CareLuLu

CareLuLu's mission is to improve access to safe, affordable, high-quality child care and early education. 

Quality early learning experiences are critical for children under five to reach their full potential. Yet, finding great child care and preschool is extremely difficult. Parents rely on Google, which only shows a fraction of the options. The lack of information makes it hard for families to find care, especially for low-income families who cannot afford top-tier preschools (often the only ones with a website). In the US alone, there are 23 million children ages 0-5 who deserve access to quality early education. 

CareLuLu is a marketplace that connects parents with licensed child care and preschool programs. We bring transparency to the industry by providing parents detailed information such as cost, curriculum, photos, and verified reviews. CareLuLu helps parents find the perfect early education program based on their needs (budget, language, curriculum, subsidies, etc.)

Finding safe, affordable, quality child care and preschool is essential for parents. Not only because they need a caregiver whom they can trust with their child’s safety, but also because quality early learning experiences are critical for the development of children under five. 

There are 23 million children ages 0-5 in the US and 60 percent of women with children under five are in the workforce. Yet, there’s no place for parents to find information they need; 62% of parents with infants or preschool-age children say it’s hard to find affordable, quality child care. They rely on word of mouth or spend days browsing Google to find care. 

This lack of information reduces access and prevents millions of young children from getting the early learning experience that is so critical to their growth. This impacts all income levels, but especially low-income families who cannot afford top-tier preschools (often the only ones that can afford to have a website to be found online). 

On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of small child care programs, often run by minorities and/or immigrant women who don't have the budget or marketing skills to spread the word (and thus struggle financially).

CareLuLu helps the parents of 23 million children ages 0-5 (in the US) who deserve access to safe, affordable, high-quality child care and early education. 

We also help hundreds of thousands of early educators grow their business (these are mostly very small, women-run businesses). We've already helped tens of thousands of families find care and have created since launch more than $1 billion in new business opportunity for child care and preschool programs.

We’re proud of our achievements, but we want to continue to help small business owners thrive and scale to help millions of children (in the US and beyond) get access to affordable, quality early education.

CareLuLu is a marketplace that connects parents with licensed child care and preschool programs. 

We bring transparency to the child care industry by providing parents with detailed information such as child care program cost, curriculum, photos, and verified reviews. Our service helps parents find the perfect daycare based on their specific needs whether it’s cost, teaching philosophy, special needs, or programs accepting subsidies (we work with many low-income families to find a program that accept vouchers). 

Last but not least, we help child care providers and early educators (mostly small, women-owned businesses) improve the quality of their early education program and grow their business. We receive emails from parents telling us we're a "Godsend" because they only found care thanks for us.  Similarly, child care providers tell us we saved their business. Many even opened a new location (most marketing solutions target chains with large budgets, not very small businesses.) 

There is a massive opportunity to improve access to access to quality early education for parents, while helping child care providers and early educators thrive.

There is literally an online marketplace for everything from finding hotels, plane tickets, restaurants or even sneakers. However, when it comes to finding child care, one of the most important (and expensive!) decisions for parents, there is nothing. There are hundreds of local sites containing basic information about child care, ranging from city websites to parenting forums. Many large child care centers also have a website that parents can typically find on Google. However, there is no single resource containing detailed information about every licensed child care and preschool program in the US. That's what CareLuLu is building. All these other sites also include only basic information and make it difficult for parents to find the right fit based on their specific needs and budget. Our marketplace is fully operational with detailed information in certain areas of the US, but we want to scale to the entire country, and beyond. 

Our core technology lies in the scalable collection, processing and management of data. There are hundreds of different local sites containing information about early education programs, and our goal is to bring all of that highly fragmented information into our marketplace. 

By bringing transparency to the industry, giving parents information they lack, and by connecting them to child care programs they didn't know existed, CareLuLu is indeed improving access to affordable and quality early education for millions of children. 

Our 3 founders' achievements include: 11 patents, starting a massive marketplace (Groupon) in Brazil, generating $100 million in annual savings for a previous employer, and starting a first company at 16. Most importantly, we're parents ourselves and have experienced the problem firsthand!

We have a freemium model that allows child care and preschool programs to create a free listing to get some features and exposure. For more features/exposure and additional services to grow their business and improve their program, child care providers pay CareLuLu. Our service is 100% free to parents.

Solve is bringing together organizations and partners looking to improve access to quality early education. We will benefit most from mentors and partners who can help us work with government agencies and early education organizations to help us reach more child care providers. 

Local child care associations as well as state child care licensing and early education agencies.

The vast majority of child care programs in the US are very small businesses, run by minority/immigrant women. Yet, they only get a small portion of the market share because they don't have the money or digital marketing skills to spread the word to parents. By helping them connect with parents, we help them grow a successful business and build financial independence for them and their family. 

Since launch, we've created more than $1 billion in new business opportunity for child care and preschool programs. Many child care providers tell us we saved their business (most marketing solutions target chains with large budgets, not very small businesses.) Some even opened a new location and were able to hire various staff members.

By helping parents find safe, affordable, quality child care, we also allow women who wish to return to work to do so. Having a child disproportionately impacts women's career and long-term earnings, so helping parents find child care can help reduce that impact.