Entrepreneur Kasey Edwards Shares How Helpr Seized the Opportunity of Digital Technology to Achieve Global Success

Kasey Edwards, CEO and Co-Founder of Helpr, a global technology company transforming corporate caregiving benefits, shares how their company scaled its services using digital technology to achieve great success. 

Helpr now serves Fortune 500 companies such as Clorox and Snap through its enterprise platform and is in 45 countries. 

Hear how Kasey and her partner saw the opportunity offered by digital technology to grow their model and the steps they took to become a global technology company.

Transcript

Jeanne Gray: I'm Jeanne Gray, publisher of American Entrepreneurship Today and host of the podcast series, Experienced Voices, where I talk with highly accomplished people who share the critical elements that led to their success.

Over the past decade, digital technologies have presented opportunities to entrepreneurs and transformed industries. Our guest on Experience Voices is Kasey Edwards, the CEO and co founder of Helpr, a global technology company transforming corporate caregiving benefits. Under her leadership, Helpr has evolved from a marketplace care service into an enterprise platform serving Fortune 500 companies such as Clorox and Snap.

Kasey shares how she and her partner transformed their company to be technology driven and be savvy about identifying and establishing themselves in their target market.

Kasey, I'm very excited about speaking with you today about Helpr. I think it's providing a really great service for a lot of people. So thank you for being a guest on experienced voices.

Kasey Edwards: Thank you so much, Jeanne. It's a pleasure to be here. And I appreciate you asking questions about our story. 

Jeanne Gray: Yeah, well, let's start with with how you and your partner got together and now I understand your global tech So that's a that's a lot to have accomplished.

Tell me about it. 

Kasey Edwards: Oh, thank you So my co founder Becca and I have been friends for many many years we actually were the first people each other met at the college dorms at UC Santa Barbara and Our first connections were really about She was the oldest of 23 cousins coming from a big Irish Catholic family out of Chicago.

And my mom had run a daycare center in our house when we were little. And so we had a lot to connect about being these sort of responsible caregiving girls down there at UCSB. And that's where the story begins. And we studied family for a very long time now and we've always wanted to have a positive impact on family life.

and we felt Helpr was our pathway to get there. 

Jeanne Gray: How long have you been partners? 

Kasey Edwards: Oh, we've been partners for ages now. Helpr is about 10 years old and, been friends for about 10 more years before that.

Jeanne Gray: Oh, that's great. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. 

Jeanne Gray: So I know you pivoted into tech, which is, was a big step and, and the focus of your success that I've been hearing about.

So share a little bit about what came about to make that step? You know, what were you seeing? Or what were people telling you that prompted the pivot? 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. Thanks for asking. So Becca and I, we had a. Babysitting business that we started in college that we ran for, I would say the better part of our twenties.

And that was a babysitting service. And what we learned was really what families were looking for, what made a great babysitter. We felt we were the best babysitters you could find, you know, we were flexible, conscientious, safety oriented, all these great things. And at a certain point, we started to watch technology become a big thing in our, in our culture.

We had. Mobile phones like we'd never had before when we were watching Uber and Lyft duke it out in marketplace, and we looked at ourselves and we thought, hey, I think we could do this with babysitting. And so we layered in some technology over what we knew. We moved our whole business into a technology forward platform and we launched, you know, effectively an Uber of babysitters and we called that Helpr.

And it was a great launch. We had really great success in the sense that our customers really liked us. Our sitters were happy. And the only challenge that we had while running that was. That we sort of had this leaky platform and how we address that later. We can certainly talk about, but yeah, it really came down to people really loved our sitters.

And once we had a sitter in your house you getting her phone number directly was a little bit likely. So we had to address that.

Jeanne Gray: So when you built the tech platform and you were extending the reach of your service, How did the customer base differ? Because I'm just imagining you maybe started more local and then all of a sudden you were going to be doing this remote. 

Kasey Edwards: You know, when we launched Helpr and we had the technology, we actually condensed the reach a little bit and we focused on Los Angeles only.

And we focused on the west side of Los Angeles specifically because it was marketplace and you wanted to have that density. Where we had good overlap between where our families were located and where our sitters were located. And that worked out for us. I mean, we ended up of course, moving on to more and more cities after that, but the real pivot for us was around the cost factor and what we realized when we saw that families were interested in working directly with our sitters, even though they really liked our sitters that our challenge was how do we get the costs down?

So low for families that they're not incentivized to go off platform. And so what we found in that discovery was working with employers and employers had a great ROI when they were offering backup childcare. You know, we had. Looked at it as just childcare. But of course this term backup childcare became a big part of our, our business.

And then we began taking markets that were in line with locations of the employees that worked at these great firms that we started working with when we did childcare as a benefit. 

Jeanne Gray: so your model changed in the sense that you started to solicit the employers.

Knowing where the employees were based. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. So we started working with employers because we knew that we had this, this leaky challenge on our platform and we wanted to get the cost low. So what we did was we went to employers and we said, Hey, we are watching these families and they're needing child care when let's say schools are closed for the day, but work is still open.

And we think that could be a really great use case for you all. And of course, this wasn't new in the market. There were backup care providers mostly You know, nationwide and in really large businesses that were doing that work. And we felt like we had, some space that we could gather of that market.

And so we went towards employers and we offered them this benefit. And when they came on, That became our launch strategy was kind of putting babysitters in those same locations where they had different offices at the time. This is all pre covid. Of course. So we're really talking about office locations at this point.

Jeanne Gray: Well, that's, that's interesting. So when you made the made this decision, how did you target the first few, what they call the testimonial client, because it's great that there's competition because that sort of validates the model, but now you're still new on the block. So what were your first few testimonial clients that you had to kind of get up and go?

In going, 

Kasey Edwards: yeah, well, you know, like I said, we were really hyper focused in Los Angeles. And at that time, we also had a partner company in Los Angeles that was really, really focused on celebrating LA and especially Venice beach. And, and that company was Snapchat. And so we ended up knowing some of the gals there, especially people in their women's group.

And they had a parent's group. And we just started connecting with those people and trying to understand the family need and describing to them how we could do it uniquely and differently. And that we could do it in this neighborly way. And they became our first corporate client, which was a great thing.

Wonderful success for us and a real honor. We love that company so much. and so, you know, it was really just about FaceTime at the early days, really just kind of convincing people that we could do it better and, and with more heart. 

Jeanne Gray: And if we were looking at it from the point of view of, of operations, so you're getting in more customers, how quickly did that force you to change your, your worker base, your employee base?

to deal with, you know, really a tech platform 

Kasey Edwards: fast, fast. And the challenge there was really interesting because, and I think anybody who sells into enterprise, especially on the benefit side, can attest to this sort of bottleneck that happens where you can sign an account with the client. Getting that exposure to their worker base is so, Sort of a challenge.

You have to have that great buy in from the team on the other end to distribute the materials to communicate your story. And then so trickle in comes a little bit slower sometimes. And it can vary from city to city. If you've got a really great regional manager, they'll do a great job for you. But then you might have another area that's kind of sinking.

And so either way that was going to go, we had to make sure that we had sitters locally to cover it. And so finding that balance between supply and demand for us in those marketplace days was, it was really interesting to watch from an ops perspective. And. And I think we we solved it. Well, we have a really great one of our key KPIs is our fill rate.

that's the rate of how many jobs get booked versus how many we fill with babysitters. And, you know, we're over 95%, which is quite unusual in the market, but we're very proud of that number. And we've kept it for quite some time. So 

Jeanne Gray: And now you're global. So tell me a little bit about your reach that you have.

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. So global, that was an exciting time. That was another plateau in the business that I'll never forget. But the global work that we do really relies on this other layering. It's really our, our primary offering that we have now. And it's the work that we have a patent on, and it's our upload your own provider technology.

And that's where you can use a company subsidy to pay your friends, family, neighbors, or familiar caregivers on our platform. And so you upload those people like your own personal Uber, if you will. And then you work with your private caregivers. And with that technology, we can reach people in 150 countries.

Right now, we have active users in about 40 to 45. And we can distribute. A subsidy amount in a local currency, and we've got some local languages as well. So that's really exciting for us. But that's been, that's been very, very cool thing to have for our company because the, the concept of sort of democratizing benefits over the last couple of years has been so paramount.

And for us to be able to achieve that felt like a real feat. 

Jeanne Gray: actually, I think that's such a clever approach with the whole aspect of the company subsidizing it and you creating a patented technology behind it. So tell me a little bit about making it a tech company. How did you go about planning it and what were some of the first steps?

Because I think everyone realizes tech is hard. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. It can be right. Well, we're so lucky. We have a really awesome team and the person that heads up are our technology is just brilliant. So, you know, we wouldn't be able to do it without his genius. But for certain planning, integrating this new offering into Our annual and these are multi year contracts that we sign with our clients.

But when we launch a new feature, we really want to get as many folks to buy in as possible before we go live with it. Of course, you know, there's a financial incentive and you know, just, but it takes a lot. I think there's A real convincing, especially with this program, there was a real convincing that there wouldn't be fraud or problems in this type of thing.

But we thought it out, we planned it out, we layered it into the accounts where they wanted to have that buy in and, and we launched it about a year after we conceptualized the idea. And, and a few months after that we had COVID. And so everybody wanted to work with their own trusted providers. And so we were By the end of that first year of COVID, I think we had 98 percent of our clients were buying that service line and really highly utilizing it.

And so became kind of what we're known for at this point. Of course we have many service lines, but that one is really the lead at this point. 

Jeanne Gray: That's a great approach. So, but stepping back a little bit there are entrepreneurs out there who were not techies, but they have really strong visions of solving a problem, but they know that they need to use technology.

Can you share a little bit about if your mindset was, well, someone directed us to an individual and he knew or she knew everything, or was there a little bit of start and stop trying to explore the best way to to take on the tech challenge and make it go well? 

Kasey Edwards: Well, you know, I think when we, we have, you know, I really sing the praises, of course, of our technology leader at, at Helpr, but there was a lot of partnership between, Product and business side and technology side, and that partnership had been built actually over years.

And so when we kind of got into it, and we were ready to roll up our sleeves and start building we worked a lot together on talking to our customers, understanding the problem intimately, understanding what the buy in would be from our from our payers, you know, our, our customers. We talk about our clients in a couple of ways.

Ultimately, the end user is the employee who's receiving the benefit and the payer, the client being the, the company who's purchased the benefit suite. But we did a lot of conversing and planning with those different groups to make sure that what we were building was going to be successful. And I think it's hard to just Somebody, I suppose, if you're thinking about building tech and you don't know where to begin, you certainly are going to need someone to answer those questions.

And I think if you have nowhere to start, going to want to do what anybody does when they're buying a garage door, any other service. You're going to talk to as many people as you can and start to understand how you want to architect your, your program and. And try and find the thing that makes best sense for you.

And ideally you have a co founder early, you know, first team member that's bringing that specialty to the table. Cause that's going to help a lot. 

Jeanne Gray: So it was networking part of the success and you being able to reach out to individuals that kind of, you know, Kept giving you advice in different areas or is it just you and your partner or are there people who are mentoring or advising that fill in the gaps?

Kasey Edwards: Yeah, we have a lot of different people that we connect with. So, in fact, I actually met Osmond, who leads our tech at a networking event in Santa Monica. And so we absolutely in the early days were, I 3 to 5 nights a week doing these. entrepreneurship, startup tech programs events. And so we really put in the time, both Becca and I to meet people.

And Osman was helping to facilitate one of these founder meet funder events. And we met and we connected and we didn't even really connect necessarily on what we were building at Helpr at the time. But soon after we did, but we just sort of understood culture in a similar way and, both had a real interest in making change and, and doing so through this avenue, which was ultimately just venture and in capitalism and, and technology.

And so We're very lucky to have his partnership now for many years. 

Jeanne Gray: Did he end up joining the company or is he continued on as a consultant? You know, he's, he's 

Kasey Edwards: sort of fractional, but absolutely. We're a long term committed, you know, connection there.

Jeanne Gray: When you now pivoting into the tech part, did you have to step back and then look at your Financials and come up with a budget and a a projection about how would you would fund and, be able to pay for the next X amount of months or sometimes a years to get over to a tech platform. 

Kasey Edwards: 100%. Yes, absolutely.

I think for Helpr, the way that we've been able to build our technology and the reason it's probably worked, having some fractional support. First of all, fractional I think only works if it's longterm in what we've been building. I don't think if it were any shorter term than it's been, it would have been all that helpful for us, but we never brought in a full time local dev team to build what we were building.

We've always worked with a, you know, key person here locally who was really, On the team, conceptualizing what we were going to build and, and understanding the outcomes. And really watching the work come back to us and helping us to iterate. But we work in sprints. You know, we'll have a big customer come in sometimes and we'll have a bunch of.

Customizations that we have to layer into our technology and our tech is actually really complex. Now. We have multiple apps, you know, we're on iphone android and none of these things are optional. You kind of have to keep everything updated and it's it's, you know, ever. It's like an ever more complex situation.

But when we do these sprints, what we'll do is we'll layer in team. Osmond will manage them and we'll kind of build out very fast. And you know, that could be a couple of months. It could be even less. Sometimes it's depends on the customizations, but we'll go in and we'll work hard and fast, and then we'll kind of, you know, get back to a steady state and carry on.

But yes, the budgeting. 

Jeanne Gray: And did you, did you have to find a third party funder, an investor, Or you self funded? 

Kasey Edwards: No, we have raised money. Helpr has raised a seed round and we had a pre seed round. And so we're at this point, we're a profitable company and we're very happy to be and we're able to continue building the tech and building out the business with With what we've got going on.

So I don't think fundraising at this point is in the short term for us. Although what we look at really is that we've kind of laid a lot of groundwork for our business. You know, we've got this international capability. We've, we've got some awesome marquee clients. And so now we're just kind of thinking about how do we bring in as many eligible employees as we can to our benefit suite.

Jeanne Gray: When you were looking for some money , and you found it, were you looking at the individual or individuals? for their background in understanding your model. How important was the personalities kind of, how did you feel comfortable with the fit? Not just the money. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah, that is an important piece to the puzzle.

I think we always wanted to have people who were Either if they were angels, we wanted to make sure that they really were thoughtful and kind and, and able to connect with us and help us solve little problems. I mean, even if you just knew marketing and you could help us think through an idea that was really valuable to us.

And then on the venture side, when it came to working with institutional capital. You know, we saw that we could get a lot more value at and that was very exciting for us. So we absolutely were intentional about who we wanted to connect with. And that really saved us time anyway. I mean, I think we didn't cast a crazy wide net when we went out to raise.

We were really targeted and who we wanted to talk to because we knew those people would understand our story and that ended up being true. And those folks have been able to help us scale in a way That's just been sustainable and healthy for the business. And even some of that advice has just been, you know, about the cadence, the cadence in selling to enterprise is very you kind of like wait and wait, and then you, you get a new exciting account and then you sort of plateau.

And it's sort of these, it's like a stepped approach rather than some sort of. And so, you know, I think even just those, those simple insights were really helpful to us while we were building and not sure, you know, what would happen next. And they were really valuable to us in that way. 

Jeanne Gray: So as you moved along, once you, took money, what did you set up as far as communicating with the investors?

Did, did both parties sit down and kind of say, this is where I want to get a warm and fuzzy once a month or once a quarter. So that was new. So how did you come up with the best way of, keeping them abreast, but not feeling that they're, you know, looking over your shoulder. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. You know, I've noticed that different people are different.

So we would do a quarterly update and we would try to give everybody the warm and fuzzy, but also the, the, Hey, we need help. And how can you help us with this particular problem? And that has been helpful over the years. I think there's some folks that again, we'll reach out to ad hoc when we have a particular problem.

Problem to solve or challenge that we're facing or success that we want to share with them. And that's really lovely. And so and there are people that want to hear more often than not, but I think your entrepreneurs probably know there's information rights that you can get into your contracts. And so as you're signing those deals, you can kind of set the terms early on for how much you want to communicate and, and what you will communicate and make sure that you're doing it in a way that, you know, settles both sides the, you know, the sense of nerves 

Jeanne Gray: when you went through due diligence.

Did you find it stressful or was it smooth or whether people who made it go smoothly for you? 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah, I mean, I do have a great, great, great team that really has. You know, everything organized. And so I'd say , we're very, I've never worried about the due diligence. think I worry more about finding a great partnership, but I think my business strategy is a little bit hard on my sleeve.

You know, I'm not going to tell a story that I can't back up. And so I always know what's in the data and what can be discovered. And so there's never any surprises for us in the due diligence period. So that's good. But we're very, yeah. We try to keep ourselves pretty organized and, and that helps. 

Jeanne Gray: Did it require you to change how you were doing your financials?

Did you have to bring in a CFO or temporary CFO? 

Kasey Edwards: We've been working with somebody also on a fractional basis, but who's been on the team for many years now. And he came in as our VP finance and there have been changes to the financials over the years, just in terms of Making sure that the way we distribute annual contracts on a monthly basis makes sense for our growth story and that was probably only one of the things, but the numbers didn't change just sort of where they were placed.

So we, you know, that wasn't a big deal for us. 

Jeanne Gray: So we've talked a lot about your supporting team out of curiosity. you have a, a partner that you've known for a long time. Can you share with people who are considering having a startup? And, and sharing ownership with another party. what are some of the positives and say sometimes some of the stresses of having a business partner?

Kasey Edwards: Well, that's such an interesting question. You know, I, it's funny because I've seen people over the years who've. Had partnerships that didn't work out and I never totally understood that because I think all my, key leaders have always worked out with Helpr. And I think specifically with Becca and I, we've just had this friendship for so long that I think we know how each other really works.

And there's times where we've had to put the friendship first to solve a business problem. And sometimes we have to put the business first and that will have its stressors on the friendship. And I think we just both know that you have to go through those. Periods and be really great at communicating and keep coming back to the table, even when you feel like you're ultimately very frustrated or tired.

And I think at the end of the day, it's one of my most successful relationships in my life. You know, we've been friends and business partners for many, many years. And it's a beautiful thing. And it's one of those things that you only get to see when you put in the time and effort. But I think it's incredibly rewarding and super great for both For Helpr.

I mean, I think when it comes to the business and the friendship, what we gain, and it certainly there's like, of course, the operating pieces, you know, she does this, I do that. But it's really the creative space that we make together. So we were able to really dream up these crazy ideas and then we are both really hardworking and we put them into the universe and we just kind of let it fly.

So I'm really grateful for that creativity. 

Jeanne Gray: Did you sit down? No, this is, you were doing babysitting before you went into the tech platform. So it was a really good trial period for you to work as, as partners. Did you ever sit down and say, well, this is my strength and this is your strength and really, Who's the sales?

Who's the operations? How did you kind of work that out sort of the beginning? And how did it play out after you agreed to take on certain work and the other person had to do the other part? 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah, it's funny. So I've sort of been the, I'd say she's probably more the extrovert. I'm more the introvert and where that plays out as I become, and I'm a little bit, probably more paperwork organized than.

Then she, so I've done more of the operation side of the business and she's done more of the front facing sales side of the business. But I'd say now it's kind of funny because I think we both really want to be out there selling and it's just like, it's a great reward to meet customers and be able to sign big, exciting contracts and really see the impact of our work with, you know, the general American population.

And of course, beyond that, of course, the international pieces, incredible honor as well. And so I'd say. You know, that conversation absolutely happened. And now Becca, I'm coming for you. I want to sell alongside you. 

Jeanne Gray: So, so actually it sort of dovetails into another question about selling is from what I understand, you know, when you get funding, the investors like to know that the entrepreneur entrepreneurs.

We'll do a certain portion of the startup of the company, gaining the first customers and have a sales skillset. So share a little bit about how you have grown or learned to be better salespeople. Do you have or are you using inbound marketing to get leads or one of you, an opener and the other is a closer.

Did you sit down and. The introvert and the extrovert working together, kind of, it's a sales driven company. Cause that's what you're saying. You want to get out there and get more customers. So how did that work out? That's funny. 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. I think this is the most, I would say this is maybe the least helpful thing I can say to people that are maybe listening to an entrepreneurship podcast and wanting to learn how to be great at selling.

But our business, And this is going to sound wild, but we've had so much word of mouth success and that is really, and this is why I can say, you know, I'm happy to say that I've been doing operations and we've, had these great successes where we have happy customers and they really tell each other.

And for those that don't know, selling it to HR is a very, very challenging process. It's a really long sales cycle. These people are completely inundated with. Sales pitches at all times, their inboxes are flooded. So for us. Having folks come our way and then just being able to demonstrate the capabilities that they've heard about from their friends that are in the space.

I mean, we could never be in these rooms where, you know, you're talking benefits leader to benefits leader. And, and to show up there sort of just in, reputation is really incredible and has been very valuable for us. And now we're building out more of our marketing arm and trying to get more inbound leads.

And we're using all the highest, you know, most interesting technologies between Zoom info and, and cookies and, and just, you know, getting the word out there as much as we can through organic podcasts and things like this. But you know, the, the word of mouth has been really great, which we've always known when we got into this type of sale that the reputation we have, the way we talk to people, we always want to add value every time we're talking to any potential buyer.

If I'm not the. The option for you, if we're not the vendor, let me be helpful in some way. And just always building those relationships for the long haul, because those people might move to different businesses over the years and if they can take us with them, that would be amazing. And it has happened that way, but you know, when they come to us, it's really the most successful that we can find in terms of a close rate.

Jeanne Gray: So let's backtrack a little bit is, you know, we've been referring to your services sort of a general sense. So could you describe the different services that you've put in place since you've switched over to the platform and, and who it and how it's changed your, customer base? Yeah, 

Kasey Edwards: of course.

So we talked a little bit about our marketplace and that's what we led with as a company. And so we call that now our in network care service. And so That's one of the key service lines. The main service line is our out of network care program. And that is where you can apply a company subsidy to your care that happens at home hour by hour.

And that will help you with backup care needs, whether that's child or adult. So marketplace is really for kids are out of network is for, it runs a gamut. It's adult care which could be an elder that you need to take care of. It could be yourself if you're coming out of a surgery and it could be your kids.

 So it really is a very holistic program. We also have a program called core care and this program is where families can come in and we can help them source primary care. So if you need to find a daycare center, or if you need a nanny, we'll help you source those individuals. And we also have a, Program called Helpr online.

And that helps with tutoring for the little ones. And that was something that came up during COVID of course. And that's all sort of wrapped up in sort of a management. So we think of the app itself as serving a function of managing your care and helping to sort out some of the tax liabilities you may have or tax benefits you might be losing with DCAP FSA and things like this.

But that runs the gamut of the service suite and the way that the clients come in and select these programs It's really determined by the population of their employee base. And so we see the biggest buyer set around our out of network program, because it really services people anywhere they're located.

So based on our surveys, everybody that's taking care of someone has two to three people that help them take care of those individuals. That's not their partner. So it could be a neighbor. Could be a caregiver that they know, could be a friend, family member, that type of thing. And so whether you're in a care desert or you're in the middle of a city or you're in Argentina, you know, we can help you facilitate your care and your company can help you pay for that care so that you don't miss a work day or, you know, Get to the fringes of your job security.

And I would say that with the launch of the out of network program which is really exciting, Ray, is we're moving into this new category of worker that we're able to support. So backup care used to be something that was really reserved for individuals who worked behind a desk. If you were at a law firm you know, if you were a CPA, you absolutely knew about this benefit.

You had this benefit distributed to you from your employer. And that's really great. But when we went and we looked at that work and we thought, Hey, this is really important for the people that are saying things like, yeah, I can't miss a day or my job might be in jeopardy. And so we've really been able to distribute this to, you know, we call them during COVID frontline workers, but we're really excited about helping these people who are not at a desk, who are, you know, working with their hands, working out in the field and just Yeah, just a whole new worker base.

So this is a majority of American workers. And so we're really excited to help them understand what this concept is called backup care. Cause I think most people think of it as, you know, babysitting or much more casual terms. 

Jeanne Gray: So what would you describe as your, your profiles? Of a good corporate customer or, or a company size that fits well with your, your services.

Kasey Edwards: Yeah. So I would say nowadays we're, you know, we definitely started in a much smaller space, but anything North of 10, 000 employees at the company is exciting for us. We can take in as many as, you know, a million employees, 2 million employees at a time. So we're excited to service those accounts as well.

And I think the key thing, if you know, if any employers are listening, you know, what really sets us apart is if you have difficult to reach populations, if you've got retail locations all over the U S if you have remote teams in Israel or in, in, in any country that you want to support and you want to make sure your benefit is distributed equally across these groups we're really the candidate for that job.

Jeanne Gray: So we've covered a lot. So I'll ask you, One last big question is, can you share a challenge that you faced and how you dealt with this challenge or how you and your partner together had to work out a challenge? 

Kasey Edwards: Yeah, you know, I think for Helpr, the biggest challenge over the years has just been the space that we're in.

And I think that Being a sort of a childcare company where we've got a very undervalued sector and then also a high risk profile. We had to do a lot of rolling up our sleeves and continuing to do the work. Even when it felt like, Hey, we aren't sure that this will work long term, you know, we're, we're working really hard.

We see a carrot ahead of us. But we can't quite reach it. And I think perseverance and trust became big lessons for us as founders. And we just kept trusting that the customers appreciating us and our clients continuing to renew with us was a signal that we should keep it going. So you know, we have a really hardworking team and they deliver great results.

And so You know, I'd say, maybe in my next lifetime I'm selling widgets, but this time for some reason I'm called to this care space and I'm just happy to, to be the one to steward this work into the market. 

Jeanne Gray: Have you seen anything in the last few years? Where there's more emphasis on work life balance on it's even in some of the news with politics that child care is a major concern with people working middle class being able to afford child care.

In some of the attitudes or value of babysitting or caregiving Um, Changing that's helping the company. 

Kasey Edwards: I think so. Of course. I think that the challenge that our culture faces is deciding how to, you know, chop this up. And, and I think there's a lot of solutions that we'll have to come to the table to build out our care economy.

And. I think it's great that we're talking a lot more about it. I think our thesis has always just been that to build up the infrastructure, we need to bring more dollars to the table. And so, you know, what we're trying to do with our program is bring, you know, we have employers that we're bringing. We envision healthcare providers being able to also bring dollars To our app table, if you will, as well we want to bring, of course, Uncle Sam, you know, bringing these tax benefits as well to families will be supportive.

But, you know, if we can bring more dollars to families wallets for their caregiving, we think we're making a big impact. And we're glad to see people talking about it more and more. And so for us, we'll just keep scooping up sort of the edge cases. Our families get about a hundred hours of care per year from their employer.

And so, you know, that's not, that's not making a huge dent in your full time caregiving expense. I think they'd say that your daycare tuition can be about the same as your mortgage in a lot of places. And I think families look at that and think that's really challenging. And so we'll see what happens to solve that problem.

And I think that's going to take probably the U. S. government really stepping in. But for now, we're just going to help people with those hundred hours per year and making it as cheap as possible. A lot of our users are just paying a dollar sometimes less per hour for care. 

Jeanne Gray: I've enjoyed speaking with you, Kasey, and having you share how you've grown this company and the important service that it's providing and that, like we were just talking, that there are attitudes changing in our society that may put more emphasis on caregiving and it'll come your way.

So thank you for being a guest on Experienced Voices. 

Kasey Edwards: Well, Jeanne it was such a pleasure. I'm so glad to be here and thank you so much.

Jeanne Gray: You have been listening to the podcast series, Experienced Voices. To hear more and subscribe, visit americanentrepreneurship. com forward slash podcast, where you will also find a form for listener feedback.