Day 5 Interviews - Part 1

British Academy - Spoke to them and showed them our process map for a CRM system. They agreed that they think they could increase their profitability by having a better system in place and agreed to be part of our beta pilot.

Laura Kapelski - agreed to sign wait list concierge consent form and has unborn child on three-four waitlists already. She mentioned having several challenges talking to home care daycares and understanding her place on waitlists.

Day 4 Interviews

On day 4 we decided to learn more about the actual business and payment processes for individual daycares.

I spoke to La Petitite Academy about their system - they mentioned that they use an update internal CRM system but are not able to send updates and trigger emails to parents. As such they advise parents to call on a weekly basis to see if there has been any movement. They are unable to predict likelihood of waitlist places because availability depends on the age and schedule of the child. They said they would be interested in application that tied upto their CRM system and was parent facing

Horizons - Group Interview

Blog Interviews - Read through blogs on DCmothers relating to wait lists. Learned that many of them had been on wait lists for over a year. Mothers complained about paying for waitlists and then calling the daycares back who had no recollection of their account.

DayCare Interviews

British School - Mr. Meyers - Enrollment specialist. pre-k - 12th grade. About 60-80 kids under the age of 5 years old. They do not have a CRM system and find it difficult to reach out to parents. Since they are a newer school targeted at international clients - they don't have wait list challenges but would like to gain more enrollment to expand school.

Seasons Daycare: Very small daycare, no system in place, the women told me she would call me to schedule an interview later as she was busy warming meals.

St. John Episcol DayCare - They were not willing to talk. They said that they had a paper in place which suited them just fine. The office manager told me the director was busy and she would have her email me.

Georgetown Montessori - Very hesitant of sharing information.

Interview with a Professor (Also a Father of four)

It was not the best day to conduct interviews given the brutal weather in Washington, DC. But, we were lucky to bump into a very senior professor in the University and talk to him about his experience with day care services in the area. The professor stated that his wife and he were lucky in a way due to their seniority in the school. They were flexible with their work hours and routines and didn't have to use a nanny or day care for the initial months. But as the child grew, they had to consider day care centers in the area. They didn't want to consider any other day care centers beside the one in Georgetown. The professor said " If you don't apply for the wait list on Day 1, BAD IDEA!". The process is long and painful and feels like making a bet on whether you will get a spot or not, if you don't know how the priority system works in the day care center.



  

Interview with Paula (Mother of 2)

We interviewed Paula, a mother of two kids, on how her experience was looking for a child care service. With her first one, she just applied to one very reputable child care center in the DC area. She paid $100 to be considered for the wait list. After numerous calls and several years later, she hasn't still received a call. She felt cheated and robbed for nothing. She said that after such a bad experience with the 1st one, she applied to several day cares for her 2nd one. Although, she still has no better insight on whether her child will get a slot, she feels that at least one should open up. When asked if it would help to have someone take care of the wait list process, she replied "Oh my GOD! That will be a life savior." When asked what she feels could be the challenges, she felt that trust was important and that if she can actually trust the service to do an honest job. She was also scared if the day cares would discriminate parents who outsource the process to an agency.

Would you let us TayCare?

We approached expecting parents asking whether they had registered on any daycare waitlists. For those who had or were planning to soon, we asked what their experience had been. We followed up with the following questions: Would you like someone else to do the job for you? Would you pay for it? This are some of the answers we got:

• Jennifer (pregnant, full-time lawyer, her husband a full-time MBA student): "Yes! I enrolled on 4 wait lists and it's been so time consuming. We are looking to enroll in more wait lists and the process is overwhelming. I would pay for some help." After thinking for a few seconds she continued, "...but I would pay you, because I trust you and I know you'll be responsible, polite, and will get back to me with thorough and transparent feedback." Jennifer has been my friend for a few years.
• Laura and Dave (pregnant, full time employees): "How much would I have to pay?" --I hadn't thought about this yet--"a small monthly fee..." They said they thought it would be helpful to have someone making phonecalls and providing updatses for them. They would be interested if it didn't cost more than $40 per month
• Alicia: "I'm currently working part-time, and honestly, I prefer to take the time to do it myself. It's a very important decision and I like to have direct contact with the centers where I might enroll my baby"
• Shannon (pregnant) and her mother Claire: Shannon said she would love some help, and Shannon jumped in "you should have said so! I can help you with that!" Shannon chuckled. Under the hypothetical example that she didn't have her mother's help, she said she would be willing to pay for the services
• Julia (my friend, mother of twins, and one of my first interviewees): Sounds like a great idea, I might not be a full time employee, but taking care of twins is a full-time job for sure. My friend Anna is going through a lot of stress with the process too, maybe she'd be interested"
• Averi (my classmate's friend): "I wish I knew what my arrangement will be [...] I am on 5 lists and they are not very encouraging, estimating 18 to 30 months of wait-time [...] I would pay about $20 to have weekly updates on my status for a month and for gaining additional informed insights about my options."

The relationships of trust that I have with my friends is definitely a plus in offering these services, but this could be a good place to start building experience, relationships and a reputation for the business before we gain the trust of strangers.

Interview with Prity Singh (Mother of 2)

We interviewed Prity, a Project Manager and mother of 2. She described her pregnancy as a Roller Coaster ride. She said that with her first born, she just blanked out not knowing what to do. She had to eventually call her mother to take care of the little one. With her second one, she was more prepared as she reached out to several day cares in the area, early on in the process. Her initial list of day cares comprised of day cares that her friends and co-workers trusted and liked. As they were living in the metro area, the wait lists were long and information too unstructured.

How many day cares did yo apply to? I applied to 5 day cares.

How much did you pay for the wait lists? The fee varied from $70 - $150.

How many times did you call the day care centers to check the status? I called one day care center each day of the week because I couldn't have my mother come over again to look after the kids.  

Was the process frustrating? Oh Yes! I believe the season was busy, and often I got busy lines and they necessarily didn't return calls, so I had to redial quite often which took a lot of time from my busy schedule.

Would it help if someone you knew took care of the process for you? I guess it will. As long as they could ensure I could trust them with providing me accurate information as well as the day care sending out legit information to the agency.

Would you be willing to pay for this service?  I can start with a small amount. If they do a good job, I might pay more.

Interview @ Reiter, Hill, Johnson & Nevin - 11 Interviews

We visited Reiter, Hill, Johnson & Nevin, an OBGYN in Washington, DC. This visit was to enable us to communicate with expectant mothers, fathers to validate out service. We spoke to several mothers and fathers to understand how are they preparing to welcome their babies. Parents were extremely enthusiastic but anxious and overwhelmed at the same time. Talking to the parents revealed their anxiety around finding the perfect infant care service. Several parents had talked to a trusted group of friends, families, co-workers to evaluate day care centers and shortlisted the ones they had/ or were planning to apply to. A few of the parents also had day care centers in their office and weren't looking for other alternatives due to the convenience that came with a client facing day care center. Majority of the parents were aware of the long wait lists that existed across quality day care centers and had payed and applied very early on in the pregnancy. Parents validated that beside getting the nursery ready, frequent trip to the doctors, office work, daily chores, they spent considerable time checking on the status of the applications as their due date were getting closer. When we put forth our service that will take the pain away from the process and help them focus on the joys of parenthood, they seemed interested and eager to try the service. Some of them were hesitant as they felt that they couldn't trust the service to follow up with the same sincerity. On a broader level, we felt that if we could create an initial customer base with a trusted group of friends, families and find advocates, it would be easier for strangers to trust our service. This will eventually extend to a broader base of parents who believe that we will make the wait list process convenient and simplified.


   

Interview @ Hoya Child (Georgetown Universities) - 7 parents

We interviewed 7 parents at Hoya Child center to assess and test our MVP which is primarily providing consulting services to parents for providing weekly updates on the wait list process. We got mixed responses from the parents but majority liked the idea and confirmed that they would be willing to use a service that made it convenient for them.

Here are the responses from the parents we interviewed:

Parent 1 - "Absolutely!", My wife & I spent a lot of time calling all the different day cares and hearing pretty much the same answer week after week. I would love it if someone would do it on my behalf with the same sincerity and interest.  

Parent 2 - Yes! I would definitely consider it for my next child. I am sure it will save me a lot of time.

Parent 3 - I don't think so. I didn't call the day cares as regularly as some of the other parents. I would use the service if it for free or if I apply to several centers.

Parent 4 - I think my wife would like it. She was overwhelmed with the whole process and calling several day cares week after week.

Parent 5 - We had heard that centers discriminate and so made it a job to regularly call and check. I wouldn't mind if someone does it for me.

Parent 6 - I didn't have a Plan B! Either it was day care or no clue. It would help if someone followed up on my behalf while I worked on a Plan B.

Parent 7 - I don't know. It depends if I feel comfortable with the people who will do this on my behalf. 

Interview @ Bright Horizons with Jeanine Porter (Regional Manager)

The team interviewed Jeanine Porter, the Regional Manager for 20 Bright Horizon centers in the DC Metro area. The interview was conducted to understand how the current systems operate and if they face any particular challenges in the whole process.

Here is the snippet from our conversations:

How do all the centers in the Bright Horizon network currently operate? The centers operate independently as some are client facing and some are community facing. But, there are corporate headquarters to streamline and oversee some of the common processes.

Are you using and system or solution to streamline or consolidate specific processes? We use an IMS system that allows us to manage staff parent interactions and helps enrollment managers pull out parent information from a central database.

Do you have a central online payment solution for parents? Yes, we are currently rolling out an online consolidated payment solution.

How transparent is the current wait list process? From a day care perspective, since each center has specific priorities to work around, we can't provide a unified wait list status to parents.

How much time do you typically spend on an average communicating with them about wait list and enrollment? It is roughly between 1.5 - 2 hrs daily. 

What do you see as the biggest challenge? I believe, that parents feel robbed and cheated some way because they spend a lot of time and money to be on wait list not knowing if they will ever get a spot.

Interview @ zero to three (Front Desk)

We went to Zero to Three (center for infant care) in Foggy Bottom. Although it turned out to be a center that educates in infant care (due to all the unorganized information on the internet). The lady at the front desk informed us of a website childcareaware that she redirects parents to in order to find child care services by zip code.   

Interview @ Bright Horizons DC (Manager & Front Desk)

We interviewed the staff at Bright Horizons day care center in DC to understand the similarities and differences in the operational process compared to other Bright Horizons center. They showed us a system which was installed at the entrance. The system was used by both parents and staff to communicate to each other. The parents could access the systems by entering their User ID. Any sort of message, updates or news to the parents were left on the system. The parents also used the system to leave messages for teachers and staff members. The manager also informed us that although each Bright Horizon center runs differently and caters to different communities, a lot of the operations are centralized and monitored and run by the central HQ. 

Day 2 Conclusions

After visiting more than 10 daycare centers and interviewing about 15 daycare staff members, we reached the following conclusions:

• The wait list management system is very manual, inefficient, and time consuming. All the centers used a number of large binders with individual sheets for each kid on the wait list. Assistant Directors spent a lot of time on a regular basis shifting sheets within binders to update the age and wait list for each age range, and making phone calls to several parents to see who is still waiting for a spot once one opens up.
• The wait list is longest for infants because of the very limited number of babies that each center can accommodate.
• Most,  but not all daycare centers, charge a fee to enter the wait list (about $150).
• While most of the employees in charge of managing the wait list agree that the process is cumbersome, time-consuming and far from optimal, we anticipate resistance to change because they have always worked this way and they feel they have it under control.
• While wait list managers would appreciate a more automated system and better communication with parents, they want to remain in full control of what the parents can see about their wait list.
• To persuade daycare owners and top executives of the value of automating the wait list process, it will be necessary to quantify the time and resources that are currently being wasted due to the inefficiency of the process.

A disappointing surprise:

•  We had focused on interviews mainly and had limited time to do research online. Once we searched for current CRM and wait list solutions for daycare centers, we easily found dozens of CRM solutions and at least 3 of them included wait list solutions.

What's next then?

• It was still interesting and intriguing that none of the daycare centers we interviewed is currently using the available software for wait lists. We need to find out why that is, what we can do differently to make our product successful, if it is still viable at all.
• If the reason is that decision-makers don't see the value of automated wait list management, we need to quantify such value

Interview @ Children's House of Washington ( Manager and Teachers)

We interviewed the manager and teachers at the Children's House of Washington, a day care for children aged above 2.5 years. The day care facility was a small one with capacity of about 28 students. The school has been in the area for about 30 years with a good reputation in the neighborhood. When asked about the challenges they face in the admissions or admin process, they answered that since the school size is small they didn't necessarily see a challenge. The current payment system has been outsourced to a 3rd party. The school also didn't find any challenges with the wait list process. They never faced the issue of a greater demand than they could enroll. Our team probed the managers, if there was something that could be done in the current operational process that could be optimized, they replied that since the children our so few and parents come to drop and pick their kids daily, whatever news, information, events, sign up they need to carry out, they do it in person.   

Breaking into daycares: an hour-by-hour journal

7:30am, hit Columbia Heights to vist Centronia, a childcare center with strong Hispanic influence where I hoped to play the "I'm Latin too" card to get some interviews: The front desk lady, a sweet Central American girl, was very polite but absolutely blunt in telling me that she would not answer any questions until she received expressed authorization from the Executive Assistant, who was in charge of communications with University students. She suggested that I call her after 8:30 when she usually arrived, but I insisted I would wait for her. The front desk lady didn't take her eyes off me every time a staff member walked by to make sure I didn't try to interview them.

9:00am, Radhika, Executive Assistant finally shows up: After waiting 1.5 hours and doing some research about her background on my phone while I waited, Radhika answered a few general questions and explained that the center is a non-profit organization that serves low income families, 80% of which receive government subsidies to pay for daycare services:. http://vocaroo.com/i/s1roYgviXv5Y
Radhika said she had only been with the center for 6 months and would have to refer me to other employees to get my questions about Admissions answered. She asked for my contact information to get back to me later, but I insisted to try to speak with Admissions staff for a few minutes. She kindly ceded and took me to the Admissions office, where I spoke with 2 staff members, Gabriela and Yashira. They explained that parents don't pay to be on the wait list, that their wait list can be 1 to 2 years long (about 100 families), and that it is longest for infants because of the small number of infants they could accommodate while complying with regulations and maintaining a safe staff-baby ratio. They also said that they spend a lot of time on the phone answering inquiries or calling parents when a spot opens up, often having to make several calls if the parents have already found a different center or solution. They said that it would indeed be very helpful for them to know which parents are still "active" on the wait list and have not enrolled their children in other centers. They tried obtaining this information before by mailing a form that included an extra stamp for parents to send back a confirmation of their active status on the wait list. However, of approximately 700 forms they mailed, they only received about 125 back. She also talked about other pain points that Spanish speakers will be able to listen to from this recording: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0jBmAgDp5Ok

10:00am, I get kicked out of a daycare in Adams Morgan: While I waited for Radhika to arrive, I made some phone calls to other neighboring daycares. I got in touch with an employee at Jubilee Jumpstart in Adams Morgan. She was the Manager of Development and Communication at the daycare and she said she would be happy to meet me to answer my questions. So I walked to Adams Morgan to be greeted by a not so friendly front desk lady. When I told her that I had an appointment with Stephanie Thompson, she said that she was aware, but that Stephanie had realized that she wasn't the appropriate person to answer my questions. The receptionist suggested that I call in to make an appointment with the Director who would be back in the office the next day. I explained that I had a couple of very simple questions to make, but she was getting very impatient. When I asked if I could ask her a couple questions, she said "I'm going to have to ask you to leave now, you are not authorized to be in our premises." So that was that.

10:30am, metro to L'Enfant Plaza to meet a friend with a contact at Bright Horizons: My friend was caught up in a meeting though, so I waited in the cold for 45 minutes. While I waited I got a phone from my husband's former colleague's brother in law, who owns a daycare center chain and I had emailed the night before. I thought I wouldn't hear from him, but gladly he called and said "I got you appointments with the Directors at 2 of my centers in Bethesda. Can you make it here within the next hour or so?" Of course, now that I was 5 minutes away from getting introduced to someone else at Bright Horizons. "I can be there at 12pm, would that work?" He agreed. I finally meet my friend and walk over to the Department of Energy, where the Bright Horizon's center is housed. He quickly introduces me to the Assistant Director and gets back to work. Marjorie was very friendly and she answered all my questions with a few interruptions as she attended parents' phone calls. She explained that her biggest pain point was perhaps dealing with the unpredictability that working with children and parents implies (e.g. not knowing when parents will drop off/pick up their kids within the contracted time frame and having 20 kids dropped off at the exact same minute one random day). This unpredictability, she said, results in a lot of teacher overtime, which really affects the center's budget. Regarding their CRM system, she explained they currently use Bright Star, which she thinks works fine but has plenty of loopholes. They use a different IMS for their waitlist to communicate with other centers, but she didn't find it useful and still relied on big old binders, where she kept tabs for each wait list (one for each government agency's employees and age range). She also explained that she would like to have more visibility into which parents are still interested in a spot and that currently the only way to find that out is by calling each parent individually when a spot opens up, which can be very time consuming and inconvenient when they are trying to fill a spot quickly. This center charges $150 to be on the wait list but the fee varies across Bright Horizons' centers. She expressed the following, however: "I wouldn't make the wait list public because, I've learned, parents need to know just what parents need to know": http://vocaroo.com/i/s1p2LU2osk1n


11:45am, metro to Bethesda to visit Children in a Shoe: Evidently, I was half an hour late to meet the director of one of the centers of Children in a Shoe. Mary Alice seemed very busy and yet she was wonderful--being introduced by the center's owner helps. She explained that Children in a Shoe serves affluent families in Bethesda and that their rates are such that they don't need to charge for wait list fees. Like the other centers, they have a very manual process to populate and update wait lists consisting on a bunch of huge binders with simple forms for each child that applies. The form itself is very basic (contact info, child age, and preferred start date), but they like to add several details to the margins of the form such as (sent flowers today, seems like easy-going parents, or difficult couple), which they take into consideration when a spot opens up. She said she would be interested to see any solution to the wait list challenge and that her biggest pain point was the lack of time to attend to all her tasks and responsibilities, especially with the unpredictability that Marjorie had described.

12:45pm, walk across the street to visit a second, separate Children in a Shoe Center: There I spoke with Ira, the Director of that center, who confirmed Mary's views and gave me a copy of a wait list application form. She said that she, and other Directors, had recently suggested that a single person be in charge for the wait lists of all the centers to take that time-consuming task off the directors' plates. Finally I met Jon, the owner of Children in a Shoe. He continuously emphasized how important it was for him to keep Directors, the backbone of the organization, happy. He said very clearly, however, that he wasn't very interested in changing the wait list system. He thought it was a tool that worked fine and that he liked to have full control of it without giving too much transparency to parents, because transparency could generate more questions and more dissatisfaction.  He also appreciated the fact that people saw the daycare as a sought-after center. He expressed that challenges such as payroll and enrollment (a universal CRM system across all centers) were the most important operating challenges he currently faced.

1:30pm, grab lunch and metro and GUTS back to Georgetown to debrief with the team.

Interview with Kim (Mother of 1)

Kim started looking for day care centers at the beginning of her pregnancy. She did not want a nanny as she felt their were security issues. She also considered some Home based day care centers. She mentioned that she would want more open communication with the day care centers. She also pin pointed the wait list to be the biggest problem in the process. 

Interview with Jeff Reid

We interviewed Jeff Reid, Founding Director of the Georgetown Entrepreneur and father of a young one to describe his experience of finding an infant day care provider. He recounted his experience by stating that he went on the wait list of Hoya Child care one week after welcoming the birth of his son. He was surprised and frustrated by the wait list process as they continue to be on the wait list. The family didn't try for other day cares as Hoya Child care is the most convenient and affordable day care center for the family. He detailed the wait list process is long and inefficient. The process also adds to the anxiety and frustration of process. He expressed that he wished there was a system to make the application process transparent to an extent so that they could estimate what their probability of getting a spot looked like. He also added if a range could be provided instead of the actual spot in the list would also be helpful for eg. top 25%, top 50% etc.      

Interview at The French Maternal School (Teacher and Manager)

We interviewed a day care known as the French Maternal school which accepted children aged 2 and above. The manager described the process very selective. She maintained that the admissions process was not rolling and there were specific timelines. So the parents did not have to wait too long to find out where they stand in the system. They also emphasized that they don't want the process to be online or automated because they want to have the personal one-on-one interactions with the parents to gauge and screen parents.

We also spoke to the teacher to understand if she faced any particular challenges with the daily activities. She replied that since they only had a small number of children, she didn't mind the paper work or the manual filing of documents. 

Interview @ Bright Horizon Rosslyn ( Director- Rhonda & Front Desk)

We went to Bright Horizons today to speak with the Admin and management to understand how the whole day care process works. At the very outset of our conversation, the front desk lady described her responsibilities of managing the application as well as the day to day activities. She informed us that currently from receiving application, to processing the applications, maintaining wait lists, maintaining child records etc, everything was manual. Additionally she stressed that " she wished there was an online system through which parents could check the wait list process" so that instead of answering calls and replying to emails, she could focus on the more important work.

We also spoke to the center director to understand if they had any process currently in place to manage the systems. She told us that they used "IMS" to keep a track on the number of times a parent visits, calls, emails the center. She also told us that she maintains a binder for all the applications and keeps them in order of priorities. The Director is in charge of the binder and every time a family moved up or down the wait list, she manually moved around the applications in that order. She also told us about the wait list that they currently have. She had about 50 parents on wait list for infants, with around 50 infants already in the center. The wait list got shorter as the child progresses from infancy to toddler and above.  

Day 1 conclusions

After completing 10 interviews with fathers and mothers of children under 5 years old, our hypothesis on the problem of childcare access and cost in D.C. was confirmed: Finding a childcare solution is a real, stressful, and costly challenge in the city.

We found several similarities and differences across our interviewees:

Similarities

• Everyone agreed that it is extremely difficult and expensive to find a childcare solution in D.C. and parents are concerned about this since the start contemplating having babies in the city.
• Everyone pointed out waitlists as a particularly painful, stressful, and frustrating process.
• While this is a challenge, everyone we spoke with had figured out a solution, many of them had gone through more than one childcare arrangement.
• Most interviewees were satisfied with their current childcare arrangement and wouldn't like to switch
• Almost none of the interviewees had completely dismissed any of the three main alternatives (daycare center, nanny, staying at home) although they all expressed a clear preference, which was consistently the current arrangement. The only parents who had been set on one alternative from the beginning were those who already had a considerably cheaper, convenient solution at hand (e.g. employer provided daycare at good cost and gave them priority, they had a relative at home who could take care of the child). Only a couple seriously considered relying on peers and take care of each other kids.
• Almost everyone we talked to said that they "were lucky" to find their current arrangement: a happy coincidence/encounter with a nanny, clicked with the daycare center admissions officer and skipped the waitlist, had a job that offered the option. 
• Most agreed that they might have the flexibility to arrange their work week schedule differently but would prefer not to do that.
• Everyone agreed that it would  be easier to take care of 3 children with another adult, than to take care of two children on their own.
• They mentioned some parenting/childcare online resource they used often but it was rarely the same resource.

Differences

• Current childcare arrangements and work schedules/conditions varied widely. 
• The path that each parent took to find their preferred arrangement varied widely.
• While the basic criteria for an acceptable childcare solution were standard (cost, safety, convenience), the specifics varied a lot: some would required certification for nannies, for others certification wasn't important as long as they had experience

Based on these findings, we reached the following conclusions:

• We are facing a real problem with great opportunities for improvement
• The solution that we had originally proposed would narrow our market too much and would require too many resources per customer
• Partners can figure it out, but the process of finding a solution is too stressful and chaotic.
• Our value proposition can be providing more control to parents on their search for a childcare solution
• Our solution has pivoted to a better system to manage childcare centers waitlists

Interview with Keitlin Park (Mother of 3 and works in Georgetown University)

Keitlin is a mother of 3 children and travels daily from Maryland. Here is a brief summary of the conversation we had:

Would you have preferred a Nanny or Day Care? Nannies are expensive to hire. Our financial situation did not allow for a nanny.

Would you have been comfortable sharing a Nanny given a more affordable option? No, I was living in a 1 room Condo and the space did not allow for having a Nanny and additional kids in the house. 

Do you see challenges in hiring a Nanny? Yes, you are dependent on a single person and have to entertain their changing demands of pay raise. I don't personally feel comfortable with someone in my house. 

Interview with Lisa ( Mother of 1 and works in Georgetown University)

Lisa, a mother of 1, drops her kid to the Hoya Day care center. She recounted her experience and informed us that the whole process was overwhelming. She did not find a centralized system to refer to for all the information needed. She wanted to put her daughter in the day care center earlier but as the Hoya day care doesn't take children under 18 months, she had to hire a nanny for the short period. She referred to several bogs such as DC Urban MOMS and White house Nannies to help with the process. There were a lot of challenges with the price as well as how trained and reliable the nannies are. She was lucky to find a co-worker who was willing to share a nanny with her. This helped her with the prices a bit, but the nanny was unhappy with the whole arrangement and cited tax issues. Lisa payed roughly $25, 000 for the nanny while she pays $12,000 for the day care. She is happy with the day care center but wished for the center to allow enrollments to at an earlier age. Additionally, she mentioned signing up for several day care centers and that the wait listing process was ineffective and inconvenient.

Interview with Professor Jason Schloetzer

We caught Professor Schloetzer dropping his kid to the Hoya day care center. Our conversations revealed that they had to sign up for the day care center very early in the pregnancy. Also, they had to simultaneously sign up to several day care centers not knowing which one would eventually open up a slot. He brought a unique insight into the process by breaking the whole situation into that one of mismatch between demand and supply. He said that "the whole process is inefficient". Parents receive notifications about slots opening up way after they had signed up with other day care centers. Parents also did not call up day care centers to cancel up registrations once they accepted openings at some other centers. The whole process also costed a lot of money because to be put on hold each day care center had to be paid a certain amount of money.

Why do you like infant care/ day care services? The centers allow your kids to learn how to be social very early on in the process. These centers also allow kids to learn through active learning. On the side, it allows parents to have an active social life by going to all these different birthday parties and meeting new parents.     

What was the biggest problem that you faced? Ineffective wait listing process, transparent process and more timely feedback.

Interview with Lauren

We interview Lauren over the phone because she is working full time in DC. Max, her son is attending a Day Care institution in DC. She mentioned that they were very lucky to find a spot in that place and only waited 6 months.
She took the three weeks off and then sent him to the day care. They did not look for any nanny because the process is overwhelming.
They did research online to find the appropriate day care, and the main priority was safety and home proximity.
She also mentioned that the process is not transparent at all! There is a lot of uncertainty and anxiety.

She was very exited when we mentioned her our idea of improving the whole process.

Interview with Tosin (MSB student and Mother of 2)

Our interview with Tosin about her experience with the child care services unfolded different experiences they had has a family in two different states.  Her experiences in New Jersey were very different from her experiences in Virginia. She particularly pin pointed different state policies driving the child care services in that area. While in New Jersey her neighborhood was a low income area and hence, the government pooled in a lot of money in day care centers for providing, foods, books, toys etc. As opposed to in Virginia, the day care centers have fewer children and provide fewer additional facilities. She also considered nannies to look after the kids, but wasn't happy with nanny experiences she had. She stressed on the fact that there was always a trust issue with nannies and that " they strike when you have gained their maximum trust." Nannies were also more likely to ask for pay raise, days off, pick-up/drop offs etc. Based on her personal experiences she preferred the schedule, social interaction, security, trust that came with a day care center as opposed to a nanny. She also mentioned that specific schools provide extra hours of child care and some schools have extended to infant care and pre-kindergarten care and that makes it easier for both parents and children to transition from one center to another. 

Kashmira Karnik Bio

Kashmira Karnik

Prior to pursuing an MBA at Georgetown, Kashmira honed her analytical problem solving skills on Wall Street before realizing her passion in Marketing, and more specifically Brand Management. Leveraging her experiences, Kashmira switched to a consulting role at American Express where she utilized customer data to create compelling insights and actionable strategies for Luxury Retail clients across a wide range of marketing functions with the ultimate goal of increasing revenue.

Throughout her career, Kashmira has always been deeply involved with the community; she has worked for an NGO in India, mentored NYC high school students and most recently served as the VP of Community Outreach Events in the Women’s Interest Group at American Express.

1st Round of Interviews - 4 interviews

4 Interviews Tuesday March 11th Morning

1.) Interview 1 - Random Ukranian Woman, solicited in the Georgetown Parking Lot. Pregnant, with one child at home. Stay at home mother. Spent 20k a year for 2-3 hours daily. Very focused on finding warm teachers that are more like grandmothers. Does regular play dates. 7 year old children

2.) Interview 2- Giordan Gill - MBA student - 3 month year old newborn. Wife very specific on how the baby should be taken care of. Currently have two sets of in-laws to take care of child. Wife has taken time off to take care of baby but hopes to head back to school. Worried about affordable day care.

3.) Interview 3 - Laura Kapenski - Career Center MSB - 3 months pregnant. Has already begun research day care options and plans to go back to work after 3 months. Would like to do some sort of shared day care/ nanny option but does not know anyone in the same position. Cost, location, quality of care and flexibility the most pressing concerns. Most of her information came from other parents - especially concerned about home care and daycare options that did not come recommended. Mentioned that the good day cares have wait lists and only know about availability one month prior. Mentioned that sources of information very fragmented. Would be interested in a service that interviewed parents needs, lifestyle,  and then found and vetted three best options. Would be willing to pay $500-$1000 dollars.

4.) Interview 4 - Lauren Cupp - Mother of 2 (age 27 months and three weeks), former pre-school teacher. Left work to take care of children because the costs of daycare prohibitive. Would use nanny/daycare if left over salary was a least 1500$(take home) a month. Participates in Mothers Day Out - run by church - allows mother to drop child off once or twice a week - same day, time and teachers. 9 kids to 2 teachers. Likes mothers day out option because it is cheaper than day care, flexible

Garima Singh's Bio

I was born and raised in India. My undergrad major was in Information Technology engineering and I went on to pursue consulting in the IT space for few years. In need for a more socially driven role, I decided to work full time at an grass root rural development non-profit. I also interned at a Netherlands based Supply Chain Management no-profit. My last role was as a Corporate Social Responsibility officer for an automotive manufacturing firm. 

I decided to pursue an MBA at Georgetown to gain some key business and managerial skills while continually contributing to the social space that exists in Washington, DC. 

Interview with Damien (Father of twins)

Damien and his wife started looking for a day care option while his wife was in her 2nd trimester. Their first option was a family member look after the girls, but it wasn't feasible. They had co-workers who were also evaluation options but everyone had vague ideas of what are the best resources or options that exists. Since Damien worked at a Naval research lab, he found out about the DOD day care center. They explored other child care services such as nannies but found it too expensive.

Some snippets from the conversation are as follows:

What were your top choices for day care? 1) Family, 2) Nannies, 3) Day care centers

What were the factors in considering child care services? Price, reliability, trustworthy, proximity to house, recommendations from friends and family members.

What were the challenges with day care? The waiting list is long. The other day care centers might not be at a convenient location, didn't have good track records, expensive.

Are you considering a Nanny? Yes, there is a network known as MOTH (Mothers on the Hill). But nannies are expensive and if a friend found a good nanny they are not keen or willing to share a nanny. Demand is huge with limited options.

What benefits did you see at the DOD day care? The center is subsidized by the government. It falls on the way to work and the hours are flexible.

What challenges do you see in hiring a Nanny? Establishing trust and rapport. Going to a 3rd party for finding a stranger, nanny. Process of finding, interviewing, gathering references.

Interview with Swaty (Mother of 2 kids)

I was able to get an aunt to interview about how her child care experience was and learn about what were her priorities and challenges that she faced. Starting off the conversation on what options were she most interested in, she said - " Day Care was simply not an option." She went on to explain that given her cultural background, she wasn't comfortable with the idea of letting the kid not be at his/her home as an infant. For her, the next best option was to hire a Nanny. The 'Nanny Hunt' process was daunting and time consuming and involved a lot of Google searches, recommendations by friends and family members and word-of-mouth advertisements. She specifically wanted a nanny who was referred to her by some one she knew given that there was a greater trust factor. Up until the time she didn't find a nanny, both the parents worked around the schedule to look after the kid. She would often leave for work very early in the morning and come back by noon at which time the father would leave the home for work. Her first nanny lasted for a short period of time as she would often smoke and she didn't have ways to find out if the nanny was smoking in the kid's presence. A second nanny who she learned about from a friend, was more suited given her similar cultural background. She retained the nanny for her 2nd child as well. She liked the nanny as besides just child care, the nanny also took care of other household chores.

Some of the reasons behind her specific needs were:

Why not Day Care? There is an initial hassle of getting ready yourself, getting the child ready in the morning, waking up the child very early in the morning.

What were the challenges in the Nanny hiring process? The resources were fragmented. There was no organization providing nannies with specific cultural background or language preferences. Finding someone who is caring and is personal with the children. The process in itself is very expensive.

What were the challenges with Nanny? She didn't know how to drive. She had to find another driver to take the nanny and kids to library and other places. There were language issues from time to time with both the nannies.

Would you be comfortable babysitting your friend's children and vice versa? No. There are several considerations such as family issues, eating habits, living style etc.


   

Maria's Interview recordings

An interview with Jack, a startup classmate whose baby girl goes to a daycare center where she received enrollment priority because Jack's wife works at the school that houses the center: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1BunhWTMsDQ

An interview with Alex, who shares a nanny with his neighbors to take care of her baby girl: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1FSJdkqiUKe Part 2: http://vocaroo.com/i/s01fZBA0VCnK

An interview with Lara, Alex's wife: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0GOy4hn1LzE

An  interview with Julia, who currently takes care of her 18 months old twin girls, but who is hoping to return to the workforce soon: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0yacpjPoMQS

An interview with Chris, another startup classmate, father of three, whose wife stays at home to take care of the children: http://vocaroo.com/delete/s0tXZKMG4N42/3910afc622aa5417

An interview with Nelson, a Startup Factory classmate who had a baby girl a few weeks ago and who hopes her wife will continue to stay at home taking care of Sofia: http://vocaroo.com/i/s05PQV3amxcT

Why this matters

·        The Problem and the size of the problem

 There are over 39 thousand children under 5 years old in Washington, DC, more than half of whom live in households with family incomes below $75,000. However, “the cost of care in the District of Columbia is higher than in any of the 50 states […]. In 2011, the average cost of full-time care for an infant in a DC child care center was more than $20,000 a year. That is roughly 80 percent of median income for a single mother in DC.”[1] Additionally, the limited capacity of current child care providers results in more than 10,000 children on provider waiting lists at a time.[2]

·        Who has the problem?

The high cost and shortage of child care is particularly detrimental for D.C. families with children 3 or younger, and household income below $75,000.

Watch this 4 minute video for a very eloquent explanation of the socioeconomic impact of this issue:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1ttD8rODM

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[1]Child Care Aware of America, “Parents and the High Cost of Child Care.” 2013 Report.

[2] Center for Applied Research and Urban Policy, “2010 District of Columbia Child Care Market Rates and Capacity Utilization”

Maria Luque's Bio

I was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia and I moved to Florida with my parents in 2003, where I was a babysitter for several families, including one with three-year-old triplet boys. While in Florida, I majored in International Relations and Economics at Florida International University and since then I've pursued a career with high social impact.

Upon graduation, I moved to Washington, D.C. and worked with Grameen Foundation for three years. As Human Capital Associate for Grameen Foundation, I helped mission-oriented organizations that served the poor improve their human capital practices.

I decided to pursue an MBA at Georgetown to improve my business skills and apply the rigor of sound business principles to initiatives that seek to address socioeconomic challenges, and contribute to their sustainability.

During my time in D.C. I've learned through my friends' experiences the great challenges that new parents face in the city looking for affordable childcare solutions that work with their job schedules and career aspirations. As I find myself approaching that moment in my life where I'll be facing that same challenge, I see a great opportunity, not only only to develop a profitable business model around this unmet need, but also an opportunity to have an important social and economic impact in our community.

Original business model for "Childcare Made Easy"

Rocio, Jacob's mother

We interviewed Rocio monday afternoon. Rocio and her husband work full time and they have a 17 month old son  called Jacob. She is sending her son to a child care from Monday to Friday and she is very happy with the day care.

Child care time line:
0-4 months: she took maternity leave.
4-11 Months: friends and family members helped while they worked full time. They each took one day off once a week.
11 months onwards: Day Care.

Rocio's interview helped us identify what are the biggest challenges parents have while looking for a child care service. Eventhough Day Cares are expensive, they wanted to send Jacob to one so that he could socialize and develop new skills.

When we asked Rocio if she would be willing to take care of another baby, she mentioned that she would rather do it together with a nanny and 3 kids instead of herself and 2 babies. She also mentioned that there are many regulations that would limit the number of babies you can babysit and the places where you can do it.

When referring to the day cares, she mentioned the wait list problems, how costly and time consuming it is and that in most cases you never hear back from them.