Former Hootsuite and Yammer Exec Dee Anna McPherson Joins mom.life as Co-founder, President and CMO

SAN FRANCISCO and PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Oct. 18, 2016 -- Mom.life, the app for modern moms, has named Dee Anna McPherson as co-founder, president and CMO.  In this capacity, she is responsible for marketing, sales and business development.  The company also raised an extension to its seed round of financing, bringing total funding to $1.5 million, led by  AltaIR Capital and QD Ventures.  The seed funding, combined with advertising revenue generated in Europe, will be used for product innovation and U.S. market growth.  Mom.life began selling advertising in Europe in Q3 2016 and has a revenue run rate of more than $1 million USD.

Previously, McPherson was vice president of marketing at Hootsuite and Yammer where she helped both companies grow from their early stages to valuations of more than $1 billion. Prior to Yammer, McPherson was a partner at Horn Group, a digital communications agency, where she led the San Francisco office. Before that, she led worldwide public relations for PeopleSoft and was a senior vice president at global PR firms Edelman and Ogilvy.

“Dee Anna’s passion for creating a supportive community of moms combined with her expertise in building category-leading brands and track record in high-growth startups makes her the perfect addition to our team,” said Sergey Shenderov, CEO of mom.life. 

“The opportunity to help build mom.life was one that spoke to my head and my heart. As a mom, I know what a positive impact a supportive group of mom friends can have as you navigate a new life stage,” says McPherson. “From a business perspective, the next revolution in mobile apps is upon us with messaging apps now bigger than social networks. Our mom.life community members spend an average of 59 minutes per day in the app -- that’s higher engagement than you see in Facebook, Instagram and Messenger combined.”

Mom.life was originally launched in 2014 as Preggie, a pregnancy tracker app. As the community grew, it became apparent that moms valued the support of other moms and continued to stay active in the app past childbirth. This led to the decision to re-brand the app to mom.life in June 2016 to better reflect the expanded focus on moms and moms-to-be.

Expanded Team
To bolster its leadership team in the U.S. market, Nicole Hempeck has joined as head of content and social media. Previously, Hempeck worked at BabyCenter and EverydayFamily managing content and social media programs. Before that, she worked as a freelance social media manager, editor and writer.

Mom.life also named Ulli Appelbaum as a strategic adviser focusing on global brand partnerships and advertising product development. Appelbaum, who is currently executive vice president at space150, has had a distinguished career as brand strategist and senior client officer at some of the world’s largest and most prestigious advertising agencies including Leo Burnett and BBDO.   He has led award-winning work for global consumer brands such as Wrigley, Nestle Purina, Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris, Kellogg, Unilever and Hallmark.

About mom.life
Mom.life was founded in 2014 in Europe by the team behind the leading European parenting site, Babyblog.  With more than 700,000 downloads and growing, mom.life is the app for modern moms. Mom.life features a news feed, messaging, dedicated groups for special interests and parenting content.  Mom.life users spend an average of nearly one hour per day in the app. The company is operated by teams in San Francisco, Moscow and Prague with deep tech and business experience. 

Additional Information

Download the mom.life app:  Apple App Store or Google Play App Store

Connect with mom.life in social media:
mom.life blog: https://mom.life/en/blog
mom.life Twitter: @mom_life_app
mom.life Instagram: mom.life.app
Mom.life Pinterest: mom.life

Upcoming mom.life events:
Type-A Parent Conference, Orlando October 27-29
Q&A with Karen Alpert, New York Times best-selling author and  Baby Sideburns blogger on October 20, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. PDT.  See our blog for more information and to register.

Contact
[email protected]