NeighborSchools bet on home daycare networks instead of corporate childcare centers

Boston-based startup whose software and support team walk caregivers through licensing, business setup and marketing to open home-based daycares, then helps parents discover, tour and enroll in them.

Instead of running centers itself, NeighborSchools turns homes into licensed daycares on revenue-share terms, betting that beats corporate childcare on price and pay.

$3.5M seed round (November 2019) led by Accomplice (Atlas Venture), earmarked for expansion within Massachusetts.

Founded in 2018 by Brian Swartz, Bridget Garsh and Cedric McDougal, NeighborSchools set out to make home-based daycare a viable, professionalized alternative to corporate childcare, which co-founder and COO Garsh said priced out many families to cover its own overhead.

NeighborSchools built a platform that guides caregivers through state licensing, business setup, home setup, marketing and ongoing operations, comparing its role to how TurboTax translates complex IRS rules into a step-by-step process. It earns money through a revenue-sharing agreement with each caregiver it supports, whom its marketing said could earn up to $90,000 a year. On the parent side, the platform helps families discover nearby daycares, learn about programs, book tours and enroll. In November 2019, the company raised a $3.5M seed round led by Accomplice to expand within Massachusetts.

Framing corporate childcare's high prices as a function of its own overhead gave NeighborSchools a specific cost structure to undercut using caregivers' existing homes instead.

A revenue-share model, instead of upfront fees, aligned NeighborSchools' incentives with getting caregivers licensed and enrolled successfully rather than just signing them up.

Software support for licensing and business setup (likened to TurboTax) targeted the exact friction -- regulatory complexity -- keeping caregivers from opening a home daycare alone.

Turning a fragmented, regulation-heavy home-based service into a supported network, and taking a revenue share instead of building facilities, can undercut a capital-intensive incumbent.

As of its November 2019 seed round, NeighborSchools was operating a platform connecting licensed home caregivers with parents in the Boston area, funded by $3.5M led by Accomplice to expand its caregiver network and parent-facing discovery tools within Massachusetts.