When the coronavirus shutdown meant Christina Ravazzolo could no longer babysit her two young charges in person, she offe...
Problem
As a parent of young kids, child care is your lifeline to the life you once knew
Finding a sitter is never easy—and when you need one on short notice or while traveling, it can seem impossible. The few technology solutions that do exist are antiquated and unreliable. That’s why most parents still use old-fashioned methods to find sitters, and still pay them offline through physical cash transactions.
As millennials transition into parenthood, they are looking for a fast and reliable solution that solves this problem in the way that tech does best: using a simple on-demand app.
Solution
Nanno: quality childcare at your fingertips
Nanno lets parents book high-quality, fully vetted sitters on-demand.
How it works
- Set the criteria you are looking for in a caregiver.
- The basic details of the booking are sent to all sitters who meet your criteria (you can also limit your search to "shortlists" you create).
- When a sitter responds that they're available, the booking is engaged automatically.
- Payment is processed automatically once booking is finished.
Our vetting process
Nothing is more important to our parent users than their children’s safety. That’s why we’ve built a proprietary 5-step vetting process, which includes a thorough criminal background check, a safety skills test, and a psychometric behavioral test. Nanno is the safest way to book a sitter, online or offline.
Product
A truly full-service technology solution in the child care space
Traction
Growing and retaining users across the US
We launched nationally in 2018, and are now in every major US metro area, with over 35K+ trusted sitters and over $1M in babysitting transactions processed nationwide.
Media spotlights
*Annualized revenue based on projected revenue in September; 35K+ sitters as of Sep 2021
Customers
Nanno is loved by parents and sitters alike
Sitters and parents agree—they love Nanno. Most of our users find Nanno through referrals and recommendations by other users.
Business model
Generating revenue through commissions and subscriptions
Our revenue model is twofold: Parents who book only occasionally pay only for the care they use—and we add a 20-30% commission to the hourly rate. Parents who book frequently can subscribe on a monthly basis for lower hourly rates.
Our costs of acquisition, on both the parent and caregiver sides, are only a fraction of the lifetime value of our users—making our unit economics infinitely scalable.
*Numbers as of the end of August 2021
Market
A $34B addressable market
There are 34M families in the US with children under the age of 18. The average family spends approximately $1K per year on informal childcare (babysitting), which means the US market for informal childcare is approximately $34B.
Competition
When choosing child care, safety is key
In today’s on-demand world, parents are seeking a full-service, tech-enabled solution when they need a sitter. Our biggest competitors, Care.com, UrbanSitter, and SitterCity, offer antiquated directory-based platforms that simply give parents access to a list of unvetted sitters.
Our network of background-checked sitters is LARGER in most US cities than our more established competitors.
The technology innovation that truly sets us apart is a comprehensive vetting process:
- Thorough criminal background check
- Safety skills test
- Psychometric behavioral test
When parents book with Nanno, they know their sitter has been through a vetting process that goes above and beyond what they would get anywhere else—online or offline.
*Competitor numbers as of July 21, 2021
Vision and strategy
Transforming the babysitting industry
Childcare is still primarily an offline industry. Even Care.com, the largest online marketplace for caregivers and babysitters, is only serving a small fraction of the market with 350K active users across all verticals (childcare, pet care, elder care, etc.). The first step to transforming this industry is offering a streamlined, on-demand way for parents to book vetted sitters from their phone or computer. The next step is to offer additional childcare and enrichment options to parents—tutors, art and music lessons, and STEM classes—using the same on-demand platform.
This is an industry crying for innovation—and Nanno is making it happen.
Funding
Raised nearly $2M to date
Nanno has raised funds from such notable investors as 500 Startups and Quake Capital Partners. Our previous Republic campaign successfully closed at $1.07M in January 2020, having received investments from over 5K investors.
Founders
Founded by parents and professional problem solvers
Liz Oertle (Co-Founder and CEO) is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to solve the real-world problems of everyday people—especially parents and families. Before starting Nanno, Liz was a startup lawyer, working with companies of all shapes and sizes. In 2016, she founded the Independent Law Group, a consortium of business attorneys who utilize disruptive startup practices to revolutionize the business of law.
Nelio Carneiro (CTO) is a passionate software engineer with more than 10 years of experience in web and mobile development. He has worked on big companies back in Brazil and also helped startups to grow in Ireland. During his career, he's contributed to lots of open source projects and created a few by himself. Nelio received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Goias in Brazil. (Naturally, Nelio is also a dad.)
Desi McAdam (Co-Founder and Former CTO) is a veteran software engineer and consultant, and a global advocate for women developers for over 15 years. With over 20 years of experience building web and mobile applications, she is a recognized leader in the industry as a developer and for building products in a sustainable and mature fashion. In 2005, she co-founded DevChix, an organization for women software developers that now has thousands of members across 17 different countries.