CincyTech invests in former Ben-Gal’s startup

Andy Brownfield
Cincinnati Business Courier
November 18, 2013

CincyTech is backing a former Ben-Gal in her efforts to make moms healthier.

The seed-stage tech investor is putting $250,000 into Skinny Mom, the brainchild of former fitness professional, Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader and mom Brooke Griffin.

Skinny Mom offers health and lifestyle content to mothers. It was born as a blog in 2011 after Griffin used her training to create a fitness and nutrition plan to lose the weight she had gained during pregnancy.

“The first month, we had 100,000 page views,” Griffin said in a news release, “so I guess it was something other moms were looking for, too.”

Today Skinny Mom pulls in more than 1 million unique visitors per month and has a social media and email reach of 500,000. The website employs eight full-time, and Griffin expects to pull in $200,000 in revenue this year.

The CincyTech investment, from its largest-ever Fund III, will allow Griffin to hire more writers, focus on e-commerce, develop a mobile app and enhance the brand.

“Brooke and her team are quickly building a market leading brand in the branding capital of the world,” CincyTech managing director of IT, software and health tech Mike Venerable said in a news release. “We are excited to continue our partnership with this additional investment. The Skinny Mom team consistently beats aggressive goals with ease. We expect great things from them in 2014.”