Brooklyn-based public relations consultant and former New York City Ballet ballerina Jenny Best had difficulties sleeping from thinking about a great idea. She planned to develop a “Wikipedia of Baby Food,” an online resource that would guide parents through the process of introducing solid foods to their children. Her idea was to establish such a resource and make it available for free to anyone who wanted to utilize it. Then see if she can turn that into a linked app and website business where consumers may pay to access a variety of related healthy baby food recipes.

She intended to create a “Wikipedia of Baby Food,” an online resource that would walk parents through the process of weaning their children onto solid foods. Her plan was to create such a resource and make it freely available to anyone who wished to use it.

She said that there was no business plan and investors. But when she started putting it out in the world, she got a lot of real-time feedback from moms. On the eve of the global pandemic, she created her app and website Solid Starts, which includes the free food database First Foods, in March 2020. By October 2021, Solid Starts had a million Instagram followers.