Well, the wonderful thing is, I knew it would work from the get-go. The reason why was that I was babysitting for over 30 parents in the Boston area and every time I talked to the mothers and explained that this would be like an online dating service, but for parents and caregivers, they nearly jumped out of their seats. They would drive me to and from jobs, and we would talk about the model of the site. I didn’t draw this model; the mothers I talked to did. That gave me great confidence in building it.
However, when I was first launching it, I could not get funding. Because I was talking to a lot of guys. I think they meant well but it wasn’t a company that they understood because most of them had never arranged childcare. So I heard a lot of “It’s a babysitters club and my wife handles that” and I remember wishing that they could just bring their wives in so I could bitch to them instead.
We did eventually get funding, but it took way too long. And I hope that we did a little bit to solve the problem after we showed the success of the industry. This isn’t just a problem that women should solve in dark corners. It’s a problem for everyone. And it’s a big industry.
