It’s a small world!

A few months ago I wrote about the world.
This is what I wrote:
"We learned that users from all over the world visited Tucoola.
To be specific, we are talking about users from 132 countries!"

Since I wrote it, users from 160 countries(!!!) have pressed http://www.Tucoola.com on their keyboard.

As a company that supports 6 languages, improving our platform and adding new content daily, we need help! And as I already wrote, it's a small world!
In the last few months we got help from experts in various fields from: Bolivia, Russia, India, china and more are on the way.

It's unbelievable but in days like this, you can work from a small garage and change the world for millions of people – some will earn a living from Tucoola, some will enjoy their time (playing, watching videos, coloring, etc.) and most of them will enjoy our personalized program that will enhance their skills.
We are happy and proud to do something important in this world and we are grateful for the opportunity to influence the life of the most important thing in the world – children.

Time flies when you're having fun!

Today we registered our older sun to the new kindergarten for next year. The most important thing for us when we searched for the right kindergarten was whether the children will go with him to school ... no way! It's like he was born yesterday and we already get prepared to school!
Tucoola's idea started a few months after he was born, so … again! It's like we just started running with the idea, developed the concept of the company, seeked for investment, etc. Now visitores from 160 countries have been enjoying Tucoola's site in the passing year! Soon, we will have the million user in our site!

Time is running and we are still having fun! When I try to imagine the next few years, I smile… I hope that you do two :).

Google

These days, an internet company needs 3 things:

1. To reach the users

2. To understand the user needs

3. To provide your service to the users

When Tucoola started, we focused on developing the company's tech, product and concept.

As you all know, a few months ago we exposed Tucoola with partners like Zapak and ynet and about 3 months ago, we added a b2c strategy with the thought that a lot of users would like to come directly to Tucoola.com.

It was a smart move – more than 500,000 users will visit Tucoola in Q4, 2011!

These days, Tucoola is a poplar site in the united states, south America, Brazil, Russia and more countries all over the world.

And what is the connection to the headline "Google"?

It's easy! Google is the company that allows us to get to the user, to understand their needs and the monetization process in Tucoola.com.

As a "normal" user, I thought that Google is a great search engine and a good company.

As a guy that works to promote our great company on a daily basis, I was surprised to learn about other great services that Google provides.

Thanks to Google for helping us become a better company on a daily basis!

Localization

When you are a head of a company, you need to be aware of every nuance in your site.

Actually, the user analysis has become much more necessary and we are spending more time each month to deal with it – the goal is clear. We want you to be happy and satisfied with the product.

A few months ago, we learned that users from all over the world visited Tucoola.

To be specific, we are talking about users from 132 countries!

It has been clear from the first moment! We are going to translate the site and help you enjoy Tucoola even more. After all, a child wants to hear his favorite character in his own language.

But how can we do it? Tucoola's site contains thousands of words, a lot of audio material that needs dubbing.

The answer is simple – we just do it!

Less than 3 months have passed since we made the decision, and now Tucoola supports 6 languages!

English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian and Hebrew.

So it seems that most of the users can enjoy their native language and we promise that in the future more languages will be supported.

And like always, we promise to keep learning and to add new features that can improve your Visit at Tucoola.com.

Health

Health – one word which represents the most important thing in our life.

Each one of us knows it and most of us are being challenged with this issue, but all of us seem to forget the meaning of this important word after a while.

In the last blog, I wrote about our family's plans for the summer – As a lot of smart people said before in various versions "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans".

My cute daughter, broke her thigh :( - All of the plans we made were obviously cancelled and the past two weeks were very challenging.

Thank god, she is getting better from day to day and we hope to see her standing and walking again soon.

So health, dear friends, is the most important thing in the world, for all of us, everywhere, all of the time.

Wish you all health and good luck on the first day of kindergartens and schools.

Summer Time

It's summer time again!

Last summer, we had a 2.5 years old boy running around the house while his sister was less than 6 months old and the only things she needed were sleeping time and food.

This summer is different!

Our 3.5 years old knows exactly what he wants to do this summer – zoo, meeting specific friends, a family holiday, sleeping at the grandparents' house, etc.

The 1.5 years old girl knows as well – she wants to do whatever her brother does.

So now we have 2 active child that knows exactly what to do with their time and who need to arrange each request.

Some people think that it's an hard age but I prefer this stage, the child already knows what he wants to do with his time and with minor help, he knows how to manage it by his own.

Two weeks from now, we will start the race, and while some people afraid from the summer vacation, I find it as a great time to be together while changing the routine of our life.

One thing is not going to change in our routine – both of them will enjoy Tucoola on a daily basis :).

Are you a Tucoola user?

Are you a Tucoola user?

When you are working on a start-up company, you don't have a lot of time to think but you do have a lot of time to dream.

You dream when you try to fall asleep.

You dream when you are on a flight.

You dream when you take a shower.

What do you dream about? About the time that users will start using the product.

If you are a good dreamer, you can dream that a friend of a friend starts using your product, the guy from the store, the children from the kindergarten, etc.

So now, we are finally enjoying the reality – people are using Tucoola's product!

The mom from the kindergarten that told me that her child played yesterday, the mom from the bank told me that her girl is playing every day, the neighbor told me that his nephew just got a new Tucoola's awards, etc.

The dream is now reality! Now it's our turn to work hard (again :)) and to keep Tucoola fun and dynamic so every time our users come to visit, they will have the time of their life!

A New Version! Already?

As you all know, we have been working on Tucoola's product for more than two years.

Building a company with a small team is difficult and we have constantly found ourselves juggling between marketing activities, daily management, investors and a lot more.

The price of this activity is that you don't have time to see the whole picture at the end of each day.

I can mark each of the parameters in the company that has "paid the price" for this "life style".

The good news is that we are the internet generation and internet is fast!

Don't be confused :) I'll get to my point in a minute!

These days, we have a lot of tools to understand what is working well and what needs a final touch. The tools we have are easy to use and the required work can be done quickly (again, the internet generation).

A month ago we launched the Tucoola's Zone with our first partner. I met them a week ago and we examined the data we have collected and we understood together where we need to improve our product.

A week later a new version is already running :).

The funny thing is that we are already working on more issues that we found that need some "fine tuning".

Till then, I promise to check, test and collect any information that could, make you, our users happy and satisfied while you visit us :).

Launching Time

That’s it! We are now executing our strategy, after launching our first cooperation site with one of the biggest news portals in Israel.
The feeling that new users enter the site daily and can see a link to our product and enjoy it is great!
We started less than two weeks ago, and we already see users that enter on a daily basis and enjoy our product.
Children wake up and ask for Tucoola, parents can enjoy reports (basic reports for now, but soon they will be more).
This is the reason we are here and this is what we have been dreaming about more than two years.
So what's next? First of all, we are constantly working to improve the user experience and bring more content.
In addition, we have new partners with whom we are going to launch in the next few weeks.
Soon we will expose some new stuff – Ready?

Great Time For Us!

Dear friends,

These are great times for us!

After a long time under the radar and more than a year and a half of development, we are now "visible" – we serve children and parents, talk with potential partners, share our activity with the media and we are here to make our children's life better".

Our company has ongoing activities in various countries and it seems that our potential partners see in Tucoola what we have hoped they would and appreciate the differential we bring to the table.

We signed deals with our potential partners – general portals, parents portal and games portal.

We are going to launch the Tucoola's Zone with partners in Q2 and we have a lot of plans for the next coming months and a lot of great things for you.

Our team ןד so happy because we feel that everyone we are talk to these days understand the need of a product like the one we offer.

Today we have presented Tucoola in front of an audience of hundreds in New York and when we finished, people told us that they were going to use it with their children tonight. Actually, this is what we hear most of the time and this is the best feedback we can ask for.

It's hard to explain the happiness when we get an email from users that use our product and share with us their satisfaction.

Like always, we promise to become better and work hard to improve the product and keep our users happy.

One Wife, Two Kids & One Start-Up

As a start-up person you can imagine that I work a lot.

Actually, it never stops.

When I'm at work, there are a lot of missions to take care of.

When I'm with the children, there are a lot of thoughts (and sometimes some great ideas that appear while playing with them at Tucoola's site and other games.

When I'm with my wife, I share with her what's new with Tucoola and look for some advise.

And when I'm asleep (not a lot L), I dream about Tucoola.

This is how my life seem to be for almost 3 years.

It started when my son was born and now when we are about to launch the new version, he has become child.

He can tell us what he wants, how and when he wants it and the big bonus for me, he is part of our target market!

That’s it, three years of thoughts and more than a year and a half later Tucoola has become an official registered company, we are going to launch the new version, which we named – Tucoola's version 1.

It's not just us anymore. It involves partners worldwide with whom we are going to launch (some of them have a version in their own language).

So what's next? As you can imagine it's Tucoola version 1.1 and then 1.2 … mobile activity, social network, etc.

What more? Some quality time with my family that are the most important thing in the world.

So see you soon and don't forget, soon you will be able to enjoy some family time in front of the computer with your family :).

Happy New Year!

Dear Tucoola friends, it's been a while since I blogged.

2010 was a great year for us – we had so many challenges and there are still a lot ahead.

These days, our site is on-line and people all over the world enjoy Tucoola's concept.

Soon we will launch the Tucoola's Zone with various partners worldwide and you will be able to enjoy it in your native language and with your local portal.

At this moment we are working on a new product that will help us remember and even manage our life as a family.

We believe that in 2011,Tucoola's users will visit the site on a daily basis and enjoy the various tools.

In addition, as we promised, our site becomes bigger everyday with new games, new videos and a lot of content for you.

We hope you will be part of our big family in 2011 and we hope to be part of yours.

Happy New Year!

Tucoola is now open for business!

That’s it!

Tucoola is now open for business!

It took more over two years of dreaming and a lot of challenges on the way, but now the dream has become reality.

These days you can find games, a paint zone, a video zone, a together zone with cool features and more.

After we collect some data from the games, the information center will be available too.

And we are not going to rest there. you will be able to find more information for parents, content for children and parents and a lot of activities.

Thanks for being part of the process till now and we hope that you will be with us as part of our development just like we hope to be part of your children progress.

Good luck to all of us!

Thanks!

Hi,

These are the last days before the launch of Tucoola and it is time to say thanks!

Those are crazy days that start very early and continue till late, very late.

A lot of people are involved in the process and you can see the passion and the energy in each and every of them.

We haven't finished yet, but I think that it's time for some thanks:

The academic team that helped to build all the concept.

The designers that have built a new language – Tucoola's language.

The lawyer that works hard to complete all the legal issues needed for the site.

The partners that supply various content to the site.

The developers that have been eating a lot of pizza in the last days while fixing bugs.

And my family that have been there for me from the beginning through all the hard times.

They are my fuel, my love and even my testing team :).

Thanks for all!

Get ready for the next post – it will contain the "green light" to start using Tucoola!

Summer Time

It's summer time and for the first time I have 2 kids during summer …

In addition, it's the first time since high school that I have "summer time".

Most of the parents are afraid from the summer vacation and talk about it all the time.

My wife and I had a plan – to try to do whatever we can to enjoy it.

We had three and a half weeks to fill with fun time :)

So what we did spend our summer?

Safari, playgrounds, coloring pages, computer games, books, Lego, Playmobile, beach and 4 days in a hotel with swimming pools and a lot more.

That’s it – today is the last day of the "summer time" and it's time to get back to kindergarten.

Believe it or not, we had a great time as parents and as a family and as my wife said to me: "We didn't have enough time to do all the things I planned".

Next summer, it will be even happier, because our children will be able to enjoy Tucoola as well as part of the summer time activity.

To be or not to be (and where)

We are on still working on our new version – as always, we are adding a lot of new features to the product.

We asks ourselves regarding each feature whether it is the one everyone is waiting for, or not :).

A few weeks ago, my son (2.5 years old) discovered my iPhone.

He can unlock the iPhone, navigate to HIS page and choose an App, he knows how to return to the page again (through home) and then go to pics and watch them.

So, just like we knew 2 years ago, we need to bring Tucoola to all of the platforms.

So where do we start? iPhone, Android, Ovi?

And what about social networks? Facebook, Myspace, Google Me?

And let's talk about the platform – PSP, Wii, Xbox?

Don't worry, Tucoola's strategy and vision is to be in all of these places and platforms.

We will check all the options and get back to you soon with product that will be there for you – at your house, car, flights and all over!

The Big Day

We are getting ready for the big day and we still found time to think about the next stages.

As a start-up company we have a vision.
Our vision, is to grow with you as parents, to grow with our children and to be an on-line home for parents and children.

It's really easy to imagine, what needs to be there:
The children would like to have various content, that fits their age and flavor.
Games, video channel, stories, coloring pages and everything they expect to find in the Web.

Parents will have the confidence that their children are safe and still having fun, learning and progressing, in their development progress.

What about a community? Yes, we believe that today any one of us can help each other to be better: better parents, better children and better persons.

We will bring the technology and all of us will bring the information and the tools to do so.

I find myself smiling when I imagine it – Tucoola's product in a year or two will be all we asked for as a parents and more.

Do you have the patience to wait? I don’t :)

Games, Games & Games

There are so many games in our world!

As you already know, soon Tucoola will launch the first commercial version.

As you can imagine, we are working days and nights on it with the desire to bring you the best service.

As part of it, we are dealing with the information center, improvement of the analyzes engine, content issues and games.

If someone will take a look at what we are doing, he will tell himself that we are playing all day :).

The mission of finding the appropriate game for each development group and to recognize the skills the game is dealing with our academic group, it's challenging.

There so many games that can be great for children but some of them ruined are because they contain some bad characters, others contain violence and some are not simply appropriate for children.

You can count on Tucoola's team to make sure that the games that you will find in our catalog will target your children's taste and will benefit there development progress.

Have a great summer, before it ends we will be there with news!

Tucoola's team

Our Time

In times likes today, the hardest mission is to manage our time.

We have so many things to do, and it is very difficult.

It is even harder when you try to be part of the family during week days.

Unfortunately, no one has developed a startup that you can gets two more hours a day for $9.95 but there are a lot of tools that can help with time management.

In a time like this, when Tucoola's team is working hard on the first commercial version of our Tucoola's Zone, we found ourselves working days and nights to provide the best service.

One of the things that we are working, on which should be available in the next few months is activities for the parents and the children.

So, sorry! We can't get you two more hours a day for $9.95, but we can help you with 2 hours of fun with your children!

Enjoy!

Retro Games - Do you want to have some?

I have a thing for retro games.

It began a few years ago when I found in Bangkok the Donkey Kong game from my childhood.

It cost a lot and it didn't work – I decided that I'll find a working game and pay whatever needed just to have the ability to give it to my son one day.

So, now I have it, and I also have my old Pac Man from the 80's and even a box of Atari.

So I have a shelf with all the retro games, and it means more to me than most of the things I have – it's my childhood games!

After all the "80's mobile devices", most of us "moved on" to computer such as – Commodore 64, 286, 386, etc.

The games in the computer were the funniest ever – we played and played and played all day and all night.

Now I have the bonus to "play" in the game world – it's a great environment, and we enjoy it a lot.

As a service that will be there for children from the first day in the gaming world, we hope that we will help our children to create great memories, just like we enjoy them today.

PS – these days we are working on our Fan Page in Facebook – "Tucoola" – You can already search for it and "like" it.

Anyway, soon we will give away some retro prizes such as … Donley Kong, Pac Man and more :-)