EP 015: She Built an App on Maternity Leave. Then Quit Her Job. Then Kept Going.
Hot Messes, Big VisionsShow Notes
Renata Wiles is the founder of ROAM with Kids, an app that helps NZ parents find places to go with their kids, complete with parent reviews, age-based filters, and local events.
What started as a dodgy Google map she built to stop answering the same DMs is now live across New Zealand and just landed in Brisbane.
In this episode, Renata gets refreshingly honest about what building a business with small kids actually looks like. We're talking one-handed pram-pushing while replying to emails, working until 1am for almost a year, and sitting with a resignation email in her drafts for three months before she finally hit send.
We also talk about the thing nobody says out loud: that "flexible working" doesn't really exist for parents. That the juggle is real. That this week might just be a write-off. And that the only way through is building your own village.
Big conversation. Lots of laughs. A genuinely messy moment at the end.
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This week we're joined by Nicole Retter, founder of PAM (Personal Admin Manager), one of New Zealand's top-ranked apps and a product built entirely from lived chaos.
What would you actually do if your baby choked right now?
Nobody talks about the bit in between. Not the exciting launch, not the "we made it" moment. Just the long, unglamorous stretch where you're building something real while running on broken sleep and blind faith. That's where Nikki and Sophia are right now, and this episode they're not pretending otherwise.
This week nearly broke us. Between daycare chaos, burnout, building a business with two young kids, and trying to hold it all together… something had to change.