Fatherly is a digital

lifestyle brand A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes.page 16 Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of ...

that provides news, expert advice, product recommendations and other resources for parents. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in New York City.

Overview

Fatherly offers articles, videos, and other digital content tailored to young fathers. The company has been described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

meets ''Vice'' for parents". While the site's content is geared toward men, half of Fatherly's audience are women. Fatherly covers a variety of topics across health, science, play, relationships, personal finance, gear and parenting. It also has several content franchises including ''940 Weekends'', which focuses on activities, ''My Father, The…'', which provides first-person narratives from sons and daughters of famous parents, and The Fatherly Podcast, a streaming, conversation-based show.

History

In October 2014, while Fatherly.com was still in beta, the company created a grant called The Fatherly Fund to help parents fund, and complete, projects for their children that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Founded by Simon Isaacs and Michael Rothman, Fatherly officially launched in April 2015. The founders have cited the lack of male-focused parenting content as inspiration for the company. Rothman further explained that he and Isaacs began Fatherly in part, because, "there are more diverse notions of family generally ndthere should be a platform for insights, advice and product recommendations that provides a bigger tent for more of today's parents." Fatherly was named one of Oprah's "favorite things" of 2016 and was noted by ''

Adweek ''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...

'', ''

Digiday ''Digiday'' is an online trade magazine for online media founded in 2008 by Nick Friese. It is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London and Tokyo. Description ''Digiday'' provides daily online news about advertising, publishing, an ...

'' and ''

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

'' for its success with video targeting on Facebook. In June 2016, nearly 3 million unique visitors went to the site. By 2017, Fatherly reached 75 million people on Facebook each week. In early 2017, Fatherly received a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

for "Best Parenting Site on the Internet." Later that same year, Fatherly hired Andrew Burmon as editor-in-chief of the site. Fatherly also hired Michael Wertheim as the company's Chief Operating Officer. In 2020, Fatherly was acquired by Some Spider Studios, the parent of

Scary Mommy Scary Mommy is a website that produces content targeting mothers, which generally focuses on parenting, motherhood, current events and pop culture. The site is owned by Bustle Digital Group and is based in New York City. History Scary Mommy ...

. In 2021,

Bustle Digital Group ''Bustle'' is an online American women's magazine founded in August 2013 by Bryan Goldberg. It positions news and politics alongside articles about beauty, celebrities, and fashion trends. By September 2016, the website had 50 million monthly rea ...

acquired Some Spider.

Funding

Fatherly raised an initial round of funding in 2015 for $2 million, which was led by

SoftTech VC Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC) is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as ...

. Other investors in the round included

Crosslink Capital Crosslink Capital is a leading early-stage venture capital firm with an asset management business that continues into the public equity market for fast-growing companies. The firm has over $2.0B assets under management that it invests in consu ...

, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, The Knight Foundation,

Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk (born Gennady Vaynerchuk; November 14, 1975; , ), commonly known as Gary Vee, is a Soviet-born American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality. He is a co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Re ...

and several angel investors. In 2017 Fatherly raised its Series A funding round totaling $4 million, which was led by BDMI with participation from SoftTech VC, Crosslink Capital,

WPP plc WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...

, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and the talent agency UTA.

References

External links

* {{Bustle Digital Group Mass media companies based in New York City Organizations established in 2015