Founder Interview
How TOOTRiS Helped 600 Children Find Child Care and Signed Up Around 100 Employers in 2020 (Interview with Alessandra Lezama)
- Interview Date
- November 17, 2020
- Interviewee
- Alessandra LezamaFounder
Company Metrics at Interview Time
Children Helped Since Launch (since March 2020)
600
Employer Customers (November 2020)
around 100
Price Per Participating Employee (2020)
$19.97 per month
Average Seats Per Employer (2020)
60
Historical Snapshot
These numbers were reported by Alessandra Lezama during the interview recorded in November 2020 and are a historical snapshot, not current figures. See TOOTRiS’s current numbers.
Key Takeaways
- 01TOOTRiS launched to market in March 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
- 02By November 2020, the platform had helped 600 children connect with child care providers since COVID started, though not all of those connections were paid for.
- 03In 2020, employers paid $19.97 per participating employee per month for the service.
- 04At the time, the average employer signed up for about 60 seats, and Alessandra estimated that only about half of those seats had been onboarded.
- 05By Alessandra's own rough estimate, TOOTRiS had around 100 employer customers as of November 2020.
- 06Employer needs surveys typically came in at about 40% employee participation, largely because TOOTRiS focused on children aged zero to five.
- 07In November 2020, TOOTRiS covered all of California, with the most verified providers in San Diego, where it was headquartered.
- 08The company used Facebook Groups as a key channel to reach and onboard child care providers.
- 09TOOTRiS was an early-stage company at the time. Its platform was free for parents and providers, and in the early months of COVID it was not yet selling to employers.
- 10Alessandra named Salesforce as her favorite online tool for building the company.
Company Metrics at Time of Interview
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Children Helped Since Launch (since March 2020) | 600 | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
| Employer Customers (November 2020) | around 100 | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
| Price Per Participating Employee (2020) | $19.97 per month | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
| Average Seats Per Employer (2020) | 60 | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
| Employee Participation in Employer Needs Surveys (2020) | about 40% | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
| Launched to Market | March 2020 | Founder interview, Nov 2020 |
Growth Breakdown
Customers
By Alessandra's own rough estimate, TOOTRiS was serving around 100 employer customers as of November 2020, having launched to market in March 2020. She said it was onboarding and adding subscriptions every day, and the average employer signed up for about 60 seats. Seats were billed on demand, only once a parent became active on the platform, and she estimated that about half of them had been onboarded at the time.
Children Served
By November 2020, TOOTRiS had helped 600 children connect with child care providers since COVID started. Not all of those connections were paid for: the platform was free for parents and providers, and in the early months of COVID the company was not yet selling to employers, so many families connected without an employer subscription behind them.
Team and Operations
At the time of the interview, TOOTRiS had an operations team that vetted child care providers and helped with placements when parents and providers did not connect on their own. Provider outreach ran two ways: a team making direct calls, and a digital marketing campaign aimed at provider groups on Facebook.
Funding and Stage
Alessandra described TOOTRiS as an early-stage organization at the time of the interview. No funding round details were disclosed during the recording.
Growth Strategy
Facebook Groups Outreach
TOOTRiS ran an aggressive digital marketing campaign aimed at Facebook groups where child care providers share best practices. Much as Yelp does, it invited providers to claim their profiles on the platform and validate the information TOOTRiS held on them.
Employer Benefits Model
Rather than charging parents or providers, TOOTRiS sold child care as a benefit to employers, who paid a subscription fee for each participating employee. That let employers bring child care in under their benefits platform.
Provider Verification and Quality Standards
The TOOTRiS operations team vetted providers and checked their safety protocols against CDC recommendations. Programs following COVID safety protocols carried a tag on their profile, and every profile showed whether the provider was verified. The company was also partnering with organizations like NAEYC to hold its providers to a higher education standard.
Geographic Expansion from San Diego
TOOTRiS proved its model in San Diego first, then expanded to cover all of California. The company uploaded the full database of licensed providers statewide and at the time of the interview was still building verified relationships with providers north of San Diego.
On-Demand Flexible Seat Model
The accordion-style seat model let employers add or drop seats as needed, with no minimum number of seats and billing only once a parent was active. Alessandra noted that COVID-19 had left employers unsure how much child care their workforce would need as they tried to call employees back to the office.
Best Quotes
“What we do is we work with employers to incorporate child care as a benefit solutions. So employers pay us a fee, a subscription fee so that we can incorporate a search based on the requirements of their workforce and ensure that we have inventory ready for placement of those children.”
“$19.97 dollars a month per participating employee.”
“Yeah, well it's a great problem to have because we're onboarding every day all day long and because we're also providing non standard care and twenty four hour care and weekend care so we're adding subscriptions all day long.”
“These are subscriptions that will activate over time. That means that as soon as the parent is active in our platform they will start paying for that subscription. They don't start paying for the subscription in advance. So this is an on demand platform, which is a beautiful type of solution for our employers because they can stretch like an accordion, right? So they can drop seats, they can add seats as those are warranted.”
“That's a tricky question. I'll say that we've helped 600 children since COVID started, not all which have paid to be connected with a provider.”
“We're a free platform so in the end our revenue model is to incorporate employers so that they in turn can bring in child care as a service under their benefits platform and for us adoption is the name of the game”
“We have an extraordinary team that has put in place a digital marketing strategy that reaches out through many Facebook channels where these groups of providers share best practices and things like that. So we're reaching out to them and kind of like Yelp where you get an invitation to claim your own profile and come in and validate all of the information that we have, we reach out to them as well.”
“All of California with a high emphasis in San Diego because our proof of concept was San Diego and this is where we had the most interaction with providers.”
What Happened Next
This page captures TOOTRiS as it stood in November 2020, shortly after its March 2020 launch during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that point the company had helped 600 children find child care since COVID started and, by Alessandra's own rough estimate, was serving around 100 employer customers. For current revenue, customer counts, and company developments, visit the TOOTRiS profile on GetLatka.
View TOOTRiS’s current profile and metricsFull Transcript
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and What TOOTRiS Does
- 0:27Is TOOTRiS a SaaS Product?
- 0:56Who Pays: The Employer Benefits Model
- 1:26Pricing and Employee Participation
- 2:20Seats per Employer and Around 100 Employer Customers
- 4:34How Seat Activation and On-Demand Billing Works
- 9:03Geographic Coverage: California and San Diego Focus
- 10:12Scaling Providers: Outreach and Verification Strategy
- 12:44Children Helped and the Free Platform Model
- 13:46Child Care Deficit and Early COVID Strategy
- 14:22Famous Five: Rapid-Fire Questions
Introduction and What TOOTRiS Does
Nathan Latka
00:00Hello, everyone. My guest today is Alessandra Lezama. She is the founder of a company called TOOTRiS. It's a service provider that helps working parents access secure affordable quality child care in real time. The company is available online or by mobile app and provide search by location, schedule, budget, and specific program distinctions along with virtual tour capabilities, enrollment, and pay as you go payment processing. Alessandra, you ready to take us to the top?
Alessandra Lezama
00:24>> Absolutely. Thank you for having me here today.
Is TOOTRiS a SaaS Product?
Nathan Latka
00:27You bet. So first off, on the show we usually feature exclusively SaaS founders, software as a service. You are applying software to something, but it's really product type service. Would you agree?
Alessandra Lezama
00:37>> Well, it's a SaaS product in and of itself except for we have the back end as well. So we have an operations team that helps enable placements when parents and or providers are not connecting based on their requirements. But ultimately this is a 100% a SaaS application that is also accessible by mobile app.
Who Pays: The Employer Benefits Model
Nathan Latka
00:56And are parents the ones paying or child care providers?
Alessandra Lezama
00:59>> Neither. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Well, a 100 what we do is we work with employers to incorporate child care as a benefit solutions. So employers pay us a fee, a subscription fee so that we can incorporate a search based on the requirements of their workforce and ensure that we have inventory ready for placement of those children.
Pricing and Employee Participation
Nathan Latka
01:26Okay so what does an average employer pay you for that service?
Alessandra Lezama
01:31>> $19.97 dollars a month per participating employee.
Nathan Latka
01:36So if And how many employees participate on average per company?
Alessandra Lezama
01:41>> The surveys typically come in at about 40% participation and that's primarily because we're focused on the zero to five age group. However, due to the pandemic and based on this remote learning, I'll call it opportunities for, children to stay home and, go to school, what we found is that learning hubs is a solution that we could extend to parents through extended child care for school aged children. So I guess, bridging the gap currently through COVID-nineteen, we're
02:14>> not only supporting zero to five age groups, but also school aged children.
Seats per Employer and Around 100 Employer Customers
Nathan Latka
02:20So, Alessandra, the question I was getting at is how many seats or employees is the average company paying you for?
Alessandra Lezama
02:27>> Well, that would depend, right? On the size of the company. A 100 Well,
Nathan Latka
02:30that's why I'm asking the average.
Alessandra Lezama
02:31>> All right. So on average, 60
02:36>> seats per organization.
Nathan Latka
02:39Okay so this is sort of reaching middle market potentially pushing sort of enterprise this isn't for a small company with 10 people that have two people that need child care.
Alessandra Lezama
02:47>> This is for any organization that has a need for it to be honest because there aren't any minimum required seats. And currently we are an early stage organization. So we've recently launched to market actually when the first order,
03:04>> lockdown in March, that's when we came out to market. So we have exponentially grown the scope of our services and the delivery of our services through the pandemic and we're really scaling up in terms of the size organization that's adopting our solutions.
Nathan Latka
03:22So how many unique employers now pay you for your service for one seat or a thousand?
Alessandra Lezama
03:28>> If I had to just throw a dart I would say around a 100.
Nathan Latka
03:34Okay, wait why do you have to throw a dart? I remember when I first found my first SaaS company I was looking at new customers every single day I knew the number like the back of my hand I knew their families, personalities, everything.
Alessandra Lezama
03:43>> Yeah, well it's a great problem to have because we're onboarding every day all day long and because we're also providing non standard care and twenty four hour care and weekend care so we're adding subscriptions all day long.
Nathan Latka
04:01Okay. But you think about a 100 employers right now and on average one employer signs up for about 60 seats?
Alessandra Lezama
04:08>> Correct. That would be on average. Right? So we we have it all over the map. You ask for an average, that would be that would be the average.
Nathan Latka
04:14So a 100 companies times 60 seats on average would mean you feel you've got about 6,000 paid seats on your platform currently?
Alessandra Lezama
04:22>> Correct. At at $20 on average per month?
04:25>> Correct.
Nathan Latka
04:26Which would be about a $120,000 a month in revenue?
Alessandra Lezama
04:28>> Correct.
Nathan Latka
04:29So you've gone from nothing to a $120,000 a month in revenue over the past twelve months?
How Seat Activation and On-Demand Billing Works
Alessandra Lezama
04:34>> Now granted this is all yes and so these are subscriptions that will activate over time. That means that as soon as the parent is active in our platform they will start paying for that subscription. They don't start paying for the subscription in advance. So this is an on demand platform, which is a beautiful type of solution for our employers because they can stretch like an accordion, right? So they can drop seats, they can add seats as
05:01>> those are warranted.
Nathan Latka
05:03Yeah, the flexibility is important. So how many paid seats would you say you didn't have today?
Alessandra Lezama
05:08>> I think we just did the math, didn't we Nathan?
Nathan Latka
05:11I think you just said though that they're not all onboarded.
Alessandra Lezama
05:14>> Correct. They they would be
Nathan Latka
05:16So how many are onboarded?
Alessandra Lezama
05:18>> Probably half that.
Nathan Latka
05:20Okay. Got it. So you're signing up with an employer for maybe they'll say, hey, Alessandra, we love the tool. Yes. We've got 30 that we need it for right now, but we'll maybe scale up to 60 over twelve months. They'll sign a contract for 60, but only pay for 30 seats until they onboard the full
Alessandra Lezama
05:33>> as they they are using the service. Correct.
Nathan Latka
05:37Got it. Got it. Got it. Fair enough. So you've got about a 100 employers with 30 seats onboard on average today. So you're doing more like $50,000 to $60,000 a month in revenue. Still super impressive. Nothing to that in short amount of time.
Alessandra Lezama
05:48>> Correct. And the commitment though that we have and the the forecast that we have is that while employers come in through a survey that is a needs analysis, it can always scale to higher requirements, right? COVID-nineteen has thrown a wrench into every aspect of the business and employers don't really know how to ascertain that as they're trying to recall their employees back to the office when needed and or to the different activities. And important to note
06:21>> is that I think that earlier in the lockdown, a lot of folks were ecstatic to go home and work remote. And I think that as we have evolved in this pandemic, there are more and more employees that recognize that their productivity may not be the same at home. So what we're seeing is that the need for child care, while earlier in this process, was somewhat conservative what we're seeing now is that the demand is returning to
06:56>> the market and that's also good for the providers because a lot of the providers lost their enrollments right a lot of parents pulled out their children not knowing what was best for the little ones.
Nathan Latka
07:07If you operate in a state like California providers right now are not allowed to operate you can't have people in a physical space so what value
Alessandra Lezama
07:15>> that's not true child care providers have the ability to operate and stay open and take in children there are CDC recommendations and there's guidelines that have been published right by licensing by the Department of Social Services that that add layers of scrutiny to hygiene and to the protocols. Right? The the social distancing and and that, but providers are allowed to be open. Is essentially the opposite.
Nathan Latka
07:44There's a lot of parents that will not send their kids to a provider because the risk of that child picking up COVID in an asymptomatic way with 10 other kids at that same provider, even if they have all the precautions falling, and then that child coming home and getting the parents sick is too high. They'd rather be more unproductive at work and keeping their children How are, I mean, you seeing that as a trend? If so,
08:05how do you sort of pivot so that doesn't impact your business model in a negative way?
Alessandra Lezama
08:09>> Well, I think that education has a lot to do with it and transparency of safety protocols. When we bring a provider under the TOOTRiS scope of services and into our network, we have a relationship with that provider. So we have an ops team that vets the provider, has conversations with the provider, and we have an internal process by which we also qualify their protocols, and in this case, the safety and the CDC recommended protocols. So if
08:41>> you go on our site for example and run a search for COVID safe programs, you'll see some that are tagged, right? They have a tag right on their profile
08:53>> to disclose the protocols that they are following and I think that that adds some sense of know peace of mind if you will for parents.
Geographic Coverage: California and San Diego Focus
Nathan Latka
09:03What geographies do you cover right now?
Alessandra Lezama
09:05>> All of California with a high emphasis in San Diego because our proof of concept was San Diego and this is where we had the most interaction with providers. So we have the entire scope of California lit. When we say lit, means that we have uploaded the database of licensed providers. We are engaging with them to build the relationship and to verify them. We have a category in TOOTRiS which is verified or unverified provider, And the verified
09:35>> provider goes through that workflow that I was referring to here.
Nathan Latka
09:39I just did a search in LA. Where do I find who's verified that you have a relationship with?
Alessandra Lezama
09:45>> So you would see the category when you click on their profile, you would see verified or unverified. If you go to if you go to the easier search, which is why I said, the emphasis has been in San Diego. We this is where we we ran our proof of of, model, and this is where we've started. We're headquartered in San Diego. So where we have the most base of verified providers would be in San Diego, which
10:09>> would be a better search for you to see.
Scaling Providers: Outreach and Verification Strategy
Nathan Latka
10:12I see. I see. Okay. Got it. So I mean, how challenging is that for you to scale sort of in The US? Mean, I I meant just a lot of work to scale these providers. I think maybe what you've done is you've legally obviously scraped a bunch of these sites from a database, put them in your software, but then you have to actually reach out and build a real relationship with them to start getting reviews, verify
10:28them, etcetera.
Alessandra Lezama
10:29>> Correct. And that that's absolutely true and correct. And there's two ways in which we do that. We could do that proactively, which means literally dialing for dollars. Right? So we have a team of people that can dial for dollars. But we also do it through a very, you know, proactive proactive and aggressive, if you will, marketing campaign. We have an extraordinary team that has put in place a digital marketing strategy that reaches out through many Facebook
10:58>> channels where these groups of providers share best practices and things like that. So we're reaching out to them and kind of like Yelp where you get an invitation to claim your own profile and come in and validate all of the information that we have, we reach out to them as well. So, both proactively and reactively or organically, we are creating that validation and that verification. Again, we are an early stage company. So our first market was
11:30>> San Diego and we've just recently turned up anything North Of San Diego. So what you see there the database to your point this is is all publicly available information all the licensed programs that we have in in California and and with the exception of some because we also do filters, for, sanctions on on the records of these providers. So we will we will place that filter first and then set aside that group of providers because those
12:02>> do need to be handled in a kind of different workflow to ensure that we're only incorporating quality providers. We're taking it to the next step. We're also looking at
12:17>> higher level credentials because our viewpoint is that child care should be an early childhood education process with play as you learn type curriculums. And so we are partnering with many different organizations like NAEYC and others to ensure that our providers are living up to the higher level of education standard.
Children Helped and the Free Platform Model
Nathan Latka
12:44Alessandra, before we wrap up, obviously the ultimate metric for you is how many kids do you have going through your system to daycare so their parents can focus at home and the child keeps learning and developing. You know, we're recording here on Tuesday. Yesterday on Monday, how many children went to child care because they're paying you to help them do that?
Alessandra Lezama
13:03>> That's a tricky question. I'll say that we've helped 600 children since COVID started, not all which have paid to be connected with a provider.
Nathan Latka
13:13I see the reason for that
Alessandra Lezama
13:17>> is we're a free platform so in the end our revenue model is to incorporate employers so that they in turn can bring in child care as a service under their benefits platform and for us adoption is the name of the game this is a gig economy as you and I both understand it and for us it the you know the problem that we're trying to solve is to increase the inventory of child care slots or quality
Child Care Deficit and Early COVID Strategy
Alessandra Lezama
13:46>> child care because we have a severe deficit. Prior to COVID, we were at about 44% deficit in San Diego alone, very close statewide. And so for us, is key and through the initial stages of COVID, we weren't out there selling to employers. We were actually making the platform available to parents and providers so that they could connect. So a lot of those enrollments connections happen without us having a subscription based agreement with employers that were looking
14:18>> to bring in that service as a benefit, if that makes any sense.
Famous Five: Rapid-Fire Questions
Nathan Latka
14:22It does, Alessandra. Let's wrap here with the famous five. Number one, favorite business book.
Alessandra Lezama
14:26>> Oh, strategic selling.
Nathan Latka
14:29Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?
Alessandra Lezama
14:33>> Is there a CEO that I follow? Interesting.
14:38>> Not particularly, to be honest.
Nathan Latka
14:40No problem. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building the company?
Alessandra Lezama
14:45>> Salesforce.
Nathan Latka
14:46Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?
Alessandra Lezama
14:49>> At least six and a half. I try eight, but I don't always get to eight.
Nathan Latka
14:53And what's your situation, Alessandra? Married? Single? Kiddos?
Alessandra Lezama
14:56>> I am single by design.
Nathan Latka
14:58Single by design. Love that. No kids running around?
Alessandra Lezama
15:00>> I have a I have a son, 20 year old.
Nathan Latka
15:02Oh, good.
Alessandra Lezama
15:03>> He's a USC student and hating life because he's home. So he's living, he's not living the dream right now, but he's learning how to navigate tough times.
Nathan Latka
15:13All right. And last question, what's something you wish you knew when you were 20?
Alessandra Lezama
15:15>> That I
15:16>> knew, oh, that no one can hold me back and it doesn't matter what anybody thinks outside of your circle of love and those that actually impact your life.
Nathan Latka
15:27Guys, TOOTRiS.com helping employers help their employees find appropriate child care so they can be more productive, especially when they're working from home. They've helped 600 children so far today launched in San Diego scaling, currently serving about a 100 customers. Those customers are again, our employers using them. Hopefully, each of those scaling up on average to about 60 seats representing employers, again, employees that need child care services. Awesome. Thanks for taking us to the top.
Alessandra Lezama
15:53>> Thank you so much for having me.