Back in 2019, Rachel Carlson's Guild Education officially hit a $1 billion valuation after raising a total $228 million in funding. But long before that milestone she'd started investing in realizing her dream of an onsite childcare facility.ast May, Melinda Gates sounded the alarm: in order to economically recover from the pandemic, the United States would need to drastically rethink its childcare system.
That’s likely why the few employers that offer onsite childcare are mostly massive publicly-traded companies like Goldman Sachs, Disney and Boeing. The barrier to entry is high: companies must make all the necessary investments before they are able to get a daycare license. For Guild, that meant pouring over $1 million into renting and retrofitting the facility without knowing if they would would ever be able to operate.
Employee churn is expensive and slows down productivity. By better catering to working parents, Guild has managed to maintain a 96% retention rate amongst parents during the pandemic. Though Carlson says she has no intention of franchising the daycare business, she hopes to make the case for onsite childcare even stronger by providing other companies with a blueprint for opening their own.
As businesses begin to reopen, Guild’s Beehive has taken a phased approach with a soft launch beginning this month. Currently, it has 10 full-time staff supporting 15 children; by fall at full capacity, it will have 21 staff supporting 78 children. The facility is available to employees’ children ages six weeks to six years, and charges fees using a tiered system based on household income. So far they have not experienced any Covid-19 outbreaks.
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Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »