Deal highlights

• Featured this month on ABC's Shark Tank.
• Innovative platform that helps parents discover and book the best children’s activities.
• 20% MoM user growth, 490% increase in available classes and spot each month, 60% reduction in user churn since January.
• $100B and growing market opportunity.
• Backed by Techstars Ventures, Chicago Ventures, the founders of OKCupid, HotelTonight, SitterCity, and more.
• Loved by partners: fills classes, increases revenue, and builds long-term memberships.

Since our first campaign

We were so thrilled and flattered by the outpouring of investment from the Republic community in our last campaign, raising just under $250K, nearly 5X our initial goal. 

In just 7 months, a lot has happened on the platform and with the valuation of the business.  After our Republic campaign we closed our Seed round, raising just under $2M from our existing investors, we hired a full stack tech team, launched the first versions of our iOS and Android apps, launched San Francisco and acquired a competitor in Washington, D.C.  

We've reduced churn to the lowest in the industry, one month getting as low as 1.8%.  We continue to profitably acquire customers, maintaining a consistent customer acquisition cost for nearly 10 months, and our CAC to LTV ratio is 1:6.  

But most important, we've discovered with confidence that we've created a product that people love, that brings families closer together and fuels local businesses.

Parents want to spend meaningful time with their children, but activities are hard to find and even harder to book.

At Pearachute, we believe parents and children should spend more time playing and less time planning. But parents of children under 5 face a dilemma. We want our children to discover new activities they love, so we sign them up for art, swimming, music, and soccer. 

But by the third visit, our 2 year old is crying in the corner or refusing to get in the water, and they still have 9 sessions left that can’t be refunded.

Unfortunately, the family activity industry is out of touch with today’s parents. Activity centers are poorly marketed and lock parents into expensive 10-12 week sessions for children too young to know what they like.

This is why we created Pearachute.

Pearachute is changing the way parents and children share, discover, learn and play.

Pearachute is a monthly membership club that makes it easy for parents and caregivers to discover, book, and drop into the best family activities in your city all at the touch of a button all for one affordable rate.

Here’s how it works:

1. Parents choose from three, six, or unlimited classes each month on PearachuteKids.com

2. Immediately, they can begin searching from the thousands of family friendly activities all over the city. They can even filter by their child’s age or interest. 

   

3. Parents simply select a class, click “drop-in,” and select who will attend. Then they’re ready to play! It’s that easy!

   

Parents love it!

We work with over 850 partner companies in Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Kansas City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and that number is growing by the day.

Activities range from arts & music, to dance, to learning & development, to storytime, to sports - we have activities to suit the whims of any child.

Our partners love us: over $700k has gone back to these local businesses through working with Pearachute.

 A more comprehensive activity-booking solution.

Pearachute is the first comparable product to launch in multiple markets, and our solution provides more flexibility for our users and more convenience and better usability for our partners.

There are 75 million millennials about to have 75M babies, and 78% of them prefer to spend money on experiences over things...this is how they will raise their children.

Each year, American families spend $32B on kids’ activities and millions of that is wasted in unattended classes because of changing nap schedules, runny noses, and surprise visits from Grandma.  When you include family entertainment like movies and live performances, that number jumps to $100B each year. 

And this market is only going to get bigger.

[PewResearch]

Our business model is simple and proven to work:

• We make our revenue through subscriptions of $39, $79, and $199 per month depending on which plan our members select.

• We pay our partners a discounted drop-in rate each time a child attends a class or activity.

• Our margins average 24-45% across all products and markets. 

• We profitably acquire every single member.

Traction: 

The parenting and tech worlds love Pearachute!

What’s next:

• Product Roadmap:

  • Q4: adding the ability to book birthday parties through Pearachute. Upgrading our native iOS and Android apps.

  • Q1: Launching the new Pearachute native apps. Adding the ability to book birthday parties.

• Business Growth:

  • 5x user growth in Chicago, Dallas,  Kansas City, SF, and DC

  • Proving the scalability of our market launch playbook.

  • Improve user attrition, average revenue per user, and daily active users. through better inventory and continuous product improvement.

Our Founding Story:

When I had my first son, Griffin, I was one of the first of my friends in Chicago to have a baby.  I didn’t have a group to turn to get advice, and it wasn’t until my son entered daycare that I even realized I could sign him up for classes.  At that point, I had missed the registration deadlines and ended up with an 8am soccer class that I ended up skipping because we couldn’t get out the door.  I ultimately canceled and decided to try swimming, which was across the street.  But after my second son, Aedan, arrived, I found it even more difficult to make it to scheduled classes.  I thought there had to be a better way.  I order my groceries, diapers, and coordinate my babysitters from my phone, why couldn’t I manage our recreational life as a family that way too?

So, with the help of an amazing team, we created Pearachute to make it easier and more affordable for families to discover and enjoy activities they all love.  

For my family, the impact has been incredible.  As a working mom/stepmom, Mondays are easier when I’ve taken the time to be truly present with my children as we play with clay or dance around a music class.  And as a passionate promoter of entrepreneurs, I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that we’ve generated nearly $200,000 in revenue for local business owners.

I hope you’ll join us in bringing Pearachute to so many more cities with parents eager to spend more time playing and less time planning and business owners looking to connect with the families in their communities.

Backed by a strong and experienced board:

Founder & CEO: Desiree Vargas Wrigley

Prior to launching Pearachute, Desiree founded one of the world’s first crowdfunding platforms, GiveForward.  After Yale, she worked at the Kauffman Foundation, where  she discovered her passion for the impact entrepreneurship has on our communities.

Chairman: Sam Yagan

Sam is best known as the co-founder of OkCupid, and in 2013 was named to Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” list. Sam also serves as the Vice-Chairman of Match.com.

Board Member: Paul Lee*

Paul is a general partner at Builders VC and the CEO and co-founder of Builders Studios. As a former general partner at LightBank, Paul led investments in several successful internet firms, such as Udemy, CoffeeMeetsBagel, ElaCarte, Talentbin, Cleversense, and Contently. Paul also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

*Paul's role on the board is as an observer, he has no managerial or voting rights.

Our Team

Our team is a group of women passionate about making life easier for parents and more fulfilling for children.  Among us, we have over 35 years of early stage start-up experience and nearly 30 years of mother and caregiver experience.  We understand both sides of our market, and we are thrilled by the impact we’re having on both.

Our Investors

Our current investors include individuals and firms with long histories of success, both as investors, and as entrepreneurs themselves. They provide consistent guidance, insight, and support to help Pearachute achieve profitable, sustainable growth.

 

We are a values-driven company:

Inspiring Children’s Curiosity and Passion.

We strive toward this mission by empowering parents and caregivers through convenience and choice. To us, this means making the best kids’ classes and activities available at the touch of a button, allowing parents to drop-in and explore during times that fit their schedule with the flexibility to accommodate late naps, stuffy noses, and unplanned visits from grandparents.

Strengthening Local Businesses.

Pearachute is not just about the bond between children and the people who care for them. We work closely with our partners to help them identify new ways to engage with their neighbors and grow their business.

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs.

The vast majority of our partners are women owned and operated businesses, started by founders who took their passion and created value for their local communities. A big part of our vision here at Pearachute is strengthening those businesses so they can continue to do the work they love in a sustainable way.

One of the main reasons we’re partnering with Republic is to empower women to invest in each other. Our hope is that these women owners contribute to and benefit from the successful outcome of Pearachute.

“The day that Ewing Kauffman, a personal idol, merged his company with Dow Chemical he made 300 people millionaires. Those were factory workers and executive assistants–not just investors. My hope is that when we have our exit, we make 300 people millionaires... and that at least 151 of them are women.” 

- Desiree Vargas Wrigley, Pearachute Founder & CEO