Our story
We built the baby tracker we needed at 3 am
Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm a software engineer, a dad of two (nearly three), and one half of the family behind BubSync. Sarah and I built it in Brisbane, between night feeds, early mornings and full-time work, because the apps we tried didn't fit the way real families share the care of a baby.
The gap at 3 am
When our youngest daughter was born, Sarah was on maternity leave and I was working full time. We split the nights the way a lot of couples do: Sarah took the late nights, and I took the early mornings so she could finally get some unbroken sleep.
That split has a gap right in the middle of it. When I got up at 3 am to settle our daughter, I didn't know when she'd last been fed, when her nappy was last changed, or how long she'd been asleep. The one person who knew was the one person I was trying hardest not to wake.
We survived the way most families do: text messages. At night that almost worked, because the last message usually told me when she went back down. The real mess was during the day, or any time we tried to work out a pattern. The answers were in there somewhere, buried between a shopping list and a reminder about bin night, and finding them meant scrolling back through days of everything else.
The handwritten briefing
Then came the day we were finally comfortable leaving her with someone else, her grandparents. We sat down and hand-wrote instructions on how to make her bottle, how she likes to be settled and what she loves. Then came the doorstep download: when she last fed, when she last slept, when her nappy was last changed. The people who love her most deserved better than a briefing.
What we wanted
The apps we tried were complicated, unreliable, or treated our data as the product. None of them could do all of this, so we wrote our own list, and then we built it.
One shared diary
Everyone who cares for your baby writes in the same book and reads from it at 3 am.
Both parents, equal
Not one parent’s app with a read-only view attached. Whoever is holding the baby has the full picture.
Room for the village
Grandparents and carers join in minutes and see what they need, nothing they don’t.
One subscription
Your whole village on a single subscription. We will never charge per person.
Works when you need it
Saves to your device first and syncs when it can, so a bad connection never loses a feed.
Data that stays yours
Never sold, never used for advertising. Full stop.
Second time around
She's our second. When our son was a baby, the “system” was a notepad and the same messy text threads. We just didn't know better yet.
Being second-time parents is baked into BubSync. We'd already been through the hype cycle, the gadgets you're told you need and the sleep advice that changes weekly, so we built around what actually matters day to day. We also knew the unglamorous parts of parenting as well as the fun ones, and an app for families should hold both.
The bit the logbook missed
Once we were using BubSync ourselves, something nagged at us. It did the job, but it felt mechanical. It needed more of the fun of taking care of a baby: the memories, the moments you want to keep, especially the ones that happen while you're at work.
So we added Memories. Photos, collages and milestones that live alongside the log, shared with exactly the people you choose, as they happen. There are social apps you could share your day on, but those are public, and everything gets lumped in together. This is just for your family. The collage at the top of this page is real, straight out of our own BubSync, from our first big family holiday.
I open our memories at work more often than I'd like to admit. Something lovely happens at home, and moments later it's on my phone. It brings a smile to my face every single time.
The holiday that tested it
That same trip to the US gave BubSync its first proper road test. The connection over there was patchy at times, in planes, on trains and in hotel rooms, but everything we logged saved straight to the device and synced when the connection came back. Being able to see when it last synced meant we never had to wonder whether the other person was looking at the full picture.
Offline-first started as a technical decision. It ended up being the thing we leaned on most that holiday, and it's why BubSync will always work first and sync second.
The honest bit
Building an app is hard work, and expensive. Building the business around it is harder. Marketing, app stores, support, the endless question marks. There were plenty of moments when the sensible thing would have been to stop.
What kept us going is simple: the problems we were solving weren't just ours. Every messy text thread, every handwritten briefing, every 3 am guess is happening in other houses too. We genuinely care about this, and we hope that shows in everything BubSync does.
And somewhere along the way, we found out baby number three is due in October 2026. So we get to ride the rollercoaster again, and BubSync gets put through its paces by its toughest tester yet.
Why we share what we share
You'll notice we haven't named our kids on this page, and that we chose these photos deliberately. That's the point: parents decide what to share, and who sees it.
It's how we built BubSync, too. Your memories go only to the people you choose. Shared photos carry no hidden location metadata, because we strip EXIF data for exactly this reason. And your family's data is never sold and never used for advertising. The standard we hold for our own family is the standard we hold for yours.
Who we are
Ashley
Co-founder
Software engineer, with a Bachelor of Information Technology (Computer Science) and ten years across IT, software engineering and product roles. Builds BubSync. Takes the early mornings.
Sarah
Co-founder
Leads product ideation, testing, customer service and marketing. Mum of two, nearly three. She's the reason BubSync makes sense to people who don't build software. Takes the late nights.
November 2025
One 3 am too many. I start tinkering.
February 2026
We commit to building BubSync properly.
April 2026
BubSync becomes a registered family business in Brisbane.
October 2026
Baby number three arrives, our toughest tester yet.
From our family to yours
When you subscribe to BubSync, you're supporting a family business, and when you reach out, you're talking to the family. If something's not right, or you have an idea, tell us: send feedback in the app, or email hello@bubsync.com. We read everything, and a real person replies.
We aim to respond within 2 business days.
BubSync is in pre-release open testing — free to install, updated often, and your feedback shapes what ships at launch.
On an iPhone? Subscribe for launch updates and we'll tell you the moment the App Store build lands.