Mom, Mompreneur and Founder of an on-demand babysitting app, Ashley Clark, built a business out of a parenthood challenge – finding reliable childcare.

The why behind FAST (Find A Sitter Today)

Finding reliable, trustworthy childcare when you need it most is a real problem that so many parents, including myself, face. We wanted to help solve this problem, so we built a platform that provides instant childcare and babysitting services through an app: FAST (Find A Sitter Today).

I had an AHA! moment one day back in August 2023 when my then 1 year old son was home with me since he had not been accepted off the daycare wait list. Since I was working full time in finance with a demanding career, I had a revolving door of college students coming in and out to care for him – and, by choice, the childcare hiring fell on me. Unfortunately, one week AND three days in a row, I got a morning text from my scheduled sitter, saying she could not make it. 

As any fellow working parent knows, this is a devastating blow. I had meetings and work obligations that just did not comply with simultaneously watching my son. When a sitter cancels last minute, you’re in scramble mode. How do you find a trusted alternate sitter at the last minute? Facebook? Texting all of my friends and family members begging them to drop what they’re doing and help me out? I needed a better solution, but there just wasn’t one out there. 

There had to be a better way to help support working families with youngsters!

I remember exactly where I was when I got that text – and I just started ugly crying to my husband, Michael, yelling that this is not right! There had to be a better way to help support working families with youngsters! I remember saying “I cannot operate like this anymore, there has to be on demand care out there!”

And that is when he said,” just google it, there has to be “UBER” for babysitting”. And I googled, and searched, and googled and searched. And nothing. 

So, we thought about this idea for a week or two, and finally said, “If there is no solution, let’s create one”.

And that is exactly what we did – there was no solution to reliable, supplement, and vetted childcare, at the tap of a button so we built Find A Sitter Today.

Our platform connects families with personally interviewed and 3rd party background-checked sitters through an easy-to-use interface, allowing parents to book care last minute, or schedule a sitter for a later date.

The reliability and trust we’ve built with our families

We’re all about simplifying the process, helping parents find peace of mind with sitters who are vetted and available to match their unique needs. But, we are also different, in that we do not let our parents choose their sitter – we do the leg work. 

We interview, we assess and we background check, so the parents do not have to. All they have to do is press a button for care and they will receive confirmation with a sitter profile, picture, experience, history and skill-set. We have a high barrier to accepting sitters on our platform, so if a sitter is on the platform, it is because they deserve to be and therefore our families and parents trust us to get the best sitter to their doorstep. 

Support, like reliable childcare, is critical to dual working households – especially in early parenthood when precious newborns, babies and toddlers’ needs are so specific. Not everyone has that “Mama Village” so we hope to help families find or add to their own village!

Download App in App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fast-find-a-sitter-today/id6523428001 

To read another Mom Founder story, check out My Path to Triumph Over Infertility and the Creation of Binto.