June 8, 2023 • 33 mins
My guest today is Gretchen Salyer, CEO and Founder of June Care, a company she started during the pandemic to tackle our childcare crisis by connecting families who need childcare with stay-at-home moms who can care for their kids. Gretchen’s entire business model is centered on valuing and paying moms for the care work we do, and in the process, creating a private sector solution to our childcare crisis–one that leaves over 50% of American families living in a childcare desert. Gretchen is also part of a small percentage of all female founded companies who successfully raised venture capital, and she gives listeners a glimpse into her start-up-from-home mom path towards entrepreneurship.
You can learn more about June Care on their website, and follow on IG @junecare.co
Interested in becoming an ambassador mom and being a part of a growing mom-owned start up? Check out the June Care ambassador program. It's a great side hustle and work from home opportunity! https://www.junecare.co/ambassador-moms
Cashing our Trillions is Hosted and Produced by Common Solutions Media and Yvonne So. You can connect with me on Instagram @yso_mom, LinkedIn @yvonnecot, or e-mail me at cashingourtrillions@gmail.com
Sound Engineering by Tiezheng Shen. You can reach him at dacapopresents@gmail.com
Cover artwork graphic design by Jessie Li. You can reach her at jessieli.pers@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, their family. Welcome back to Cashing our Trillions. I'm
your host, Yvon So. I'm a full time staint home
mom of three boys, and this podcast is a space
to value the trillion dollar economy of unpaid labor shouldered
by moms. So far this season, we've talked to moms
(00:27):
who are dedicated to working towards structurally changing our country's legislative, social,
and economic landscape to benefit and work for us. Today,
(00:48):
I'm speaking to mom whose entire business model is centered
on valuing and paying moms for the care work we
do and in the process, helping to create a private
sector solution to our childcare crisis, one that has left
over fifty percent of American families living in a childcare desert.
(01:10):
My guest today is Gretchen Salier, CEO and founder of
June Care, a company she started during the pandemic to
tackle our childcare crisis by connecting families who need childcare
with state home moms who can care for their kids.
Gretchen is the mom of three girls and has worn
many mom hats. She's a former full time working mom,
(01:31):
a full time state home mom, and now a startup
from home mom and regardless of her working status, She's
discovered there are always childcare gaps, which led her to
create her company, June Care, to help all parents find
our village. Thank you for coming on. I'm super excited
to have you because I feel like our missions really
(01:55):
go hand in hand. Catching our trillions is all about
centering the story of moms, especially as it really to
unpaid work that we do to sustain our economy and
our society, which I think really dovetails with your mission
at June Care. You know, your model essentially pays moms
and other childcare givers for the traditionally unpaid work that
we do. So maybe talk about your business model and
(02:18):
why you also believe it's a step towards social change.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Thank you for doing this, by the way, Oh yeah,
no problem, Thank you for coming on. So, joom Care
is a platform where we are connecting parents who are
looking for childcare with what are typically stay at home
moms who are already caring for their own children and
have capacity to care for one or two other kids
from another family and get paid for that work. We
(02:44):
do not charge any fees to our host network because
part of our mission is allowing them to get paid
for the work that they're already doing. We do charge
a ten percent service fee to families who are looking
for joom care.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That's super interesting, like the uber of childcare.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
It is. Yeah, it's like the uber of childcare.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Is there a possibility that somehow our families could be
matched up? I have three boys, and I know you
have three girls.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
How old are your boys?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Ten?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Seven and four?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
One hundred percent? Imagine plea spook me. I always want
to be booked for your care.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I'm in Arizona, though.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh shoot, bummer, bummer, we need to launch an Arizona Yes, yes,
so that but that is based on my preferences, right.
So the way that my family dynamic is is we
love having friends over. And even though I have three
girls and mine are ten, eight and six.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Oh my gosh, okay, so I know it would.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Be over the moon if I invited three additional kids
where they could each have a little buddy, we should
be matched up.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Let me know if you're ever in California.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I know that's my philosophy. Crazy is crazy. So what's
like three more or four more.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Or whatever exactly?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And they got not entertaining themselves too. A lot of times.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
It's the best.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, you just have to provide write those little like activities,
little cueues, and.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Then they do make it their own and it is
so fun.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, and then feed them lots of snacks. Yes, so
you're still hosting June cares right now too.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I do host June care all the time. Yeah, if
I'm honest, mostly on the weekends.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So someone could show up at the CEO's door.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I My profile is available online. Yes, I was
asking my head of customer success, Tessa, why doesn't anyone
book me?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Does anyone want to book me?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I think because your face is on the website, people
don't think about booking you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh that's interesting because like you'd be the first one
I book.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I'm like, I think that likes the CEO totally, O
G O G.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's important to note here that the pandemic greatly exacerbated
an existing shortage of childcare options. Since March twenty twenty,
many daycare centers have closed permanently, and according to a
Wall Street Journal report, one out of ten childcare jobs
have disappeared. About fifty percent of American families now live
(05:22):
in a childcare desert, where there are more than three
kids for every daycare slot. This lack of reliable childcare
has forced many moms, a total of two million of US,
to completely drop out of the job market, contributing to
the lowest workforce participation among US women since the nineteen seventies.
(05:45):
Gretchen continues by explaining her vision and business case for
June Care to help ease this number one burden of
families with young children to find quality and affordable childcare.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So, you know, fifty one percent of American families, more
than half don't have access to the child care that
they need. And then it's typically the mom who makes
the sacrifice, misses the meeting, doesn't take the job in
order to cover that childcare huge under met demand. Yet
there's millions and millions of moms typically who are providing
(06:17):
care day in, day out in their homes. So how
do we tap into that care work that's happening in
these homes and make it accessible to this huge under
met demand. That's the vision, creating something better that works
for moms, that helps moms contribute to the family balance sheet,
be financially stable without having to sacrifice how their children
(06:41):
are being raised.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And it brings us back to like connecting with our
community as well, right, so you can kind of weave
in your social impact.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
You stands for.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Joining us neighbors everywhere. And while that's aspirational, I do
think this idea of really having to be exposed at
a young age to differences and having that become normalized
to you will make a significant impact for the next
generation of kids.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
And so that's that's my fuel.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Ninety five percent of our matches have been with families who,
first of all, live within six miles of each other
and have never met each other before.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's so bizarre too, so like basically you're matching people
up with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We are matching people up with their neighbors who then
they become very close with. And it is so cool
because we have literally matched people who live houses down
from each other and have just never met, and so
that is really special.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It is the match based on their application or based
like or did you just look up the address and
be like, hey, these two people are neighbors.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That factors in, But it's based on a variety of factors.
So we have a relatively thorough intake process on both sides.
So if you're a family looking for care, or if
you're signing up to be a June host, you are
telling us a lot of information about yourself and your
family and your preferences, and we are using all of
that to match. And then it is so fun though
(08:12):
when it turns out that your matches are like three doors.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then so the rates that people said, is it
like based on local minimum wages.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yeah, So we do.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Encourage our hosts to charge at least minimum wage. It's
really been an interesting journey because as moms, especially as
stay at home moms and I was a full time
mom for three years myself, you really were not attuned
to value the work that we're doing, okay, and so
when you ask a stay at home mom to put
(08:43):
an hourly rate on her work, it is a bit
of an awkward conversation because it's something she hasn't really
thought about. And so we do encourage them to charge though,
because in addition to just valuing the work that they're
doing at home, the payment acts actually invites other families
to ask for help. And this has been surprising since
(09:06):
launching June Care. You know, I wasn't sure to be honest,
how the payment aspect was going to play out what
that dynamic was going to be like. So I was
a full time working mom for six years, and I
often remember thinking, gosh, I wish I could just pay her,
you know, to invite my kids over, because my kids
wanted to go and have play dates. But I was
(09:29):
always a little bit cheapish because I knew I wasn't
going to be able to reciprocate in the way that
I think is often socially accepted. And so within our platform,
by introducing you know, this is a paid model, it's
a paid play date esventually, it actually makes families more prone.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
To ask for that's true.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It takes like the awkwardness out of it, right because yeah,
and then it's like you can just schedule the time
and you feel like you're paying somebody for their time
as well exactly. And then what's like the average total
salary of a host, like for the hosts who are
the most active, like, what are they bringing in?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Our hosts are typically earning between five and seven hundred
dollars a week, okay right now, but again it does vary.
And the platform is meant to be such like an
uber or any gigwork platform where you can do as
much or as little.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
As you want.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But have you taught to a mom who's like, oh
my gosh, I want to make a full time job
out of this.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
We definitely have full time matches where it is the
family who's booking june Care's primary form of childcare for
two full time working parents, and it is the stay
at home mom or june Care host primary income source.
From a june Care host perspective, a lot of our
hosts are using it to extend an eternity leave or
(10:52):
to be there in those first five years till their
children get into school and then their needs change.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
As we discussed in the first episod, the US is
the only country among forty one nations that does not
mandate any paid leave for new parents. So it's really
no surprise that the average link of paid and unpaid
maternity leave women take in our country is just ten weeks.
Without sufficient government policies, we have to create our own solutions.
(11:22):
June Care is helping some moms literally buy more time
at home. Gretchen explains for.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Us, a lot of our hosts who are in that
situation in particular, you know, they really were making the
economic trade off, so they were looking at do I
go back to what is typically an hourly paid job.
Problem with that, of course, is then they have to
pay for their own childcare, and it's very hard to
end up right side up on that math equation. And
(11:51):
so with Juke Care, they can buy themselves time with
their children. They are doing what they want to be
doing and earning the same often more if you factor
into kind of the opposite economic math they would have
had to do.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
When you introduced this idea of these paid play dates
in your own group, I know I was reading on
your website you're talking about how it is so transformative
for everybody, and I think you kind of touched upon
that before, about making it a little bit more transactional,
taking the awkwardness out of it. But can you give
an example of one of these transformations that you saw
within your own group when you're testing out this idea
(12:28):
of June care.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Really came down to two main things, really, the connection
that we were experiencing as moms. So you are told,
or kind of get through osmosis, this idea that you
should raise your kids in a village. You know, kids
should be raised in a village. You should have a village,
you know, get support, have your mom friends. It's really
(12:51):
hard to actually execute on that data, miss, Yeah, and
without someone organizing it for you, honestly, and so you
were really feeling like, gosh, you know, we're living life together.
I was getting to know my friends and neighbors' kids
so much more because when you're with other children without
their parents there, actually, you know, that's a really special
(13:13):
moment too, because you really get to know the kids.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
In a different way.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And my kids too, were so much happier, and you know,
looking more into this, this is actually it's a pretty
scientific fact. So for moms who are postpartum or within
those first two years of parenting, you know, even pre pandemic,
one in four new moms is experiencing some level of
(13:38):
anxiety and depression. This got, of course, as you would imagine,
a lot worse during the pandemic. With the most staggering
statistic to me is seventy five percent of moms experiencing
clinically significant levels of anxiety.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So many studies back up gretchen staggering numb a Motherhood
Matrix study released in October twenty twenty two and put
out by Everyday Health group Pregnancy and Parenting found that
over two thirds of moms say they're experiencing anxiety, with inflation, isolation,
and overall childcare costs fueling this anxiety. Most moms seventy
(14:20):
five percent of us say we don't have enough support
in the form of a quote unquote village. This village
atmosphere is something Gretchen credits the success of June Care
and a topic we'll explore more in our next episode.
When I speak to two Canadian moms, Joe and Kim,
who live in co housing and credit their communal living
(14:41):
arrangement to helping them navigate modern motherhood, Gretchen makes the
case for how June Care is creating a similar model
of neighbors helping neighbors to help tackle the root causes
of our anxiety.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So we have a childcare crisis, but this is its
own crisis, and the main ca us is of this
anxiety are really coming from these feelings of isolation and
financial stress. What's really special about June Care is we
are really addressing both of those issues for new moms,
so providing opportunities for them to contribute to the family
(15:18):
balance sheet despite being a new mom. Whether that's by
hosting joom Care or by taking advantage of doom Care
and then going back to where it was so transformative
for us right away, this connection piece. So it is
really hard to schedule play dates when you're also juggling
your work and nap schedules and lack of sleep and
(15:40):
all of the things that do mom's experience. And so
for us just to be able to provide that platform
where everyone is coming into the network knowing that they
want to connect in this way through this model. That's
my favorite part honestly of June Care is just hearing
the stories, getting the pictures of the kids playing together
(16:00):
other and just seeing how well it's working for families.
You're listening to Cashing our trillions, talk a little bit about,
you know, your personal story, what made you want to
make the transition to become a stay at home mom
and not continue in your corporate position, and especially like
(16:20):
I'm a stay at home mom and looking from the outside,
I was like, oh wow, it looked like Gretchen was
like on the perfect path. Yeah, So I was at
into it and just had an incredible experience there. They
really invest in their leaders and so I feel like
a lot of how I'm able to hire a team
and manage joom Care is really thanks to andto it. Second,
(16:45):
my husband was doing a startup, so it was really
nice to have stable income and healthcare and transparently he
sold his startup, So I was really just planning to
be home with the girl for a year. And see,
you know, I was open minded to potentially continuing as
(17:06):
a stay at home mom, but it is so hard,
as you know, it is the hardest thing I've ever done,
and I loved it, and I really I think I
would have continued to be a full time mom. Had
not I've been overwhelmed with the demand that I was
seeing for this what is now joam Care. I discovered
(17:30):
how valuable this work is. And I was raised by
stay at home mom. Same, Yeah, it's still important to
me that my children get a stay at home mom experience. However,
I am not great at providing the idealized stay at
home mom experience that is in my mind on my
own and so that's where personally joom Care works really
(17:53):
nicely for me because I have great friends and now
you know, June Care hosts really do provide wonderful experiences
for my children, and so it kind of was an
unexpected journey for me to be now in this startup
from home working mom position that I'm in. But it's
(18:15):
working really well right now.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That's really interesting that you brought up that you're that
you were brought up by a stay at home mom yourself.
I mean, that's the that's kind of where I come
from because my mom was just like the most amazing
stay at home mom. She had our locker combinations and
everything to like drop off hot lunches. So I'm like,
if I don't provide something that looks like that for
my children, like what kind of mom am I? And
(18:38):
a lot of it is just trying to live up
to that standard too. But it's nice that now you
can create something that looks similar to that from June Care.
Maybe I can't provide it myself, but I can rely
on my village to help me do that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
My mom also amazing stay at home mom, like really
really high bar, which is, yeah, I was falling short,
but what is that power of mom? I think we
all kind of have a little bit of this idealized
vision of how we want our kids to be raised.
There's nothing wrong with it. Whatever you choose as a parent,
(19:12):
I should start with that, But based on my experience
children with a stay at home mom, we're going to
get to go do excursions and adventures and go to
the museum and take advantage of the beat. And I
just wanted that. I've tried a lot of different medals
to get there, including staying home myself, to provide those experiences.
And this is where I feel like June Care works
really nicely too, because you have that June Care host
(19:34):
who can do all of those stay at home mom things,
and your kids are part of that as well.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, and I think you don't need to be so
hard on yourself too, because I feel like you decided
to be a stay at home mom at the absolute,
like worst time, because then you're like, oh, not only
are you staying at home, you're like short order chef,
your school teacher, You're like everything all at once.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That is true, and I'm sure every parent of young
children relates.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You spoke a little bit about into it, kind of
preparing you for what you're doing now. But have you
always had an entrepreneurial streak? As moms, we always have
these genius ideas, but like rarely do we execute on them,
or we take this like kernel of an idea to
grow it. You know, a lot of it is because
we have small children and we feel like, oh, you know,
this would be so time consuming. Do you think it's
(20:20):
something about you that made you want to make this
leap or is it this idea of June Care.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It took me some introspection, I guess to figure out
why am I doing this? Yeah, because yeah it is.
I mean, as it is a very important mission. And
while it's fun and flashy, is I'm sure you know,
it's a grind. Trying to balance it all is a lot.
And I think my why, and probably a bit of
(20:49):
an entrepreneurial spirit, is I have always been very passionate
about creating the best possible opportunities and experiences for children,
and so this is where every time I think about,
you know, how we're developing the product, how we're developing
the platform, how we're connecting families, I am really excited
(21:11):
about how it's helping the kids. These children who are
being carred for through June Care, whether by their own
mom as a June Car host or being dropped off
with the June Care host, they are getting exposure to
a new family, a new culture, this stay at home
mom experience. We were just talking about it's the coolest
(21:32):
business I think to start as a mom because my
kids totally get it, and you know, they are products
of it essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
That's to figure like, kids are part of the social
experiment over the girls, you.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Want to meet a new family, totally talk about being
like so bought in.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So I learned about your story from a CNBC post
and I think the title was something to affect, like
this former stay at home turned her pandemic hack into
a venture back business that raised three point six million dollars. Right,
we all know the journey is messier than the headlines.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So can you talk.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
About raising venture capital and angel money? Like, how do
you pitch this idea? How many firms did you have
to go to before you clicked with Craft Ventures?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Maybe walk us through that?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, and we've actually just in May we raised
a seat extension out of New York. Yeah, so okay,
So why did I raise money? So really, the first
inkling that maybe I should raise money came from the
fact that I was drowning in spreadsheets and Google forms
from everyone trying to sign up. I have a lot
(22:47):
of very strong and intelligent women in my life. Once
they kind of heard what I was doing, they were like,
you should think about raising money.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Retchen is too humble to stress this point herself, but
I think it's really important to note that according to
Pitchbook data, in the first quarter of twenty twenty two,
all female founded teams of which June Care is received
only two percent a venture capital. That's down from two
point two percent in twenty twenty one. An increase in
(23:18):
female partners in venture capital, together with our nation collectively
experiencing the challenges of taking care of kids during lockdown,
has shined a spotlight on the need for more tech
enabled offerings for childcare solutions. The subcategory of parent tech
companies in the US has attracted nearly one point four
billion dollars in twenty twenty one. This total is larger
(23:41):
than what the category raise in the previous four years combined.
Gretchen continues with her path towards raising venture capital.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Well, if anyone's going to raise venture capital, you have
to be willing to try and build a billion dollar business. Okay,
that's my perspective. I would say I probably most venture
capitalists are going to agree with me on.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That if you have the next big thing, Gratu, you.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Gotta have the message.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
You gotta have you at least have to convince yourself.
That's where I landed is I wanted to convince myself
that I could that this could be a billion dollar business,
which is sounds a little cold because this is a
very mission driven organization. But again, if you're going to
take venture money, you have to look at that side
(24:27):
of it too. And so I started promoting joom Care
just in Facebook groups because I was trying to see, okay,
will total strangers sign up for this and use it?
So I just posted in a few local Facebook groups.
I was overwhelmed with sign ups, overwhelmed with requests, and
(24:47):
so the proof points for me after a couple of
months were there. This model, it catches like wildfires. We
really are leaning into this word of mom. We call
it word of mom.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And so that that's where I put together a pitch deck.
And my first couple of pitches were terrible.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Give me a sense of what they were like, what
were what made them so bad?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I just didn't quite have the story down. It's it's
different when you're telling the story to someone with the
purpose of them giving you money to fund growth. You
do have to tell the story in a certain way,
and it's just, honestly, it's like anything, it's a learning curve.
I had to see, I had to hear the questions.
(25:33):
I had to see the reactions to what I was
saying to know what was clicked.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
With the people who hold the money.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Deck Yes, And I don't know if you've ever been
been in a situation where you're talking and you know
it's not being received well, but like, yeah, it's top kind.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Of what was going on. It's like Shark Tank.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It's just like Shark Tank, fortunately like a private Zoom version,
not a national television But really, by the time I
was talking to Craft Ventures, I had probably met with
a dozen Okay firms, and I did start to get
a sense of what made sense and what didn't, and
(26:14):
what questions they were going to have and how to
anticipate those questions in a ten minute pitch. What's so
great about craft They are really willing to partner with
entrepreneurs like myself to make large visions come true, and
so I really felt like it was a great match
for me. The partner I work with there is Laaney Painter,
(26:36):
and she just got it right away.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Is she a mom? Is that why she's not?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, but she you know, she's a female partner, so
she's experienced all the dynamics of being a woman in
the workplace. And yeah, so it's been so that allowed
me to hire a team, right, which is the first
step in building scale. It's turning you know, venture capital
into human capital. And from there it has just been
(27:06):
a really fast and furious and exciting journey.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So speak about your management style. So you are all female,
all moms, Like, how does that affect your work culture?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Great question. We are trying something new because I want
to create a different culture of work from my own daughters.
To be honest, I want to do it differently. And
our culture is really trying to acknowledge the fact that
we also have children and responsibilities and also that sometimes
your most productive hours are not between nine and five.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And I think a lot of us realize that during
the pandemic, as we had to flex, we were forced
to flex in a different way, but you were still
able to get your job done.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I think that's like a mom's superpower though, right, It's
like if there is no time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You will create time totally.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Moms not to be biased, I'm a little bias. I
think are the most productive humans ever. Yeah, ever out
of necessity, especially because we're so small, Like if something
urgent comes in, it's helpful for me to know that
everyone else is driving kids around because then I'm on
first or whatever that issue is, and and we all
(28:18):
really do work like that. I want to do it differently,
and I'm trying to. I always talk to my team
about this. I was like, if we can't make it work,
no one will. So we have to try to do
it differently.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
M Yeah, because it doesn't look like the government, right,
what's going to help us either.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
No one is coming to save us with all the.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Non legislation that's going on, right.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yes, yeah, well yeah, we've got to figure it out.
And we can. We really can. We can do it.
But I mean, look at you, like your full time
mom and doing this podcast. That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
You don't have to do that, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, but I want to do something.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I'm not trained in radio or audio or journalism, like
that's not my work background, that's not my education background.
But I stayed at home for ten years, so like, basically,
according to any HR department, any skill I had is
like dead right, So this is me kind of building
(29:19):
it up from scratch. But like as we talked about before,
as moms, you figure it out.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So you figure it out, and I really I think
you're right that there is a perception that, you know,
when you stay at home with your kids, your skill
set goes to waste. We just hired someone who was
a stay at home mom for twelve years. You know,
she had been at Google previously. She wasn't working, but
she was head of the BDA and.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
She was doing just a myriad of things.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
She was telling me, She's like, well, I haven't worked.
I was like, but wait a minute. You have led organizations, yes,
and you have managed people who are volunteers, which are
the hardest people to manage. Just figuring out how we
just revalue this work that's happening. You know, we're revaluating,
we're working to revalue care work right now. But goodness gracious,
(30:09):
there is so much work that has to happen to
make a society and schools and organizations and you name
it run effectively. That is often harder than you know,
getting the project management job at x.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Tech firm and stating there for twelve years.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That's where I love your concept for your podcast. Really
trying to put a dollar figure, because money speaks to
people around this shadow economy of unpaid labor. And I hope,
I do hope that joom Care can make a small
dent in that, you know, for moms of young kids,
(30:49):
and who knows, you know, maybe we extend the platform
at some point to help make more little divots in
that unpaid economy. But I just I love kind of
the light you're shining on this.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Thank you well, keep us posted. So, Gretchen, before I
let you go, how will you cash your trillions?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So I think if I actually had the trillions, I
honestly would put more funding towards ju and care right now,
just in the immediate because you know, our main constraint
to serving more families is our ability to scale our
team and scale our technology. But we could we could
(31:31):
do it faster if we spent our money faster, but
you know, not the responsible thing to do, and.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
You could scale it across the nation, then.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
We could scale it.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, And you know, I'm trying to be a good
steward too of the money we have raised from outside investors,
But if it was my own trillions, I could be
a little more loose with it, you know, and we
could go a little faster and try more things and
test different markets. And that is really where I would
(32:01):
spend it. And so I would also love to take
my family to Africa, just as the little side peace.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I think you'll have money left over for that.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I hope so.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Actually, Trillions, Well, thank you so much for your time, Gretchen.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh, thank you so much. It is just so delightful
to chat with you. I've loved it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
This episode was produced by me and sound edited by Shen.
Cashing our Trillions is part of the Seneca Women podcast
Network and iHeartRadio. If you have a story to share,
please email us at Cashing our Trillions at gmail dot com.
Make sure you subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you
(32:50):
liked what you heard, please take a moment to rate
and review it. It would really mean so much to me.
Thank you for listening. Fine letter
Hi, their family. Welcome back to Cashing our Trillions. I'm
your host, Yvon So. I'm a full time staint home
mom of three boys, and this podcast is a space
to value the trillion dollar economy of unpaid labor shouldered
by moms. So far this season, we've talked to moms
(00:27):
who are dedicated to working towards structurally changing our country's legislative, social,
and economic landscape to benefit and work for us. Today,
(00:48):
I'm speaking to mom whose entire business model is centered
on valuing and paying moms for the care work we
do and in the process, helping to create a private
sector solution to our childcare crisis, one that has left
over fifty percent of American families living in a childcare desert.
(01:10):
My guest today is Gretchen Salier, CEO and founder of
June Care, a company she started during the pandemic to
tackle our childcare crisis by connecting families who need childcare
with state home moms who can care for their kids.
Gretchen is the mom of three girls and has worn
many mom hats. She's a former full time working mom,
(01:31):
a full time state home mom, and now a startup
from home mom and regardless of her working status, She's
discovered there are always childcare gaps, which led her to
create her company, June Care, to help all parents find
our village. Thank you for coming on. I'm super excited
to have you because I feel like our missions really
(01:55):
go hand in hand. Catching our trillions is all about
centering the story of moms, especially as it really to
unpaid work that we do to sustain our economy and
our society, which I think really dovetails with your mission
at June Care. You know, your model essentially pays moms
and other childcare givers for the traditionally unpaid work that
we do. So maybe talk about your business model and
(02:18):
why you also believe it's a step towards social change.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Thank you for doing this, by the way, Oh yeah,
no problem, Thank you for coming on. So, joom Care
is a platform where we are connecting parents who are
looking for childcare with what are typically stay at home
moms who are already caring for their own children and
have capacity to care for one or two other kids
from another family and get paid for that work. We
(02:44):
do not charge any fees to our host network because
part of our mission is allowing them to get paid
for the work that they're already doing. We do charge
a ten percent service fee to families who are looking
for joom care.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That's super interesting, like the uber of childcare.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
It is. Yeah, it's like the uber of childcare.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Is there a possibility that somehow our families could be
matched up? I have three boys, and I know you
have three girls.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
How old are your boys?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Ten?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Seven and four?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
One hundred percent? Imagine plea spook me. I always want
to be booked for your care.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I'm in Arizona, though.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh shoot, bummer, bummer, we need to launch an Arizona Yes, yes,
so that but that is based on my preferences, right.
So the way that my family dynamic is is we
love having friends over. And even though I have three
girls and mine are ten, eight and six.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Oh my gosh, okay, so I know it would.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Be over the moon if I invited three additional kids
where they could each have a little buddy, we should
be matched up.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Let me know if you're ever in California.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I know that's my philosophy. Crazy is crazy. So what's
like three more or four more.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Or whatever exactly?
Speaker 3 (04:03):
And they got not entertaining themselves too. A lot of times.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
It's the best.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, you just have to provide write those little like activities,
little cueues, and.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Then they do make it their own and it is
so fun.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, and then feed them lots of snacks. Yes, so
you're still hosting June cares right now too.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I do host June care all the time. Yeah, if
I'm honest, mostly on the weekends.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So someone could show up at the CEO's door.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I My profile is available online. Yes, I was
asking my head of customer success, Tessa, why doesn't anyone
book me?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Does anyone want to book me?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I think because your face is on the website, people
don't think about booking you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Oh that's interesting because like you'd be the first one
I book.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I'm like, I think that likes the CEO totally, O
G O G.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's important to note here that the pandemic greatly exacerbated
an existing shortage of childcare options. Since March twenty twenty,
many daycare centers have closed permanently, and according to a
Wall Street Journal report, one out of ten childcare jobs
have disappeared. About fifty percent of American families now live
(05:22):
in a childcare desert, where there are more than three
kids for every daycare slot. This lack of reliable childcare
has forced many moms, a total of two million of US,
to completely drop out of the job market, contributing to
the lowest workforce participation among US women since the nineteen seventies.
(05:45):
Gretchen continues by explaining her vision and business case for
June Care to help ease this number one burden of
families with young children to find quality and affordable childcare.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So, you know, fifty one percent of American families, more
than half don't have access to the child care that
they need. And then it's typically the mom who makes
the sacrifice, misses the meeting, doesn't take the job in
order to cover that childcare huge under met demand. Yet
there's millions and millions of moms typically who are providing
(06:17):
care day in, day out in their homes. So how
do we tap into that care work that's happening in
these homes and make it accessible to this huge under
met demand. That's the vision, creating something better that works
for moms, that helps moms contribute to the family balance sheet,
be financially stable without having to sacrifice how their children
(06:41):
are being raised.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And it brings us back to like connecting with our
community as well, right, so you can kind of weave
in your social impact.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
You stands for.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Joining us neighbors everywhere. And while that's aspirational, I do
think this idea of really having to be exposed at
a young age to differences and having that become normalized
to you will make a significant impact for the next
generation of kids.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
And so that's that's my fuel.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Ninety five percent of our matches have been with families who,
first of all, live within six miles of each other
and have never met each other before.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's so bizarre too, so like basically you're matching people
up with their neighbors.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
We are matching people up with their neighbors who then
they become very close with. And it is so cool
because we have literally matched people who live houses down
from each other and have just never met, and so
that is really special.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It is the match based on their application or based
like or did you just look up the address and
be like, hey, these two people are neighbors.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
That factors in, But it's based on a variety of factors.
So we have a relatively thorough intake process on both sides.
So if you're a family looking for care, or if
you're signing up to be a June host, you are
telling us a lot of information about yourself and your
family and your preferences, and we are using all of
that to match. And then it is so fun though
(08:12):
when it turns out that your matches are like three doors.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And then so the rates that people said, is it
like based on local minimum wages.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Yeah, So we do.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Encourage our hosts to charge at least minimum wage. It's
really been an interesting journey because as moms, especially as
stay at home moms and I was a full time
mom for three years myself, you really were not attuned
to value the work that we're doing, okay, and so
when you ask a stay at home mom to put
(08:43):
an hourly rate on her work, it is a bit
of an awkward conversation because it's something she hasn't really
thought about. And so we do encourage them to charge though,
because in addition to just valuing the work that they're
doing at home, the payment acts actually invites other families
to ask for help. And this has been surprising since
(09:06):
launching June Care. You know, I wasn't sure to be honest,
how the payment aspect was going to play out what
that dynamic was going to be like. So I was
a full time working mom for six years, and I
often remember thinking, gosh, I wish I could just pay her,
you know, to invite my kids over, because my kids
wanted to go and have play dates. But I was
(09:29):
always a little bit cheapish because I knew I wasn't
going to be able to reciprocate in the way that
I think is often socially accepted. And so within our platform,
by introducing you know, this is a paid model, it's
a paid play date esventually, it actually makes families more prone.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
To ask for that's true.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It takes like the awkwardness out of it, right because yeah,
and then it's like you can just schedule the time
and you feel like you're paying somebody for their time
as well exactly. And then what's like the average total
salary of a host, like for the hosts who are
the most active, like, what are they bringing in?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Our hosts are typically earning between five and seven hundred
dollars a week, okay right now, but again it does vary.
And the platform is meant to be such like an
uber or any gigwork platform where you can do as
much or as little.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
As you want.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But have you taught to a mom who's like, oh
my gosh, I want to make a full time job
out of this.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
We definitely have full time matches where it is the
family who's booking june Care's primary form of childcare for
two full time working parents, and it is the stay
at home mom or june Care host primary income source.
From a june Care host perspective, a lot of our
hosts are using it to extend an eternity leave or
(10:52):
to be there in those first five years till their
children get into school and then their needs change.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
As we discussed in the first episod, the US is
the only country among forty one nations that does not
mandate any paid leave for new parents. So it's really
no surprise that the average link of paid and unpaid
maternity leave women take in our country is just ten weeks.
Without sufficient government policies, we have to create our own solutions.
(11:22):
June Care is helping some moms literally buy more time
at home. Gretchen explains for.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Us, a lot of our hosts who are in that
situation in particular, you know, they really were making the
economic trade off, so they were looking at do I
go back to what is typically an hourly paid job.
Problem with that, of course, is then they have to
pay for their own childcare, and it's very hard to
end up right side up on that math equation. And
(11:51):
so with Juke Care, they can buy themselves time with
their children. They are doing what they want to be
doing and earning the same often more if you factor
into kind of the opposite economic math they would have
had to do.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
When you introduced this idea of these paid play dates
in your own group, I know I was reading on
your website you're talking about how it is so transformative
for everybody, and I think you kind of touched upon
that before, about making it a little bit more transactional,
taking the awkwardness out of it. But can you give
an example of one of these transformations that you saw
within your own group when you're testing out this idea
(12:28):
of June care.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Really came down to two main things, really, the connection
that we were experiencing as moms. So you are told,
or kind of get through osmosis, this idea that you
should raise your kids in a village. You know, kids
should be raised in a village. You should have a village,
you know, get support, have your mom friends. It's really
(12:51):
hard to actually execute on that data, miss, Yeah, and
without someone organizing it for you, honestly, and so you
were really feeling like, gosh, you know, we're living life together.
I was getting to know my friends and neighbors' kids
so much more because when you're with other children without
their parents there, actually, you know, that's a really special
(13:13):
moment too, because you really get to know the kids.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
In a different way.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And my kids too, were so much happier, and you know,
looking more into this, this is actually it's a pretty
scientific fact. So for moms who are postpartum or within
those first two years of parenting, you know, even pre pandemic,
one in four new moms is experiencing some level of
(13:38):
anxiety and depression. This got, of course, as you would imagine,
a lot worse during the pandemic. With the most staggering
statistic to me is seventy five percent of moms experiencing
clinically significant levels of anxiety.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So many studies back up gretchen staggering numb a Motherhood
Matrix study released in October twenty twenty two and put
out by Everyday Health group Pregnancy and Parenting found that
over two thirds of moms say they're experiencing anxiety, with inflation, isolation,
and overall childcare costs fueling this anxiety. Most moms seventy
(14:20):
five percent of us say we don't have enough support
in the form of a quote unquote village. This village
atmosphere is something Gretchen credits the success of June Care
and a topic we'll explore more in our next episode.
When I speak to two Canadian moms, Joe and Kim,
who live in co housing and credit their communal living
(14:41):
arrangement to helping them navigate modern motherhood, Gretchen makes the
case for how June Care is creating a similar model
of neighbors helping neighbors to help tackle the root causes
of our anxiety.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So we have a childcare crisis, but this is its
own crisis, and the main ca us is of this
anxiety are really coming from these feelings of isolation and
financial stress. What's really special about June Care is we
are really addressing both of those issues for new moms,
so providing opportunities for them to contribute to the family
(15:18):
balance sheet despite being a new mom. Whether that's by
hosting joom Care or by taking advantage of doom Care
and then going back to where it was so transformative
for us right away, this connection piece. So it is
really hard to schedule play dates when you're also juggling
your work and nap schedules and lack of sleep and
(15:40):
all of the things that do mom's experience. And so
for us just to be able to provide that platform
where everyone is coming into the network knowing that they
want to connect in this way through this model. That's
my favorite part honestly of June Care is just hearing
the stories, getting the pictures of the kids playing together
(16:00):
other and just seeing how well it's working for families.
You're listening to Cashing our trillions, talk a little bit about,
you know, your personal story, what made you want to
make the transition to become a stay at home mom
and not continue in your corporate position, and especially like
(16:20):
I'm a stay at home mom and looking from the outside,
I was like, oh wow, it looked like Gretchen was
like on the perfect path. Yeah, So I was at
into it and just had an incredible experience there. They
really invest in their leaders and so I feel like
a lot of how I'm able to hire a team
and manage joom Care is really thanks to andto it. Second,
(16:45):
my husband was doing a startup, so it was really
nice to have stable income and healthcare and transparently he
sold his startup, So I was really just planning to
be home with the girl for a year. And see,
you know, I was open minded to potentially continuing as
(17:06):
a stay at home mom, but it is so hard,
as you know, it is the hardest thing I've ever done,
and I loved it, and I really I think I
would have continued to be a full time mom. Had
not I've been overwhelmed with the demand that I was
seeing for this what is now joam Care. I discovered
(17:30):
how valuable this work is. And I was raised by
stay at home mom. Same, Yeah, it's still important to
me that my children get a stay at home mom experience. However,
I am not great at providing the idealized stay at
home mom experience that is in my mind on my
own and so that's where personally joom Care works really
(17:53):
nicely for me because I have great friends and now
you know, June Care hosts really do provide wonderful experiences
for my children, and so it kind of was an
unexpected journey for me to be now in this startup
from home working mom position that I'm in. But it's
(18:15):
working really well right now.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
That's really interesting that you brought up that you're that
you were brought up by a stay at home mom yourself.
I mean, that's the that's kind of where I come
from because my mom was just like the most amazing
stay at home mom. She had our locker combinations and
everything to like drop off hot lunches. So I'm like,
if I don't provide something that looks like that for
my children, like what kind of mom am I? And
(18:38):
a lot of it is just trying to live up
to that standard too. But it's nice that now you
can create something that looks similar to that from June Care.
Maybe I can't provide it myself, but I can rely
on my village to help me do that.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
My mom also amazing stay at home mom, like really
really high bar, which is, yeah, I was falling short,
but what is that power of mom? I think we
all kind of have a little bit of this idealized
vision of how we want our kids to be raised.
There's nothing wrong with it. Whatever you choose as a parent,
(19:12):
I should start with that, But based on my experience
children with a stay at home mom, we're going to
get to go do excursions and adventures and go to
the museum and take advantage of the beat. And I
just wanted that. I've tried a lot of different medals
to get there, including staying home myself, to provide those experiences.
And this is where I feel like June Care works
really nicely too, because you have that June Care host
(19:34):
who can do all of those stay at home mom things,
and your kids are part of that as well.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, and I think you don't need to be so
hard on yourself too, because I feel like you decided
to be a stay at home mom at the absolute,
like worst time, because then you're like, oh, not only
are you staying at home, you're like short order chef,
your school teacher, You're like everything all at once.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That is true, and I'm sure every parent of young
children relates.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You spoke a little bit about into it, kind of
preparing you for what you're doing now. But have you
always had an entrepreneurial streak? As moms, we always have
these genius ideas, but like rarely do we execute on them,
or we take this like kernel of an idea to
grow it. You know, a lot of it is because
we have small children and we feel like, oh, you know,
this would be so time consuming. Do you think it's
(20:20):
something about you that made you want to make this
leap or is it this idea of June Care.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It took me some introspection, I guess to figure out
why am I doing this? Yeah, because yeah it is.
I mean, as it is a very important mission. And
while it's fun and flashy, is I'm sure you know,
it's a grind. Trying to balance it all is a lot.
And I think my why, and probably a bit of
(20:49):
an entrepreneurial spirit, is I have always been very passionate
about creating the best possible opportunities and experiences for children,
and so this is where every time I think about,
you know, how we're developing the product, how we're developing
the platform, how we're connecting families, I am really excited
(21:11):
about how it's helping the kids. These children who are
being carred for through June Care, whether by their own
mom as a June Car host or being dropped off
with the June Care host, they are getting exposure to
a new family, a new culture, this stay at home
mom experience. We were just talking about it's the coolest
(21:32):
business I think to start as a mom because my
kids totally get it, and you know, they are products
of it essentially.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
That's to figure like, kids are part of the social
experiment over the girls, you.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Want to meet a new family, totally talk about being
like so bought in.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So I learned about your story from a CNBC post
and I think the title was something to affect, like
this former stay at home turned her pandemic hack into
a venture back business that raised three point six million dollars. Right,
we all know the journey is messier than the headlines.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So can you talk.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
About raising venture capital and angel money? Like, how do
you pitch this idea? How many firms did you have
to go to before you clicked with Craft Ventures?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Maybe walk us through that?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, and we've actually just in May we raised
a seat extension out of New York. Yeah, so okay,
So why did I raise money? So really, the first
inkling that maybe I should raise money came from the
fact that I was drowning in spreadsheets and Google forms
from everyone trying to sign up. I have a lot
(22:47):
of very strong and intelligent women in my life. Once
they kind of heard what I was doing, they were like,
you should think about raising money.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Retchen is too humble to stress this point herself, but
I think it's really important to note that according to
Pitchbook data, in the first quarter of twenty twenty two,
all female founded teams of which June Care is received
only two percent a venture capital. That's down from two
point two percent in twenty twenty one. An increase in
(23:18):
female partners in venture capital, together with our nation collectively
experiencing the challenges of taking care of kids during lockdown,
has shined a spotlight on the need for more tech
enabled offerings for childcare solutions. The subcategory of parent tech
companies in the US has attracted nearly one point four
billion dollars in twenty twenty one. This total is larger
(23:41):
than what the category raise in the previous four years combined.
Gretchen continues with her path towards raising venture capital.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Well, if anyone's going to raise venture capital, you have
to be willing to try and build a billion dollar business. Okay,
that's my perspective. I would say I probably most venture
capitalists are going to agree with me on.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That if you have the next big thing, Gratu, you.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Gotta have the message.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
You gotta have you at least have to convince yourself.
That's where I landed is I wanted to convince myself
that I could that this could be a billion dollar business,
which is sounds a little cold because this is a
very mission driven organization. But again, if you're going to
take venture money, you have to look at that side
(24:27):
of it too. And so I started promoting joom Care
just in Facebook groups because I was trying to see, okay,
will total strangers sign up for this and use it?
So I just posted in a few local Facebook groups.
I was overwhelmed with sign ups, overwhelmed with requests, and
(24:47):
so the proof points for me after a couple of
months were there. This model, it catches like wildfires. We
really are leaning into this word of mom. We call
it word of mom.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
And so that that's where I put together a pitch deck.
And my first couple of pitches were terrible.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Give me a sense of what they were like, what
were what made them so bad?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I just didn't quite have the story down. It's it's
different when you're telling the story to someone with the
purpose of them giving you money to fund growth. You
do have to tell the story in a certain way,
and it's just, honestly, it's like anything, it's a learning curve.
I had to see, I had to hear the questions.
(25:33):
I had to see the reactions to what I was
saying to know what was clicked.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
With the people who hold the money.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Deck Yes, And I don't know if you've ever been
been in a situation where you're talking and you know
it's not being received well, but like, yeah, it's top kind.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Of what was going on. It's like Shark Tank.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It's just like Shark Tank, fortunately like a private Zoom version,
not a national television But really, by the time I
was talking to Craft Ventures, I had probably met with
a dozen Okay firms, and I did start to get
a sense of what made sense and what didn't, and
(26:14):
what questions they were going to have and how to
anticipate those questions in a ten minute pitch. What's so
great about craft They are really willing to partner with
entrepreneurs like myself to make large visions come true, and
so I really felt like it was a great match
for me. The partner I work with there is Laaney Painter,
(26:36):
and she just got it right away.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Is she a mom? Is that why she's not?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, but she you know, she's a female partner, so
she's experienced all the dynamics of being a woman in
the workplace. And yeah, so it's been so that allowed
me to hire a team, right, which is the first
step in building scale. It's turning you know, venture capital
into human capital. And from there it has just been
(27:06):
a really fast and furious and exciting journey.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So speak about your management style. So you are all female,
all moms, Like, how does that affect your work culture?
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Great question. We are trying something new because I want
to create a different culture of work from my own daughters.
To be honest, I want to do it differently. And
our culture is really trying to acknowledge the fact that
we also have children and responsibilities and also that sometimes
your most productive hours are not between nine and five.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And I think a lot of us realize that during
the pandemic, as we had to flex, we were forced
to flex in a different way, but you were still
able to get your job done.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I think that's like a mom's superpower though, right, It's
like if there is no time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You will create time totally.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Moms not to be biased, I'm a little bias. I
think are the most productive humans ever. Yeah, ever out
of necessity, especially because we're so small, Like if something
urgent comes in, it's helpful for me to know that
everyone else is driving kids around because then I'm on
first or whatever that issue is, and and we all
(28:18):
really do work like that. I want to do it differently,
and I'm trying to. I always talk to my team
about this. I was like, if we can't make it work,
no one will. So we have to try to do
it differently.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
M Yeah, because it doesn't look like the government, right,
what's going to help us either.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
No one is coming to save us with all the.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Non legislation that's going on, right.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yes, yeah, well yeah, we've got to figure it out.
And we can. We really can. We can do it.
But I mean, look at you, like your full time
mom and doing this podcast. That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
You don't have to do that, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, but I want to do something.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I'm not trained in radio or audio or journalism, like
that's not my work background, that's not my education background.
But I stayed at home for ten years, so like, basically,
according to any HR department, any skill I had is
like dead right, So this is me kind of building
(29:19):
it up from scratch. But like as we talked about before,
as moms, you figure it out.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So you figure it out, and I really I think
you're right that there is a perception that, you know,
when you stay at home with your kids, your skill
set goes to waste. We just hired someone who was
a stay at home mom for twelve years. You know,
she had been at Google previously. She wasn't working, but
she was head of the BDA and.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
She was doing just a myriad of things.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
She was telling me, She's like, well, I haven't worked.
I was like, but wait a minute. You have led organizations, yes,
and you have managed people who are volunteers, which are
the hardest people to manage. Just figuring out how we
just revalue this work that's happening. You know, we're revaluating,
we're working to revalue care work right now. But goodness gracious,
(30:09):
there is so much work that has to happen to
make a society and schools and organizations and you name
it run effectively. That is often harder than you know,
getting the project management job at x.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Tech firm and stating there for twelve years.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That's where I love your concept for your podcast. Really
trying to put a dollar figure, because money speaks to
people around this shadow economy of unpaid labor. And I hope,
I do hope that joom Care can make a small
dent in that, you know, for moms of young kids,
(30:49):
and who knows, you know, maybe we extend the platform
at some point to help make more little divots in
that unpaid economy. But I just I love kind of
the light you're shining on this.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Thank you well, keep us posted. So, Gretchen, before I
let you go, how will you cash your trillions?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So I think if I actually had the trillions, I
honestly would put more funding towards ju and care right now,
just in the immediate because you know, our main constraint
to serving more families is our ability to scale our
team and scale our technology. But we could we could
(31:31):
do it faster if we spent our money faster, but
you know, not the responsible thing to do, and.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
You could scale it across the nation, then.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
We could scale it.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, And you know, I'm trying to be a good
steward too of the money we have raised from outside investors,
But if it was my own trillions, I could be
a little more loose with it, you know, and we
could go a little faster and try more things and
test different markets. And that is really where I would
(32:01):
spend it. And so I would also love to take
my family to Africa, just as the little side peace.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I think you'll have money left over for that.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I hope so.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Actually, Trillions, Well, thank you so much for your time, Gretchen.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Oh, thank you so much. It is just so delightful
to chat with you. I've loved it.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
This episode was produced by me and sound edited by Shen.
Cashing our Trillions is part of the Seneca Women podcast
Network and iHeartRadio. If you have a story to share,
please email us at Cashing our Trillions at gmail dot com.
Make sure you subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio
app or wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you
(32:50):
liked what you heard, please take a moment to rate
and review it. It would really mean so much to me.
Thank you for listening. Fine letter
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