Photo courtesy of Cecilia Pearson.
Cecilia Pearson founded her company, Babypalooza, in 2005 and is now located in Innovation Depot downtown. She helps new moms and dads connect and learn from and support one another.
The COVID-19 pandemic struck a severe blow to many companies, but one business founded by a Birmingham entrepreneur to help new and expectant moms found a way to pivot and blossom.
Cecilia Pearson founded her company, Babypalooza, in 2005 as a magazine for new and expectant moms. The next year,she shifted gears and held a live event at Brookwood Village featuring vendors of baby products, information and fun activities for the new moms and mothers-to-be.
In 2020, Pearson had 11 expo events scheduled to take place across the Southeast, but the pandemic caused all of them to be canceled.
Instead of packing up and calling it quits, Pearson sped up activation of an app she was already creating and moved the entire business online. Instead of holding live, in-person baby expo events, Babypalooza began offering live-streamed classes, seminars, product demonstrations and activities designed to help new moms and dads connect, learn from and support one another.
Now, everything that was once done in person at the expos is done virtually, including fashion shows and bingo games for baby-related prizes.
Moving everything online has allowed Babypalooza to reach a broader audience, hold more frequent events and draw support from bigger companies eager to reach those new and expectant parents, Pearson said.
Previously, the in-person expos were drawing about 1,500 people on average and up to 5,000 people in larger cities, but now the virtual expos are reaching about 6,300 people per event, Pearson said.
The events were held once a year in cities in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee, now there is a national audience each month, with more people participating from New York, Texas and California than Alabama, she said.
That larger audience has drawn the attention of some of the largest baby product manufacturers, such as Chicco, Thule, Boppy, Medela and Happy Family Organics, to name a few, Pearson said.
“Some of those companies didn’t see enough return on investment to send a representative to an expo in a mid-size Southern city, but they get more bang for their buck by participating virtually with a larger audience,” she said.
Babypalooza’s successful pivot this year earned the company the second-place prize in the national 2021 New Voices + Target Accelerators Pitch Competition put on by the New Voices Foundation and Target. The contest is designed to help women of color entrepreneurs secure the capital they need to grow their businesses.
Babypalooza’s second-place finish came with personalized coaching, mentoring, business skills development and a $15,000 check, which Pearson said will help her as she expands her staff. She recently hired two full-time employees and has about 10 others working on a contract basis.
She sees great potential for additional growth, noting that the California-based BabyCenter website is a $1 billion company. Babypalooza is different in that it is not only informational, but also interactive and relational, building community, she said.
“We want to be the No. 1 place moms go to connect in virtual events,” Pearson said. “We make it easy and fun for moms to get the information they need.”
While expanding with a national monthly event, Babypalooza also this year partnered with several companies to launch a monthly Alabama-specific event — Babypalooza Beginnings — designed to serve Alabama moms who are expecting or had a baby within the past year. Sponsors were Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Alfa Insurance, College Counts Alabama’s 529 Fund and Children’s of Alabama hospital.
Pearson said she plans to expand that idea to have events targeted for other individual states. She also has a goal of offering some type of virtual class every day.
Babypalooza is based at Innovation Depot in downtown Birmingham, which Pearson said is an exciting place to be right now for entrepreneurs. Six companies recently have had major infusions of capital, including one that received more than $1 billion, she said.
“All we’re doing is experimenting and trying to find out what works and what won’t, and when you find out what works, you pour gas on it,” she said.
Innovation Depot is inspiring for Pearson, a Hoover resident.
“The entrepreneurial energy in the Depot is contagious,” she said. “Before, I was in an office in Homewood with just Babypalooza. Here I’m with over 60 other businesses that are focused on growth.”
The Birmingham metro area is becoming a better place for start-ups to find the support they need to grow, she said.
“I am learning that the strength of the network you are in greatly influences your growth trajectory,” she said. “Entrepreneurship is a team sport. Birmingham is growing in its ability to provide the needed resources.”
Pearson will host its first live Babypalooza Baby & Maternity Expo of the year at Innovation Depot on Saturday, Sept. 18.
Parents who attend will be able to try products and gear from such brands as Chicco, Medela and Thule, she said.
To find out more about Babypalooza, go to babypalooza.com.
– Jesse Chambers contributed to this report.
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