Caribu is a reading app designed to foster long-distance relationships, by allowing a child and a parent to see each other through a live video stream while reading a children’s book together. The app syncs everything, making sure that family members are all literally on the same page, and even offers interactive treats like connect-the-dot puzzles. It’s an elegant solution to a problem common to today’s world: connecting with people over a long distance. We were lucky enough to interview Caribu’s CEO Maxeme Tuchman alongside cofounder and CTO Alvaro Sabido to learn more about the app’s birth and evolution. After winning both the Master’s and the MBA’s business plan competitions receiving prize money and very positive feedback from the judges panel, we decided to go ahead and try to turn this concept into the best experience we could. Four of us from our study group came on board as the original founders and we launched the first version of Caribu in January 2014. Shortly after, we were accepted into Microsoft Venture’s London accelerator and the UKTI Sirius Programme where we received mentorship and office space for the next year which helped us grow and establish valuable relationships with our partners.” Another challenge we faced was acquiring and curating quality content. Caribu allows customers to purchase books inside it’s in-app bookstore. We were aware that, being in the early childhood storybook market, recognizable brands are on the top of the drivers for purchases and recommendation. We were only able to partner with smaller independent publishers at first because the larger brands required either a very large user count or a very large upfront payment. Our big break came late 2014 when we brought Mattel on board alongside four of their most recognized brands including Thomas the Tank which marked a turning point in our credibility within the publishing world and our growth as a platform for the best quality storybooks.” We both added each other as friends and we started reading a book. His eyes lit up as he started sounding out words. He loved the video feature and started running around the house to have his little sister say hi to me. He challenged her to read a page and helped her along. He then ran to his mom to tell her he wanted to read a book with Nanna next. She grabbed the iPad and was like ‘How did you do that!? He hates to read! He struggles with it and never wants to read with everyone. Now he wants to read with Grandma!?’ This is what we do.” After that, we want to move into the literacy market. I’ve been working in the education space for about 15 years and there is nothing more important than early childhood literacy. Our platform already lends itself perfectly to increasing the amount of time kids are reading and being read to so it’ll be a natural progression to now work on increasing literacy skills.” Maxeme: “Just to echo that last point… Alvaro and I both have business degrees but he’s the technical genius. Bringing me on to run the business side helps him focus on what he needs to do to keep the app updated and responsive to our customer’s needs. We’ve gotten a ton of positive feedback from investors about his ability to recognize that us joining forces is the catalyst that will take Caribu to the next level.”
