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Mom Entrepreneur: Ash and Sasha Maurya
Business: CloudFire
Website: www.getcloudfire.com
CloudFire is photo and video sharing for busy parents. Yes, there are already are tons of sharing services but all of them require you to babysit the sharing process which is a hassle. The problems parents really face is not a shortage of options but a shortage of time.
Our solution lets parents share their photos and videos instantly right from their computer. Publishing a photo gallery that used to take hours can now be done in seconds.
What inspired you to start your business?
After our daughter was born, it was important for us to share every day moments with our family and friends. Even though there was no shortage of online sharing sites, there wasn’t one that was everything we wanted. Some required our family and friends to sign up for the service (a big no-no for the non-techies). Others did either photos or videos but not both. And all of them required us to spend our valuable free time reorganizing photos and videos and babysitting the uploads.
We realized that sharing photos and videos was not as easy as it could be. We set a goal of being able to share all 10 gigabytes of our existing photos and videos in under 5 minutes. When we met our goal, CloudFire was born.
How long have you been in business?
Cloudfire was launched earlier this year. The parent company WiredReach has been in business since 2002.
What did you do in your past work life?
I’ve been running WiredReach which is a bootstrapped software company specializing in media sharing.
Prior to that I was in another telecom startup that built voice over ip soft switches.
Describe your ideal workday.
I need to accomplish something every day to get the satisfaction of a complete day. The earlier in the day that happens, the better.
What have been some of your major successes?
Staying in business for 7 years – evolving and growing with it.
What have been some of your major challenges?
You can get more money, more people, but time is the only resource you can’t have more of… Protecting and organizing my time is always a challenge.
Getting the time and attention of others is equally hard these days and quoting Seth Godin: “You have to build something remarkable to stand out”.
On those impossible days, what motivates you to keep going?
Taking a break, visualizing the end goal or big picture (the why), and then determining what is the next small step I need to take.
Do you have a motivational quote?
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
What is your balancing secret in managing a business and family?
Every morning, I set 1-2 must-accomplish goals and try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible. That allows me to leave work behind when I spend time with family.
If there was one piece of advice you could give to your children about running a successful business, what would it be?
Never stop listening – to your customers, to your employees, to yourself.
Do you have a favorite business tool and/or resource?
My blog (http://www.ashmaurya.com) and probably twitter. I have ignored both for way too long and am getting back into it again.
What is next for your business?
Right now we are focused on getting the word out on CloudFire, partnering and building up our user base. We have a ton of ideas and directions we’d like to take the business but one step at a time.
Your two cents sales pitch
CloudFire is photo and video sharing for busy parents.
CloudFire lets you share your photos and videos instantly without having to babysit the sharing process. So you can go back to the more important things in your life.
Try us Free at http://www.getcloudfire.com
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