April 9, 2018
Pittsburgh, PA - C.C. Busy, a startup bringing voice-activated apps to early care and education, started work today with AlphaLab, the nationally ranked software accelerator. Co-Founders Shimira Williams and Greg Quinlan will work to bring the power of voice to family child care providers, helping them engage parents and comply with state regulations.
C.C. Busy replaces a handwritten sheet of a child’s activity with a secure voice-powered mobile log. At the family child care home, the provider dictates the child’s activities, including arrival, naps, diapering, meals and snacks, and other activities by voice to the digital assistant. Parents access the secure log at any time via a mobile app that immediately details the child’s daily progress. C.C. Busy strengthens the relationship between parent and provider by delivering key information seamlessly.
Shimira Williams, known in the Pittsburgh region for her unique work at the intersection of early childhood and technology, has created a professional development course "Introduction to Digital Assistants" for early childhood care and education providers. The course aims to familiarize providers with this exciting new technology, both as an educational resource and business tool. She's also developing a day-long training to help Pennsylvania providers use technology to increase the quality of the care in their family child care homes, helping providers to increase the amount they can charge for care. Shimira will use her experience in the field to guide the development of the voice-activated apps.
Greg Quinlan, known best in Pittsburgh for his past leadership roles at Focus On Renewal and City Theatre, will develop the apps and guide the strategy and fundraising for C.C. Busy. When his family relocated, Greg saw a great opportunity to pivot away from nonprofit leadership and into software development. At Shimira's recommendation, Greg obtained a Full Stack Development Nanodegree from the online educator Udacity and then pursued freelance projects as his family returned to Pittsburgh. When he shared a digital assistant project on social media, Shimira identified the potential of the tech for her field. Together they started collaborating on C.C. Busy. Greg now develops the app in Python and AngularJS as an Amazon Alexa Skill. The two plan future development with Actions on Google, which was the first to offer Spanish to third-party developers.
The C.C. Busy team plans to use its time at AlphaLab to commence initial testing in family child care homes, release an initial offering in the Pittsburgh market, and then launch throughout Pennsylvania. Applications are now available at www.ccbusy.com for Pittsburgh-based providers wanting to serve as beta testers. Providers interested in Ms. Williams' trainings can also sign up for information at the website. For more information about how AlphaLab helps early stage companies like C.C. Busy, visit their website at www.alphalab.org.