Care.com – launches matching service for parents
Care.com has just launched their Family 2.0 site, aiming to match families with ‘Care and Service Providers’ in areas or industries such as Childcare, Tutoring, Pet Care and Senior Care. Care.com has received a big sum of $3.5m in VC funding, from Matrix Partners. With the success and size of companies like, Sittercity and Babysitters.com, I am wondering how Care.com will differentiate itself?
Families can recruit care workers to look after their children, elderly, pets and tutors through one aggregated center on Care.com.
I wonder if there a special screening process and a way to find people you can trust, since this is such a ‘high touch’ and ‘emotional’ process of finding not only the most qualified but the most trusting, to look after your loved ones?
Personally, I have been duped pretty badly recently and also in the past. I do love it when I use a service where the due diligence of a care worker is done for me and often in a more rigorous and professional way. I often give up and wait for a referral from a friend I can trust.
I may be just a minority, as demonstrated with the success of sites like Sittercity and Babysitters.com and I have tried to find caregivers on these sites but never went through with it.
Personally, I really like using Caresquare.com (who launched last year and have blogged previously). Caresquare.com focuses on social networking amongst families, finding care providers that are referred by families in your network helping to surpass the first barrier of trust.
Having an eye for user interfaces, I was a little confused by Care.com as it did appear to have a similar color scheme and content placement as Caresquare.com, it maybe just a co-incidence and don’t want to put any noses out of joint. However, it was a very initial observation and one I couldn’t ignore.
It does appear that Care.com’s business model is working with the site already having,
‘…listings for thousands of caregivers. Marcelo said that for months her company has quietly posted advertisements on college campuses, and sent e-mails to prospective caregivers, urging them to sign up…’ The Boston Globe
It seems these days that you need a lot of money to advertise to grow your user and contributor base. I do wonder what neat technology features will be built into Care.com to drive more value to its member base to increase the life-time usage of caregivers and members coming back, once they have found someone. I do wonder where Care’s model fits in the scheme of Family 2.0 things – is it more towards a Seek.com, rather than a social network, like Caresquare.com, I ponder? The former is were the hirer has to do a lot of work to screen for the best candidate and the later, you rely on trust networks to validate your choice of a caregiver.
It is very interesting to explore, see which model needs to burn more cash and which model drives more targeted value to the end-user?
Okay, I’ll re-phrase…in response a comment just posted…
think you are missing the point. These four sites show that there is a problem in the states, and they should all succeed. There is no better model over the other. The market and need are so big – there won’t be a “single” model winning.
The state of care is in serious disarray in America. There’s no such things as a social safety net as in European and Commonwealth nations so please don’t talk about petty color schemes and nits about funding and distribution.
I was analyzing these sites within Family 2.0 as a model and technology. Okay, from a real market place, sure totally agree with you, for the greater good, I can’t say enough that I totally understand, and maybe I should have address the bigger issues. Thanks for highlighting your points. I just like a site to stand out, and stand up for what the site is really trying to achieve. Now I ‘get’ why, from your comment, don’t get me wrong, I wish all the best success for all sites I talk about. I find a passion in talking about new tech for families, not the bigger issues which I believe is very much covered in the blogospere, but will consider in the future 
So, I did put a nose out of joint, fair enough, feel free to tell me more about this real issue, because in Australia we have major issues with our health care system, major issues and we are still having a major problem with our Medicare system (social safety net). People are dying on hospital beds in the hallways, back in Perth, on waitlist for emergency surgery, it is crazy. So I sympathize and understand.
Tags: family2.0, care.com
I found my nanny on Caresquare
As someone coming to stay from another country, there are many issues, concerns in setting up care for your child. Attending conferences is something I like doing, however, it takes me away from my son…which is fine if he’s happy, which in turn makes me happy. So imagine my worry in trying to start from scratch to find someone I can trust, even if it’s for a day or two…well, I found more than I dreamed of…I found the most loving and caring nanny I could ever wish for. Thank, Ariel you helped me find my feet here and connect into your community was a trusting experience. The power of close friends and their nanny referrals was so strong and very empowering. It was so much better than trying to source a nanny myself, having to think about the questions, the recruitment process arrr…it was also difficult to check out other competitors as I needed to have a US credit card and couldn’t pay via paypal. Caresquare was free, what a plus and I’ve found a nanny for life!!!!
Caresquare was a real top quality experience for me!! A+!!
Parentography – it’s about time!
I had to chuckle, it seems Mashable is getting clucky or is that mashy – lol…
…apparently, there are these little human beings called “kids”. Lots of people have them, and those people like to team up from time to time and devise strategies for keeping them under control. As a result, we’ve seen dozens of parenting social networks appear on the scene…
Parentography is the lastest to be launching on the horizon and it’s a dream dome true for any parent trying to find “kid friendly” places, services and vacation spots. I profiled LittleLegends who are in Beta aiming to provide a similar service for the UK.
Mashabe explains it perfectly…“Parentography aims to solve those problems, providing profile pages, a network of friends and the ability to find and write reviews on kid-friendly services, restaurants, parks and playgrounds, lodgings, activities and major attractions.”
I really hope this site will be available for all parents from all over the world, not just parents in the US. I really believe that with social software and tagging, it is so easy to geo-tag and open up the offering to any parent regardless of where they live, and allow the software to group by geography. All parents have the same need and desire to find “kid-friendly” places. It is almost an obsession and most definitely is a big consideration in the services and places parents chose to use or frequent. I even have personally boycotted places I used to frequent before I became a mother (I am sure I spent loads at this one particular place over the years, it had become a second office) and now I go to a competitor on the other side of the road for dinner, because the owner understands “kid-friendly” having four kids himself. It’s so less stressful now for an early dinner out with the hubby and a two year old in tow.
I wonder if the service will be free with advertising on the site or parents paying for a subscription? I would think the former would be most attractive in my opinion as “kid-friendly” providers would find it very appealing to advertise on Parentography, given the concept. If they can provide this globally with the ability to be local, I think this will work on a large scale…eg. a million members. The content in time would then be valuable for use on other devices other than the internet to access. Imagine, accessing your account from your phone, downloading all your “kid-friendly” providers onto your car’s GPS system and then being able to select where you wanted to take the kids for the afternoon whilst on the road, rather than having to do so before you leave the house…my ultimate dream.
Currently you can sign up on their splash page to be notified of their impending launch due winter 2007 (summer 2007 for Southern Hemisphere).
Famundo – Organizing the family
I am fresh back from holidays and have a whole lot to organise before school goes back…It’s great news that Famundo have released their family platform and has also provided Famundo for FREE for organizations. Currently you have the option of trialing the family version of Famundo with a simple demo or a 60 day trial version…but what is Famundo?
“Family life has become increasingly unmanageable with parents juggling multiple schedules for school, work, sports and social activities. Until now, there hasn’t been a single solution that is tailored to specifically meet all the needs of today’s on-the-go families.”
Not anymore, Famundo is here…
Managing the logistics of family life and family members schedules is manic, with the mom usually at the centre of wirlwind. I have seen some pretty elaborate and colorful schedule charts that are both confusing and time consuming to maintain. What I like about this offering is that the mom can set up all the family members, each with their own set of areas for keeping addresses and contact information of their friends, store files, manage their calendar and events, list of to dos and so on (entire features, here). I do like the fact that it is very customized and specific to the behavior of the family in maintaining all the “logistics” that goes into managing and running a family. I found with Cingo, I only used the “to do” area, grocery and recipe list.
With Famundo I can see myself managing all aspects of the family not just from my viewpoint but from each family members lives and what relates to them. That is very useful.
I wonder if Famundo will consider, maybe not entire calendar syncing, but maybe the appointments or events in calendar can be sent to Outlook and updated individually, as you wouldn’t want to sync everything…
Give the 60 day trial a run and let me know what you think?
CareSquare – where parents share trusted babysitters
It has been very interesting of late, the amount of questions I get asked about who I use as a trusted nanny or babysitter is at least 4 to 5 times a week. During Chirstmas time and major events, finding a trusted caregiver for your children becomes even tougher, let alone just trying to find one for a night out. I have always felt a little uneasy going to a site where babysitters post their services as I never really know how good they are. Enter CareSquare, what excites me about CareSquare is the “real time booking” (you heard it parents, REAL TIME BOOKING), now before you disappear in disbelief, it’s true. “Caregivers display availability on their personal calendars – parents can view specific calendars, or search the entire system for availability.” What I really like is that CareSquare is providing a social based platform for families to set up profiles, rate and refer caregivers within their immediate family network within CareSquare, so search last minute is possible, as you have the ability to check availabilities real time, 24 by 7.
It also gives caregivers the chance to show a track record without having to sing their own praises, but with families rating their performance as a caregiver and singing their praises for them. I believe the caregivers will set up their profiles and availabilities longterm, as this platform could become a standard additional check on top of security checks…”are you on CareSquare?” if not something’s up. On becoming a mother, I was totally oblivious to the power of the “mothers referring ad-hoc networking” and now come to think of it, I have referred my cleaner, kindermusik, gymbaroo, montessori, Smart Start, nanny, babysitter, swimming classes countless of times and all these services where originally referred to me.
Australian based, ABC Learning Centres has a market cap of A$2.5 billion and have just acquired many US learning and childcare centres, with profit up at A$81m, becoming the world’s largest childcare centre provider this year. Imagine how many parents are asking their daycare carers, if they can do some after hours babysitting (usually at the nod of the centre co-ordinator)…I wonder then, how big is the social market for after hours babysitting or nannying, I think CareSquare has enabled parents to feel a sense of trust with referrals coming from other families they trust.
I think the concept is a good one. In terms of a looking at the model from a social networking view, I am looking to see if the concept lends itself to scaling towards massive page views and a high average length of stay on the site…building content and conversation will be challenge in building value, however, there are many solutions…maybe families could join groups to reivew products they use and companies provide free samples, which could help with advertising…there is potential. Proctor and Gamble, believe that the power of word of mouth is compelling, and is doing this same kind of incentive. The trick is with every great concept that is incorporating social networking within it’s site is the ability to create a lot of content or conversation driving continual user stickiness and dare I say it, boardline addiction. However, if explored more I do think that there is a lot to talk about and referral of caregivers amongst family may be just the start.
CareSquare is in Beta, founded in the heart and soul of Silicon Valley.
More on… CareSquare is dedicated to connecting parents and caregivers in their local communities. CareSquare was created by parents of young children who understand the personal and complex process of finding trusted babysitting and nanny care. We’re here to help families and caregivers easily contact, schedule and book childcare.
GetVendors.com – Social network for households
GetVendors.com provides households with access to professional services to fix household problems, by entering your requirements into a form and you are provided results closest to your needs. It is great if you are in California, as they already have *15,000 referred professionals within their vendor network ready to be matched to you. Like Cingo.com (which is based on widgets and allows you to organise content, the household and family members), GetVendors.com also provides a household organiser which is great for the working mom, it provides a list of templates and the ability to set up your a list of your own. The site also provides for community groups.
Like the UK start up, Little Legends, and now GetVendors.com, we are starting to see a better yellow pages meeting the social network. I think it is a valid need for working moms to be abe to seek a vendor, view how they rate amongst the local community all online, which saves time and effort. Hopefully, one day we will be able to book a vendor online and in ‘real time’…now wouldn’t that be neat?
Jotspot Acquired by Google
Jotspot (a wiki start up) was acquired by Google the other day, which also included Jotspot’s Family Site, profiled here…details of the amount paid by Google is undisclosed, however according to The San Fran Cronicle in an interview with Joe Kraus, Jotspot…
“had $5.2 million in venture capital funding from Mayfield Fund and Redpoint Ventures, attracted 2,000 companies from eBay to Intel Corp. to use its software, counting 30,000 paying customers and some 300,000 free users. Kraus started talking to Google about eight months ago when Google bought Upstartle, the maker of Writely, an online word-processing program.”
Kraus co-founded Excite and for Jotspot…“Amid an Internet resurgence powered by geeks and entrepreneurs as determined to build something cool as they are to make money, Kraus sought to build an independent company. But he knew a lot of folks at Google (he bought CEO Eric Schmidt’s single-prop six-seater plane), and he knew JotSpot could drown in the search giant’s footprint.”
When Jotspot launched, I was in love with it. You could write anything and see all your revisions, plus have others edit the same content. The family site was also really good, and obviously Jotspot has gone to an amazing home…only having to move 6 miles down the road to the awesome campus of Google…again if the deal is sweet enough, you would move 6 miles, even 60,000 miles, wouldn’t you…?
Famster – Your family’s home on the internet
Famster is another family orientated site, geared to organizing the family and keeping each other within the family connected. Famster have a good looking user interface and some great features for the family. Dad will love the news feed customisation capability, mom will love the calendar, photo storage and the kids will enjoy features like the theme park and character studio. My question is can you network with other families and get into social networking within the site…I will have to sign up and get a detailed view.
The family now have more options in finding a site to organise the family (like Cingo, Famundo) and as a mom and involved in business I am desperate to find a site I can organise my whole life, family, the house, property, businesses in one area. I am getting close to having to really get into this and choose. It does make me thankful for a computer in the kitchen…will all moms do this in the future and write their lists online for example?
It is only a matter of time 
More info see Techcrunch profile on Famster.
Operation Mom – Impending launch
OpMom is taking email addresses to let you know when they will launch. From what I can gather, it’s to “Share, Meet, Schedule and More!” for moms. This Texas, Houston based start up’s parent company is TriTaur who are developing Web 2.0 based applications and OpMom is their flagship product.
More info on Operation Mom…Texa Startup Blog
SchoolParentNet – Building secure communities around our children
SchoolParentNet narrows in on the activities that make up a school and local community.
A offline school community is extremely beneficial and comforting for our children, as well as parents. Providing an online interactive community, I believe, is crucial in a child's life. Social skills I in my opinion are enhanced to a greater level. As well as allowing those children with different or non-traditional learning styles (ie. kinesthetic, internal, introvert thinker) are given a platform to become involved and share at a higher level. I do think that it teaches kids emotional intelligence.
SchoolParentNet aims to offer this as a secure community and starts with a central communication beacon, schools and teachers. I applaude the focus by SchoolParentNet in this area to connect parents, students and teachers in a collaborated and meaningful way, taking the current offline activities and transforming this online.
I also profiled "Chalksite – Expand your classroom" which looked at expanding the classroom further into an online offering encouraging a higher level of learning, collaboration and an informal connection with their teachers. Imagine one day being able to watch your class on maths that evening again to clarify concepts you wanted to understand a bit more..or record your french or japanese and send it to your teacher, receiving comments back before you attend your next french or japanese class.
Using technology to tap into higher learning is really coool. I only wish I was back at school – (just joking).
Exactly how the secure network works and any chocolate sauce (unique feature)? I would love to be able to sign in and give it a whirl, however I need to be part of a school and the site is only providing a US service at the moment, however how incredible if SchoolParentNet could open this out into a global offering and enable a school in Amercia to connect with a school in Africa. Now that would have such a higher global purpose.
I believe providing an online community that includes children, needs to be created with much thought, with a lot of stress testing done on the technology that makes the community secure. More importantly, test the human interaction and potential abuse of the site's technology and community.
On security I would also like to know how this works. All I can gleen from the site is…
The school also serves as a security screen. Network users are connected to a group where there is a high likelihood that others will know them. This ensures that the network can be self-monitored by users. We also enable school security codes, which can create an additional layer of validation. We support Public and Private K-12 schools as well as Pre-K child care centers and family child care programs across the U.S
Great mission, stay tuned to see how this concept of SchoolParentNet evolves.
