Published on April 7, 1999

www.a mom and more
Webzine celebrates being a wife, parent and friend

BY LYNN CAREY
TIMES STAFF WRITER

WHAT A CONCEPT: Moms are people, too! It’s a philosophy many people have yet to come to terms with, but one who has is Nancy Price of Walnut Creek. She actually believes that moms have interests other than making lunches, playing Candyland and learning the best ways to take out spit-up stains.

All you have to do is click on to the webzine she co-founded — www.myria.com — to find out exactly what Price thinks is important to women who happen to be moms.

And she should know. She has two small daughters and a baby boy due in July. And she frankly admits that’s she not the type of mom who can easily spend all her time playing house on the floor with the kids.

“I think it’s really important for men and women — especially moms — to continue to do things that maintain their interests,” she says recently from her home. “I don’t think they should devote their entire lives to serve one person. I think it’s important mothers have their own lives.” (more…)

At-home moms turn Net work into family affair

Monday, August 12, 2002

By Jennifer Oladipo
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The forces behind Myria.com: Circleville resident Betsy Gartell-Judd, left, with daughter Miranda, above; and Nancy Price, of San Francisco, with her youngsters Quinn and Kieran, below.

Perhaps the best way to avoid office conflict is to just do away with the office.

In an age of concern about people becoming disconnected by increasing Internet use, one company claims separate time zones as one of its strengths.

Though Nancy Price and Betsy Gartell-Judd have never met in person, they run a 5-year-old Internet company and in June made their foray into the print medium.

Gartell-Judd of Circleville met Price — a San Francisco resident — through an e-mail list for expectant mothers. The online friendship supported them through the trimesters and they eventually gave birth on the same day.

Now the women say their company, Myria Media Inc., benefitted from the same startup conditions as their relationship.

The first site, Myria.com, turned a profit in its first year. (more…)

Published on September 27, 1999

Mothers nurture parenting sites
Internet business takes off

By Francine Brevetti
Business Writer

WALNUT CREEK – A DIMPLE-KNEED 3-year-old stands on a chair in her living room and trumpets through a rolled-up sheet of purple construction paper. In the next room, 5-year-old Charlotte, who adores rainbows, displays her latest crayon masterpiece to her mother, who is feverishly working at her computer.

Mother, meanwhile, is breastfeeding her 6-week-old son as she designs, updates and edits the next issues of three parenting Web sites.

Nancy Price of Walnut Creek doesn’t juggle all this alone. She has a partner — Betsy Gartrell-Judd, of Chillicothe, Ohio. The two mothers met on the Internet and collaborate daily.

But they have yet to meet face to face. They don’t need to.

The Internet has created a new flexibility in the workplace, and these two women are using it to build a profitable business without sacrificing motherhood. Both motherhood and her online publishing activities are full-time jobs, Price says. “Constantly pulled in different ways,” she complained that she’s not very good at balancing all her responsibilities, but she’s grateful to be trying. (more…)

What does someone working in the insurance business in Southern Ohio have in common with someone fresh out of the music business and living in the San Francisco Bay Area? At first glance, you might think nothing. But in reality? Everything.

Despite their physical distance and disparate career paths, the two 20-something women mentioned shared three important traits. First, both were self-starters with a goal of working from home. Second, they were each mothers of two young daughters. And finally, the women were both very active on the still-nascent Internet.

Given such means, motive and opportunity, west-coaster Nancy Price and Midwesterner Betsy Bailey embarked on what truly became the adventure of a lifetime: They started their own company… despite never having met in person. (more…)