Husband-and-wife team Justin and Jill Bertelsen are on a mission to support families, including helping parents “level up” their skills.
The couple founded Bertelsen Education LLC, a dual-focused startup that provides continuing education training for childcare providers, and through Crib Coaching, provides support and training for new parents.
Earlier this year, the Bertelsens moved to the Kansas City metro from College Station, Texas, after attending a virtual Back2KC event, which aims to reconnect former residents to the Kansas City region. Through Back2KC, they met influential leaders, such as KCRise Fund Managing Director Darcy Howe, and learned about Kansas City’s wealth of entrepreneurial resources like Digital Sandbox KC and Pure Pitch Rally.
“We decided to move here, knowing that there were resources to help build our business,” she said.
“I was really excited to come back to Kansas City just because the culture here is so different,” he said. “People will connect you with whoever just because they want to build Kansas City. There’s a really special kind of spirit or environment here where people are dedicated to building this place.”
Plus, unlike the other places they’d lived, Kansas City understood the problem they were trying to solve, Jill Bertelsen said, who has a bachelor’s degree in marriage and family studies.
The catalyst for Crib Coaching: Their first child, Ross, was an “absolutely horrible sleeper,” who was born two weeks before finals when they both were in college. It was a tough transition to parenthood, he said. The experience spurred Jill Bertelsen to consult with a sleep coach and eventually become a sleep coach herself.
The problem: While there’s a plethora of resources for child development, such as regular checkups with a pediatrician, there’s not much support for first-time parents in their transition to parenthood, she said.
“We’re really trying to solve a social problem of parents feeling overwhelmed and underequipped to handle the challenges of parenthood,” he said.
How they’re solving it: Crib Coaching has developed online classes in collaboration with a variety of experts, including nurse practitioners and autism specialists. Topics include potty and sleep training, parental burnout, developmental delays, discipline techniques and how to spot signs that a child is on the autism spectrum. Crib Coaching also plans to launch an app in the spring that uses artificial intelligence to gamify parenting. Daily activities could include reading a parenting tip, taking quizzes and journaling. The goal is to offer a variety of activities to keep parents engaged.
Traction: Bertelsen Education received international accreditation from the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training and now is available in 38 states. The Bertelsens also were accepted into the Entrepreneurship Scholars (E-Scholars) accelerator program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City that’s tailored for early-stage ventures. Other wins have included receiving $20,000 from Digital Sandbox KC to build out the Crib Coaching app; $12,000 from the Pure Pitch Rally, which comes with access to boot camps covering topics such as branding and pitching; and joining the Comeback KC Venture fellowship through KC Digital Drive.
How you can help: The Bertelsens are looking for connections to school districts, Head Start programs and organizations that support parents so they can complement existing offerings.
