This App Quickly Finds Babysitters Recommended by Your Neighbors
When I was in high school, I worked as a nanny for quite a long time. It all started when a family friend asked me to spend time Friday night with her 6 year old. It went great and she made me do it a few more times and recommended me to her baby’s friends. Then these friends recommended me to their circle of friends, and I suddenly had a fairly successful business.
While this referral process is usually the way many people find a nanny, it is not the easiest process. If your regular nanny is unavailable one night, you might text a friend and ask who they are using. But what if you run out of friends to ask? Or don’t I want to bother anyone? Now, a new app called Bambino aims to help make that connection between nanny and parent, in particular by recommending babysitters your friends are already using.
Unlike some other services where you essentially post a job listing and see who is applying, the iOS and Android app is more like a Google search, except that the best results are sitters recommended by your friends.
Search results are populated first (using Facebook data), then sitters used by friends of friends, and finally those closest to your location. This way, you can instantly see that your friend’s neighbor is always using Julie when he hires a nanny, but you can also see the nanny that your neighbor’s friends are using.
And they are all tested. Sitters cannot join a service unless they already have a recommendation from someone on the network, and even then, Bambino staff scrutinize their potential profile before they are included.
In an interview with TechCrunch, co-founder Sean Greene said that only a third of members who register to join the site actually add.
As for the sitter, the process is a bit tricky. Sitters should connect their Facebook profile to their account and be prepared to let Bambino staff view their posts at random. A small percentage of sitters are labeled “Elite” on the service. This is a status that you can only get after you get a few five-star reviews and agree to a background check (which Bambino pays for).
But for sitters, it’s also easier. The app has a built-in timer to keep track of how long parents are away, as well as a way for carers to receive money through the app.
I remember paying with personal checks the day before they sent the check to their phone, and notorious parents “forgot” what they had to pay you when they got home and accidentally ran out of cash. When you’re 16 and expecting $ 60, it’s a HUGE deal. Knowing that my time is being accurately tracked and that I will definitely get paid the day I sit down would be a huge win.
Sitters also set their own rates, so there is no need to bargain with parents about the right price, and parents do not need to find out if they are offering the potential sitter the “right” amount of money.
The whole idea is to make life easier for both parties. If you have a lot of friends with children who also have friends with children, this can be a pretty reliable resource.