Some of the best tech entrepreneurs are frustrated parents. CareLuLu was launched the summer of 2013 when two parents were searching for childcare for their daughters. It involved endless Google searches, spreadsheets, phone calls and site visits. So Patrick Matos (left) and Evgeniya Usmanova (middle), along with CTO Gabriel Marques (right, a former Groupon Brazil software engineer) decided to end the madness and launched a marketplace that provides detailed info about local daycares and preschools. The startup, which raised $1.7M from 500 Startups, Khosla, The Startup Factory and Crunchfund has focused on DC, but it’s looking at other major cities like Los Angeles. The nine-person team recently moved to San Francisco to be closer to its investors.
Patrick, whose background is in chemical engineering, says the company is generating some revenue by charging childcare providers like KinderCare for an enhanced listing. But the focus has been on building the database, he says. The company, one of the first to be housed in DC’s 1776 campus, is also creating a concierge service where CareLuLu personally finds a childcare provider. The company also recently created a calculator that lets users plug in the age of the child, ZIP code, and what kind of childcare they’re looking for to determine a cost estimate. (We're assuming the most common answer is, "A LOT!")
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