One on One with a Mom Entrepreneur: Sharon Vinderine

As a new mom, you want to run out and buy everything for your kids. Sometimes the products don’t do what they advertise, and most of the time you get frustrated for spending your money on something that doesn’t work.

That’s what Sharon Vinderine was feeling four years ago when she decided to start Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA). “I wanted to create a seal of approval to differentiate the good from the bad, and the products that don’t do what they claim,” said Vinderine, “The best way to do that is to have other parent testers tell consumers what they think.”

Over the last four years Vinderine has compiled a large database of over 41,000 parent testers. When PTPA receives a product, they search through the database, complete with information about the parents, children, their life and interests, and match the best families for the product.

“There is no cost to the testing families. All they have to do is complete the detailed evaluation and they get to keep the product for free.”

The evaluation is brought back to the PTPA team and the product gets the PTPA seal of approval based on the scores from the evaluations. “The great thing about it is all evaluations go to the manufacturer so that they can implement changes based on what the parents thought,” said Vinderine. “When parents are frustrated with a product they call the customer service line but you can’t guarantee your complaints go anywhere. At least we know the feedback we get goes somewhere.”

Vinderine’s ultimate goal for PTPA? “I’m hoping we will be a resource to companies big and small who want to be able to promote their product as having been parent tested, parent approved and a resource to parents looking for the best in family products. My ideal goal is to have a seal of approval on all of the great products out there.”

For information on how you can be a parent tester visit ptpamedia.com.