Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Soleil Moon Frye Raises $2.5M for DIY Parenting App and Products

Moonfrye, a new company co-founded by “Punky Brewster” actress Soleil Moon Frye and former IAC executive Kara Nortman, launches today.

The startup has raised $2.5 million from GRP Partners, Greycroft, Daher Capital and Google Ventures, but it doesn’t have any products yet.

Frye and Nortman said they hope to encourage creative activities for families with a mobile app launching this summer, as well as “affordable physical products” sold online. They declined to go into much more detail.

“We truly do believe in embracing all of the fun that’s in parenthood, and not just the perfection,” Frye explained. “When you look at the DIY sites — I do those crafts with my kids — and it doesn’t look like the pictures in the magazine.”

Nortman added that the company hoped to interrupt passive use of mobile devices by kids by providing “immersive” experiences that parents and kids could share together.

Frye, who will be chief creative officer, already runs a parenting blogging community at Moonfrye.com, which will be used for the venture. Nortman, who will be CEO, most recently ran Citysearch and Urbanspoon for IAC. And yes, both have kids — Frye has two, and Nortman is expecting her third in a couple weeks.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work