Babytime.ie: Your one-stop-shop start-up

Babytime.ie was set up to provide a one-stop-shop for Irish parents on everything from fertility to weaning

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Anthony Zaidan (37) has more than a decade of experience in telecoms – but the arrival of his two children led him down a different path. His start-up, babytime.ie, was set up to provide a one-stop-shop for Irish parents on everything from fertility to weaning, with content specifically designed to include dads.

"Having children gave me the idea. There's a lot of information available online for prospective or new parents but it tends to be biased towards women. When my wife and I had our babies I really noticed it. That's where Babytime.ie comes in – we're aiming for a 50-50 split, with content equally divided between men and women. That balance is not there yet but it will happen as we grow.

"The site has been live since January. I've been completing a digital marketing Masters at Dublin City University at the same time so it's been a huge challenge, but having recently finished the course I'm looking forward to devoting myself full time to my business. Training in digital marketing has been hugely helpful. There are so many things you can do to build your brand online that seem obvious once you start doing them, but to someone unfamiliar with the subject it's a maze.

"Our main revenue stream is advertising. We sell directly to advertisers, who are mostly small businesses, rather than through Google's ad platform; it just worked better for us this way. Securing advertisers has actually proved much easier than I thought, as I don't have a sales background.

"We are developing a retail section which will diversify our revenue source. It's still early days but we started bringing in money earlier than forecasted. We expect to be profitable next year.

"The next step is expansion."