WELCOME TO BABYBOOST™
It's mid-morning, and the Rainbow Room is alive with a dozen squealing infants crawling or attempting to walk on a multicolored mat while their mothers keep a watchful digital eye. This is not an ordinary rumpus room. Every activity at this state-of-the-art Seattle facility is aimed at maximum possible development in their spatial perception and motor skills through play. A complex system of interconnecting symbols permeat the room, allowing infants to coordinate and re-arrange a dizzying display of emotional images and subliminal signals. Tiny drones whirl about the room, designed to provide as dynamic environment as possible, expanding the children's level of consciousness beyond levels achievable in a mundane, predictable environment. No shape or color remains the same for very long, and the children learn to communicate with each other through a multitude of mediums exclusive to the environment they are experiencing. There's even a homework assignment at the end of the weekly, hourlong class, where both mothers and children undergo an intense psychological evaluation.

Welcome to BabyBoost Ltd. where we believe it's never too soon to start working on a child's development. Our program has been specifically made for parents that often have just one child and are determined that he or she get a good start in life. "There's a Chinese proverb that says the first three years are critical to a child's future," says Liang Sung, a 19-year-old Seattle exotic dancer with a 10-month-old girl enrolled at BabyBoost. "So we are willing to spend a lot of time and money here to ensure our daughter's future."

DADDY
BabyBoost is the brainchild of Thomas R. Prates Esq., a 39-year-old Seattle native who has lived and worked in UCAS for 15 years, part of that time as a sales manager for pharmaceutical maker HeavenPills Inc., now Awakened BioGenesis (ABG). He founded BabyBoost to exploit what he saw as a big potential market in Seattle for nutritional supplements for expectant mothers and infants. A massively successful braindancing marketing campaign, packaged conviniently with popular simsense files, really helped to him work his way to executive co-vice president of special operations. "People can be stubborn and hard to convince, especially with regard to their children. Fortunately, marketing and biochemistry go together better than most people realize." says Prates. So in 2068, he opened his first center in Seattle to program and install critical knowsofts for women on pregnancy and child rearing -- and sell them supplements at the same time.

GROWING UP FAST
Today, BabyBoost Ltd. operates 20 centers in 16 cities and plans to expand to eight more cities in 2071. Sales are expected to increase 100%, to 90 million nuyen, in 2070, and double again, to 180 million, next year, says Prates. Prates says the enterprise is profitable, but he won't provide figures. The great bulk of BabyBoost's revenues -- 95% -- come not from the centers' BTL training seminars but from sales of vitamins, baby formula, and educational toys. However, the centers, which offer everything from classes on breast feeding and Lamaze birthing techniques to complex issues regarding rivalry between awakened siblings, are key to attracting new customers.

In addition to selling products through its centers, BabyBoost employs an army of 4,500 sales representatives, most of whom were customers. They earn between 2,000 to 3,000 nuyen per month in base salary and can double or triple that through commissions. The typical customer spends up to 600 nuyen a year on products and services. But middle-class families spend more. Liang, who works as an exotic dancer with SinTronics Media and whose husband is a Lone Star corporate attorney, lays out 200 nuyen every month on vitamins, formula, and classes at the center.

BabyBoost's rapid growth has, predictably, attracted venture capitalists. The company has raised a total of 96 million nuyem in three rounds of funding since it began. Investors include RenRaku Pharmeceuticals, Starbux Coffee Co., and the UCAS Armed Forces. "We saw strong management that had built businesses in UCAS for other people," says Anakin Skylighter, Starbux's head of private equity. "It's a great niche with an amazingly loyal consumer market." For the moment, no initial public offering is planned.

BabyBoost™ - Because only one thing matters.

Okay. Corrected.

It's still incredibly cheap, in wages and cost. I'd imagine this would be for richer families.

Nah, you couldn't possibly build a large enough army of brainwashed drug-addicted slaves by just catering to the rich folk.

The salary looks good but remember no one advertises a salary below middle class. You don't see wallmart saying in their commercials the benefits and pay they give their works.
You'd say "Our staff of expertly trained and well paid employes."

You could market it to the poor by having the wall mart knock off version though.

so; when is the next "Iron GM" thing to cook us a scenario in which runners will be involved in some industrial or PR sabotage against BabyBoost (or against a potential rival)?
There's a mission for the pregnant runner: have the baby, use it as a means to approach the corp, and do whatever the Johnson wants to do (kill other babies, etc).

OH GOD, Spykids!!!