Four Fathers Wanted to Reclaim Bedtime With Their Children. What They Built Is Now Helping Families Around the World Do the Same

For thousands of years, storytelling has remained one of humanity’s most powerful traditions, a way to pass on knowledge, values, imagination, and emotional connection from one generation to the next. Before technology became a part of our daily lives, stories shaped childhood, strengthened family bonds, and taught children the way of life. 

Intimate moments of connection are quietly disappearing in today’s digital world. Screens have become constant companions in modern family life. Parents are busier than ever, children are spending more time consuming passive digital content, and the simple ritual of sitting together and reading a bedtime story is becoming less frequent in households across the world. 

For four fathers (and co-founders): Jozef Šimko, Ilya Novodvorskiy, Radoslav Rajčan, and Erik Nota, this wasn’t simply an observation but a problem they wanted to solve. It was personal, and as parents themselves, they made it their mission to create meaningful screen-free moments of connection between parents and children. 

That question eventually led to the birth of Readmio. Built on a remarkably simple but powerful belief, Readmio was created with one mission in mind, helping parents reconnect with their young children through the timeless magic of storytelling. 

CEO & Co-founder Jozef Šimko explains, "A story a day read to every child in the world is our vision. We create stories with the intention of developing children’s imagination, intelligence, and humanity.” 

Unlike many digital products designed for children today, Readmio was never built to capture attention away from parents. It was designed to bring families closer together. The founders understood that while technology has transformed modern parenting in countless ways, many digital experiences often replace interaction instead of strengthening it. They wanted to challenge that idea entirely by creating technology that supports the parent-child relationship rather than competing with it. And nowhere was that mission more important than bedtime. 

For generations, bedtime stories have been one of the most intimate rituals shared between parent and child stimulating comfort, imagination, trust, and emotional bonding.

The four founders, as fathers themselves, wanted parents, particularly fathers, to rediscover that ritual. Not simply as part of a routine, but as an opportunity to build stronger relationships with their children through shared storytelling experiences. 

At the heart of Readmio lies one of its most innovative breakthroughs, Readmio's patented voice-triggered sound technology. The experience is deceptively simple. The parent reads the story aloud, the app listens in real time and automatically triggers immersive sound effects. 

A thunderstorm suddenly rumbles in the background | Footsteps quietly approach. A dragon roars | A spaceship launches. 

The result transforms ordinary reading into something magical. It helps capture and build a child's imagination, but unlike traditional digital entertainment, the technology never replaces the parent. The parent remains the storyteller. The child remains fully engaged. 

Technology quietly works in the background, enhancing the experience while preserving the most important element, human connection. As co-founder Ilya Novodvorskiy explains, "We promote reading to children not simply as a leisure activity but as a powerful tool that helps increase intelligence, empathy, and emotional resilience.” 

The philosophy behind Readmio reflects something much bigger than building another successful app. It reflects a belief that storytelling itself has extraordinary power. For centuries, stories have helped children learn values, understand emotions, build creativity, and develop empathy for the world around them. The founders believe that when families spend quality time reading together, the impact extends far beyond a single bedtime routine. Stronger children create stronger families. And stronger families ultimately create a better society. From four fathers solving a challenge in their own homes, the platform has now gone global, used by families in multiple countries, with thousands of paying subscribers and increasing partnerships with global brands, including Mastercard, Shell and T-Mobile. 

Yet despite international growth, the mission remains remarkably unchanged. Help parents spend meaningful time with their children. At a time when much of modern technology competes aggressively for human attention, Readmio represents a refreshing alternative technology that encourages presence rather than distraction. The founders believe this is precisely what modern parenting needs. The future, they believe, will not belong to technology that keeps families apart. It will belong to technology that brings people closer together.

And perhaps that is why Readmio’s story feels particularly relevant today. Because while the world continues moving faster, children still crave the same thing they always have. A parent sitting beside them. A story being read aloud. And the feeling that, even for a few precious moments, nothing else matters. What began as four fathers trying to improve bedtime with their own children has now become a movement helping parents everywhere rediscover the timeless power of storytelling. 

One story at a time.