My Christmas With Your Mom

It’s Christmas Night, and Dinah Carothers is on a college campus for the first time since her daughter Adrienne’s graduation from Dartmouth. Considering Adrienne’s degree in Women’s Studies, Dinah wonders what she would think about this new job. Not very highly, she muses to me as she continues her hunt for Calhoun Hall and her “son” for tonight, Fakhar Ramachandran. Fakhar is a third year electrical engineering student and one of the very few left on the University of Cincinnati’s campus who did not travel home for the holidays. He’s working through a cold, dealing with a very recent breakup, and for the next few hours, just as she did for Adrienne for the best part of her life, Dinah will cook, clean and provide tender, loving care to Ramachandran. But unlike with her own family, she’ll get paid $75 per hour and then never see him again.

That’s the idea behind the hot new startup Your Mom, a service that provides all of the benefits of having a loving maternal relationship with no greater commitment than a modest hourly rate. Envisioned and launched by founder and CEO Chris Ventrek while a student himself at Stanford University, Your Mom fills a void in the hectic lives of young people who, either due to distance or dynamic, do not have a sufficient connection with family.

Your Mom fills a void in the hectic lives of young people who, either due to distance or dynamic, do not have a sufficient connection with family.

“My mom died unexpectedly while I was in school,” Ventrek explained in a phone interview. “I really didn’t think I would be able to continue; I was lost. My fraternity had a house mom, Linda, who took me into her care and helped me make it through.” Ventrek still gets emotional, he said, recalling his early connection with Linda as he struggled to finish his education, juggling two jobs and an on-again off-again relationship. “When I needed one most, Linda became my mom.” Neither of them knew it then, but their relationship was the prototype for what would become an inspired idea and ultimately a going enterprise.

“One of my (fraternity) brothers was being honored in a Homecoming ceremony and mentioned that his family wouldn’t be able to travel in to participate,” Ventrek said. “I suggested he meet Linda, and the whole thing took off from there.” Linda began to spend a few hours every day connecting with his friends, helping with laundry, talking about their relationships, giving motherly advice on careers, priorities, personal hygiene. “She’d discovered something about herself. A new career path, a natural fit with her passions and personality.”

Ventrek pitched the idea to a local angel investment group and was quickly invited into a six month incubator to further develop his “Rent-a-Mom” concept. While there are many similar models which address the basic needs of child care and provide access to nannies and babysitters, there was a relative white space opportunity to serve the needs of adult children. Heading into the holiday season last year, Ventrek’s outfit was struggling to secure its first round of funding when he found this story about a woman in Rocklin, California who, desperate for a loving family experience, put an ad on Craigslist looking for a mom or dad she could rent for $8 per hour. “That story is what pushed our final few investors over the edge. The need was real. The opportunity was real.”

One year later, Ventrek and team have successfully completed their third round of funding for a total capital investment of $5MM to date. His “proxy mom”, Linda Mastroianni, is now the Chief Talent Officer responsible for recruiting, vetting and training the 2,000+ pilot moms in over 50 cities across the country–moms like Dinah Carothers with an empty nest and a surplus of free time. And in a move that surprised his staff, Ventrek and Mastroianni (thirty-one years his senior) were married earlier this month in Las Vegas. “Something very special happened between us across this journey,” Ventrek told me. “Our relationship evolved. We’re redefining the idea of family.”

Dinah finds Calhoun Hall and begins to make her way across the rainy campus. Christmas lights twinkle in the trees on the commons. Tonight is a “jerker”, Dinah explains to me. It’s Your Mom lingo for a “tear jerker” or a client who is likely to get very emotional. They’re the tough luck cases that make most Your Mom moms recoil. Few are willing to provide the premium service that the jerkers often request including physical contact, singing and a “tuck in” which has the mom remain in service until the client is asleep. But Dinah loves the “problem children” and runs toward the fire, so she says.

“I was uncomfortable at first, like most of the moms,” Dinah says as we check in with the RA at Calhoun. “The service screens the client requests as best they can, but we’ve all walked into at least one inappropriate situation.” Bachelor parties, fetishists who want to play out Oedipal fantasies. “One guy just wanted me to help him move a couch. He couldn’t recruit any friends and had run out of options trying to beat the deadline on a lease. Also, he was a furry and was dressed in full costume,” she laughs. “You never know who you’ll get on a call.”

For tonight, Fakhar has requested a deluxe care package including forehead kisses and twenty minutes of spooning.

At registration the moms indicate their comfort level and are never booked for a service they’re unwilling to perform. But Dinah opted in to every possible request; she feels like she’s on a mission to bring joy to her clients no matter their needs. For tonight, Fakhar has requested a deluxe care package including forehead kisses and twenty minutes of spooning.

Intimacy is the order of business, Ventrek explained to me. But the one rule cardinal that he imposes on the practice due to several pending lawsuits and one restraining order: no repeat visits by the same mom. He refused to share details, but suggested that the neediness of most clients can cause them to become attached quickly. “Let’s just say there are some seriously clingy people out there,” Ventrek confessed to me. “We’re happy to have loyal customers; we just want to prevent delusional behavior. So, ‘One and Done’ and pick another service agent. This is not really your mom.”

As we reach Fakhar’s dorm room, Dinah stops and extends her hand to me, my cue that it’s time for me to leave. We shake hands and I turn to go just as the door opens. Fakhar is young, no older than 19, wearing a pair of footless pajamas. Dinah smiles at me and then turns to him, her face transformed into a beacon of matronly love here to light the way through Fakhar’s dark and lonely holiday night. “What have I told you about walking around without your slippers, honey? You’ll catch your death.”

Fakhar’s face lights up like a tree.

“Yes, Mom.”

Click here for more information about Your Mom.

Originally published at www.troyhitch.com on December 25, 2014.