MVP to ILP: Making a Brighter Future for Our Kids at Hello Wonder

Hey there! It's Seth Raphael, CEO of Hello Wonder. We've hit a big milestone: we're moving from our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to what we like to call our Increasingly Lovable Product (ILP). Fancy terms aside, it just means we're committed to making our product better and better for families.

You've probably heard of MVPs in the startup world - they're about creating the smallest product to gain traction. ILPs are similar but focus on making something users can love from the get-go. Both are about using resources wisely while delivering value.

We're taking it up a notch with our ILP approach. We believe our product will become more lovable to families every day.

We're taking it up a notch with our ILP approach. We believe our product will become more lovable to families every day. The best products often start as products loved by their creators, but that doesn't mean they start out perfect or even fully functional.

Twenty years ago as I was studying educational technology and neural networks in college, I dreamed of an AI system that would help kids discover the joy of learning, help them explore their interests, and address and correct misconceptions. It wasn't even close to being a product then - just a wild dream that wouldn't be possible for two decades.

Fast-forward to now, and we've launched our MVP. For the past eight months, we've been working with a select group of wonderful families who committed to testing our product. They’ve given us priceless feedback, helping us understand what they love, what we could improve, and where our product shines or needs work. We've focused on making something that brings joy to kids while giving parents peace of mind and bringing families closer.

This past month, we’ve been hyper-focused on adding the most-wanted features from our beta families, expanding our offering, and strengthening our product. With our MVP available on the app store, we're celebrating not just our launch but our ability to learn from even more families. From here on out, we'll continue to use our Wonder families' feedback to make our product better and more lovable every single day.

We started with an idea I loved, which then won over the hearts of my co-founders, investors, and finally and finally, actual kid and parent customers who are as passionate about the product as we are. We want to keep growing the circle of people who love our product.

Picture a Venn diagram with circles for what our families want and love, what we can build, and our dream product. Our job is to grow the overlap between these circles daily, making our product increasingly lovable.

Picture a Venn diagram with circles for what our families want and love, what we can build, and our dream product. Our job is to grow the overlap between these circles daily, making our product increasingly lovable. We can do this by expanding what our product can do and by helping our customers imagine new possibilities they hadn't thought of before.

You know that saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” ?Well, our families might not yet know the full potential of how Wonder’s AI could help their families. We're here to listen to them, create with them, and help them dream of a future where tech is undeniably awesome for their kids.

We're working towards a world where tech brings families closer, shows kids new and beautiful ideas, sparks curiosity and kindness, helps with homework, and maybe even pitches in with chores. Parents might not be begging for AI to teach their kids to do the dishes today, but that's exactly the kind of outside-the-screen thinking we're going for.

At Hello Wonder, we're creating an increasingly lovable product daily, bringing more joy to more families while pushing the boundaries of what AI can do for humanity. Want to join our growing community of people discovering the positive impact AI can have on kids' lives? Together, we can dream big and improve, creating a brighter future for the next generation.