The idea for Bubble came from my own experience as a parent. I found it hugely frustrating that while you could book almost anything online instantly, there wasn’t an easy and reliable way to answer one of parenthood’s biggest needs: childcare. I was abroad with my wife and we were about to cancel our dinner plans because we didn’t have a sitter. My sister-in-law then suggested someone who was doing work for other parents at her office. We didn’t think twice before booking them because we trusted her recommendation. It got me thinking about how trust and social referrals drive decision-making in childcare. I saw an opportunity to use technology to make the process of booking childcare seamless, safe, and reliable, leveraging parents’ trusted social networks.
Tell us about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?
Bubble is a childcare marketplace that connects parents with trusted sitters in seconds. We also use social data to help parents find the sitters depended upon by their friends and community. Since launching in 2016, we’ve delivered over 3 million hours of childcare and helped 275,000 parents fill the missing piece of their childcare puzzle. Trust and convenience are at our core: parents can book vetted sitters on the Bubble app in as little as 30 minutes. We also partner with brands like Uber and other employers to offer subsidised childcare to their workforce.
How has the business evolved since its launch?
Since launching in 2016, Bubble has grown into one of the UK’s leading childcare platforms. What started as a simple idea - connecting parents with trusted sitters - has evolved into an app delivering millions of hours of fully-insured childcare to families across the country.
We’ve expanded our service offering since we first started out. In addition to our flexible childcare service, we can help parents find nannies for longer-term support. Families who need it can find and book trusted petcare through Bubble. And employers can use Bubble to offer back-up childcare as a valued benefit to employees.
We’ve also recently added a raft of new features to our app, making it easier for parents to find and book their perfect sitter.
Tell us about the working culture at Bubble?
We’re a team of 30 people, passionate about solving one of the biggest pain points for parents. Our culture is built on trust, transparency, and ownership. Just like we empower parents to make childcare decisions that work for them, we give our team the autonomy to take initiative and drive impact. We believe in continuous learning, testing, and refining as we grow; the latest proof point of which is our brand new app, which launched last month to deliver an even better experience to our users.
As a childcare company, we’re family-first. Many of us, including me, use Bubble daily to balance work and parenting.
How are you funded?
Bubble has been backed by an incredible group of investors, including leading VCs and strategic angels. We’ve raised venture funding to scale our platform and expand our impact, but we’re also heavily focused on sustainable growth.
What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?
One of the biggest early challenges was overcoming skepticism. People would say, “I’d never book a stranger to care for my kids.” We had to prove that Bubble isn’t about booking strangers, it’s about making it easier to find sitters your neighbours and network already trust. By integrating social recommendations, thorough vetting, and security features, we’ve built a platform that is the safest way to find flexible childcare. The numbers speak for themselves: millions of hours of childcare delivered, thousands of families relying on Bubble daily, and a growing community of trusted sitters earning a meaningful income through our platform.
How does Bubble answer an unmet need?
Speak to any parent and they’ll tell you that childcare is one of the biggest challenges they face. There are issues with supply, trust, affordability and flexibility, particularly in an economy where both parents often want and need to work to build careers and earn a stable income. Bubble solves this problem by combining technology with trust, making it easy to find high-quality, flexible childcare on demand. We’re also bucking the industry trend of declining carer supply: on average, there are eight applicants for every childcare request made on Bubble. No other platform connects parents to sitters their friends use and trust, and no other service offers the flexibility to book care in as little as 30 minutes.
What’s in store for the future?
We’re on a mission to redefine childcare, making it more accessible, flexible, and trusted for every family. We’ll continue improving our platform, expanding our reach, and introducing new features that make it even easier for parents to find the care they need, when they need it. We’re also focused on growing our partnerships, supporting more sitters in earning meaningful income, and helping businesses support working parents. The childcare crisis isn’t going away, but we believe tech-driven platforms like Bubble can be a huge part of the solution.
What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?
Make sure you spend enough time thinking about and validating how you’re going to bring your product to market and reach your target customers. A lot of founders - and I speak from personal experience - love spending time on their products (particularly pre-launch) and not enough time on the killer question of how they’re going to market their businesses. Building products can be extremely challenging, but winning and retaining customers is far more difficult and ultimately will dictate how successful you’re going to be.
And finally, a more personal question! What’s your daily routine and the rules you’re living by at the moment?
I’ve got three little kids at home so life is hectic. During the week I’ll typically get up between 5 and 6 and exercise before coming home to do the school run. I’ll be at work by 9:30am and typically get home around 8pm, just in time to finish off the bedtime routine. My wife also works and we use an incredible Bubble sitter three times a week to help with that crazy period between school ending and everyone being asleep.
Something I started doing a couple of years ago, which I recommend to everyone, is to leave my phone in a different room when I go to bed. It’s not so much to keep me off it at night, but to keep me off it in the morning after I wake up. Too often we pick up our phones and see something negative (work, the news, etc) and it sets a terrible tone for the rest of the day. Not touching your phone till you’re out of bed, dressed and ready for the day makes such a positive difference.
