Usit - Babysitting on Demand

Every parent knows the pain point of a babysitter cancelling or "forgetting" last minute. Or when a cool social invite comes along, but you have to turn it down because you can't find a sitter last minute. It's the WORST. These recent Emory graduates and Villagers have solved those problems with Usit. (Cheers from parents everywhere).Now before the idea of an uber for babysitters weirds you out, they have actually done some really clever things to ensure the safety and quality of the babysitters, and have built profiles with recommendations that are as accurate and trustworthy as possible. Think background checks, past references, and more. It's like care.com, but solves a much more common (and urgent) problem.Parents, meet Usit - a Village startup connecting families in need of babysitters to pre-vetted college students near them on-demand.

Why did you choose to be entrepreneurs?

To make people’s lives easier! Our idea provided the opportunity for students to make cash at their own convenience and gave parents access to college student babysitters within minutes of needing a babysitter. We wanted to greatly impact the lives of both parents and students, and we believe Usit can do that.

What is the problem you are trying to solve with Usit?

Parents usually go through many obstacles to find a sitter by asking previous sitters, texting their friends, and even posting on Facebook groups. Parents also have to find a sitter days in advance to go on a simple date night or run errands. Usit solves this problem with ease of use and less obstacles to obtain a reliable sitter. With Usit, parents can post a job even 30 minutes before it starts and receive multiple applicants.

Students also have a hard time finding babysitting gigs in their area to make extra money. Usit allows students to have access to a wide variety of jobs that they can apply to at their convenience. All in all, Usit provides parents with a large network of college student sitters while providing college students with a large network of available jobs in their area.

How do you build trust between the parents and the sitters? This seems like the biggest challenge since they are strangers.

Usit verifies that each student attends his/her respective University by having the student register with his/her college email and sending a code to verify. Usit also gives the student an option to get background checked (a blue background check badge will appear on their profile).

Parents can view each applicant's profile, past referrals from parents who the student previously sat for in addition to comments and ratings. Once a parent books a student, they can contact the student through the app and while the job is live, the parent can track the student on Usit as well.  

What traction do you have?

Since launching on iOS devices in January 2017, Usit has over 1800 active users, over $70,000 of turnover ($10,000 of revenue), and over 1200 jobs completed through the app.

Where do you hope to be in one year?

Usit wants to be the top babysitting resource in the greater Atlanta area and expand into other major metropolitan cities.

Any words of wisdom for other entrepreneurs?

Never give up, its always easy for people to criticize your idea and play devil’s advocate. Learn from the criticism and make your company better.

So many people were concerned about how a parent would let a “stranger" babysit their children but Usit came up with a way to connect over 1,000 households with verified college student babysitters.

Try it. Share it. Enjoy a night out. =)[caption id="attachment_14593" align="alignnone" width="616"]

Usit co-founders: Ifrah Khan (left), Alejandra Lara (center), Omer Ersin (Right)[/caption]