Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Greene.
Sean, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was driving home from work one night, fretting over the fact that I couldn’t find a sitter. It had been a long day and I wanted to go out, but we had two 6 year olds at home. After what seemed like hours of calling and texting potential sitters, we’d struck out. Meanwhile, as I drove through our neighborhood I knew that on every block there had to be a teenager or young adult willing and able to babysit for us; I just didn’t know how to get to them. That’s when it struck me, “There ought to be an app for that!”
That was two years ago. Since then, we’ve developed a solution, which uses social networking and personal recommendations to allow sitters and parents to meet through mutual connections. Instead of hiring a total stranger from across town, parents can now find sitters they’ve used before, their friends have used, or their friend’s friends have used. As well, sitters can feel comfortable connecting with families that are friends of families they’ve sat for before.
As well, we’ve incorporated all of the modern convenience factors associated with a mobile app. Sitters set their own rates, and the app automatically charges the parents credit card and deposits the money into the sitter’s account. We’ve enable messaging and calling within the app. Sitters are rated after every booking, and parents can recommend a sitter to their friends. We’ve brought flexibility back into the lives of parents.
Over the last 4 months, we have begun our national roll-out. We’re now in 50 communities nationwide and expanding to over 100 communities by year’s end.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Entrepreneurship is never a smooth road, but it is fun and filled with challenges. One of the biggest challenges is keeping up with expectations. Each month we celebrate new highs, only to get right back to work to outdo ourselves.
Please tell us about Bambino Sitters.
Bambino is an app-based social network that connects neighborhood families to trusted, local babysitters. On the sitter side, Bambino connects sitters with friends of families they’ve sat for before, and those that live right around the corner. Bambino is not a traditional job board and it’s not a platform for viewing countless sitter profiles. We help parents connect to the babysitters around them and to see personal recommendations from their friends and neighbors. In addition, parents can see the sitter’s hourly rate, the number of bookings they’ve completed, how far away they are, and how they are connected through friends. For the sitters, they can see their connection to parents before accepting a job.
Because every single sitter is recommended by a local parent, families feel confident booking their sitters through Bambino. And Bambino goes the extra step by tracking the duration of a sit and handling payment through the app so there are no more scrambles for cash or awkward goodbyes.
Bambino is babysitting made easy!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hindsight is always 20/20, so there are a lot of things I might have done differently with the product at the outset. That said, every misstep is a lesson learned, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without those missteps. If I could do anything over again, it would be to move even faster in the early days. Time and money are the two biggest constraints for a startup, and one feeds the other.
Contact Info:
- Address: 312 Arizona Ave.,
Santa Monica, CA 90401 - Website: www.bambinositters.com
- Phone: 844-622-6246
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @bambinositters
- Facebook: @bambinositters
- Twitter: @bambinositters
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bambino-sitters-santa-monica
- Other: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bambino-babysitting-made-easy/id1078293068?mt=8
Image Credit:
Megan Witt
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