For nearly ten years, Lindsay Pinchuk worked in publishing, advertising, and marketing at Hearst, The Tribune Company, and Time Inc for brands including Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, and Nickelodeon. While preparing for the birth of her first daughter, Pinchuk debuted her mom started business, Bump Club and Beyond. Launched in March 2010, Bump Club and Beyond was created as a way to connect with other new moms and at the same time provide them with the best of the best resources.


Now the largest social event company in the country for parents and parents-to-be, Bump Club and Beyond connects its audience with the best information, experts, products, and most importantly, with each other- both online and through dozens of premier events per month in over thirty cities across the country. Since launching Bump Club and Beyond, it’s revenue has grown over 3,500%, making it one of the fastest growing brands for parents and parents-to-be in the country. SWAAY talked to the founder and CEO of Bump Club and Beyond, and Chicago’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014, Lindsay Pinchuk, to find out.

The epiphany for Bump Club and Beyond did not come while Pinchuk was pregnant, but rather, before she was even thinking about having children. “Pregnant women can’t just navigate this journey on their own when they have so many questions,” she says. While trying to help a pregnant friend look for a community of expecting moms in Chicago, she came up empty-handed. “I knew that when I wanted to start a family, I would want to have pregnant friends to lean on.”

So, before starting her family and her business, Pinchuk and her husband ventured off to Argentina for one final trip. “I took my computer on vacation and started building a basic website, and that’s when I said to my husband that there is really a business here,” says Pinchuk.

Soon after coming back from Argentina, Pinchuk got pregnant. “I actually announced Bump Club and Beyond a couple of weeks before announcing my pregnancy,” Pinchuk says. Thus, with the first event of a prenatal workout, Bump Club and Beyond was officially born. The second event that BCB held was a shopping event at a maternity store in downtown Chicago, at which over fifty women showed up. At the shopping event, mothers and mothers-to-be were shopping and talking to each other, and there were gift bags and raffle prizes.

“After the shopping event, people kept asking what was next, so we started hosting educational dinners for expecting parents,” says Pinchuk. The first educational dinner had fifty people attend, and from there it snowballed. “Five weeks after giving birth to my first daughter, Jordyn, we hosted our first new moms brunch and we brought in a sleep consultant because everyone was just so tired.” Now, Bump Club and Beyond is hosting events in over 25 cities across the country, with a database well over 200,000, and is working with some of the biggest brands in the world.

One of BCB’s biggest events is hosted in fifteen cities and is called Gearapalooza. With guest attendance between 150 and 300, Gearapalooza offers a “chance to meet many of the top baby brands in the world, learn what to register for and add them to your registry through Babylist.com, and have all of your questions answered by The BabyGuyNYC,” according to the event’s website. “The parents spend the first part of the even walking around and meeting all the different baby gear vendors, which can range from fifteen to thirty.” The vendors at Gearapalooza are doing demonstrations of their product, talking to parents, answering any and all questions, and educating parents on their product. Following the time with the vendors, attendees can grab a sandwich and sit down for the featured speaker, baby gear expert, Jamie Grayson, The BabyGuyNYC. At the end of the event, everyone goes home with a giant gift bag, which is worth over two hundred dollars. Attendees purchase tickets to attend which start at $50 and go up to $300 (which include a crib mattress!)

In addition, Bump Club and Beyond hosts events with companies such as Target, Nordstrom, and The Honest Company. “Companies hire Bump Club and Beyond to create an in-store experience or brand experience,” says Pinchuk. These events include Mom's Night Out with The Honest Company, and BCBasics for Target: Registry 101. On top of that, BCB also hosts a series of webinars. “In Chicago, we were doing a ton of educational events for parents up to age five: potty training, sibling preparation, discipline and others. Parents across the country wanted to hear the talks too, so we moved them online creating a webinar series that parents all over can access and watch.” Webinars are hosted two to three times per month, and range in topics from expecting parents, new parents, and toddler parents.

To attend a Bump Club and Beyond event, all you need to do is sign up online. Some of the events are paid and some are free, all depending on the nature of the event. “We also have a parent perk program called BCB VIP, which has an enrollment fee, and gives you access to multiple discounts,” Pinchuk says. The BCB VIP program provides exclusive discounts on products, services, and fitness facilities across the country. In addition, BCB VIP gives discounts to any events or programs through Bump Club and Beyond. So, if you are a BCB VIP, you can attend any webinar for free, but if not, you must pay ten dollars to tune in.

Lindsay Pinchuk (center) and friends.

“Being a mom and having both of my children have been huge moments for Bump Club and Beyond because it allows me to connect with our audience, in a way that is totally unique from any other business owner,” Pinchuk says.

The long-term goal of Pinchuk for her business is to become a household name. “I want it to be the source, support, and authority for expecting parents and parent,” says Pinchuk. One of the main things that make Bump Club and Beyond different from other companies is the level of trust that they have with their audience. “The parents trust us in terms of our product and service picks and trust the experts we put in front of them, which I think is one of the most important things that BCB has done for our audience.”

With a staff of six full-time employees, including Pinchuk, BCB has never received outside funding. BCB also has a group of contractors and brand ambassador moms who help run events across the country. “We did two hundred events last year, our Instagram has over 20,000 followers, and our Facebook page has over 93,000 followers,” Pinchuk proudly states. To learn more about Bump Club and Beyond, visit their website and follow them on Instagram or Facebook.


WRITTEN BY

Sydney Lorch