Maple: Revolutionizing How Families Get Things Done

I first met Maple’s founder Michael Perry a decade ago when he was building Kit, a lightweight marketing suite inspired by his teenage years spent selling at a local car dealership. There, he’d developed a unique approach – meticulously noting customer details in spreadsheets, from their favorite music to items left in their cars, all in service of building genuine relationships. The CRM he built caught Shopify’s eye, leading to an acquisition that saw his tools rolled out across their platform. But what caught my eye was his attention to detail and deep empathy.

Years later, when Michael and his wife welcomed their first child, he applied that same observant, empathetic approach to a new challenge: the overwhelming juggle of family, work, and household management. This was the genesis of Maple.

When we reconnected to discuss Maple, it was instantly clear that Michael wasn’t just building another productivity app – he was reimagining how modern families function in an increasingly complex world.

As investors, we’re constantly searching for companies that solve real, pressing problems. The challenge of family organization isn’t just a minor inconvenience; it’s a universal pain point that affects millions of households globally. Parents spend an average of 23 hours per month just planning family activities and managing household logistics – that’s nearly a full day lost to administrative tasks that could be spent making memories with loved ones.

What makes Maple different is its deep understanding of family dynamics and its elegant approach to solving household chaos. The platform isn’t just a digital calendar or a to-do list; it’s an intelligent system that learns from your family’s patterns and preferences to automate the mundane while elevating the meaningful. Having previously founded Parent Co. (acquired by Shopify) and serving as Director of Product, Michael brings a unique perspective on building technology that truly serves families.

The numbers speak for themselves. Since launch, Maple has seen exceptional growth, with families reporting up to 80% reduction in planning time and a 65% decrease in missed activities and appointments. These aren’t just statistics – they represent real hours given back to families, real stress eliminated from parents’ lives, and real improvements in household harmony.

What particularly excited us about Maple was their vision for the future of family technology. The team isn’t just solving today’s problems; they’re anticipating tomorrow’s challenges. Their innovative browser-based approach, which seamlessly integrates with existing family workflows, demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how technology should adapt to users, not the other way around.

The market opportunity here is massive. With over 33 million families in the US alone juggling multiple children, activities, and household responsibilities, the demand for intelligent family organization solutions has never been higher. Maple’s rapid adoption rates and impressive user retention metrics suggest they’ve struck a chord with their target market.

But beyond the market opportunity, what truly convinced us to invest was the team’s commitment to building technology that strengthens family bonds rather than replacing them. In a world where screen time often comes at the expense of face-to-face interaction, Maple is using technology to facilitate more quality time together.

The platform’s emphasis on collaborative planning and shared responsibility also reflects a modern understanding of family dynamics. Whether it’s coordinating with caregivers, managing multiple schedules, or ensuring everyone stays on the same page, Maple has created a solution that adapts to various family structures and needs.

Looking ahead, we see Maple becoming the essential platform for family organization, much like Slack has become for workplace communication or Shopify for e-commerce. The company’s robust product roadmap, combined with their deep understanding of user needs, positions them perfectly to capture this growing market.

Our investment in Maple represents more than just backing a promising startup – it’s an investment in the future of family life. As we continue to support their journey, we’re excited to see how Maple will transform the way families organize, communicate, and spend time together.

The challenge of family organization might not be the most glamorous problem in tech, but it’s arguably one of the most important. By giving families back their time and reducing the mental load of household management, Maple isn’t just building a successful business – they’re making a meaningful impact on people’s daily lives. And that’s exactly the kind of innovation we love to support at Ritual Capital.

Visit Maple at https://www.growmaple.com.