Need a date night sitter? New Twin Cities service seeks to find families a match
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Preschool teachers Sydney Schaefer and Halee Reichenbach often found themselves inundated with babysitting requests from parents desperate for a date night.
The longtime friends, who have worked in early education for years, soon realized they had lots of leads — and demand.
- So they decided to turn their network into a babysitting business: Friend to Friend, which matches families with caregivers.
Why it matters: As most parents know, finding reliable, high-quality babysitters can be a real pain.
How it works: Friend to Friend, which launched late last month, has built a roster of more than a dozen sitters who are ready to watch kids across the Twin Cities metro.
- Schaefer and Reichenbach, who work in Minnetonka, personally screen the families and the sitters and match job requests based on experience and availability.
- As part of the vetting, sitters undergo background checks and CPR training. So far, most sitters are people the founders already knew.
- They take requests for everything from date night sitting jobs to nanny gigs. People visiting the Twin Cities can also use the service.
What they're saying: The co-owners say they're trying to fill a gap between nanny placement agencies that focus on ongoing care and online platforms that force families to pick from "strangers on the internet."
- "We can do the in-between," Reichenbach said.
- "We can help our babysitters, we can help our families, and it's all tied together in a neat little bow."
The price tag: Families pay a $50 registration fee — a barrier to entry the co-owners say is meant to weed out those who won't regularly use their service — and a nonrefundable booking fee of $25 for each job requested.
- The hourly rate for sitters ranges from $22 to $25 an hour, depending on their certifications and experience level.
Friction point: Those costs add up — a three-hour date night, for example, could set a family back close to $100, without counting the registration fee — and the company's employment rules prohibit their sitters from taking side jobs with families who try to go around the service.
Yes, but: The owners say the price tag ensures quality and reliability, for both the family and the sitter.
- They will personally work to find you a backup if your assigned sitter has to bail.
What we're watching: So far, the pair has been able to find a match for every request they've received.
- Scaling that as the business grows while keeping the same caliber of babysitting talent could be a challenge.