Baby CD Looks Like Big Deal for Local Entrepreneurs

Ron May is local tech geek who sends out an eponymous newsletter, the May Report , detailing what goes on in and around Chicago's computer and web technology and businesses. His reports are useful because he covers events and then follows up with interviews and details. Mr. May's latest report showcases a local company that sounds like it has a "sure-thing" product, and even rarer today, a solid business model. This is from the May Report:

This is the kind of story I love -- a local Chicago area technology
company - truly a "below the Radar" company -- that Keith Waxelman and the geniuses at MIT-EF might have to your attention long before now had they known about it. But seriously folks, this comopany and AMB Data Miners may be two firms tor MIT-EF to consider for the "Below the radar" program or even for the Chicago Innovation Awards.

The company I've found is called The Baby CD and its website is www.thebabycd.com.   

No one knows about it yet.  It's located in Bar rington, and was founded by a Chicago-born and raised resident named Tim Kelley.  He has a background in medical imaging, which uses high quality CDs as a basic media for content exchange, and this led to both the underlying technology and his inspiration for the business model behind The Baby CD. On the surface, the CD-based technology and mass distribution model of The Baby CD would appear to follow in the footsteps of another major Chicago success story, NavTeq, but I'm told that there are some unique aspects to this company for which there are patents pending. One big difference is that The Baby CD is handed out for free, with revenues coming from paid sponsorships. And from what I've learned, these could be big revenues. They already have some major sponsors signed up, including Safeway and Welch's and I understand a leading diaper maker whose signed agreement will be announced shortly.  Revenues could quickly reach the tens of millions of dollars.

Check out the May Report for more details.

The CD is exactly what expectant parents love to get their hands on. The business model is simple but looks like it will effective, as their promotional material says, "The Baby CD is an innovative strategy for reaching a target-demographic that has recently become unattainable due to HIPPA legislation ... We know of no other advertising medium with this much power." The company is moving to link providers, from birthing rooms to physicians, from diapers to pacifiers, with consumers who have a specific set of needs that basically progress in the same pattern over nine months.

Whether Ron May's prediction that the company revenues will soar into the millions remains to be seen, but it looks like they are off to a good start.