Hi, we’re Danny and Rowena
We’re the family behind My Tomte: two full-time jobs, one wild toddler called Leo, and a kitchen that runs on a plan.
Danny has been in software development for almost 15 years and now works as a product leader. Most of that time has gone into B2B and enterprise software for builders, architects, engineers and lawyers, which is to say, people who really don’t have time for software that doesn’t work. These days he’s turning that same eye to something closer to home: making family life a little easier.
Rowena is a head of operations. She leads business operations, manages teams, and drives innovation and optimisation for people and processes. She has even less time for software that doesn’t work. Which, as it turns out, is how this whole thing started.
It started with a spreadsheet
Between Leo, two full-time jobs, packed social calendars and far too many hobbies, planning meals for the week was getting harder and harder in our house.
Rowena is the cook of the family and the model hostess; there are cakes, treats and desserts for every occasion, and a few occasions that don’t strictly need one. Danny can cook a bit, but, admittedly, he mostly prefers to eat whatever Rowena makes.
And it isn’t just one dinner to plan. Danny loves his breads and pastas. Rowena loves her soups and fish. Leo loves his fruit and veggies (we’re still not sure where he gets that from).
So Rowena fixed the problem first. Being a genuine Excel whiz, she built a meal planner in a spreadsheet. It was big, it was complex, and it mostly… kind of… worked. But underneath all the tabs and formulas, it was trying to solve a very real problem, and we couldn’t stop thinking about it.
So we built a tomte
Danny took everything that spreadsheet was trying to do and built it properly, the way he’d build software at work: a planner that knows what’s already in the fridge, writes the shopping list, works around Leo’s bedtime and everyone’s calendar, and gets a little smarter every week.
Rowena has shaped it from day one. She’s its first tester and, without question, its biggest critic; if a feature doesn’t survive a Tuesday night in our kitchen, it doesn’t ship.
We built it for our family. Fine-tuning it to fit each household, the way it fits ours, is still the whole point.
What’s a tomte?
We’ve always loved stories: fables, folklore and mystical creatures of every kind. So when it came to naming this thing, the tomte simply fit.
In Scandinavian folklore, a farm had its own: a small, old man in grey clothes and a red cap, called a tomte in Sweden and a nisse in Norway and Denmark. He was rarely seen, but he looked after the farm and its people, and the animals most of all. He was also quick to take offence, so you kept on his good side. All he expected in return was a little respect, and a bowl of porridge with a knob of butter on Christmas Eve.
That’s the job My Tomte was built to do. (Porridge optional.)
From one household to many
It was only ever meant for our family. Then one of Danny’s colleagues saw it and said, “I’ve been trying to build something to help me with this same thing.”
That’s when we realised it wasn’t just our kitchen with a 5 pm problem.
So My Tomte grew up. It learned to plan for families of twelve, for coeliac teenagers and fussy toddlers, for shift workers and footy nights; and it still gets judged the same way it always was: does it make a real evening, in a real home, a little easier?
Why “Happy Dance”?
My Tomte is made by Happy Dance Project, which is just the two of us. The name comes from Leo. When he likes his dinner, he does a happy dance: a little wiggle in his booster seat at the table that tells you everything you need to know.
That’s the whole goal, really. More happy dances at more dinner tables.
What we believe
Your household’s data is yours.
It’s stored in Australia (with a daily backup copy), and it’s never sold. Ever.
Allergies are rules, not preferences.
Features are judged against a real evening
not a competitor’s feature list.
Good food and good company matter most.
Everything else is just logistics.
Made in Australia
My Tomte is made in Australia, for Australian households first, by a family still using it every night. If it can keep up with Leo, it can probably keep up with your kids, too.