A Closer Look: Karen Dillon, MBA 1987

Photo by Gary Parker

IN THE MID-'90s, WHEN Karen Dillon was the marketing director at a now defunct software company, she knew there had to be something more rewarding out there. As a parent, Dillon also knew she wanted to focus more time and energy on her family.
       "I was looking at what I wanted to do next and I was thinking about what was important in my life," she says. "The Internet was obviously the next frontier for entrepreneurs, so I put the two together."
       There has always been a glut of information and services to help people raise their kids, notes Dillon. The problem has been that the information is scattered in libraries, research centers, and other institutions around the country and, indeed, the globe. Dillon, together with her husband and now business partner, Bob Parks, seems to have hit upon a winning combination: a straightforward and comprehensive resource for raising happy and healthy children--KidSource Online.
       In its two-and-a-half-year history, the site, www.kidsource.com, has garnered numerous accolades and awards, including a ranking in the top three Web sites according to Family Computing Magazine, the Editors' Choice award for design and content from the search engine Snap, and now a grant from the National Science Foundation.
       KidSource Online's design is simple. "We don't use a lot of graphics," explains Dillon, "and we aren't interested in running recipes, contests, and horoscopes. There are plenty of other sites for that." Instead the staff of eight has focused on becoming an information service, a comprehensive resource for childcare and development, with links to major health care sites.
       Dillon, who still freelances as a management consultant on the side, has been working toward getting the site fully funded. "From the beginning everything has been bootstrapped," she says. The NSF grant not only will help with that goal but should spark the interest of other funding sources.
       Parents use the site to answer specific questions about child rearing, and this has helped the site to grow and evolve. "As we focus on specific areas, we're finding virtual communities out there," says Dillon.
       "There is no limit to what parents will do for their kids," she says, and there is potentially no limit to KidSource Online's ability to provide information and access to resources around the globe. -- PETER CALLAHAN