Introduction
NAPP is an American company specializing in providing babysitting services. The company has a network of babysitters who are matched with parents through the NAPP mobile application, currently available on App Store only. NAPP is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, and its network of sitters is mostly limited to the surrounding areas. Is appears that the company is planning for expanding to other areas of the United States, which would gain it access to new clients and sitters. The company provides many benefits for parents, since all babysitters are screened for criminal, financial, and behavioral characteristics (NAPP Network).
For babysitters, NAPP offers improved job search experience, which is also important. NAPP’s revenue relies on families’ and sitters’ joining fees, which are $55 and $30, respectively. These fee provides access to the app’s features and a background check through SafetyPIN for sitters. Overall, the company appears to be based on the concepts of trust and safety, and the services it provides are tailored to the needs of modern parents.
Owners
The owners of the company are Claire Cianos and Katie Carroll, who have experience working as babysitters in Baltimore, MD. According to the story of the company’s founding, they were receiving a lot of requests for babysitter recommendations from local families and neighbors when they were busy (NAPP Network). These requests ultimately led to the idea of creating an app to connect families and qualified babysitters. Besides working as sitters, both co-founders have other work experience in the fields of service provision and business management.
Claire Cianos graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications in 2013. After that, she worked as associate trainer, office manager, public relations assistant, vice president of marketing and development, and publicity coordinator (“Claire Alexandra Cianos”). Claire Cianos’ work experience shows that she has experience in leadership and marketing, which are both crucial for a start-up.
Katie Carroll also graduated from Towson University, although her degree is not specified. She worked as a research assistant, assistant to the Director of Finance, and project manager (“Katie Carroll”). Based on her LinkedIn profile, it appears that Katie has experience working with cyber technologies and in managerial positions, which contributes to the skills and knowledge she brings into NAPP.
Strategic Marketing Focus
Because NAPP is a start-up company, the current strategic marketing focus is attracting new clients to use the app. This includes both parents and babysitters, since the high availability of babysitters is essential to satisfy the families’ demands. In order to attract more families to download and use the NAPP application, the company guarantees safety and security and promises to make the search for a competent babysitter much easier (NAPP Network).
As part of its promise to families, the NAPP team checks babysitters’ references, experience, and qualifications, which are often time-consuming tasks for parents. For babysitters, the app is marketed as a way to gain more clients who are also vetted by NAPP team (NAPP Network). Hence, NAPP’s promise is in line with its strategic marketing focus and responds to the concerns of both parties.
Mission and Vision
The company does not provide a clearly formulated vision and mission. Still, based on the information available on the website, it can be deduced that NAPP’s mission is to provide families and babysitters with an easier way to connect with one another and develop trusting child care relationships (NAPP Network). The company aims to achieve that by vetting app users and offering them with personalized, on-demand babysitting and job search services. The vision of the company is to become a national network of families and babysitters, thus allowing people from all across the United States to offer and receive child care services safely (NAPP Network). This mission and vision are compatible with NAPP’s current state of affairs and its strategy of developing on the national level.
Owners’ Goals
Any owner of a start-up wishes to grow their business and make it more profitable. However, specific current goals can vary from one company to another. The primary goal of the owners of NAPP, as evident from the website, is to attract more clients from Baltimore, MD, and the surrounding areas (NAPP Network). The website contains details about the company’s value proposition and encourages people from this area to join the app.
The secondary and more long-term goal of the owners is to expand NAPP’s area of operation to other locations, although it is not specified which cities or states will be targeted first (NAPP Network). From the team’s perspective, it would be useful to seek growth in other cities of Maryland first before expanding to other states. However, if the owners can travel nationally, they could set up regional teams that would enable NAPP to scale up more quickly. The choice of goal here would depend significantly on the owner’s resources and capabilities.
Community and Civic Activities
Corporate social responsibility has become an important concept in business management over the years, and service companies such as NAPP have to respond to this trend appropriately. There are many activities that NAPP could engage in to provide benefits to local communities, but the two key ones are affordable child care education and low-income family support. The first activity could include providing low-cost workshops, seminars, lectures, or training in child care that could be completed by parents or novice babysitters alike. This activity would benefit the communities in which NAPP operates currently while also expanding its network of qualified babysitters in the future.
The second activity could involve offering discounted services to families with a low income, where parents earn below the living wage or are unemployed. This service would contribute to the well-being of local communities since parents would have more time for additional education or new job search. It would also contribute to NAPP’s image as a family-friendly business that seeks to provide value both to clients and to the community.
Competition
Because of the popularity of babysitting services, NAPP faces significant competition from similar platforms. Bambino is an app that enables parents to search for verified, local babysitters from their phone (Bambino Sitters). The services it provides are similar to NAPP’s application, and the company covers various geographic locations, which is why it is in a better position compared to NAPP. Bubble is another competitor of NAPP and a platform that connects local babysitters and families through a mobile app (Join Bubble). The company insures babysitters through public liability, which is an additional benefit for parents. Although the company is currently based in the United Kingdom, the owners have plans for offering Bubble in the United States, which means that it is still NAPP’s major competitor.
The third competitor faced by the company is Sittercity, which is available on App Store and Google Play, as well as through web browsers. The company offers services similar to NAPP and operates in various cities, including Baltimore, making it one of NAPP’s top competitors (Sittercity). Finally, Seeking Sitters is a web-based service for finding vetted and professional sitters that operates in the United States. Although the company does not offer an app, the services provided by it are like NAPP’s. Hence, customers who prefer to receive services through their web browser or offline can prefer Seeking Sitters, and it is among NAPP’s competitors.
Conclusion
On the whole, NAPP is a platform for babysitters and families to connect with one another safely. It makes babysitter search easier and less stressing for parents while also providing more jobs for sitters in Baltimore and its neighboring areas. NAPP was founded by two women with significant experience in marketing and management who have worked as babysitters before and have a good understanding of families’ needs and concerns.
One of the key advantages offered by the company is background checks of babysitters, which ensures that parents can trust the workers found through NAPP. Babysitters benefit from NAPP, too, as it makes it easier for them to find verified clients. The company is still a start up, and the owner’s goal is to expand the network in Baltimore and throughout the United States. NAPP would benefit from engaging in civic activities that benefit communities, such as providing affordable child care education and offering discounts to low-income families. The primary competitors of NAPP are Bambino, Bubble, Sittercity, and Seeking Sitters.