Kathryn Hatcher is the founder and CEO of Camply, a platform that helps parents discover, organize, and coordinate school break and summer camps in one place. After launching Camply in 2025, she began building the company as a solo, bootstrapped founder while raising two young boys and navigating the same planning challenges faced by the families she serves.
← All profilesIf I can't find that village, maybe I can start building it.
Kathryn Hatcher, Camply
Read it the way it ran in print.
"The village wasn't coming." That's the line that opens her feature in the June 2026 issue, pages 24–30. Below is the actual spread, page for page, exactly as it appears in print.
A lot of parents experience the chaos of coordinating camps and schedules but most just accept it. What made you decide to build something instead?
It was 1am in early January. My kids were asleep, my husband was asleep, and I was alone at my desk with a color-coded spreadsheet. Again. I just sat there thinking, why doesn't this exist? Why can't I search every camp in one place? Why am I doing this alone, in the dark, for the third year in a row? We talk a lot about the village, the one we were told would show up when we had kids. But a lot of us don't have it. I thought, if I can't find that village, maybe I can start building it.
What has surprised you most about yourself during this season of growing a company and growing your family at the same time?
I've always known I was ambitious, but I don't think I ever truly understood what that meant until now, while also balancing it as a parent. Ambition when you're also a mom to a seven-year-old and a four-year-old? That's a different animal. I believe in Camply so deeply, and I want it to grow so fast, but I also know I cannot stay up until 3am every night or I will not be my best the next day, for my kids, or for my business.
Read the full feature in the June 2026 issue.
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