And just acknowledging them, checking on their needs and treating them as if they were our family member made such a difference for them. And in any situation that we're in in our life, I think that that applies, right? Like any situation where you're scared or you're going through something new, having somebody simply reach out and say, I see you. I know that you're going through this difficult time. I know you're sitting here waiting for your appointment with a mask 6ft away from people alone and going through these things for the first time, having people reach out and remember these moments and remember to say, hey, how are you? It made such a difference. And research shows that social support can reduce your risk for postpartum depression or prenatal mental health challenges, and that's kind of like, why we're doing what we're doing, because we want to create that connection. And I would say that's something that we really learned from the pandemic, and why, as Gabriel said, like, I need to share this resource. I need to build this for people, because simply checking in on somebody just can really make such a difference.
[20:01] Speaker A: There's no denying that, especially during motherhood time, that a community is essential. We're really not meant to do this alone. And the pandemic, I mean, I remember I had family members that had babies for the first time during the pandemic, and they couldn't even have access to their own mom. And that just rocked my world, because I remembered how essential that was for me to just look at my baby or look at my belly, feel the baby kicking all the things right? And to not have access to people, that would be feeling I would feel avoid, because I felt a void in the pandemic. And not having babies, I just felt a void. Not having constant access with people and socializing in that way. And so that being said, I love that this app gave that the production of this app gave that another connection, another point of connection for these women because we need it. We are not meant to be a balloon. We need our close relatives that we can trust. We need our sister in laws, our sisters, our friends, our neighbors, anyone, really, because that's how women did it long ago. It wasn't like it was, everyone bring your child into a solitary home. It was like, no. The whole community gathered around and took care of the kids, took on different jobs, and it was not a single person job, which I think is why a lot of moms get overwhelmed and there's a lot of stress and anxiety when entering this phase. So Cuts is a pandemic and the isolation and nobody's involved. And like you're saying, it was like your work didn't even know you were pregnant. You weren't given that moment in time and that recognition, that is huge. Just for all the processes during pregnancy. It's just so interesting in the pandemic and how the isolation, I mean, it affected everybody. But for pregnant women in general, that broke my heart. I was like, that girl needs her mom, man, I can't believe she can't have access to her mom. That just blew my mind.
[21:57] Speaker C: For us. We don't even know what that was like. You're saying that now. And personally, I'm like, my mom didn't come to one appointment, wasn't there when my son was born, and I didn't even see her until five days after, and I was scared to see her. But I think that post pandemic, we're learning to appreciate time and appreciate those moments and always reach out and keep our connection strong because we didn't have that, and we know how important that is. And for me and Gabrielle and we want to share this, we hope that this philosophy is contagious as can be, to say, reach out, check in, send that text. We're trying to provide a tool to make that even easier by getting a notification on your phone that morning saying, Tyler has her 20 week ultrasound today so that people can reach out and send a text. And it just gives you that extra feeling that somebody cares. And it goes such a long way.
[23:00] Speaker B: I think one of the piece on that is and that gave me perspective even before the pandemic. And Jamie, you can relate to this is my sister in law is the military spouse, and she gave birth to my nephew her first while my brother was deployed. So she had experienced that alone factor before. And she was also states and states and miles and miles away from us. She FaceTimed my brother during the birth or right after. And it was again just another reason to emphasize the importance of connection and feeling with somebody who is maybe on the west coast when you're on the east coast and it's something as simple as remembering a particular appointment. Or laughing about the nasty taste of a glucose test right before you're about to go in with someone that you maybe see once a year, but you care deeply about. Goes a really long way, like a whole nother conversation. But fertility has its whole other spotlight that it deserves and the challenges that come along with it. And I think for a lot of individuals who want to become parents by the time that they are in pregnancy and they're expecting a child, those milestones are even that more special. And I think for those that you love and you care deeply about, you want to celebrate those with the people that you care most about. So just two more cents on that topic.
[24:42] Speaker A: I agree on that. Fertility, like you're saying, once they finally do find themselves being pregnant and they're celebrating that they don't want that to go in the back, like, back closet, right? They're like, no, this is like, this is a miracle. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me. And yet you're right, because life is so busy and we have so much in front of our faces sometimes we can forget about if we don't see these people day to day. So let's just say it's your best friend across the coast that you don't get to see because you literally can't get to her, but she just found out. She just went through this fertility process, and you're like, no, I need to remember this. I can't let this go. This is huge, and you should reach out. I mean, we need to keep reaching out to people and not assuming that they don't need you, they're busy. They have to take care of the ability. No, yeah, we are busy, but we also have so many needs that are not being met because we're busy. Right. And one of those needs are social and adult interaction. And so if anything from this episode is to, like, if you're thinking that I would really like to reach out, I don't want to bother them. I know they're taking care of baby reach out. They do want to hear from you. They do need you. We need each other. That is how the world goes round. We need to be each other's villages and then not forget. So I love this app because it just helps you not forget. It's wonderful.
[26:06] Speaker B: Wow. Thanks, Jamie. It was such an honor to do this with you. So fun. I love your whole family, your whole dynamic. I had a ball listening to you and all your sisters on another episode, and you guys are awesome. So thank you so much for having Tyler and I. This is great.
[26:24] Speaker A: Really fast. Before you go, do you want to touch on what's to come with the buddy app, or do you want to touch on that?
[26:31] Speaker B: No, we would love to touch on that.
[26:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[26:34] Speaker B: I think, of course, we hope to impact millions of lives, hundreds of thousands of babies are born every day worldwide. And it's our hope to connect those parents more intimately with their support circles. So there are different ways that we're listening to our users constantly. We're always getting feedback. Certainly in the early stages, we have a little over 4000 users on our app, but we're hoping to grow that and increase those concentric circles of people supporting the pregnant individuals. We're looking to add the option to include bump dates and photos and hard posts, and making it a little bit more visual. Again, making those pieces of the app that take a little longer for people, like adding in particular products, make those a little easier, a little more intuitive, eventually adding some AI to the app so that it can be smarter and we can get from A to B a little quicker. One of the things that we don't anticipate, and you kind of touched on this earlier, is everybody gets bombarded with advertising and all of this information, and it's overwhelming and to the point where you just pick up the phone and call your sister and say, hey, what stroller should I get? Because Google is telling me that I need 20 of them, so I'm just not sure. So we are working hard to figure out how to put intentional, helpful information in front of these communities. So if you're looking for a gift to send your sister who just gave birth, we're giving you a really good idea, recommended by our community of Bump Date instead of inundating you with noise. So, yeah, more fun things ahead for us. Always releasing new features. We're constantly improving the app. There's an area where we care deeply about honoring losses for people one in four. So that's a piece that we care about, but we want to do it right and well, and we've got a lot of homework to do in that area. So Tyler, anything else on the future?
[28:51] Speaker C: I think that we're always thinking about how we're going to expand our community, which are the right brands and people that we want to connect with and help support their brand as well, and share them as a resource with our community. We're always asking for people to write blog posts, share their advice, things that worked well for them, and just expand the resources that we have and that we're able to provide to our community. Even if it's a birth story, even if it's how I work through my marriage after being a parent. We have so many different perspectives and so many different voices, and our dream is that we just continue to grow that as well, so that it's a place where people can come and feel less alone and read a story that will resonate with them and make them feel, I can relate to this. I feel like I'm not alone. And of course, at the end of the day, that's the entire philosophy of Bump. Dates to feel a little bit less alone through all these different experiences. So, yeah, growing our community is definitely a huge one for us as well.
[29:56] Speaker A: I am so excited for that future. You guys, your intention behind this app in being an advocate for community building, and because of that, it increases social health and mental health, and this is everything that the Keep Them Healthy With Jamie podcast is about. And so I'm honored to let people know about you. And also, all my show notes, guys, will be all of these links and information on where to find Bump Date app and then also how you can reach out to Tyler or Gabrielle. So please take a look at those show notes. And girls, thank you so, so much. I love everything that you guys are passionate about, and I'm really looking forward to the future of the Bump Date app. Thanks for being here.
[30:43] Speaker C: Thanks, Jami
[30:44] Speaker B: Thank you.
[30:50] Speaker A: I have to give so much credit to Gabrielle and Tyler Silk to say that they see this problem and they actually use their resources to solve the problem, and not only solve the problem for themselves, but for thousands and millions of women in our world that all have the same social support needs. So please check them out. Find their Bump Date app in the App Store or on Google Play and send it out to your friends and family and start your own process to share in the joys and your life events with your family and friends. And also check out their blogs because your host here, Jamie, is on their blog post this week, and it's my story of my journey to self care after having five babies. So I love what you guys are doing. Gabrielle and Tyler, thank you for being a resource for so many women, and I hope everyone can just be reminded of the value of your community and your social time. And if you don't have that community to give yourself that grace to be like, I can do this. I can go out and I can talk to people. And I promise you, you will sync up with people that align with your parenting styles and align with your values and can share in these moments with you. We all need people. We cannot do this alone, so please don't. This is a moment to celebrate and share, and so I hope that you can all find that social support and fill that social need that you have. Also, please take some time, share this episode with friends and family, maybe, that are in this phase of life that would really benefit from this app and from listening to this podcast. You can follow my podcast on any of the apps that have podcast on them, and I urge you to please share any episode really that resonates with you and your family and friends. So, as I always say, you do, you stay well and keep them healthy.
