Kinedu, an app that provides a fun and age-based daily developmental activities to do with your baby from pregnancy through your baby’s first years, is used by more than 3 million families in more than 180 countries. In this interview, we talk with the founder of Kinedu, Luis Garza, about what it’s like starting a business, what is the meaning behind the name Kinedu, why it was important for him to invest in the exact brand match domain name Kinedu.com and what were his branding challenges.

How did you get started with Kinedu in 2013? What made you decide to jump in and create the business?

I founded Kinedu while I was part of Advenio, a corporate childcare chain in Latin America which I cofounded; I grew the company to over 1,500 children taken care of, but unanimously across the cities, we operated in, parents told us they wanted to be more involved in their child’s development. All of them worked full time, so they needed something simple, easy to use, that allows them to understand how their babies are doing, and helps them put that awareness into practice, supporting their babies’ development. And we decided to do just that, through an app!

Can you briefly explain what the features and activities are available in Kinedu?

Kinedu provides parents with an iOS and Android app that personalizes their babies’ development from 0–4 years. On Kinedu, families can understand how children are developing with our Kinedu Skills® model and can provide nurturing games and learning experiences for their babies, personalized to their individual development based upon our insights. Kinedu has a catalog of over 2,000 video-based activities that describe learning experiences that a parent can try out with their babies focused on whole-child development. In addition, we have hundreds of articles and content focused on reducing uncertainty for parents during the first few years. All of our content is available in three languages — English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Why did you ultimately settle on Kinedu as your new brand name? What other names were strong contenders and why were they rejected?

Kinedu represents what we want to do, by joining two keywords: Kinder and education. We’re not just a “parenting” app — we’re an education company, and we want our name to reflect that.

When and how did you get the domain Kinedu.com? What has been the effect of having it for your brand?

Since the beginning. We wanted to have a global domain (not .mx, or .us) to create the global company we had in our minds.

Many app owners don’t think the domain name is important as the apps are on app stores. Why did it matter to you?

It’s our front office — our retail space — in the digital world!

You also own the domain names Kinedu.us, Kinedu.org, and Kinedu.net. What made you decide to keep the domain Kinedu.com as your primary web address?

.com domains are most familiar to users and customers, and we have decided that the most familiar is what we want to share with the world.

How do you ensure that your potential customers trust your brand and what role does your domain name play in maintaining a trustworthy perception of your brand?

It’s essential for users and customers to have a trusted brand name and a trusted domain when thinking about products and services that cater to their needs with respect to their families. We work earnestly on all our assets: social media, app, website — in order to maintain a trustworthy voice that parents like, trust, and respect.

What branding project has challenged you the most so far in your career? What did you learn from these challenges?

We’re currently in the middle of our most complex branding project which involves bringing every asset and product together. The challenge has been around finding a consistent voice- throughout our ecosystem of products- that speaks to all stakeholders (parents, teachers, nannies, and every early childhood professionals). The key, we think, is anchoring ourselves to our core purpose — what do we want to achieve — and that is ultimately to support early childhood development.

What would be your advice to entrepreneurs who are wondering whether to invest in the perfect domain match for their brand?

It’s worth a shot to own the perfect domain. In the digital world, your online address is your brand, your front store. Investing in it means investing in the future.

In the long run, what is the vision for Kinedu?

Kinedu unleashes early childhood development at scale by fostering quality learning experiences at home and at school and everywhere in between. Our products provide relevant stakeholders with the tools and knowledge needed for this and a platform for interacting amongst the most significant dimension in the first few years of life: early childhood development.

The Kinedu ecosystem involves putting all these pieces together in ways that empower every stakeholder to connect amongst them, particularly and ultimately for children. When families look for a learning environment outside of the home such as daycare, they will find high-quality providers in our ecosystem — benefitting parents by saving them time and reducing uncertainty, and educator by providing a constant stream of interesting parents. When parents have developmental questions, they will be able to connect with other stakeholders — other parents, teachers, educators.

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We hope this will be of use to you in the process of getting your perfect domain name. If you have any questions, need any help, or just want to chat with someone about the process, book a free consultation at MarkUpgrade, we are always happy to hear from you.

See more about Kinedu.

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