It’s getting late and your babysitter just cancelled last-minute. None of your other options are free, and you just can’t miss that forum that you’ve been RSVP’d to for weeks.
That’s where Nanno comes in.
The childcare booking service allows parents to quickly find qualified caregivers in their area on an easy-to-use web app.
“I want people to realize how seriously we take our safety obligations, it’s so important to parents. It’s not really done elsewhere in our industry right now.”
While the service notably comes through in a pinch, co-founder Liz Oertle and the Denver-based Nanno team pride themselves on the safety formula they’ve created.
“I want people to realize how seriously we take our safety obligations, it’s so important to parents. It’s not really done elsewhere in our industry right now,” she said.
Nanno provides a multi-pronged approach to safety, with a criminal background check, a basic childcare safety test and a behavioral analysis test developed by law enforcement.
With a priority on speed and safety, Oertle feels like the company has the right mix to succeed.
“Super vetting and on-demand is what we think parents need,” she said.
Parents have the ability to set forth parameters for their childcare needs to find the ideal caregiver. They can specify the need for a CPR certified caretaker, or one that has experience with children with disabilities, or even a specific caretaker they’ve used before.
Caretakers can start watching your child as soon as an hour after the request is made or as far out as a month in advance, depending on location and availability.
Oertle said Nanno has about 2,300 caregivers in its network, with 800 of them signing up in the last two months.
Her primary goal over the coming months is to get word out about Nanno’s availability all across the country.
“Now we have all these caregivers and I’m panicking. Everyone has to know about this, because we have caregivers everywhere,” she said.
Nanno recently garnered third place honors at the Denver Startup Week Pitch Competition and provided childcare throughout the week’s programming.
Oertle said Nanno wants to be a resource for parents, and specifically moms, during industry events.
“One thing we’re really passionate about is having people be able to book care for events. Primarily professional events. The idea that moms have to opt out of things because of childcare is something that is within our core values that we’re trying to address,” she said.
The company began two and a half years ago and launched their beta just last spring. Oertle said they’ve built slow, making sure to thoroughly address safety concerns before getting big. Now, they’re launching nationally and hoping to form partnerships with hotels and coworking spaces in the future.
Oertle said the on-demand nature of Nanno separates them from the competition.
"We allow parents to book high-quality sitters in real time, which isn't as simple as it sounds. Not only have we built Uber-like on-demand functionality but, maybe more important to an on-demand service in this space, we've built in a comprehensive vetting process that we think is better than what parents usually do when choosing a sitter," she said.
Nanno has raised a small amount from angel investors and Quake Capital, just enough to get the company off the ground, Oertle said. They're now looking to do a bigger raise as the company approaches growth phase.
Nanno has a reputation in Denver, but Oertle is hopeful happy parents spread the news far past the Rocky Mountains.
“Our users are our best advertisement, because they’ve had this experience,” she said.
