For many running parents, balancing paintings with getting children to high school or activities is an all-too-acquainted or overwhelming undertaking.
It might imply arranging a carpool or taking a day without work paintings to get one or more children home from school for football practice or drama membership. But what if arranging a journey became as smooth as clicking a button?
That’s the idea of riding Connecticut-primarily based business enterprise VanGo, which strives to be the “Uber for children.”
Unlike other experience-sharing apps, VanGo’s functions are tailor-made, particularly for parents, with heavy background assessments of drivers, GPS monitoring of rides, and advanced scheduling.
Starting Monday, Dallas’s mother and father may use the app to timetable rides for kids, ages eight to 17, for after-faculty practices, journeys, or visits with friends. Families not quite ready to give up carpool schedules can also set up a couple of residence pickups.
“We’re an employer built for running mothers,” founder Marta Jamrozik said.
For Jamrozik, it’s near domestic. She became stimulated by using her mom, who served as the primary breadwinner and did most of the childcare and housekeeping.
The service is designed to assist parents with preteens and teenagers who need one-off assistance instead of a full-time babysitter or nanny.
“We wanted to be that in-among solution,” Jamrozik said.
The app launched a year ago in Fairfax County, Ct., before expanding to Phoenix, Houston, and Dallas this summer. Thousands of dads and moms use the app, with peak instances earlier than faculty and after college between 2 p.m. And 10 p.m.
Pricing runs approximately 15% to 20% higher than other ridesharing apps like Lyft or Uber, but Jamrozik said that supports features like a stricter vetting procedure.
Drivers must have at least three years of expert childcare experience, undergo an extensive background, and take a look at fingerprinting, reference assessments, and automobile inspection. All are impartial contractors, and 85% of drivers are mothers.
Through the app, mother and father can tune live places by choosing as much as drop off. Once an experience is booked, it additionally shows a complete profile and gets in touch with information for the driving force. Favorite drivers may be decided on, and they’re provided experience requests first.
Dallas can have new drivers added each week, in component to ramp up for the approaching school year. The mother and father should book at least 24 to forty-eight hours earlier. However, Jamrozik expects this time frame will lessen as the business enterprise expands.
Jamrozik has lofty desires for the provider, hoping to be in every essential metro within a few years. She’s raised $270,000 in seed investment from well-known accelerator Y Combinator, consistent with Crunchbase, a database that tracks startups.
New locations are being introduced primarily based on hobby degrees. Users where the carrier is unavailable can download the app for a specific hobby. The app is available in each Apple Keep and Google Play Save.