Since KidPass launched two years ago by New York City parents, the platform garnered 50,000 users finding and booking kids’ activities, which now number 150,000. Last week, the company began offering its service for D.C.
“Last month was our biggest month yet,” Solomon Liou, KidPass cofounder and CEO told Technical.ly DC.“And it’s been by word of mouth. Parents are telling other parents about it.”
Partners in the District include the Newseum, Tiny Dancers, Pinstripes, Gymboree, Stroller Strong Moms and The British Swim School. Users pay $49 monthly to find activities and book reservations. It’s like an ClassPass for kids.
Solomon, who has a two year old daughter, was hanging out with former colleagues and college friends when inspiration struck. Each of his friends now had children, and were experts in their professions. Solomon received his BA from Harvard University and MBA from The Wharton School, and previously founded and sold social network eLife Technologies and ecommerce site Parke. Chief Technology Officer Chhay Chhun is another Harvard alum and spent years in web development working with The Economist, Time Out NY and Forbes. Olivia Ballve, the head of partnerships and Chief Fun Officer, has a BA from Brown and MBA from Columbia Business School and previously in sales and account management at Google, Clickable and bMobilized.
“We just found out that your life radically changes when you have kids,” he said. “New York, like D.C., is this awesome place when you’re not a parent, but then when you are a parent, it’s a new awesome place again. We created this out of our own need. We were all catching up, and found that this process of finding kids activities was time consuming, based on word of mouth or Google searches.”
The move is the first of the company’s 2018 expansion plans, and that means introducing parents to kids’ activities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago.
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