Launched Venture: Pebble, a Digital Solution Creating Ripples in the Childcare Market
Pebble is on a mission to revolutionize the childcare market through digital innovation, imagining a world where flexibility and parenthood go hand in hand. Built by a combined team from BCG Digital Ventures and Koru, the venture building arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Pebble is the hassle-free way to digitally book ad hoc childcare, as well as pre-school and after-school activities, at any time of the day or night, using a single app.
We caught up with Nick Brown and Sabine Kobayter, two former BCGDVers who worked on the venture, before joining Pebble full-time as Chief Product Officer and Chief Marketing Officer respectively.
BCGDV: Firstly, tell us about Pebble and the problem it’s trying to solve.
Nick Brown: Pebble addresses a fundamental mismatch between inflexible, restrictive childcare arrangements and the dynamic way we all live our lives today by making it quick and easy to find and book flexible childcare. It allows an industry that has, and should always, put child wellbeing at the top of the agenda, to also focus on running an efficient business.
Sabine Kobayter: Pebble was born during the first wave of the pandemic. We kept hearing the word ‘flexibility’ from parents, and it became clear to us that parents would continue to need this flexibility after lockdown. We started looking into how we could solve the rigid options in the childcare world by providing a platform that allowed parents to book childcare on a more ad hoc basis, saving them money, but also reducing planning stress.
BCGDV: How did the idea for Pebble come about and how involved were you with the design, incubation and launch while at BCGDV?
Nick: I joined at the incubation stage of the venture to co-GM and shape the product in a role as venture Chief Product Officer. My initial focus was delivering an MVP to test our assumptions that parents would book online and could run seamlessly alongside a nursery operation. It was exciting to see just how much opportunity exists to disrupt and modernize this space and very exciting to see the reactions from both parents and nurseries even to our initial MVP solution!
Sabine: I was on the venture since the early days. We ran a validation with Koru, where the idea for Pebble came up in a brainstorming session. It’s amazing to then have taken it through to incubation and now commercialization. I really did live the BCGDV dream!
BCGDV: Why does the childcare sector lag so far behind others when it comes to digital innovation?
Nick: I think it predominantly comes down to (1) focus and (2) an environment in which innovation hasn’t historically been needed to drive profitability. As a parent, the driving factor in securing our son’s childcare arrangement was wellbeing and suitability for our child; everything else was secondary. This is a mantra followed by (most) childcare providers.
Innovation, particularly in the digital space, just isn’t a focus. Once parents have settled on a childcare provider, the barrier to exit is extremely high — it’s too disruptive for their child. Put simply, you have two choices; you can go along with whatever outdated operating system your childcare provider runs, or switch to another provider. This means a big leap of faith for most parents, so there’s little to incentivize providers to innovate around parents’ needs.
BCGDV: The pandemic triggered a transition to remote and hybrid working which was heralded as the answer to work-life balance for parents. But Pebble has research to show that isn’t the case — tell us more…
Sabine: We’ve launched a couple of surveys that suggest that parents have a more flexible work schedule but this isn’t matched by a more flexible childcare schedule, hence creating stress for parents. We also see examples of parents removing their children from fixed childcare schedules because they’re at home more, but trying to work with a young child at home is proving difficult.
BCGDV: Pebble’s impact on nursery occupancy rates is significant — what kind of increases are nurseries which use the app seeing?
Sabine: On average, full time occupancy post lockdown has decreased at nurseries because parents weren’t sure what their schedule would look like, so they opted not to continue to pay fees and be bound by a contract. Pebble offers nurseries ways to bring back those parents on a more ad hoc basis. In general we see about a 30% increase in occupancy at nurseries using Pebble.
BCGDV: What’s the most common response you receive from parents and nurseries when they hear about Pebble?
Nick: Parents usually say: ‘I can’t understand why this hasn’t been done before!’. We live in a world where we can do anything instantly online, from booking a restaurant to a team meeting with people around the world.
For nurseries, they see the revenue that’s being left on the table but aren’t able to find the time, and often don’t have the expertise, to take advantage of this. When they see our system, they’re amazed at how simple it is to use, and immediately grasp the value it can bring.
Sabine: The most salient comment for me was from a parent who said: ‘This brings my nursery into the 21st century! About time, thank you Pebble!’.
BCGDV: And finally, you spent more than a year working on bringing Pebble to market while at BCGDV — what made you decide to make the transition to join the company full time?
Nick: For me, it was the massive opportunity I saw in the space during the incubation phase. On most ventures I’ve worked on, our pivots have been based on finding a dead end and picking another route. The exciting thing with Pebble was the number of doors opening, meaning the challenge was about prioritizing which door to go through to realize the greatest potential, rather than be steered by blocked routes. This, combined with a clearly broken model ripe for disruption and an enormous market I found hugely exciting and an opportunity I couldn’t walk away from!
Sabine: For me it was a no brainer. I was very convinced about our proposition, and I felt this space was very rewarding, aiming to disrupt the outdated childcare industry, while at the same time dramatically improving the parent experience. It also helped to have such great clients in Koru, and a partner in crime (Nick that is!).
