Stanford Alum Talks Uber-Style App for Busy Families
Stanford’s Graduate School of Business recently published an article on its blog in which alumna Joanna McFarland (MBA ’05) offers an overview of HopSkipDrive, an “Uber-style” platform she co-founded with Carolyn Yashari Becher and Janelle McGlothlin to “match parents with drivers who shuttle their kids to and from school and activities.” Since it launched in November 2014 in Los Angeles, Farland’s service has arranged “tens of thousands of rides per month” for “busy families.” And families are busier than ever. Indeed, according to Pew Center research, 60 percent of American children live in families in which all parents work outside of the home.
It’s fitting that McFarland and her cohorts are all busy mothers themselves. She remembers the exact moment she and McGlothlin decided to launch HopSkipDrive.
“We were at a birthday party in late 2013 and all the moms were talking about this problem of driving the kids around. I remember telling my son, ‘I’m sorry but you can’t do karate because I can’t get you there Tuesday afternoons.’ We joked and said we should collectively buy a van and hire a babysitter. Janelle was like, ‘Wait, this is interesting. Let’s make it happen!’”
HopSkipDrive’s platform is nearly identical to Uber’s, with a few key features to offset parents’ “reptilian fear of strapping their child into a car with a stranger”:
“You come into our app, you tell us about your kids or riders, their age and gender, where we are driving and any notes about those locations. You can book rides the day before or book for a whole school year; set it and forget it.”
McFarland says drivers tend to be “moms, empty-nesters, part-time nannies, semi-retired” with “a minimum of five years of childcare experience.” Despite the squeaky clean profile of most “CareDrivers,” McFarland is well-aware of the gravity of her app’s premise, meeting each driver in person and investing in a 15-point certification process, fingerprints, background checks, TrustLine registration, car inspections, driving record checks and reference checks.
“We do more than most people do when they choose a nanny or babysitter. We monitor every ride as it’s happening. The parents can track each ride in our app. We also have safety checks for things like speeding and phone usage.”
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
