Diaspora.nz S2 | E6 — Rachel Carrell (Co-founder & CEO at Koru Kids) on building Europe's largest childcare platform, the joy of working on hard problems, having a baby during her Series A fundraise!
Rachel Carrell is the founder & CEO of KoruKids, Europe’s largest childcare platform— training, matching, and providing ongoing support to over 10,000 nannies across London.
Rachel is one of the special ones. Driven to found the company by what she describes as a righteous anger over how childcare has been disrespected as infrastructure in society… Today, Koru Kids takes care of taxes, payroll, pension, holiday, nanny communications, activity ideas and a dozen other things that can come up when you’re dealing with nannies… bringing down the cost for families, and helping kids have more engaging, enriching experiences.
Joined by co-host Phoebe Harrop, we had a lot of fun with this episode: tracing Rachel’s story from hustling chocolates and home-grown lottery schemes on the streets of Invercargill … to strategising her way into a Rhodes scholarship that helped her land a place— and finally “find her people” at the University of Oxford in the UK; and on to London, where she’s been ever since… 22 years and counting, consulting with McKinsey, raising a family, building, investing in, and advising startups
We explore how, counterintuitively, Rachel feels driven to consistently choose the path of most resistance … seeking the right kind of crazy … this shows up in stories from the founding of Koru Kids, to the time she had a baby in the middle of her Series A fundraise and was back out pitching the next day .. to how she thinks about talent development, scaling demand and supply in marketplaces, and more.
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In today's episode, we discuss:
* Rachel's journey from New Zealand to the UK, spanning exactly half her life in each country..
* The transition from consulting to entrepreneurship and the challenges of the healthcare and childcare sectors, what learnings from consulting transfer over to startups, vs. areas she had to develop/offset.
* The founding and growth of Koru Kids, addressing the critical need for quality childcare solutions - specifically how the lack of accessible and affordable childcare has profound consequences for individuals and society.
* Scaling marketplaces: solving the “cold start problem” … building the supply side of a marketplace when the service provided is unique and requires specific qualifications, how to think about (and avoid) “de-platforming” risk.
* Insights into fundraising in Europe, particularly for companies in traditionally difficult sectors. Approaching fundraising with a mindset of learning and strategy development.
* Raising venture capital while pregnant, advice for other female (and- pregnant) founders!
* Being a non-technical founder building a technical business has its challenges, but both approaches (tech-first or ops-first) can work with trade-offs.
* Rachel’s upcoming book! micro interventions with children to shape how they grow.
If there’s one thing you can do to help us — it would be send this episode to a friend .. an expat in your family, a founder or aspiring founder who could benefit from the lessons here .. appreciate your support !
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Learn more about Diaspora.nz:
* Around 20% of New Zealanders live outside of New Zealand. This is our “Diaspora” — and it’s one of the world’s largest, per capita.
* And not only is it large, it’s insanely talented: Early in their lives and careers, many of New Zealand’s most ambitious individuals realise— if they want to make a dent in the universe, they need to get out there… to study abroad, gain experience, build relationships.
* Unfortunately— as they go, many drop off the “domestic NZ” radar…
* We’re here to surface and share their stories, create opportunities to meet and support each other along the way, on and offline.
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