Podcasts about urbansitter

Whats the best way a company can help support their working parents?In this episode, William Tincup interviews Lynn Perkins, the CEO and co-founder of UrbanSitter. They discuss the use case and business case for why customers and prospects use UrbanSitter, a service that helps families and care providers connect. Lynn reveals that UrbanSitter serves both individuals and corporate teams as a benefit. She emphasizes the importance of addressing the top stressors for working parents, such as juggling work and home responsibilities, and provides insights into how UrbanSitter leverages technology to create a safer way for families to connect.Lynn also shares the company's vetting process for care providers, which includes background checks, peer recommendations, and displaying their statistics. She highlights the significance of trust and recommendations in the offline world, and how UrbanSitter has built that into the platform. Whether you are a working parent seeking care solutions or an HR professional interested in supporting employees, this podcast episode offers helpful perspectives and ideas for improving care options and reducing stress for working families.Listen & Subscribe on your favorite platformApple | Spotify | Google | Amazon

Ramesh Johari is a professor at Stanford University focusing on data science methods and practice, as well as the design and operation of online markets and platforms. Beyond academia, Ramesh has advised some incredible startups, including Airbnb, Uber, Bumble, and Stitch Fix. Today we discuss:• What exactly a marketplace is, if you boil it down• What you need to get right to build a successful marketplace• How to optimize any marketplace• An easy litmus test to see if there's an opportunity to build a marketplace in the space• The role of data science in successful marketplaces• Ramesh's philosophy on experimentation and AI• Advice on implementing rating systems• Why learning isn't free—Brought to you by Sanity—The most customizable content layer to power your growth engine | Hex—Helping teams ask and answer data questions by working together | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/marketplace-lessons-from-uber-airbnb-bumble-and-more-ramesh-johari-stanford-professor-startup/—Where to find Ramesh Johari:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshjohari/• Website: https://web.stanford.edu/~rjohari/• X: https://twitter.com/rameshjohari—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Ramesh's background(04:31) A brief overview of what a marketplace is(08:10) The role of data science in marketplaces(11:21) Common flaws of marketplaces(16:43) Why every founder is a marketplace founder(20:26) How Substack increased value to creators by driving demand(20:58) An example of overcommitting at eBay(22:24) An easy litmus test for marketplaces (25:52) Thoughts on employees vs. contractors(28:02) How to leverage data scientists to improve your marketplace(34:10) Correlation vs. causation(35:27) Decisions that should be made using data(39:29) Ramesh's philosophy on experimentation(41:06) How to find a balance between running experiments and finding new opportunities(44:11) Badging in marketplaces(46:04) The “superhost” badge at Airbnb(49:59) How marketplaces are like a game of Whac-A-Mole(52:41) How to shift an organization's focus from impact to learning(55:43) Frequentist vs. Bayesian A/B testing (57:50) The idea that learning is costly(1:01:55) The basics of rating systems(1:04:41) The problem with averaging(1:07:14) Double-blind reviews at Airbnb(1:08:55) How large language models are affecting data science(1:11:27) Lightning round—Referenced:• Riley Newman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileynewman/• Upwork (formerly Odesk): https://www.upwork.com/• Ancient Agora: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Agora_of_Athens• Trajan's Market: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%27s_Market• Kayak: https://www.kayak.com/• UrbanSitter: https://www.urbansitter.com/• Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/• Substack: https://substack.com/• Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/• Coase: “The Nature of the Firm”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Firm• Stitch Fix: https://www.stitchfix.com/• A/B Testing with Fat Tails: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/710607• The ultimate guide to A/B testing | Ronny Kohavi (Airbnb, Microsoft, Amazon): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/• Servaes Tholen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/servaestholen/• Bayesian A/B Testing: A More Calculated Approach to an A/B Test: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/bayesian-ab-testing• Designing Informative Rating Systems: Evidence from an Online Labor Market: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.13028• Reputation and Feedback Systems in Online Platform Markets: https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stadelis/Annual_Review_Tadelis.pdf• How to Lie with Statistics: https://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728• David Freedman's books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-Freedman/author/B001IGLSGA• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Management-Mortals/dp/0374159122• The Alpinist on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Alpinist-Peter-Mortimer/dp/B09KYDWVVC• Only Murders in the Building on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/only-murders-in-the-building-ef31c7e1-cd0f-4e07-848d-1cbfedb50ddf—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

In fact, 53% of parents say that mom is the primary caregiver in their home, according to data provided to CNBC Make It from UrbanSitter's recent survey of nearly 500 parents. Less than a third of parents surveyed agreed that caring for the kids is split evenly among both parents. But juggling child-care challenges with work responsibilities takes a toll. There were about 35 million working mothers in the U.S. at the end of 2019 and roughly 9.8 million working mothers in the U.S. are suffering from workplace burnout, according to a new analysis Great Place to Work and health-care start-up Maven conducted based on its survey of 440,000 working parents, including 226,000 mothers. Michelle DeKeyser is a teacher, wife and mom of three kids who participated in various mom groups, ran a few, even joined some book clubs, but envisioned something different as she found herself looking around still wondering what did she like to do anymore that didn't involve the kid's activities. As she worked to discover her own passions, she realized that there is no one size fits all program, but the true key to figuring out your passion and making your goals happen is finding connection in a supportive environment. Therefore, her new mission is to help other mamas find their passions while being more present with their families in a supportive empowering environment surrounded by grace. She has started spreading this message through YouTube, Instagram, and her Blog. She holds a MA in education and spent 8 years dedicated to the classroom before having a family. She joined me this week to tell me more. For more information: https://www.connectingmamas.com/

Host Lina Forrestal had the unique opportunity to sit with new mom Sunni VonMutius AND her nanny Salem to discuss all the best practices in hiring a nanny. Sunni discusses her decision making in why she chose to hire a nanny. She shares how she and her partner were intentional about how they approached the process: from writing up an application, what to include on the application, and which website she used to find her nanny, Salem. Salem shares their perspective as a nanny. They share what makes things awkward, what to look for in a nanny, and what makes the job enjoyable. Also discussed in the episode: Why you should have a contractPaying your nanny above the table versus under the tableSalem's perspective as a nannyWhat to look for in a nanny (from both Sunni and Salem's perspective)Resources mentioned:UrbanSitter Care.comMore about Sunni VonMutius:Wildflower StrategyWildflower Strategy YouTube ChannelSupport the show

Guest: Lynn Perkins, founder and CEO of UrbanSitter,

Parents all across America are struggling to find a balance between working productively and managing the safety, socialization, and education of their children.Lynn Perkins is CEO and co-founder of UrbanSitter, an app, and website that's making it easier than ever for parents to find, book and pay trusted childcare, from last-minute babysitting to full-time care. Lynn has turned her vision of an “OpenTable for babysitting” into a service with more than a million users in 50 cities and has facilitated millions of babysitting jobs.Lynn is a thought leader and frequent speaker on the topics of finding trusted child care, parenting, and caregiving trends, ensuring women get a seat at the table, marketplaces, and the sharing economy. She has been featured in/on CBS This Morning, USA Today, WSJ, The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, and more.Lynn is a mother of three and a graduate of Stanford University.

Join host Shaquita Garcia and guest mom, Lynn Perkins, as they speak about the inspiration behind her brand, UrbanSitter, and all things motherhood. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode, we meet Natasha Prasad, Chief Customer Officer of Cleo. Cleo is a family benefits platform and support system for working families. With its integrated family benefits platform, Cleo combines proactive, expert guidance with an intuitive engagement hub to help connect families with the support they need to be their best at home and at work. Representing over 55 countries and 100+ enterprise clients — Cleo is reinventing how forward-thinking employers support families that work around the world. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cleo has raised $44M and is backed by NEA, Greylock Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Forerunner Ventures. Cleo was recently honored by Fierce Healthcare as a 2021 Fierce 15 company. Prior to Cleo, Natasha served as country manager for ClassPass in Australia, where she built and oversaw regional operations, including sales, success and marketing. Previously, she was the founder and CEO of a fitness technology startup that was acquired by ClassPass, and held product management roles at enterprise and consumer technology companies (Rent the Runway, Paperless Post), most recently Atlassian in Sydney. Natasha spent her early career as an investor in the private equity group at Goldman Sachs in London and New York. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and degrees in economics and mathematics from Cambridge University and Delhi University. In this episode, Natasha shares her insights into: Recent trends in the $60B employee benefits market and the acceleration of healthcare benefits to fill in areas where the traditional healthcare system has fallen short (e.g., mental health, chronic care management, holistic family support) Cleo's unique guide-based care approach to providing continuity of care, trusted expert guidance, and evidence-based clinical programs that drive improved healthcare outcomes for working families. How Cleo creates value for employers and employees through preventative care, early interventions, childcare/parenting and return-to-work support Cleo's most recent 2020 product launches: Cleo Care for childcare support in partnership with UrbanSitter, and Cleo Marketplace, an expanded ecosystem of vetted partnerships The rise of healthcare technology more broadly and opportunities for those passionate about making a difference in healthcare

Lynn Perkins was in a situation parents everywhere face. She was in need of a baby-sitter. It dawned on her that she could leverage her social network to find a sitter for her twin boys. It was during this moment that she realized the opportunity to leverage one’s social networks for finding short- and long-term childcare. A natural matchmaker, Lynn recruited three co-founders to join her in this initiative. Each had complementary strengths — in engineering, product and marketing. The business idea became UrbanSitter, a network that offers background-checked sitters and nannies nearby. Even better, it shows the baby-sitters and nannies who take care of the children of other parents in your social network. After signing up and paying a monthly or annual membership fee, you’ll gain access to 120,000+ active sitters and nannies in the company’s database. And, the site averages a response time of under three minutes. In episode #112 of I Want Her Job: The Podcast, Podcast Co-Founder Polina talks to Lynn about how UrbanSitter is helping to find childcare for the more than 12,000+ health care workers during the COVID-19 crisis. Lynn also shares her story of navigating the 2008 financial crisis, and she offers advice for people who may need to seek career changes due to COVID-19 related impacts. The two also discuss two groups that are using UrbanSitter for the flexibility and income streams it provides — college students and retirees. Whether you’re looking for childcare, or you’re a kiddo-loving individual looking for a job that can provide more income, listen to this episode to learn about this new way of connecting kids with care. UrbanSitter is offering a free month of membership to parents working to help them find childcare.  Register for an account at UrbanSitter.com and enter code: HEALTH on your My Account / Credits page to redeem your free month.   If you enjoy this show, please share it with a friend. To contact the show reach out to: podcast@iwantherjob.com  Sign up for our newsletter and find more interviews:  www.iwantherjob.com Follow us on @iwantherjob

Where else can you find a babysitter? Should you use a marketplace like Sittercity, UrbanSitter or Care.com?

Lynn Perkins takes us behind the curtain and gives us great advice—from tips on raising money from venture capitalists, to how to find a good mentor, and best practices in hiring childcare.

UrbanSitter.com co-founder Lynn Perkins dives into the often overlooked benefits of hiring a babysitter and the age when most parents look to hire a sitter. As a successful Momtrepreneur, Perkins also shares her business tips to inspire fellow parents.

Entrepreneurs with kids often underestimate the importance of good childcare to support our careers and our missions (not to mention our marriages)! And you can thank Lynn Perkins, CEO and Co-Founder of UrbanSitter, for creating an app that makes finding even last minute childcare easier and more trustworthy than ever. What’s different about UrbanSitter than any other app or site is it plugs into your existing social networks to find sitters and nannies. So for example, you can link to your Facebook network, school, church, or other community organization, and you’ll instantly see the sitters that are being used regularly and recommended within. The post Lynn Perkins, CEO + Co-Founder of UrbanSitter — Glambition Radio Episode 156 with Ali Brown appeared first on Ali Brown - the world's most recognized business coach for women entrepreneurs, leadership, speaker, and founder of The Trust..

Parent Driven Development Episode 014: Conferencing After Babies 00:16 Welcome, Tess (https://twitter.com/GriffinTess) and Sean Griffin (https://twitter.com/sgrif)! Tess is a Site Engineer at GitHub (https://github.com). Sean is a developer at Shopify (https://www.shopify.com/), renowned Rails committer, the creator of the Diesel Framework (http://diesel.rs/), host of The Yak Shave (http://yakshave.fm/) podcast, and a former host of The Bike Shed (http://bikeshed.fm/) podcast. 02:14 Deciding on Conference to Go To and Speak At Conferences who offer on-site childcare are very attractive. Shoutout to Ruby Central (http://rubycentral.org/) conferences and Rust Belt Rust (https://www.rust-belt-rust.com/)! 09:56 Evening Childcare Going through conference organizer recommendations is preferencial because they spend a lot of time scouting the cities, however, services like UrbanSitter (https://www.urbansitter.com/) and Care.com (https://www.care.com/) are options in a pinch. Conferences that offer child/kid-friendly after-hours activities are also great for parents. It seems like more conferences like that are popping up and opting for less bar atomosphere gatherings.

Finding a good child care provider is one of the most challenging things I face as a working mom. I work from home most of the time so I feel weird about having someone come to my house to sit with my daughter while I'm in the other room. And there are many times when I have to go to an audition, or over a story for work and need someone last-minute. What's a mom to do? I invited the CEO and Co-Founder of UrbanSitter to share her thoughts with me. Lynn Perkins created UrbanSitter as a quick, effective tool for parents to search for child care online. As a mom herself, she tells me friends were always asking her for recommendations on a sitter and that sparked the idea to start her own website. Cut to several years later and UrbanSitter is one of the most used child care websites out there. Lynn says that's because they offer 3 critical components to child care: recommendations from people you trust, performance data and quality care providers. She also talks about she created a new UrbanSitter app and what it means for parents. She says despite the great technology available on UrbanSitter, parents should still do their own vetting and read up on the reviews for each sitter. She has more helpful insights as well, but you have to listen to this episode to get them. You can download and subscribe to Motherhood in Hollywood on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more about UrbanSitter and www.urbansitter.com.

Lynn gives us great advice—from tips on raising money from venture capitalists, to finding a good mentor, and best practices in hiring childcare.

Time stamped show notes: [0:43] Why Lynn came out to San Diego [1:58] Starting at dog beds [3:36] Being an entrepreneur without being INTO entrepreneur [4:46] Falling into entrepreneurship [6:00] Urban Sitter? [6:40] Finding the right way to be an urban sitter [8:26] Building a team around your weaknesses [10:03] The right playbook gets you the right scale [11:11] Her system with finding the right niche in New York and Brooklyn [12:24] Traffic breakdown [12:52] Organic traffic [15:11] Linking sitters [16:10] Leads [16:50] Pages of the Perkins Playbook [17:50] Scaling marketing costs [18:48] Decisive action [19:34] To be a CEO you need to get rid of your ego [20:36] You need some reserves in case things get rougher [22:08] Growing beyond 60 cities [24:11] Expanding your business in all aspects [25:56] What could disrupt the babysitter industry? [26:34] Using complex algorithms in the matching software [28:10] Inspirational women [29:23] More entrepreneurial women [30:40] Open to criticism [32:00] Feedback is simply a way to improve [33:28] Ask for help [36:00] Take action so you can help others   3 Main Points: Lynn Perkins fell into the entrepreneurial world and learned as she went A good CEO kicks their ego to the curb and allows themselves to be coached Inspirational women in the entrepreneurial world   Resources Mentioned:   Lynn at Urbansitter dot com   Last Question: Companies to make this childcare urgent

Lynn Perkins is the CEO and founder of UrbanSitter, the nanny and sitter app. She tells us how she grew UrbanSitter into a national marketplace in less than a year! “I have a team who I highly highly trust. I think that hiring people who are smarter than you are is always a great thing to do.” - Lynn Perkins. Learn more about this episode of She's Got Moxie with Joy Chudacoff at www.JoyChudacoff.com/04

When should you start to think about designing the culture of your organization? What is the ONE question you should ask in every interview? How do you make sure you are hiring people who will fit into your culture? How do you measure your team's happiness and satisfaction? My guest, Amy Errett, the Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, thought about the culture and team she wanted to build from the very beginning. Amy is a horseback riding, fly-fishing, black-diamond snowboarding, wine collecting, SF Giants-loving Californian. She founded Madison Reed with years of business and operating expertise as a leading entrepreneur, senior executive, venture capitalist and social-mission visionary. The mission of Madison Reed is to make luxurious, at-home hair color with ingredients you can feel good about. Amy shares the startup story of Madison Reed, how she is disrupting an old school industry and how Madison Reed values and measures customer and employee satisfaction   This episode is sponsored by AWeber.  Thank you for supporting women entrepreneurs! Find out more and get an all access, 60 Day Free Trial at BizChix.com/Aweber!   Key Takeaways: The importance of creating a culture with intention How to measure customer satisfaction How to measure internal/Team satisfaction Why it is GREAT to have Values that repel some potential employees The one question you should ask in an interview Assessing Ability and Willingness The importance of Celebrating as a team Join The BizChix Community (free)   Listen to Other Women in Tech Interviews: Episode 60: Richard Branson funded Tech Entrepreneur Stacey Ferreira: Coder. Risk Taker. Future Cage Diver. Episode 109: UrbanSitter.com co-Founder & CEO Lynn Perkins – VC Funded Entrepreneur, Mom, Parent/Sitter Matchmaker Episode 161: LA Tech Start Up – Enplug CEO Nanxi Liu More Women in Tech Episodes   Mentioned in this Episode: Business Among Mom's Success Summit (Natalie is the Keynote Speaker) Madison Reed (use code BIZCHIX to save 10% off a color kit and get free shipping) Book: The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks   Apply to mastermind with Natalie and get connected with your Awesome Eight! Click to Learn More.   This content first appeared on BizChix.com

Moms and dads: Imagine a world where you can find a qualified sitter for your child in 3 minutes. That's faster than when my Uber arrives most times. Thanks to the site UrbanSitter and its co-founder Lynn Perkins, this is actually the world we live in now. Lynn is our guest on the show today. UrbanSitter is her third start-up to date and it is a venture-backed mobile and online service that connects parents and babysitters...kind of an OpenTable for babysitters. The company has raised $23M to date and growing fast. Lynn shares:The key to convincing a room full of Silicon Valley investors (mostly male) to give you money for your babysitting app?How staying busy has helped her save money.The going rate for babysitting nowadays. You might be inspired to make this a side gig. I did it in my 20s and it was a great source of extra income (not to mention parenting 101).For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.

Lynn Perkins of UrbanSitter is the Co-Founder & CEO of UrbanSitter. UrbanSitter makes finding a babysitter easy. The mobile service lets parents view the reputations and experience of sitters. It even makes paying your sitter through the app super easy, so you don't have to fumble around with cash after a few drinks. :) Lynn talks about her founding team, how she convinced investors to fund the company and the "playbook" that the team has developed to make expanding into new markets faster and easier.

Lynn and Jenna discuss the emotional and technical aspects of building an authentic peer-to-peer marketplace. 

When Lynn Perkins started UrbanSitter, it was partly to solve her own problem: she had young twins, and she also wanted a social life. She wondered why there wasn't an OpenTable model for babysitting services, on-demand. To date, Urbansitter has raised over $20 million to make parents' lives easier. Its technology also allows 120,000+ caregivers in 60 cities to be their own bosses.

In Lynn's interview you will learn: What are the biggest mistakes that parents make when hiring babysitters or nannies What research parents should be doing when they hire childcare, and what kinds of things they should be looking for in a prospective sitter Best practices when working with your childcare provider: outlining expectations, payment, etc If you should you be providing meals and a ride home for your sitter All about Urbansitter and how it can help you find your next great babysitter!

The best productivity tips curated from 200 interviews of female entrepreneurs on The Biz Chix Podcast. Welcome to my new podcast series on Productivity! I have such a fantastic series planned which includes a few solo episodes from me as well as some brand new interviews with productivity experts in different facets of our lives. We are going to talk about how to be productive with our inbox, social media, style, working from home, relationships, networking, systems and more. To kick us off, I pulled the ten best productivity tips ever shared on The Biz Chix Podcast.   Please Join The Biz Chix Community text bizchix to 33444 or go to BizChix.com and click the join the community button. Click for Full Shownotes If you enjoy the tips shared by these guests, be sure to check out their original episode. 1. Create a NOT to do List Vanessa Van Edwards Website: scienceofpeople.com Twitter: @vvanedwards Episode 101: Human Lie Detector and Expert Behavior Analyst, Vanessa Van Edwards leads the Science of People   2. Harness the Power of 3 Michelle Prince Website: michelleprince.com Twitter: @motivateinspire Ep 133: Michelle Prince is Best-selling Author, Zig Ziglar Motivational Speaker, Business Owner of Multiple Companies   3. Schedule Everything Danielle Botterell Website: sparkconsulting.ca Twitter: @Spark_biz Episode 35: Mom Inc. Author and Consultant Danielle Botterell   4. Set a Timer Karen Yankovich Website: karenyankovich.com Twitter: @karenyankovich Episode 37: Social Media & LinkedIn Evangelist Karen Yankovich   5. Eat That Frog Lisa B. Marshall Website: lisabmarshall.com Twitter: @lisabmarshall Episode 32: Author & Noted Speaker Lisa B. Marshall (plus Podcaster, Consultant, and Mom to twins)   6. Delegate Pei Kang Website: findingyourvoiceradio.com Twitter: @drpeikang Ep 137: Escaping Golden Handcuffs with Pei Kang of the ReLaunch Show   7. Get Help Julie Cole Website: mabelslabels.com Twitter: @juliecole Episode 41: Mabel’s Labels co-founder Julie Cole on Productivity, Partnership and Parenting   8. Find Your Triangle of Services Lynn Perkins Website: UrbanSitter.com Twitter: @urbansitter Episode 109: UrbanSitter.com co-Founder & CEO Lynn Perkins – VC Funded Entrepreneur, Mom, Parent/Sitter Matchmaker   9. Reduce Decision Fatigue Gail Warrior Website: gailwarrior.com Twitter: @gail_warrior Ep 119: Largest Minority Owned Construction Firm Founder Gail Warrior   10. Change Locations Natalie MacNeil Website: SheTakesontheWorld.com Twitter: @nataliemacneil Episode 29: Natalie MacNeil of She Takes on the World  

How do you build a local service that can scale globally? Listen to our Interview with Lynn Perkins of Urban Sitter to find out! Lynn Perkins is a seasoned entrepreneur. After she had her twin boys, she was constantly looking for trustworthy babysitters, always asking for friends' referrals. She realized there was a need in the market place to make this process easier and digital! Urban Sitter is a digital and mobile service that matches parents looking for babysitters with babysitters looking for jobs. The automation she's built into her business is incredible and her growth has been tremendous! Though it focuses on a local geographic area (you want to hire a babysitter in your town), her "playbook" for scaling into other cities is giving her global potential! In this inspiring interview, Lynn pulls the curtains back from her journey and shares why UrbanSitter.com is every mother's dream! :) http://www.BizWomenRock.com/92

Lynn Perkins is CEO and co-founder of UrbanSitter, a mobile and online service that connects parents and babysitters through social connections. Launched in 2011, Lynn led the company from notion to national marketplace in less than a year. A startup veteran, Lynn offers more than 15 years of experience marketing and selling to Gen X and Gen Y. Prior to founding UrbanSitter, Lynn served as founder and CEO of Xuny.com (zuny)  and VP of Business Development at Bridgepath.com. At companies like Gap Inc., LaSalle Partners and Joie de Vivre (jwa de vie) Hospitality, Lynn gained extensive business and transaction experience. Lynn is a frequent speaker on topics like entrepreneurship, technology, women-led business and childcare. She is also the proud mom of three children and a graduate of Stanford University.

The guys talk about UrbanSitter, the company that matches up parents with prospective babysitters in the area. They then answer the question, "Can I get in trouble for having my employees give our competitors negative reviews on review sites?" Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: Welcome to Legally Sound Smart Business. This is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And this is co-host, Matt Staub. NASIR: Hey, can’t do that! MATT: Yeah. NASIR: Okay, it’ll be off but welcome to our business legal podcast where we cover business legal news – actually, business news and then we add our legal twist to it – and then also answer some of your business legal questions that you, the listener, can send in to ask@legallysoundsmartbusiness.com. And, oh, I did some research on dot-pizza. MATT: And? NASIR: So, apparently, they’ve been taking applications in 2014 but I can – or whoever handles these domain names – hasn’t yet released any dot-pizzas yet to the public so I think we can put our application in but we still have to wait. But it’s weird. The application process just seems like you just say that you want one. It’s not like you have to prove that you’re a pizza shop or anything. So, I may do that. But, if anyone knows anything about that, then we could use some help in understanding how that works. That’d be great. MATT: If worst comes to worse, I make pizzas all the time. So, I think we can justify it. NASIR: I think we can just add a pizza to the end of the website somehow. MATT: Or change the logo to just a pizza. NASIR: Yeah, that’d be great. All right, what do we have today? MATT: This is a business that I had never heard of. Why would I have heard of it, I guess? It’s called UrbanSitter and it’s basically a way to – how would you describe this? Like a matchmaking way to find a sitter for your kids if you need one and it’s kind of like, at the same time, a mix between that and sort of reservations – like, dinner reservations. NASIR: Yeah, I guess it’s that easy. To me, it’s kind of like an old tradition, right? I mean, you’ve had young babysitters being used for quite a while – since the dawn of time, I would say – and finding a way to easily find a babysitter for you – not that I have kids – I think is a great service. But it seems kind of weird to me because you’re trusting your kids with somebody. Finding someone that you can trust and using this third-party site, it reminds me of Uber, right? For whatever reason, we assume that, when we use Uber or Lyft or these other third-party services – or frankly even a taxi – that somehow the person that we’re getting in the car with is someone that we can trust. In general, I think you can trust most people. In this case, just because you’re using a third-party software doesn’t necessarily mean you can trust that babysitter. MATT: That’s true, but it’s not like you just get matched with somebody and that’s that. I mean, there’s recommendations. I would assume that the company does some sort of background check on the possible sitters because I know other sites have done that. What’s pretty interesting about this though, they actually tried to launch this before Facebook even existed. NASIR: Oh, interesting. MATT: You know, that’s a long time ago – at least that’s what this article says. NASIR: At least in internet times. It looks like they do some background checks and it’s paid for by the actual sitter – which is interesting – but we all know that background checks, they’re not foolproof, obviously, right? Second is I think this UrbanSitter is going to go through the same, especially when they start to get really popular which looks like now they have more than 35,000 sitters and 75,000 parents nationwide. But the point is that that they’re going to have the same problems as all these other sharing economies – whether it’s Airbnb or Uber or what-have-you. What happens if that babysitter does something wrong? I think the law is pretty much all there but the question is,

This week on Mom Talk Radio, Jonny Bowden, better known as "The Rogue Nutritionist," discusses his top nutritional picks for cutting down the duration of colds and flu. Jeremy Katzman tells us about the Bald, Brave, Beautiful project at Miami Children's Hospital. Alexandra Allred author of Damaged Goods. The Mom's Roundtable covers discussing politics with your children. Lynn Perkins, co-founder of UrbanSitter.com. This show is sponsored by Lands' End and Family Circle.