Five Questions for Famville

Before graduating from WHU’s Part-Time MBA Program in 2021, Dr. Alena Giwojna had already pursued a whole other career. The 34-year-old had earned a PhD in molecular biology, conducted cancer research, and worked to develop life-saving medicines. Her start-up, however, is dedicated to something entirely different: family life. At the end of February, Dr. Giwojna launched Famville, a digital platform that allows users to find family-friendly events and activities, connect with others, set up playdates for their children with others who have similar interests, and ultimately make new friends. She spoke with us about how Famville came to be—and the role her MBA from WHU played in its development.

Alena, you hold a PhD in molecular biology. So where did the idea to develop a family-focused app come from?

I’m a scientist at heart, having earned my PhD in Heidelberg. And I was actually quite successful in my research, but science is a difficult field for women. Only a small percentage of female scientists make it to the top, and the higher we climb, the more administrative work—and the less scientific work—we have. That wasn’t what I wanted for myself. And I also wanted to contribute to society in a more practical and immediate way. And so that is why I changed course and began work at another company developing medicines using AI. But I found I was unable to implement many of my ideas due to my lack of sufficient knowledge of business, and that is what led me to enroll in WHU’s Part-Time MBA Program. That was in 2019.

Was the Part-Time MBA Program what led to your idea for Famville?

If I had not done the MBA Program, Famville would never have come into existence.  During my studies, I started thinking about what would happen if I started my own business. I took all the entrepreneurship courses I could. Then, shortly after, I got pregnant, and so I also had a newborn to look after during the second half of my program. So, I was on this journey of growing both as an entrepreneur and as a mother.

That sounds like a lot…

It really was. Especially because that was in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic had just begun. The whole world was in lockdown at that time. I felt very lonely and isolated in my situation. Being a foreigner, becoming a mother and the first of my friends and classmates with a child—I just did not feel I truly belonged anywhere. And the conversations I had with the other mothers in my life were a bit one-dimensional, as we would mostly just talk about diapers or child rearing. As my child got older, I spent a lot of my time trying to schedule playdates and appointments for us. And trying to figure out where to even go or what to do outside the house. Booking tickets, finding events, checking availability, a text here, a text there. All that information is scattered across the internet, and doing the research is time and effort that nobody sees. And time is the most valuable resource that parents, especially working parents, have. I wanted to simplify and find like-minded people who had similar interests and who could also understand me and what I was going through.

I tried various apps to meet other parents in similar situations. But either the apps did not really work where I was living, or they lacked the features I was looking for. For example, most of the apps did not even incorporate children into their model at all. Some only featured a limited number of family-friendly events. So, I decided to start Famville. To benefit other parents.

How did you get started?

I had a personal budget of €2,000 to set up the company. First, I conducted surveys via Facebook, collecting feedback from 400 millennial parents. I asked: What are the biggest problems you’re having to contend with? How much time do you spend looking for family-friendly activities or organizing playdates? Do you have enough family friends? As it turned out, nearly every participant had the same difficulties. Ninety percent of parents wanted to meet other parents or families but couldn’t and, as a result, were feeling lonely. And not just that. They also had spent a lot of time—up to four hours a week—trying to organize playdates and find activities for their children.

What are you working on at the moment? And what are your goals for Famville?

We are currently optimizing the app and introducing a paywall. At the moment, we are still limited to Düsseldorf, Bonn, and Cologne, but we definitely want to expand into new areas in the near future. And, of course, I would like to earn money from the app at some point. I had secured around €14K from an NRW Gründungsstipendium [North Rhine-Westfalia start-up grant], which I invested in developing our minimum value product (MVP) and validating the initial product to market fitas well as outsourcing the programming and developing of the app’s infrastructure. Since we launched in February, we have logged 400 downloads and 200 active users a month, which is a very good result. Famville now consists of a team of seven volunteers. My aim is for Famville to offer a kind of ecosystem for parents where they can enjoy quality time with their children—offline. I hope that using the app will become commonplace for parents, like how so many people instinctually use Uber when they need a ride.

Thank you for the interview and good luck for the future.