Startup Little Hoots working with Today Show, Huffington Post
June 4, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Kansas City-based Little Hoots has scored two high-profile partnerships that are scoring its memory-saving app thousands of additional downloads.
The tech firm is working with the Today Show and the Huffington Post to provide snippets from its 
memory-keeping platform that captures youngsters’ memorable quotations to share with friends and family.
“Whenever they publish one of these Little Hoots articles we see anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 new downloads,” Little Hoots CEO Lacey Ellis said of Huffington Post and the Today Show. “It’s been great for awareness.”
Now available on iOS platforms, the Little Hoots app allows parents to memorialize their kiddos’ quotes, create a “memory tile” for it and then share the comment on Facebook or Instagram. More than 31,000 people have downloaded the app, Ellis said, and family members create up to 500 tiles per day on the platform.
The Today Show most recently featured Little Hoots, sharing such quotations as “Mom, my teeth were born to eat candy,” and “I wish I didn’t have to be born by you guys hugging naked.” Ellis said that Huffington Post Parents will sporadically display Little Hoots’ quotes in blog posts and other feature pieces.
The Little Hoots team is now raising funds to launch an Android version of its app, but it’s already encountering some local hurdles, Ellis said. She said that there’s a gap in Kansas City for the type of investment — seed capital — that Little Hoots needs to grow. The challenges are forcing the company to look for funds outside the Kansas City area.
“We’ve already made connections in Silicon Valley because the people we’ve talked to there seem to understand what we’re doing,” Ellis said. “They’re not as focused on revenue, but rather how we’re getting users and responding to a problem. They can see that vision more than anyone we’ve talked to (in Kansas City,) which is unfortunate because we really want it to be a Kansas City story.”
To learn more on Little Hoots, check out its platform here.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
How one veteran’s early struggles with soft skills inspired tech to boost a new generation
Editor’s note: The following story was produced through a paid partnership with MOSourceLink, which boasts a mission to help entrepreneurs and small businesses across the state of Missouri grow and succeed by providing free, easy access to the help they need — when they need it. ST. LOUIS — Gavin Pringle knows firsthand the struggles…
Accessibility platform AskSAMIE expands to 500+ partners thanks to national homecare deals
A pair of significant new partnerships not only allow Kansas City-based AskSAMIE to expand its national reach, said Dr. Brandy Archie; the deals put her startup a pivotal moment in its mission to deliver on-demand support to seniors and their caregivers. Working with homecare organizations ComForCare/At Your Side and CarePatrol will push AskSAMIE — a…
Stripping Missouri’s supplier diversity goals stifles state’s prosperity potential, says women’s business advocate
Ending nearly a decade of benchmarks that helped ensure greater equity in state contracts for businesses owned by minorities and women is a move in the wrong direction for Missouri, said Jennifer Brungardt, emphasizing the coming impact of lost opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs. “Diversity and economic growth will be stifled without proper support from our…
Capital connector’s message to women: Your investor pool isn’t just sharks; dive in and learn to swim
When it comes to navigating the waters of capital and equity, Women’s Capital Connection angel investment network and the Women’s Business Center serve as a guide to both entrepreneurs and investors, Kelly Sievers shared. “All the education that we do and all the connections that we make, I would say that’s really the key,” explained…