AI transcript
0:00:02 (upbeat music)
0:00:15 – All right, well thank you all for coming.
0:00:18 Today we’re gonna do an episode of our podcast,
0:00:20 The Hustlers Guide to Tech.
0:00:23 And what the Hustlers Guide to Tech is for,
0:00:27 is if you have the talent, the desire,
0:00:29 and the hustle to do great things,
0:00:32 and are looking for that opportunity to shine,
0:00:34 we’re here to help by introducing you
0:00:38 to the technology platforms that can let you do just that.
0:00:41 And so across from me, I’ve got my co-host Shaka Sengor.
0:00:44 – What up y’all, good morning.
0:00:48 – To my left are Hustler Sherry James.
0:00:50 – Good morning.
0:00:55 – Sherry has gone from teaching kids her whole career,
0:00:59 to using Chris’s platform, who’s a CEO of Wonder School,
0:01:04 to create, run, and most importantly, own her own school.
0:01:08 (audience applauding)
0:01:10 And this is Chris Bennett, the CEO,
0:01:11 the founder CEO of Wonder School.
0:01:12 – Hello everyone.
0:01:14 (audience applauding)
0:01:15 – All right, well let’s get into it.
0:01:17 Chris, tell us about what is Wonder School?
0:01:21 – So I grew up in Miami, Florida.
0:01:24 My family is from Honduras.
0:01:28 And growing up, I grew up in a pretty large family,
0:01:30 one of 31 cousins.
0:01:32 – Wow, that’s a lot of cousins.
0:01:33 – There’s a lot of cousins.
0:01:34 – So when you see somebody you’re just like,
0:01:35 “What up cousins?”
0:01:37 – Yeah, exactly, exactly.
0:01:40 And when I was in third grade,
0:01:43 I was in the gifted program, when I was in high school,
0:01:44 had all of these options for college.
0:01:48 I was the first in my family to go to college,
0:01:50 went to the Wharton School.
0:01:55 Of the 31 cousins, only four of us ended up going to college.
0:01:58 And looking back on my childhood,
0:02:00 there was one really unique thing
0:02:03 about my experience relative to most of my cousins.
0:02:06 I went to one of the best preschools in Miami.
0:02:07 – Wow.
0:02:12 – And when I, looking back on that experience,
0:02:13 I moved to San Francisco
0:02:16 and I realized there’s this huge shortage of childcare.
0:02:17 And I’m hearing this from all over the,
0:02:19 from a number of people.
0:02:22 And thinking about that problem,
0:02:25 I’m thinking, you know, how could we solve that problem?
0:02:27 And I thought back to my sister,
0:02:30 who went to an in-home daycare in our community,
0:02:34 and the woman who started the school
0:02:37 is still running her business today, 35 years later.
0:02:40 I thought, you know, this could solve this problem.
0:02:45 We could create a lot more programs and fill the gap.
0:02:46 And so the idea was,
0:02:49 what if we could help people start
0:02:51 and operate their own child cares out of their homes?
0:02:52 – Yeah, I think it’s something
0:02:56 that we don’t really talk enough about in the country.
0:02:57 It’s about ownership of the things
0:02:59 that serve our community.
0:03:02 Sherry, being an educator and being able to work
0:03:04 with young kids very early on,
0:03:08 what was it about like the idea of ownership
0:03:10 that really resonated with you?
0:03:13 – Well, I didn’t really know how or what to do
0:03:15 to open my own program.
0:03:17 I’ve always worked with someone else.
0:03:20 And so I was trying to figure out what skills
0:03:24 that I had to kind of help myself maintain my life
0:03:26 as normal, as well as maybe be at home
0:03:31 with my son at the time and then I found Wonder School.
0:03:33 So they actually just helped me just kind of organize
0:03:38 all my thoughts and my ideas on a website,
0:03:41 as well as walking myself through the licensing process,
0:03:45 gave me a sounding board to talk to and ask questions to,
0:03:47 helped guide me through the licensing process
0:03:50 ’cause it could be kind of a little bit overwhelming
0:03:54 with all the applications and then you have all of the
0:03:57 licensing requirements that you need to go through
0:04:01 and then you have to have your inspections
0:04:02 and things of that sort.
0:04:04 So having someone to talk to throughout that process
0:04:09 was really great, also setting up my actual environment
0:04:11 because that’s also something that was really important
0:04:13 to me, how do I turn my home into a school?
0:04:16 So that was something that I also had to do.
0:04:17 – Right, right.
0:04:20 And how, like, what age kids do you have?
0:04:24 – Currently, my youngest is, well, what’s four months
0:04:25 and my oldest is four.
0:04:27 You have to make sure that your home is safe
0:04:29 and I try to allocate two rooms,
0:04:33 as well as my outdoor place space for this program.
0:04:35 So then that way, my kids feel comfortable.
0:04:37 I was also, my family feels comfortable
0:04:41 and they also have their own personal rooms as well.
0:04:43 So we have a family room set up as well as a backyard
0:04:46 to have a bonus room outside of my house as well.
0:04:48 – One of the things I love hearing
0:04:49 is that you keep saying my kids,
0:04:52 ’cause I got a little confused when I’m like zero and four.
0:04:53 I’m like, okay, what about the other kids?
0:04:56 But as a parent, I have a seven-year-old son
0:04:58 and it’s really important for me to know
0:05:01 that any space that I bring my son into,
0:05:02 that he’s loved, that he’s welcomed,
0:05:04 that he’s healthy, that he’s whole.
0:05:06 So hearing you just refer to the kids
0:05:08 in that manner is really exciting.
0:05:10 One of the things Ben and I were just discussing
0:05:12 was like, how do you market things
0:05:14 and how do people learn information?
0:05:16 – If I was just on Facebook one night,
0:05:18 just kind of scrolling through my feed
0:05:20 and watching, that’s kind of my entertainment.
0:05:23 And I came across and it was Chris
0:05:25 and I was asking for, if you’re interested
0:05:29 in opening your own program to contact them.
0:05:32 And then you had to fill out a little bio or interest page
0:05:34 and then you also had to take a picture.
0:05:36 But your space did not have to be set up.
0:05:37 That was a great thing about it
0:05:39 ’cause my space was not quite set up yet.
0:05:42 It was just a family room at the time.
0:05:44 And then they got back to me
0:05:45 and they walked me through the process.
0:05:47 – Yeah, and Chris, how do you like help people
0:05:50 like Sherry market her program
0:05:52 so that they can expand and get more students?
0:05:54 – There are a number of ways.
0:05:59 So most, a lot of parents sort of congregate
0:06:01 and they congregate online and offline.
0:06:04 So they’ll congregate in a lot of parent groups
0:06:07 and a lot of like mom groups on Facebook.
0:06:09 And so we work with all of our directors
0:06:12 to promote their businesses in those areas.
0:06:16 And then we do a lot of marketing through ads
0:06:19 and through a lot of events.
0:06:20 – One of the reasons for the podcast
0:06:23 is really to make technology more accessible to people,
0:06:26 especially people who don’t come through
0:06:28 like the more what they interpret
0:06:30 as a stereotypical nerdy spaces, right?
0:06:33 And there’s something really appealing
0:06:35 about being able to reach parents
0:06:38 and connect with parents who most people may not think
0:06:39 would jump into the business model.
0:06:42 So how has that experience been,
0:06:45 you know, seeing people who are really interested in
0:06:47 that may not come through the normal pipeline?
0:06:50 – From a parent standpoint or from a director standpoint?
0:06:51 – From a parent standpoint.
0:06:54 – Yeah, I mean, what we find is that
0:06:57 a lot of the parents we work with is their first child
0:06:59 and parents who have their first child
0:07:03 are very, very nervous and protective.
0:07:04 – Protective, yeah.
0:07:06 – Of their child.
0:07:07 – By the eighth kid, it’s like–
0:07:09 – By the eighth kid, it’s like, just take the kid.
0:07:11 (laughing)
0:07:14 And so one of the things we think a lot about
0:07:19 is making that experience feel comforting for the parent
0:07:21 as they’re going through the process.
0:07:23 One thing we like to do is make sure
0:07:25 they see a lot of schools so they can get a sense
0:07:27 of the different types of programs
0:07:29 that they can choose from.
0:07:31 And then once they find a program,
0:07:33 we actually don’t stop there.
0:07:35 Like it’s really common for a child to cry
0:07:37 on their first day of school
0:07:39 or maybe even their first week of school.
0:07:42 And parents get really nervous.
0:07:43 They get really freaked out
0:07:45 and they think that something is wrong.
0:07:48 And we essentially coach parents through that experience.
0:07:51 And then the idea is, how do we help that parent
0:07:54 become a better parent and work with the director
0:07:56 so that they can ensure that their child
0:07:57 gets developed the right way?
0:07:58 – That’s a funny story.
0:08:00 When I was a kid, my mom told me this story.
0:08:03 She dropped me off at preschool and I started crying
0:08:06 and the school is like, just leave them here.
0:08:07 He’ll be fine. – Exactly.
0:08:09 – And she comes back three hours later
0:08:11 and she said, I was still crying
0:08:12 and soaking wet from tears.
0:08:14 (all laughing)
0:08:19 I was a bad kid, but usually most of them are better.
0:08:21 Sherry, one thing is a lot of parents
0:08:24 have trouble affording a preschool program,
0:08:26 but you’ve been able to help them with that.
0:08:27 Tell us how you did that.
0:08:29 – Well, one thing that I’ve implemented in my program
0:08:31 is I accept subsidies.
0:08:33 So what subsidies are, basically,
0:08:36 there’s different programs on the county you live in
0:08:39 that help parents afford child care.
0:08:41 So I try to make sure I have room in my program
0:08:42 for those children as well.
0:08:44 – How did you learn how to accept subsidies
0:08:45 and do that kind of work?
0:08:47 – Well, that was something that was really important to me.
0:08:49 I wanted to offer a high quality program
0:08:53 in an area that maybe normally doesn’t offer certain things.
0:08:55 I want to have a play base.
0:08:57 I wanted to have an outdoor program.
0:08:59 It’s really important, I think, for kids to play outside
0:09:01 and have that outdoor experience.
0:09:03 We have a garden and mice program,
0:09:05 so we have a lot of hands-on activities
0:09:07 within seeing the food grow and how to plant.
0:09:08 – Oh, that’s great.
0:09:11 – And then walking them through that process as well,
0:09:12 teaching them where our food comes from.
0:09:15 – Jen, so how did you start out?
0:09:17 Like, what was this background in early childhood education
0:09:18 that you had?
0:09:21 And then just for yourself with your kids.
0:09:24 I mean, your other kids that were your kids.
0:09:25 Like, how did you think about that?
0:09:27 – So I did a traditional path.
0:09:30 I went to school all through college.
0:09:34 I always worked in an example of education or administration.
0:09:36 As I worked my way up through the ranks,
0:09:38 I automatically went through administration
0:09:41 and instead of working somehow in social work.
0:09:43 Then I was doing social work for over 10 years,
0:09:46 working with the homeless downtown in Los Angeles.
0:09:49 And also working with children and families
0:09:51 of intellectually disabled individuals,
0:09:54 doing casework as well as social work in that environment.
0:09:59 And then I also did some behavioral type positions.
0:10:01 And so I wanted to kind of link all of my skills
0:10:03 into one platform.
0:10:07 I was trying to figure out a way to service my community,
0:10:10 utilize the skills I have as well as open my own business.
0:10:14 So initially, my target was to create an environment
0:10:16 for children with special needs.
0:10:17 I wanted to take all the children
0:10:19 that the other program did not want.
0:10:20 – Right, right.
0:10:22 – I wanted to link them into my program.
0:10:24 That was my initial idea of how I thought
0:10:25 I would work everything out.
0:10:26 – Yeah, that’s a lot of work.
0:10:28 That’s the highest degree of difficulty
0:10:30 we have in special needs. – Definitely, definitely.
0:10:33 But it takes like, you know, if you have a love for that,
0:10:34 then it doesn’t feel so bad.
0:10:36 It doesn’t feel like so stressful.
0:10:41 You know, I actually prefer those children sometimes
0:10:42 because the thing about it is people always think
0:10:44 that those children who have the special needs
0:10:46 are gonna be the one to be the most challenging.
0:10:49 No, no, no, it’s those ones who think they know everything
0:10:52 and they’re the one to give you all the problems.
0:10:55 You know, the children who have intellectual disabilities,
0:10:59 they don’t come into it thinking that they know everything.
0:11:00 They come into it thinking that you’re probably
0:11:01 gonna automatically reject them
0:11:04 and all their behaviors already off top.
0:11:05 – And you know, when you were doing the social work,
0:11:07 were there things that you took away
0:11:10 from the programs that you used to route kids into
0:11:13 that you should and should not do with your own business?
0:11:14 – Definitely.
0:11:16 We do an interview when you come into my program.
0:11:17 You do a tour and you do an interview.
0:11:20 You’re interviewing me, I’m also interviewing you.
0:11:22 – And are you interviewing the parents or the kids?
0:11:24 – Both, both.
0:11:27 I try to, I prefer if the parents bring the child,
0:11:30 of course, we can bring them into the space they can play.
0:11:32 I usually try to do it during the hours
0:11:34 where we have an activity going on
0:11:36 or we have a rare outside play
0:11:38 and so ’cause children learn through play.
0:11:41 So you get the chance to learn a lot about the child
0:11:44 and the parent by letting the child just simply just play.
0:11:45 Some parents have a really hard time
0:11:47 letting their kids just play and just go.
0:11:48 It’s really interesting to watch.
0:11:52 – Chris, one of the things that’s really been exciting
0:11:57 for me being a father and understanding
0:12:01 like what children need from men and the importance of that.
0:12:04 So when I found out about your work, I was excited
0:12:07 ’cause I’m like, okay, and it’s a cool young brother
0:12:09 and he’s being thoughtful about children
0:12:12 and really creating space for them to be nourished
0:12:15 and raised in a healthy and whole environment
0:12:19 and ownership, like what does that look like for you?
0:12:21 Like in terms of like, who are the entrepreneurs?
0:12:25 – Yeah, so the makeup of the entrepreneurs is all women.
0:12:30 We have hundreds of programs on our platform.
0:12:32 – It’s a good thing we’re at Essence.
0:12:33 (laughing)
0:12:34 – It’s true.
0:12:37 There’s only one guy who runs a Wonder School
0:12:38 and it’s very personal for me.
0:12:43 My mom was an entrepreneur and I saw her start businesses.
0:12:45 A number of them didn’t work out
0:12:48 but some of them did and I got to work really closely
0:12:51 with her to build the companies that she was working on.
0:12:53 And so it feels very familiar for me
0:12:55 to empower women on the platform
0:12:57 to start these businesses and grow them.
0:12:59 – What do you look for in an entrepreneur?
0:13:02 Because not everybody is kind of cut out
0:13:06 to run a super high quality early education program.
0:13:09 So what do you screen for?
0:13:11 – So there’s a couple of key things.
0:13:13 One, you have to love children like that.
0:13:15 That’s like a must.
0:13:16 And so if we meet someone who’s like,
0:13:19 “Hey, I just want to make a quick buck
0:13:22 “but I’m not really that interested in the children aspect.”
0:13:24 Probably not the right fit.
0:13:26 – My preschool has a lot.
0:13:27 – Right, right, right.
0:13:28 Not the right fit.
0:13:31 The other thing is grit.
0:13:33 Like starting one of these businesses
0:13:35 and getting it up and running,
0:13:37 especially when we go to a new market
0:13:40 where we don’t necessarily have a presence there.
0:13:43 We have to partner really closely with the director
0:13:45 to actually make their business successful.
0:13:50 And you need to have grit to get through the early months
0:13:52 of getting your program up and running.
0:13:55 And then once you get the parents in the program,
0:13:58 continually running your business.
0:14:02 It’s really rewarding but there’s ups and downs as well.
0:14:04 And so we’re looking for individuals
0:14:07 who are ready for that experience.
0:14:09 – Sherry, what would you say to somebody
0:14:13 who’s looking to take that leap from nine to five,
0:14:14 working for somebody else
0:14:17 to really establish their own business?
0:14:19 What would be your words of wisdom?
0:14:21 – Honestly, I would just tell them
0:14:22 that their heart is leading them down this path
0:14:25 of entrepreneurship and go for it.
0:14:27 But just know that it’s not gonna be easy.
0:14:30 You’re definitely gonna have those challenging moments
0:14:33 and times if you’re gonna have your highs and your lows.
0:14:35 But if you’re willing to stay the course
0:14:38 and keep your eye on the prize, then you’ll get through it.
0:14:39 You know, there’s every obstacle.
0:14:42 I always say like too much is given, much is required.
0:14:45 There’s been plenty of times where I had to call Chris here.
0:14:47 (laughing)
0:14:49 When I was concerned about my enrollment numbers
0:14:51 and I’m like, “Chris, I’ve been open for over four months.
0:14:54 “I’m not full yet,” you know.
0:14:56 And you have to know your environment.
0:14:57 It takes some time to learn that.
0:14:59 It takes time to learn your business.
0:15:01 You know, I’ve been open almost three years now
0:15:03 and still I’m learning.
0:15:05 I’m always changing my program.
0:15:08 I’m always adapting it to the clients that I have
0:15:11 and the children that I have and I’m servicing.
0:15:15 – Yeah, one of the things that really inspired us
0:15:17 is removing some of the mental barriers
0:15:18 that stand in the way.
0:15:19 It can be intimidating, right?
0:15:21 If you don’t come from technology
0:15:23 and what would you say to somebody that’s saying,
0:15:25 you know, I really wanna get involved
0:15:27 but I’m a little bit intimidated by the platform.
0:15:29 Like, what are some things
0:15:31 that makes that more accessible to people?
0:15:32 – I would say the only question that’s done
0:15:34 is, is it one that you didn’t answer.
0:15:36 ‘Cause the thing about it is you just don’t know.
0:15:38 Then don’t ever assume anything either.
0:15:39 And if you don’t know,
0:15:40 I’m always asking my students questions.
0:15:41 I’m always asking my parents questions.
0:15:42 Is this working for you?
0:15:44 If it’s not working for you,
0:15:46 how can we both make this work?
0:15:48 You have to be able to adapt and change to your environment
0:15:50 because every day is so different.
0:15:53 You know, one week we might be doing yogurt all week.
0:15:55 Everybody’s eating yogurt just fine
0:15:56 but next week everyone hates yogurt.
0:15:58 So you have to come up with something else for them to eat.
0:15:59 – Yeah.
0:16:00 – Just something new to learn.
0:16:02 So as long as you’re not willing to,
0:16:04 as long as you’re willing to open your mind,
0:16:06 open your thoughts and keep challenging yourself,
0:16:08 you’ll get through it.
0:16:09 – Cool, cool.
0:16:11 As we’re on this journey of really learning
0:16:13 and understanding like the background part
0:16:16 of building up these type of businesses, these platforms,
0:16:20 one of the things that really stands out to me is like,
0:16:26 you’re a young brother in this tech space.
0:16:29 It’s one of the conversations that’s not talked about enough.
0:16:31 Like what are some things that we can be doing
0:16:33 to not only celebrate and lift that up,
0:16:36 especially given we’re at essence 25th anniversary,
0:16:38 but to make that part of just a normal conversation,
0:16:40 where people walk in the room,
0:16:42 is the expectation is that it’s okay
0:16:45 to run these tech-based businesses
0:16:47 and really to utilize them in a way
0:16:50 that helps the rest of the community see
0:16:52 where they can add value at.
0:16:54 – Yeah, that’s a great question.
0:16:59 Being a black man who’s an entrepreneur in San Francisco
0:17:00 is pretty rare.
0:17:02 (all laughing)
0:17:04 – That’s an actual unicorn.
0:17:06 (all laughing)
0:17:10 I think a lot of it, I’m really fortunate for my upbringing,
0:17:15 where I saw a lot of people in my family start businesses
0:17:20 and my uncle runs a very successful hospital in Honduras,
0:17:25 my another uncle runs a import-export business in Miami,
0:17:27 my dad ran a grocery store,
0:17:32 my mom ran a perfume business and is a tax preparer.
0:17:36 I saw a lot of people in my family sort of choose
0:17:38 to go their own way.
0:17:41 I didn’t know that people went to college to get a job.
0:17:43 I thought you went to college to learn
0:17:45 so you could go eventually start your own company,
0:17:46 that’s why I went.
0:17:51 And so I think that one of the key things
0:17:57 to increase the exposure of black individuals
0:18:02 in technology, one of the things is expose people
0:18:05 to entrepreneurship really early.
0:18:06 And I think that’s what’s really cool.
0:18:08 All of the women that are starting businesses
0:18:10 on Wonder School are entrepreneurs
0:18:13 and they’re exposing not only their children to it,
0:18:15 but the communities that they’re serving
0:18:18 to entrepreneurship and the joys of it.
0:18:20 – I come from a history of entrepreneurship too,
0:18:21 it’s a little bit different.
0:18:21 – It’s a little different.
0:18:23 – Noir’s differences.
0:18:25 But what I learned in that culture
0:18:27 is that there are transferable skills.
0:18:30 – As we think about how tech is removing barriers
0:18:33 to entry, what would you say to somebody
0:18:35 who doesn’t come from that traditional path,
0:18:36 that doesn’t come from a college
0:18:39 or doesn’t come from a family background
0:18:40 and just say, you know what,
0:18:42 I need to figure out how to take ownership of my life,
0:18:44 ownership of my destiny.
0:18:48 I want to venture off into entrepreneur leadership.
0:18:51 What do you say to those people who come from that culture
0:18:53 where they have these transferable skills
0:18:55 but may not feel like they have access?
0:18:56 – It’s interesting you say that
0:18:59 because I try to teach the kids from very small
0:19:01 to take ownership in their decisions, right?
0:19:03 So I try to tell my kids all the time,
0:19:05 you have good choices and you have bad choices.
0:19:08 And there’s consequences for every choice you make, right?
0:19:09 So at the same time to make,
0:19:12 I would say, mixing smart, sexy, right?
0:19:12 So you have to let them know like,
0:19:14 oh my gosh, you make such a positive choice
0:19:18 in making this decision and go in this direction, right?
0:19:19 Or if they come up with their own idea,
0:19:23 they’re making every idea, giving them empowerment,
0:19:25 telling them what a great job that they’re doing.
0:19:30 From small, I think it starts at a very young age.
0:19:31 You can see the difference in the children
0:19:35 who get chest eyes for making mistakes.
0:19:37 So you make a mistake, it’s okay.
0:19:39 Okay, so let’s get back up, let’s figure this out
0:19:41 and let’s go another direction.
0:19:43 You cannot, you can’t dwell on that.
0:19:45 They don’t believe in chest, I think, kids
0:19:47 for making mistakes ’cause that’s what they’re doing,
0:19:48 raw learning and growing, right?
0:19:51 Even when Mr. Cherry makes mistakes,
0:19:54 I take ownership on that ’cause the kids will correct you,
0:19:57 they do and they let me know if I get off schedule,
0:20:00 they’ll let me know, oh my gosh, well you forgot to do
0:20:01 and it’s okay.
0:20:05 My youngest biological child is four years old
0:20:08 and my oldest is 13, so I’ve taught my daughter,
0:20:10 my oldest, she will tell you off the back,
0:20:13 like she knows that there’s opportunities past
0:20:16 just going to college and she can own her own business,
0:20:17 that there’s opportunities there.
0:20:20 I believe that I’ve embodied that for her
0:20:22 as well as just helped mold her ideas
0:20:24 and thought to let her know that she can control
0:20:26 her own destiny and that.
0:20:28 – I’m so happy you brought that into the conversation.
0:20:30 I think one of the intimidating factors
0:20:32 about venturing off into entrepreneurship
0:20:35 is nobody wants to fail, nobody wants to mess up
0:20:38 and make any small failure, right?
0:20:40 – I had a nine to five job.
0:20:43 So I had a pension, I had all those different things
0:20:47 that you’re supposed to have, I was a new homeowner.
0:20:50 So to step out on faith and start my own business,
0:20:52 my family was like, are you crazy?
0:20:54 Like, what is wrong with you?
0:20:56 Like you have a degree, like you have a job,
0:20:57 you’re working for like the state,
0:20:59 why would you want to do that?
0:21:00 And for me, it was more so like,
0:21:03 I just wanted to take control of my own destiny.
0:21:05 (audience applauding)
0:21:07 I really just wanted to take control of my own life
0:21:10 and decide like, what my future will look like.
0:21:11 You know, I wanted to get up every day
0:21:14 and feel like my work is actually making a difference
0:21:17 directly and it wasn’t just about the reports,
0:21:19 it wasn’t just about the numbers and someone else’s numbers
0:21:21 and making someone else money.
0:21:25 It was about, you know, how could I manage my own household?
0:21:29 I just wanted to be able to make it, let me make it,
0:21:31 and make the minimum income.
0:21:33 But it’s so funny now, it’s like,
0:21:36 through entrepreneurship, I’ve surpassed all that.
0:21:37 – Yeah, yeah.
0:21:39 – Yeah, I think on a broader level,
0:21:43 that’s so much the key to everything
0:21:47 because as you can move from a model of,
0:21:51 I’ve got a boss, now I’m vulnerable to the boss.
0:21:56 And you know, I’m often, because of that, I end up in debt.
0:22:00 And then you move to, no, I’m an owner and I have equity.
0:22:03 And so that’s how you kind of create a whole other world.
0:22:08 And it’s interesting that it starts in preschool
0:22:11 with owning your own decisions
0:22:13 and not being afraid to make a mistake
0:22:14 and not being negative with kids,
0:22:18 which is a, you know, that’s a cultural thing,
0:22:21 which, you know, it starts right there to change.
0:22:23 If you want to get to a culture of ownership,
0:22:25 you got to make the kids owner.
0:22:27 And if they’re going to be owners,
0:22:28 then they can’t be penalized.
0:22:30 That’s an amazing insight.
0:22:34 – Yeah, so speaking of that, that culture of fear.
0:22:36 So how do you combat that when you’re dealing with parents
0:22:40 and you’re just like, oh, I have to send them back home.
0:22:42 I’ve been a mentor for a long time.
0:22:44 And one of the biggest battles
0:22:47 that I’ve ever had the father’s known that these children
0:22:50 who, you know, who I’ve been entrusted with,
0:22:51 they’re going home to families
0:22:55 who don’t have the same belief system about ownership,
0:22:57 about failure, about not punishment,
0:23:00 but really helping people to understand and navigate that.
0:23:03 So you’re working with these young precious minds,
0:23:06 but you’re competing with what’s happening in the household.
0:23:07 How does that show up?
0:23:09 Whether it’s in your curriculum
0:23:11 or just your engagement with the parents.
0:23:13 And like, what does that look like across the board?
0:23:15 – It’s all about building trust,
0:23:16 building a relationship.
0:23:18 So from the very beginning, you know,
0:23:19 I have to teach my parents
0:23:21 so they have to be able to trust me.
0:23:23 I would let them know if you don’t trust me,
0:23:26 then maybe it’s not the right place for you.
0:23:28 – So you’re teaching the parents as well, which is…
0:23:31 – Yes, I always say I’m teaching my parents
0:23:34 sometimes first, then I’m teaching my students.
0:23:35 You know, you teach people how to treat you
0:23:37 at the end of the day.
0:23:40 So I think that a lot of times with my parents,
0:23:41 if they have any questions or concerns,
0:23:42 I let them know.
0:23:44 They can call me a thousand and one times today.
0:23:46 They can text me a thousand and one times today.
0:23:48 Doesn’t mean I’m gonna answer every single text,
0:23:51 but just know that I will respond to you.
0:23:53 Through the platform, we have an app now
0:23:55 that we can communicate with our parents.
0:23:55 – Oh, that’s great.
0:23:57 – So we can let them parents know
0:23:59 what’s going on throughout the day.
0:24:00 Even before that,
0:24:02 I think that I just message my parents,
0:24:04 letting them know how their students are doing,
0:24:05 letting them know that they’re having
0:24:07 a really stressful morning
0:24:08 and that they’ve been crying for over two hours.
0:24:10 Like that’s something that I would have implemented
0:24:11 in that situation.
0:24:12 – They’re having a bend.
0:24:13 They’re having a bend.
0:24:16 – They’re making me right out of the preschool.
0:24:18 – I wouldn’t have let you cry for two, three hours.
0:24:20 I wouldn’t have, we’ve had to figure something out.
0:24:24 But those are different things that I do
0:24:27 to try to make sure that my parents feel comfortable
0:24:28 and my students feel comfortable.
0:24:29 But it’s really interesting.
0:24:32 It’s once my students come into my household,
0:24:35 my biologic kids get jealous.
0:24:38 And sometimes my students are more comfortable
0:24:40 without my kids there.
0:24:42 So like during the summertime, for example,
0:24:44 our space is combined.
0:24:49 So it’s interesting when my infants are looking at my kids,
0:24:52 like, why are you trying to take my attention away from,
0:24:53 for me, you know what?
0:24:55 But I think you have to make everyone comfortable.
0:24:57 That’s where it boils down to.
0:25:00 Building a rapport and being honest.
0:25:02 Even when things are not going good.
0:25:03 You have to be honest with them.
0:25:04 – Yeah.
0:25:07 You know, we talk a lot about education system
0:25:11 in general in America and how some of the structural things
0:25:14 sets up, you know, people in poverty
0:25:18 and people of color for failure of a very high magnitude.
0:25:20 So when you hear any success stories,
0:25:21 like how does that feel to know
0:25:24 that you’re countering that narrative?
0:25:25 – It’s very motivating.
0:25:27 I want to keep building.
0:25:28 When I hear these stories,
0:25:31 I want to make sure that we’re doing right
0:25:33 by the directors who are on the platform
0:25:36 and the parents on the platform, but I just won’t.
0:25:38 Like this insatiable desire of more.
0:25:40 Like, how can we make this bigger?
0:25:45 – And as an entrepreneur, how do you think about that?
0:25:47 You know, I want to grow the platform.
0:25:52 I want every child to have access to this opportunity
0:25:57 with keeping the program really high quality.
0:26:00 Because it seems like that’s a real tension.
0:26:02 Because not everybody can do this.
0:26:04 Like, how do you make sure that every teacher,
0:26:07 every director is of that quality
0:26:09 while reaching the whole world?
0:26:12 – So Sherry was one of the early directors
0:26:13 on the Wonder School platform.
0:26:15 So her and I worked actually really closely
0:26:17 to build her school.
0:26:20 And so I know very intimately
0:26:23 all of the different challenges and opportunities
0:26:26 I’d go into creating a high quality program
0:26:30 and finding a director who can create a high quality program.
0:26:33 And when we were raising our series A,
0:26:37 Jeff Jordan introduced me to Brian Chesky at Airbnb.
0:26:39 And Brian, you know, and I got on a call
0:26:42 and he’s like, look, all right,
0:26:45 you’ve, you’re raising this round, congratulations.
0:26:48 You’ve been able to figure out how to get here.
0:26:52 And now your job is to build the company
0:26:56 that can take this idea and make it larger.
0:27:01 And a lot of that goes into focusing on the people
0:27:03 that you bring on and bring into the company
0:27:07 and how you work with those people to build out the idea.
0:27:12 And so what I really focus on is hiring the right people,
0:27:17 training them the right way and spending a lot of time
0:27:19 working with folks inside of the company
0:27:21 to understand the vision.
0:27:24 So we have an education team that works with anyone
0:27:27 who’s starting a program on the platform.
0:27:28 We inspect their home.
0:27:31 We work, we make sure that they have the right motivation
0:27:33 to start a program.
0:27:36 And then we help them craft their environment.
0:27:39 So that’s like setting up the different learning areas
0:27:42 of the program and working with the director
0:27:45 to make sure that they’re crafting their environment
0:27:46 the right way.
0:27:48 And then we work with directors
0:27:50 to make sure that they’re growing their business
0:27:53 not only from an economic standpoint,
0:27:55 but also from a quality standpoint.
0:27:58 So when I started the company, just for some background,
0:28:00 I’m like, look, I have this experience starting
0:28:02 technology companies and I’m really
0:28:05 passionate about this problem, but I’m not an educator.
0:28:10 And so our fifth hire is a woman named Mia Pritz,
0:28:13 who has a really extensive background
0:28:16 in early childhood education.
0:28:20 And she worked at a company called CCLC.
0:28:23 And they created Google Daycare.
0:28:25 And they created Daycares at Pixar
0:28:29 and a number of these big technology companies
0:28:33 that have very demanding parents to expect
0:28:35 like the highest of quality.
0:28:39 And the idea is, how can we take a lot of those ideas
0:28:43 and infuse it into the community of directors
0:28:44 that we work with?
0:28:48 And so building a team of really experienced educators
0:28:51 who not only have been preschool teachers,
0:28:53 but a lot of the directors we work with actually
0:28:56 have run their own in-home programs as well,
0:29:00 or have trained individuals to start their own in-home
0:29:01 programs.
0:29:04 And so is that something you foresee in the future?
0:29:08 Is training other entrepreneurs to really run
0:29:10 the programs and set up homes?
0:29:14 And then a delicate balance between just family life
0:29:16 and running a preschool–
0:29:19 All the above, all the above.
0:29:23 Before we even had the app, we also used Slack at the time.
0:29:26 A lot of the directors were pulled together on this one app.
0:29:28 And if you want to vent, you can think about something,
0:29:30 if you have a question about licensing,
0:29:33 or you have a question about how to deal with a difficult sleeper,
0:29:37 a napper, a difficult parent.
0:29:40 Then we would kind of brainstorm.
0:29:43 It’s interesting, some of the original directors
0:29:46 that we first started out with, we kind of would pull together
0:29:50 and visit each other’s programs and give each other ideas.
0:29:53 One of the first directors that I met,
0:29:55 she had a one-bedroom apartment at the time.
0:29:59 And I was like, how is she doing this out of a one-bedroom?
0:30:01 And she was already licensed.
0:30:04 So she invited me and my son for a play date or two,
0:30:05 and we went to her program.
0:30:09 And I saw she pretty much made something out of nothing
0:30:11 you would have never even thought.
0:30:13 And she was doing pretty well for herself,
0:30:17 so well that she ended up opening up another program.
0:30:20 And so she moved into another house.
0:30:23 She lived with a four-to-better house after that.
0:30:29 And so I was like, wow, she’s doing more with less than I have.
0:30:33 So it really kind of made me reframe my thinking
0:30:34 and working with what I already had.
0:30:36 I thought that I needed to do so much work.
0:30:38 That was one of the barriers that I had.
0:30:41 I wanted things to look perfect before I opened.
0:30:43 And then I saw what she was doing.
0:30:46 I was like, you know what, I can work with this.
0:30:47 You know she has five programs now.
0:30:50 And I heard, I heard.
0:30:52 She started a one-bedroom.
0:30:54 And now she has five different homes,
0:30:56 or she’s running different programs today.
0:30:57 How does that work?
0:31:00 Like as a day care, is she setting them up
0:31:01 with other people who are home owners?
0:31:05 I believe she meets people within her own community.
0:31:08 And she just helps them walk them through the process.
0:31:10 Yeah, and talking about expansion,
0:31:13 so what regions is Warner School in?
0:31:15 Is it West Coast, East Coast?
0:31:17 Yeah, so we’re in four cities now.
0:31:21 We’re in Denver, New York, San Francisco, and LA.
0:31:24 And when we started, we thought we could just go
0:31:26 national really quickly.
0:31:28 But what we found is that we needed teams
0:31:30 in the different cities to support our directors
0:31:32 and support the communities.
0:31:35 And so we’re taking a much more of a city-by-city approach now.
0:31:36 OK, good.
0:31:38 I’m definitely going to advocate for Detroit,
0:31:39 because that’s where I’m from.
0:31:41 Push hard, it gets all in the way.
0:31:43 Got to get that make that happen.
0:31:45 So no, that’s exciting to hear.
0:31:46 And you’re in LA.
0:31:48 Yeah, I was one of the first LA schools.
0:31:50 So now I currently live in LA as well.
0:31:55 And the cost of living can be astronomical.
0:31:57 So how do you balance that out as an entrepreneur
0:32:01 saying I’m a venture of knowing that the cost of living
0:32:04 in LA is kind of crazy and you’re betting on yourself?
0:32:07 Like, how did you break through that?
0:32:11 Well, I have three little people that were depending on me.
0:32:12 And plus two.
0:32:16 So I had to get myself together.
0:32:18 At the end of the day, it’s one of those things
0:32:20 where once you start your process out,
0:32:22 you have to be practical with yourself.
0:32:26 So there was definitely some clients in the beginning
0:32:29 that I probably wouldn’t have normally accepted now.
0:32:31 But at the same time, when you first started out–
0:32:32 Why wouldn’t you accept them?
0:32:33 Like, what was up?
0:32:35 Challenging behaviors.
0:32:37 Challenging behaviors from not only the child,
0:32:38 but from the parent.
0:32:39 Oh, OK, from the parent.
0:32:42 The parents sometimes have challenging behaviors.
0:32:44 And working through that, I always
0:32:47 say all money is not good money, you know?
0:32:49 Just because people will say, oh, I’ll pay you.
0:32:52 Yeah, we work Friday night.
0:32:54 You have to set healthy boundaries.
0:32:56 I used to say yes to everything.
0:32:57 I would say, oh, can I come private?
0:32:58 It’s like, OK.
0:33:02 And then one night I had a child to 9.45 at night.
0:33:04 And the kid was there at 6.45 in the morning.
0:33:07 So I’m like, what time do you come?
0:33:08 Or I’m going to come.
0:33:09 And she’s like, I’m not sure.
0:33:11 I’m in route, you know, LA traffic.
0:33:13 So I mean, but at the end of the day,
0:33:17 like, I mean, affording your rent is going to be a challenge.
0:33:21 So you know, you kind of gauge that based upon how much–
0:33:23 how much– how many children you need to take based upon that
0:33:24 alone.
0:33:27 But it’s a great way to supplement your income,
0:33:30 especially if you’re already doing something on the side.
0:33:33 Or if you don’t have anything going on on the side, why not?
0:33:35 If you don’t have–
0:33:38 200 is better than zero, right?
0:33:38 Absolutely.
0:33:40 You have to start somewhere.
0:33:42 But one thing I learned about licensing at this point,
0:33:45 though, as long as you have less than four children,
0:33:46 you’re OK.
0:33:47 You know, you can probably start off
0:33:50 watching just one child, right, and see how that works out.
0:33:52 And then as you’re working your way through the licensing
0:33:56 process, that’s perfectly legal to do one or two children.
0:34:00 But once you have four plus, you definitely need to be licensed.
0:34:03 Yeah, one of the things we do with a lot of our directors
0:34:05 is we look at how much their rent is,
0:34:07 how much they want to earn.
0:34:10 And then we help them think about how much to charge
0:34:13 to make sure that they cover the cost of being
0:34:14 able to operate the business.
0:34:16 So one of the things that popped out to me is, like,
0:34:18 fair is not an option, right?
0:34:21 I have a saying, there’s no plan B, it’s plan me.
0:34:25 We’ll make it happen, figure it out, no matter what’s popping.
0:34:27 But this is actually a question for Bing.
0:34:32 Do you think entrepreneurs are born or made?
0:34:35 Yeah, no, I think–
0:34:37 look, I think it’s mostly made because nobody
0:34:39 knows how to do it.
0:34:44 I’ve never met a natural who comes in and does everything
0:34:45 right.
0:34:48 Everybody comes in and does everything wrong.
0:34:50 And then it’s a matter of will.
0:34:55 And what is true is you can’t do it
0:34:59 if you don’t have the will and you need unbreakable will.
0:35:03 But will encourage are things you develop.
0:35:05 You’re not necessarily born courageous or, like,
0:35:06 with extreme will.
0:35:09 That’s something that you can build in yourself.
0:35:12 Really what it takes more than anything
0:35:15 is you have the courage to not listen to the people that go,
0:35:17 wow, that’s the stupidest thing in the world.
0:35:21 Do you have the courage to deal with, like, I could fail,
0:35:23 and those people are all going to be right?
0:35:24 And how am I going to feel then?
0:35:27 Like, all those kinds of things are always
0:35:29 at you as an entrepreneur.
0:35:31 But nobody knows how to do it.
0:35:33 Chris and I, on the right over, we’re talking about, like,
0:35:35 yeah, I don’t know a single entrepreneur that’s
0:35:37 done a good job at executive hiring.
0:35:38 Like, who knows how to do that?
0:35:40 That’s not like, your mom doesn’t teach you,
0:35:43 this is how you hire a CFO.
0:35:45 It’s a real thing.
0:35:46 So what are your thoughts on this here?
0:35:48 I kind of have a different perspective on that,
0:35:51 because I believe that there’s certain children that I
0:35:54 see in my program every day that just have a will.
0:35:55 Yeah.
0:35:55 Yeah.
0:35:56 Just a will.
0:35:58 Like, they just naturally are just go-getters.
0:35:59 Yeah.
0:36:00 You know, then there’s some kids you
0:36:03 have to constantly push, and you’d be there chilly to the whole
0:36:04 way through, you know?
0:36:06 But you can’t teach that.
0:36:07 Leaders and followers.
0:36:08 Yeah.
0:36:08 Yeah.
0:36:10 Chris was an experienced man.
0:36:11 I agree with both of you.
0:36:14 I think a lot of this starts at a really young age.
0:36:15 You know, there’s a lot of studies
0:36:20 that prove that grit, persistence, a number of these things
0:36:22 are learned at a really, really young age
0:36:25 and can be fostered in preschool.
0:36:27 Developing those skills early on
0:36:29 are really important to being an entrepreneur.
0:36:33 But then once you actually start that company,
0:36:35 there’s so much failure and so much learning
0:36:38 that you have to go through to be able to be successful.
0:36:40 And so I think a lot of–
0:36:42 it’s in you, but it’s also– you have
0:36:43 to learn a lot along the way.
0:36:44 All right.
0:36:44 Great.
0:36:47 Well, I would love to thank our guests, Chris and Sherry,
0:36:49 for a wonderful conversation.
0:36:51 And thank you, Essence.
0:36:54 Happy 25th anniversary.
0:36:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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0:37:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]
0:37:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
0:37:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]
0:00:15 – All right, well thank you all for coming.
0:00:18 Today we’re gonna do an episode of our podcast,
0:00:20 The Hustlers Guide to Tech.
0:00:23 And what the Hustlers Guide to Tech is for,
0:00:27 is if you have the talent, the desire,
0:00:29 and the hustle to do great things,
0:00:32 and are looking for that opportunity to shine,
0:00:34 we’re here to help by introducing you
0:00:38 to the technology platforms that can let you do just that.
0:00:41 And so across from me, I’ve got my co-host Shaka Sengor.
0:00:44 – What up y’all, good morning.
0:00:48 – To my left are Hustler Sherry James.
0:00:50 – Good morning.
0:00:55 – Sherry has gone from teaching kids her whole career,
0:00:59 to using Chris’s platform, who’s a CEO of Wonder School,
0:01:04 to create, run, and most importantly, own her own school.
0:01:08 (audience applauding)
0:01:10 And this is Chris Bennett, the CEO,
0:01:11 the founder CEO of Wonder School.
0:01:12 – Hello everyone.
0:01:14 (audience applauding)
0:01:15 – All right, well let’s get into it.
0:01:17 Chris, tell us about what is Wonder School?
0:01:21 – So I grew up in Miami, Florida.
0:01:24 My family is from Honduras.
0:01:28 And growing up, I grew up in a pretty large family,
0:01:30 one of 31 cousins.
0:01:32 – Wow, that’s a lot of cousins.
0:01:33 – There’s a lot of cousins.
0:01:34 – So when you see somebody you’re just like,
0:01:35 “What up cousins?”
0:01:37 – Yeah, exactly, exactly.
0:01:40 And when I was in third grade,
0:01:43 I was in the gifted program, when I was in high school,
0:01:44 had all of these options for college.
0:01:48 I was the first in my family to go to college,
0:01:50 went to the Wharton School.
0:01:55 Of the 31 cousins, only four of us ended up going to college.
0:01:58 And looking back on my childhood,
0:02:00 there was one really unique thing
0:02:03 about my experience relative to most of my cousins.
0:02:06 I went to one of the best preschools in Miami.
0:02:07 – Wow.
0:02:12 – And when I, looking back on that experience,
0:02:13 I moved to San Francisco
0:02:16 and I realized there’s this huge shortage of childcare.
0:02:17 And I’m hearing this from all over the,
0:02:19 from a number of people.
0:02:22 And thinking about that problem,
0:02:25 I’m thinking, you know, how could we solve that problem?
0:02:27 And I thought back to my sister,
0:02:30 who went to an in-home daycare in our community,
0:02:34 and the woman who started the school
0:02:37 is still running her business today, 35 years later.
0:02:40 I thought, you know, this could solve this problem.
0:02:45 We could create a lot more programs and fill the gap.
0:02:46 And so the idea was,
0:02:49 what if we could help people start
0:02:51 and operate their own child cares out of their homes?
0:02:52 – Yeah, I think it’s something
0:02:56 that we don’t really talk enough about in the country.
0:02:57 It’s about ownership of the things
0:02:59 that serve our community.
0:03:02 Sherry, being an educator and being able to work
0:03:04 with young kids very early on,
0:03:08 what was it about like the idea of ownership
0:03:10 that really resonated with you?
0:03:13 – Well, I didn’t really know how or what to do
0:03:15 to open my own program.
0:03:17 I’ve always worked with someone else.
0:03:20 And so I was trying to figure out what skills
0:03:24 that I had to kind of help myself maintain my life
0:03:26 as normal, as well as maybe be at home
0:03:31 with my son at the time and then I found Wonder School.
0:03:33 So they actually just helped me just kind of organize
0:03:38 all my thoughts and my ideas on a website,
0:03:41 as well as walking myself through the licensing process,
0:03:45 gave me a sounding board to talk to and ask questions to,
0:03:47 helped guide me through the licensing process
0:03:50 ’cause it could be kind of a little bit overwhelming
0:03:54 with all the applications and then you have all of the
0:03:57 licensing requirements that you need to go through
0:04:01 and then you have to have your inspections
0:04:02 and things of that sort.
0:04:04 So having someone to talk to throughout that process
0:04:09 was really great, also setting up my actual environment
0:04:11 because that’s also something that was really important
0:04:13 to me, how do I turn my home into a school?
0:04:16 So that was something that I also had to do.
0:04:17 – Right, right.
0:04:20 And how, like, what age kids do you have?
0:04:24 – Currently, my youngest is, well, what’s four months
0:04:25 and my oldest is four.
0:04:27 You have to make sure that your home is safe
0:04:29 and I try to allocate two rooms,
0:04:33 as well as my outdoor place space for this program.
0:04:35 So then that way, my kids feel comfortable.
0:04:37 I was also, my family feels comfortable
0:04:41 and they also have their own personal rooms as well.
0:04:43 So we have a family room set up as well as a backyard
0:04:46 to have a bonus room outside of my house as well.
0:04:48 – One of the things I love hearing
0:04:49 is that you keep saying my kids,
0:04:52 ’cause I got a little confused when I’m like zero and four.
0:04:53 I’m like, okay, what about the other kids?
0:04:56 But as a parent, I have a seven-year-old son
0:04:58 and it’s really important for me to know
0:05:01 that any space that I bring my son into,
0:05:02 that he’s loved, that he’s welcomed,
0:05:04 that he’s healthy, that he’s whole.
0:05:06 So hearing you just refer to the kids
0:05:08 in that manner is really exciting.
0:05:10 One of the things Ben and I were just discussing
0:05:12 was like, how do you market things
0:05:14 and how do people learn information?
0:05:16 – If I was just on Facebook one night,
0:05:18 just kind of scrolling through my feed
0:05:20 and watching, that’s kind of my entertainment.
0:05:23 And I came across and it was Chris
0:05:25 and I was asking for, if you’re interested
0:05:29 in opening your own program to contact them.
0:05:32 And then you had to fill out a little bio or interest page
0:05:34 and then you also had to take a picture.
0:05:36 But your space did not have to be set up.
0:05:37 That was a great thing about it
0:05:39 ’cause my space was not quite set up yet.
0:05:42 It was just a family room at the time.
0:05:44 And then they got back to me
0:05:45 and they walked me through the process.
0:05:47 – Yeah, and Chris, how do you like help people
0:05:50 like Sherry market her program
0:05:52 so that they can expand and get more students?
0:05:54 – There are a number of ways.
0:05:59 So most, a lot of parents sort of congregate
0:06:01 and they congregate online and offline.
0:06:04 So they’ll congregate in a lot of parent groups
0:06:07 and a lot of like mom groups on Facebook.
0:06:09 And so we work with all of our directors
0:06:12 to promote their businesses in those areas.
0:06:16 And then we do a lot of marketing through ads
0:06:19 and through a lot of events.
0:06:20 – One of the reasons for the podcast
0:06:23 is really to make technology more accessible to people,
0:06:26 especially people who don’t come through
0:06:28 like the more what they interpret
0:06:30 as a stereotypical nerdy spaces, right?
0:06:33 And there’s something really appealing
0:06:35 about being able to reach parents
0:06:38 and connect with parents who most people may not think
0:06:39 would jump into the business model.
0:06:42 So how has that experience been,
0:06:45 you know, seeing people who are really interested in
0:06:47 that may not come through the normal pipeline?
0:06:50 – From a parent standpoint or from a director standpoint?
0:06:51 – From a parent standpoint.
0:06:54 – Yeah, I mean, what we find is that
0:06:57 a lot of the parents we work with is their first child
0:06:59 and parents who have their first child
0:07:03 are very, very nervous and protective.
0:07:04 – Protective, yeah.
0:07:06 – Of their child.
0:07:07 – By the eighth kid, it’s like–
0:07:09 – By the eighth kid, it’s like, just take the kid.
0:07:11 (laughing)
0:07:14 And so one of the things we think a lot about
0:07:19 is making that experience feel comforting for the parent
0:07:21 as they’re going through the process.
0:07:23 One thing we like to do is make sure
0:07:25 they see a lot of schools so they can get a sense
0:07:27 of the different types of programs
0:07:29 that they can choose from.
0:07:31 And then once they find a program,
0:07:33 we actually don’t stop there.
0:07:35 Like it’s really common for a child to cry
0:07:37 on their first day of school
0:07:39 or maybe even their first week of school.
0:07:42 And parents get really nervous.
0:07:43 They get really freaked out
0:07:45 and they think that something is wrong.
0:07:48 And we essentially coach parents through that experience.
0:07:51 And then the idea is, how do we help that parent
0:07:54 become a better parent and work with the director
0:07:56 so that they can ensure that their child
0:07:57 gets developed the right way?
0:07:58 – That’s a funny story.
0:08:00 When I was a kid, my mom told me this story.
0:08:03 She dropped me off at preschool and I started crying
0:08:06 and the school is like, just leave them here.
0:08:07 He’ll be fine. – Exactly.
0:08:09 – And she comes back three hours later
0:08:11 and she said, I was still crying
0:08:12 and soaking wet from tears.
0:08:14 (all laughing)
0:08:19 I was a bad kid, but usually most of them are better.
0:08:21 Sherry, one thing is a lot of parents
0:08:24 have trouble affording a preschool program,
0:08:26 but you’ve been able to help them with that.
0:08:27 Tell us how you did that.
0:08:29 – Well, one thing that I’ve implemented in my program
0:08:31 is I accept subsidies.
0:08:33 So what subsidies are, basically,
0:08:36 there’s different programs on the county you live in
0:08:39 that help parents afford child care.
0:08:41 So I try to make sure I have room in my program
0:08:42 for those children as well.
0:08:44 – How did you learn how to accept subsidies
0:08:45 and do that kind of work?
0:08:47 – Well, that was something that was really important to me.
0:08:49 I wanted to offer a high quality program
0:08:53 in an area that maybe normally doesn’t offer certain things.
0:08:55 I want to have a play base.
0:08:57 I wanted to have an outdoor program.
0:08:59 It’s really important, I think, for kids to play outside
0:09:01 and have that outdoor experience.
0:09:03 We have a garden and mice program,
0:09:05 so we have a lot of hands-on activities
0:09:07 within seeing the food grow and how to plant.
0:09:08 – Oh, that’s great.
0:09:11 – And then walking them through that process as well,
0:09:12 teaching them where our food comes from.
0:09:15 – Jen, so how did you start out?
0:09:17 Like, what was this background in early childhood education
0:09:18 that you had?
0:09:21 And then just for yourself with your kids.
0:09:24 I mean, your other kids that were your kids.
0:09:25 Like, how did you think about that?
0:09:27 – So I did a traditional path.
0:09:30 I went to school all through college.
0:09:34 I always worked in an example of education or administration.
0:09:36 As I worked my way up through the ranks,
0:09:38 I automatically went through administration
0:09:41 and instead of working somehow in social work.
0:09:43 Then I was doing social work for over 10 years,
0:09:46 working with the homeless downtown in Los Angeles.
0:09:49 And also working with children and families
0:09:51 of intellectually disabled individuals,
0:09:54 doing casework as well as social work in that environment.
0:09:59 And then I also did some behavioral type positions.
0:10:01 And so I wanted to kind of link all of my skills
0:10:03 into one platform.
0:10:07 I was trying to figure out a way to service my community,
0:10:10 utilize the skills I have as well as open my own business.
0:10:14 So initially, my target was to create an environment
0:10:16 for children with special needs.
0:10:17 I wanted to take all the children
0:10:19 that the other program did not want.
0:10:20 – Right, right.
0:10:22 – I wanted to link them into my program.
0:10:24 That was my initial idea of how I thought
0:10:25 I would work everything out.
0:10:26 – Yeah, that’s a lot of work.
0:10:28 That’s the highest degree of difficulty
0:10:30 we have in special needs. – Definitely, definitely.
0:10:33 But it takes like, you know, if you have a love for that,
0:10:34 then it doesn’t feel so bad.
0:10:36 It doesn’t feel like so stressful.
0:10:41 You know, I actually prefer those children sometimes
0:10:42 because the thing about it is people always think
0:10:44 that those children who have the special needs
0:10:46 are gonna be the one to be the most challenging.
0:10:49 No, no, no, it’s those ones who think they know everything
0:10:52 and they’re the one to give you all the problems.
0:10:55 You know, the children who have intellectual disabilities,
0:10:59 they don’t come into it thinking that they know everything.
0:11:00 They come into it thinking that you’re probably
0:11:01 gonna automatically reject them
0:11:04 and all their behaviors already off top.
0:11:05 – And you know, when you were doing the social work,
0:11:07 were there things that you took away
0:11:10 from the programs that you used to route kids into
0:11:13 that you should and should not do with your own business?
0:11:14 – Definitely.
0:11:16 We do an interview when you come into my program.
0:11:17 You do a tour and you do an interview.
0:11:20 You’re interviewing me, I’m also interviewing you.
0:11:22 – And are you interviewing the parents or the kids?
0:11:24 – Both, both.
0:11:27 I try to, I prefer if the parents bring the child,
0:11:30 of course, we can bring them into the space they can play.
0:11:32 I usually try to do it during the hours
0:11:34 where we have an activity going on
0:11:36 or we have a rare outside play
0:11:38 and so ’cause children learn through play.
0:11:41 So you get the chance to learn a lot about the child
0:11:44 and the parent by letting the child just simply just play.
0:11:45 Some parents have a really hard time
0:11:47 letting their kids just play and just go.
0:11:48 It’s really interesting to watch.
0:11:52 – Chris, one of the things that’s really been exciting
0:11:57 for me being a father and understanding
0:12:01 like what children need from men and the importance of that.
0:12:04 So when I found out about your work, I was excited
0:12:07 ’cause I’m like, okay, and it’s a cool young brother
0:12:09 and he’s being thoughtful about children
0:12:12 and really creating space for them to be nourished
0:12:15 and raised in a healthy and whole environment
0:12:19 and ownership, like what does that look like for you?
0:12:21 Like in terms of like, who are the entrepreneurs?
0:12:25 – Yeah, so the makeup of the entrepreneurs is all women.
0:12:30 We have hundreds of programs on our platform.
0:12:32 – It’s a good thing we’re at Essence.
0:12:33 (laughing)
0:12:34 – It’s true.
0:12:37 There’s only one guy who runs a Wonder School
0:12:38 and it’s very personal for me.
0:12:43 My mom was an entrepreneur and I saw her start businesses.
0:12:45 A number of them didn’t work out
0:12:48 but some of them did and I got to work really closely
0:12:51 with her to build the companies that she was working on.
0:12:53 And so it feels very familiar for me
0:12:55 to empower women on the platform
0:12:57 to start these businesses and grow them.
0:12:59 – What do you look for in an entrepreneur?
0:13:02 Because not everybody is kind of cut out
0:13:06 to run a super high quality early education program.
0:13:09 So what do you screen for?
0:13:11 – So there’s a couple of key things.
0:13:13 One, you have to love children like that.
0:13:15 That’s like a must.
0:13:16 And so if we meet someone who’s like,
0:13:19 “Hey, I just want to make a quick buck
0:13:22 “but I’m not really that interested in the children aspect.”
0:13:24 Probably not the right fit.
0:13:26 – My preschool has a lot.
0:13:27 – Right, right, right.
0:13:28 Not the right fit.
0:13:31 The other thing is grit.
0:13:33 Like starting one of these businesses
0:13:35 and getting it up and running,
0:13:37 especially when we go to a new market
0:13:40 where we don’t necessarily have a presence there.
0:13:43 We have to partner really closely with the director
0:13:45 to actually make their business successful.
0:13:50 And you need to have grit to get through the early months
0:13:52 of getting your program up and running.
0:13:55 And then once you get the parents in the program,
0:13:58 continually running your business.
0:14:02 It’s really rewarding but there’s ups and downs as well.
0:14:04 And so we’re looking for individuals
0:14:07 who are ready for that experience.
0:14:09 – Sherry, what would you say to somebody
0:14:13 who’s looking to take that leap from nine to five,
0:14:14 working for somebody else
0:14:17 to really establish their own business?
0:14:19 What would be your words of wisdom?
0:14:21 – Honestly, I would just tell them
0:14:22 that their heart is leading them down this path
0:14:25 of entrepreneurship and go for it.
0:14:27 But just know that it’s not gonna be easy.
0:14:30 You’re definitely gonna have those challenging moments
0:14:33 and times if you’re gonna have your highs and your lows.
0:14:35 But if you’re willing to stay the course
0:14:38 and keep your eye on the prize, then you’ll get through it.
0:14:39 You know, there’s every obstacle.
0:14:42 I always say like too much is given, much is required.
0:14:45 There’s been plenty of times where I had to call Chris here.
0:14:47 (laughing)
0:14:49 When I was concerned about my enrollment numbers
0:14:51 and I’m like, “Chris, I’ve been open for over four months.
0:14:54 “I’m not full yet,” you know.
0:14:56 And you have to know your environment.
0:14:57 It takes some time to learn that.
0:14:59 It takes time to learn your business.
0:15:01 You know, I’ve been open almost three years now
0:15:03 and still I’m learning.
0:15:05 I’m always changing my program.
0:15:08 I’m always adapting it to the clients that I have
0:15:11 and the children that I have and I’m servicing.
0:15:15 – Yeah, one of the things that really inspired us
0:15:17 is removing some of the mental barriers
0:15:18 that stand in the way.
0:15:19 It can be intimidating, right?
0:15:21 If you don’t come from technology
0:15:23 and what would you say to somebody that’s saying,
0:15:25 you know, I really wanna get involved
0:15:27 but I’m a little bit intimidated by the platform.
0:15:29 Like, what are some things
0:15:31 that makes that more accessible to people?
0:15:32 – I would say the only question that’s done
0:15:34 is, is it one that you didn’t answer.
0:15:36 ‘Cause the thing about it is you just don’t know.
0:15:38 Then don’t ever assume anything either.
0:15:39 And if you don’t know,
0:15:40 I’m always asking my students questions.
0:15:41 I’m always asking my parents questions.
0:15:42 Is this working for you?
0:15:44 If it’s not working for you,
0:15:46 how can we both make this work?
0:15:48 You have to be able to adapt and change to your environment
0:15:50 because every day is so different.
0:15:53 You know, one week we might be doing yogurt all week.
0:15:55 Everybody’s eating yogurt just fine
0:15:56 but next week everyone hates yogurt.
0:15:58 So you have to come up with something else for them to eat.
0:15:59 – Yeah.
0:16:00 – Just something new to learn.
0:16:02 So as long as you’re not willing to,
0:16:04 as long as you’re willing to open your mind,
0:16:06 open your thoughts and keep challenging yourself,
0:16:08 you’ll get through it.
0:16:09 – Cool, cool.
0:16:11 As we’re on this journey of really learning
0:16:13 and understanding like the background part
0:16:16 of building up these type of businesses, these platforms,
0:16:20 one of the things that really stands out to me is like,
0:16:26 you’re a young brother in this tech space.
0:16:29 It’s one of the conversations that’s not talked about enough.
0:16:31 Like what are some things that we can be doing
0:16:33 to not only celebrate and lift that up,
0:16:36 especially given we’re at essence 25th anniversary,
0:16:38 but to make that part of just a normal conversation,
0:16:40 where people walk in the room,
0:16:42 is the expectation is that it’s okay
0:16:45 to run these tech-based businesses
0:16:47 and really to utilize them in a way
0:16:50 that helps the rest of the community see
0:16:52 where they can add value at.
0:16:54 – Yeah, that’s a great question.
0:16:59 Being a black man who’s an entrepreneur in San Francisco
0:17:00 is pretty rare.
0:17:02 (all laughing)
0:17:04 – That’s an actual unicorn.
0:17:06 (all laughing)
0:17:10 I think a lot of it, I’m really fortunate for my upbringing,
0:17:15 where I saw a lot of people in my family start businesses
0:17:20 and my uncle runs a very successful hospital in Honduras,
0:17:25 my another uncle runs a import-export business in Miami,
0:17:27 my dad ran a grocery store,
0:17:32 my mom ran a perfume business and is a tax preparer.
0:17:36 I saw a lot of people in my family sort of choose
0:17:38 to go their own way.
0:17:41 I didn’t know that people went to college to get a job.
0:17:43 I thought you went to college to learn
0:17:45 so you could go eventually start your own company,
0:17:46 that’s why I went.
0:17:51 And so I think that one of the key things
0:17:57 to increase the exposure of black individuals
0:18:02 in technology, one of the things is expose people
0:18:05 to entrepreneurship really early.
0:18:06 And I think that’s what’s really cool.
0:18:08 All of the women that are starting businesses
0:18:10 on Wonder School are entrepreneurs
0:18:13 and they’re exposing not only their children to it,
0:18:15 but the communities that they’re serving
0:18:18 to entrepreneurship and the joys of it.
0:18:20 – I come from a history of entrepreneurship too,
0:18:21 it’s a little bit different.
0:18:21 – It’s a little different.
0:18:23 – Noir’s differences.
0:18:25 But what I learned in that culture
0:18:27 is that there are transferable skills.
0:18:30 – As we think about how tech is removing barriers
0:18:33 to entry, what would you say to somebody
0:18:35 who doesn’t come from that traditional path,
0:18:36 that doesn’t come from a college
0:18:39 or doesn’t come from a family background
0:18:40 and just say, you know what,
0:18:42 I need to figure out how to take ownership of my life,
0:18:44 ownership of my destiny.
0:18:48 I want to venture off into entrepreneur leadership.
0:18:51 What do you say to those people who come from that culture
0:18:53 where they have these transferable skills
0:18:55 but may not feel like they have access?
0:18:56 – It’s interesting you say that
0:18:59 because I try to teach the kids from very small
0:19:01 to take ownership in their decisions, right?
0:19:03 So I try to tell my kids all the time,
0:19:05 you have good choices and you have bad choices.
0:19:08 And there’s consequences for every choice you make, right?
0:19:09 So at the same time to make,
0:19:12 I would say, mixing smart, sexy, right?
0:19:12 So you have to let them know like,
0:19:14 oh my gosh, you make such a positive choice
0:19:18 in making this decision and go in this direction, right?
0:19:19 Or if they come up with their own idea,
0:19:23 they’re making every idea, giving them empowerment,
0:19:25 telling them what a great job that they’re doing.
0:19:30 From small, I think it starts at a very young age.
0:19:31 You can see the difference in the children
0:19:35 who get chest eyes for making mistakes.
0:19:37 So you make a mistake, it’s okay.
0:19:39 Okay, so let’s get back up, let’s figure this out
0:19:41 and let’s go another direction.
0:19:43 You cannot, you can’t dwell on that.
0:19:45 They don’t believe in chest, I think, kids
0:19:47 for making mistakes ’cause that’s what they’re doing,
0:19:48 raw learning and growing, right?
0:19:51 Even when Mr. Cherry makes mistakes,
0:19:54 I take ownership on that ’cause the kids will correct you,
0:19:57 they do and they let me know if I get off schedule,
0:20:00 they’ll let me know, oh my gosh, well you forgot to do
0:20:01 and it’s okay.
0:20:05 My youngest biological child is four years old
0:20:08 and my oldest is 13, so I’ve taught my daughter,
0:20:10 my oldest, she will tell you off the back,
0:20:13 like she knows that there’s opportunities past
0:20:16 just going to college and she can own her own business,
0:20:17 that there’s opportunities there.
0:20:20 I believe that I’ve embodied that for her
0:20:22 as well as just helped mold her ideas
0:20:24 and thought to let her know that she can control
0:20:26 her own destiny and that.
0:20:28 – I’m so happy you brought that into the conversation.
0:20:30 I think one of the intimidating factors
0:20:32 about venturing off into entrepreneurship
0:20:35 is nobody wants to fail, nobody wants to mess up
0:20:38 and make any small failure, right?
0:20:40 – I had a nine to five job.
0:20:43 So I had a pension, I had all those different things
0:20:47 that you’re supposed to have, I was a new homeowner.
0:20:50 So to step out on faith and start my own business,
0:20:52 my family was like, are you crazy?
0:20:54 Like, what is wrong with you?
0:20:56 Like you have a degree, like you have a job,
0:20:57 you’re working for like the state,
0:20:59 why would you want to do that?
0:21:00 And for me, it was more so like,
0:21:03 I just wanted to take control of my own destiny.
0:21:05 (audience applauding)
0:21:07 I really just wanted to take control of my own life
0:21:10 and decide like, what my future will look like.
0:21:11 You know, I wanted to get up every day
0:21:14 and feel like my work is actually making a difference
0:21:17 directly and it wasn’t just about the reports,
0:21:19 it wasn’t just about the numbers and someone else’s numbers
0:21:21 and making someone else money.
0:21:25 It was about, you know, how could I manage my own household?
0:21:29 I just wanted to be able to make it, let me make it,
0:21:31 and make the minimum income.
0:21:33 But it’s so funny now, it’s like,
0:21:36 through entrepreneurship, I’ve surpassed all that.
0:21:37 – Yeah, yeah.
0:21:39 – Yeah, I think on a broader level,
0:21:43 that’s so much the key to everything
0:21:47 because as you can move from a model of,
0:21:51 I’ve got a boss, now I’m vulnerable to the boss.
0:21:56 And you know, I’m often, because of that, I end up in debt.
0:22:00 And then you move to, no, I’m an owner and I have equity.
0:22:03 And so that’s how you kind of create a whole other world.
0:22:08 And it’s interesting that it starts in preschool
0:22:11 with owning your own decisions
0:22:13 and not being afraid to make a mistake
0:22:14 and not being negative with kids,
0:22:18 which is a, you know, that’s a cultural thing,
0:22:21 which, you know, it starts right there to change.
0:22:23 If you want to get to a culture of ownership,
0:22:25 you got to make the kids owner.
0:22:27 And if they’re going to be owners,
0:22:28 then they can’t be penalized.
0:22:30 That’s an amazing insight.
0:22:34 – Yeah, so speaking of that, that culture of fear.
0:22:36 So how do you combat that when you’re dealing with parents
0:22:40 and you’re just like, oh, I have to send them back home.
0:22:42 I’ve been a mentor for a long time.
0:22:44 And one of the biggest battles
0:22:47 that I’ve ever had the father’s known that these children
0:22:50 who, you know, who I’ve been entrusted with,
0:22:51 they’re going home to families
0:22:55 who don’t have the same belief system about ownership,
0:22:57 about failure, about not punishment,
0:23:00 but really helping people to understand and navigate that.
0:23:03 So you’re working with these young precious minds,
0:23:06 but you’re competing with what’s happening in the household.
0:23:07 How does that show up?
0:23:09 Whether it’s in your curriculum
0:23:11 or just your engagement with the parents.
0:23:13 And like, what does that look like across the board?
0:23:15 – It’s all about building trust,
0:23:16 building a relationship.
0:23:18 So from the very beginning, you know,
0:23:19 I have to teach my parents
0:23:21 so they have to be able to trust me.
0:23:23 I would let them know if you don’t trust me,
0:23:26 then maybe it’s not the right place for you.
0:23:28 – So you’re teaching the parents as well, which is…
0:23:31 – Yes, I always say I’m teaching my parents
0:23:34 sometimes first, then I’m teaching my students.
0:23:35 You know, you teach people how to treat you
0:23:37 at the end of the day.
0:23:40 So I think that a lot of times with my parents,
0:23:41 if they have any questions or concerns,
0:23:42 I let them know.
0:23:44 They can call me a thousand and one times today.
0:23:46 They can text me a thousand and one times today.
0:23:48 Doesn’t mean I’m gonna answer every single text,
0:23:51 but just know that I will respond to you.
0:23:53 Through the platform, we have an app now
0:23:55 that we can communicate with our parents.
0:23:55 – Oh, that’s great.
0:23:57 – So we can let them parents know
0:23:59 what’s going on throughout the day.
0:24:00 Even before that,
0:24:02 I think that I just message my parents,
0:24:04 letting them know how their students are doing,
0:24:05 letting them know that they’re having
0:24:07 a really stressful morning
0:24:08 and that they’ve been crying for over two hours.
0:24:10 Like that’s something that I would have implemented
0:24:11 in that situation.
0:24:12 – They’re having a bend.
0:24:13 They’re having a bend.
0:24:16 – They’re making me right out of the preschool.
0:24:18 – I wouldn’t have let you cry for two, three hours.
0:24:20 I wouldn’t have, we’ve had to figure something out.
0:24:24 But those are different things that I do
0:24:27 to try to make sure that my parents feel comfortable
0:24:28 and my students feel comfortable.
0:24:29 But it’s really interesting.
0:24:32 It’s once my students come into my household,
0:24:35 my biologic kids get jealous.
0:24:38 And sometimes my students are more comfortable
0:24:40 without my kids there.
0:24:42 So like during the summertime, for example,
0:24:44 our space is combined.
0:24:49 So it’s interesting when my infants are looking at my kids,
0:24:52 like, why are you trying to take my attention away from,
0:24:53 for me, you know what?
0:24:55 But I think you have to make everyone comfortable.
0:24:57 That’s where it boils down to.
0:25:00 Building a rapport and being honest.
0:25:02 Even when things are not going good.
0:25:03 You have to be honest with them.
0:25:04 – Yeah.
0:25:07 You know, we talk a lot about education system
0:25:11 in general in America and how some of the structural things
0:25:14 sets up, you know, people in poverty
0:25:18 and people of color for failure of a very high magnitude.
0:25:20 So when you hear any success stories,
0:25:21 like how does that feel to know
0:25:24 that you’re countering that narrative?
0:25:25 – It’s very motivating.
0:25:27 I want to keep building.
0:25:28 When I hear these stories,
0:25:31 I want to make sure that we’re doing right
0:25:33 by the directors who are on the platform
0:25:36 and the parents on the platform, but I just won’t.
0:25:38 Like this insatiable desire of more.
0:25:40 Like, how can we make this bigger?
0:25:45 – And as an entrepreneur, how do you think about that?
0:25:47 You know, I want to grow the platform.
0:25:52 I want every child to have access to this opportunity
0:25:57 with keeping the program really high quality.
0:26:00 Because it seems like that’s a real tension.
0:26:02 Because not everybody can do this.
0:26:04 Like, how do you make sure that every teacher,
0:26:07 every director is of that quality
0:26:09 while reaching the whole world?
0:26:12 – So Sherry was one of the early directors
0:26:13 on the Wonder School platform.
0:26:15 So her and I worked actually really closely
0:26:17 to build her school.
0:26:20 And so I know very intimately
0:26:23 all of the different challenges and opportunities
0:26:26 I’d go into creating a high quality program
0:26:30 and finding a director who can create a high quality program.
0:26:33 And when we were raising our series A,
0:26:37 Jeff Jordan introduced me to Brian Chesky at Airbnb.
0:26:39 And Brian, you know, and I got on a call
0:26:42 and he’s like, look, all right,
0:26:45 you’ve, you’re raising this round, congratulations.
0:26:48 You’ve been able to figure out how to get here.
0:26:52 And now your job is to build the company
0:26:56 that can take this idea and make it larger.
0:27:01 And a lot of that goes into focusing on the people
0:27:03 that you bring on and bring into the company
0:27:07 and how you work with those people to build out the idea.
0:27:12 And so what I really focus on is hiring the right people,
0:27:17 training them the right way and spending a lot of time
0:27:19 working with folks inside of the company
0:27:21 to understand the vision.
0:27:24 So we have an education team that works with anyone
0:27:27 who’s starting a program on the platform.
0:27:28 We inspect their home.
0:27:31 We work, we make sure that they have the right motivation
0:27:33 to start a program.
0:27:36 And then we help them craft their environment.
0:27:39 So that’s like setting up the different learning areas
0:27:42 of the program and working with the director
0:27:45 to make sure that they’re crafting their environment
0:27:46 the right way.
0:27:48 And then we work with directors
0:27:50 to make sure that they’re growing their business
0:27:53 not only from an economic standpoint,
0:27:55 but also from a quality standpoint.
0:27:58 So when I started the company, just for some background,
0:28:00 I’m like, look, I have this experience starting
0:28:02 technology companies and I’m really
0:28:05 passionate about this problem, but I’m not an educator.
0:28:10 And so our fifth hire is a woman named Mia Pritz,
0:28:13 who has a really extensive background
0:28:16 in early childhood education.
0:28:20 And she worked at a company called CCLC.
0:28:23 And they created Google Daycare.
0:28:25 And they created Daycares at Pixar
0:28:29 and a number of these big technology companies
0:28:33 that have very demanding parents to expect
0:28:35 like the highest of quality.
0:28:39 And the idea is, how can we take a lot of those ideas
0:28:43 and infuse it into the community of directors
0:28:44 that we work with?
0:28:48 And so building a team of really experienced educators
0:28:51 who not only have been preschool teachers,
0:28:53 but a lot of the directors we work with actually
0:28:56 have run their own in-home programs as well,
0:29:00 or have trained individuals to start their own in-home
0:29:01 programs.
0:29:04 And so is that something you foresee in the future?
0:29:08 Is training other entrepreneurs to really run
0:29:10 the programs and set up homes?
0:29:14 And then a delicate balance between just family life
0:29:16 and running a preschool–
0:29:19 All the above, all the above.
0:29:23 Before we even had the app, we also used Slack at the time.
0:29:26 A lot of the directors were pulled together on this one app.
0:29:28 And if you want to vent, you can think about something,
0:29:30 if you have a question about licensing,
0:29:33 or you have a question about how to deal with a difficult sleeper,
0:29:37 a napper, a difficult parent.
0:29:40 Then we would kind of brainstorm.
0:29:43 It’s interesting, some of the original directors
0:29:46 that we first started out with, we kind of would pull together
0:29:50 and visit each other’s programs and give each other ideas.
0:29:53 One of the first directors that I met,
0:29:55 she had a one-bedroom apartment at the time.
0:29:59 And I was like, how is she doing this out of a one-bedroom?
0:30:01 And she was already licensed.
0:30:04 So she invited me and my son for a play date or two,
0:30:05 and we went to her program.
0:30:09 And I saw she pretty much made something out of nothing
0:30:11 you would have never even thought.
0:30:13 And she was doing pretty well for herself,
0:30:17 so well that she ended up opening up another program.
0:30:20 And so she moved into another house.
0:30:23 She lived with a four-to-better house after that.
0:30:29 And so I was like, wow, she’s doing more with less than I have.
0:30:33 So it really kind of made me reframe my thinking
0:30:34 and working with what I already had.
0:30:36 I thought that I needed to do so much work.
0:30:38 That was one of the barriers that I had.
0:30:41 I wanted things to look perfect before I opened.
0:30:43 And then I saw what she was doing.
0:30:46 I was like, you know what, I can work with this.
0:30:47 You know she has five programs now.
0:30:50 And I heard, I heard.
0:30:52 She started a one-bedroom.
0:30:54 And now she has five different homes,
0:30:56 or she’s running different programs today.
0:30:57 How does that work?
0:31:00 Like as a day care, is she setting them up
0:31:01 with other people who are home owners?
0:31:05 I believe she meets people within her own community.
0:31:08 And she just helps them walk them through the process.
0:31:10 Yeah, and talking about expansion,
0:31:13 so what regions is Warner School in?
0:31:15 Is it West Coast, East Coast?
0:31:17 Yeah, so we’re in four cities now.
0:31:21 We’re in Denver, New York, San Francisco, and LA.
0:31:24 And when we started, we thought we could just go
0:31:26 national really quickly.
0:31:28 But what we found is that we needed teams
0:31:30 in the different cities to support our directors
0:31:32 and support the communities.
0:31:35 And so we’re taking a much more of a city-by-city approach now.
0:31:36 OK, good.
0:31:38 I’m definitely going to advocate for Detroit,
0:31:39 because that’s where I’m from.
0:31:41 Push hard, it gets all in the way.
0:31:43 Got to get that make that happen.
0:31:45 So no, that’s exciting to hear.
0:31:46 And you’re in LA.
0:31:48 Yeah, I was one of the first LA schools.
0:31:50 So now I currently live in LA as well.
0:31:55 And the cost of living can be astronomical.
0:31:57 So how do you balance that out as an entrepreneur
0:32:01 saying I’m a venture of knowing that the cost of living
0:32:04 in LA is kind of crazy and you’re betting on yourself?
0:32:07 Like, how did you break through that?
0:32:11 Well, I have three little people that were depending on me.
0:32:12 And plus two.
0:32:16 So I had to get myself together.
0:32:18 At the end of the day, it’s one of those things
0:32:20 where once you start your process out,
0:32:22 you have to be practical with yourself.
0:32:26 So there was definitely some clients in the beginning
0:32:29 that I probably wouldn’t have normally accepted now.
0:32:31 But at the same time, when you first started out–
0:32:32 Why wouldn’t you accept them?
0:32:33 Like, what was up?
0:32:35 Challenging behaviors.
0:32:37 Challenging behaviors from not only the child,
0:32:38 but from the parent.
0:32:39 Oh, OK, from the parent.
0:32:42 The parents sometimes have challenging behaviors.
0:32:44 And working through that, I always
0:32:47 say all money is not good money, you know?
0:32:49 Just because people will say, oh, I’ll pay you.
0:32:52 Yeah, we work Friday night.
0:32:54 You have to set healthy boundaries.
0:32:56 I used to say yes to everything.
0:32:57 I would say, oh, can I come private?
0:32:58 It’s like, OK.
0:33:02 And then one night I had a child to 9.45 at night.
0:33:04 And the kid was there at 6.45 in the morning.
0:33:07 So I’m like, what time do you come?
0:33:08 Or I’m going to come.
0:33:09 And she’s like, I’m not sure.
0:33:11 I’m in route, you know, LA traffic.
0:33:13 So I mean, but at the end of the day,
0:33:17 like, I mean, affording your rent is going to be a challenge.
0:33:21 So you know, you kind of gauge that based upon how much–
0:33:23 how much– how many children you need to take based upon that
0:33:24 alone.
0:33:27 But it’s a great way to supplement your income,
0:33:30 especially if you’re already doing something on the side.
0:33:33 Or if you don’t have anything going on on the side, why not?
0:33:35 If you don’t have–
0:33:38 200 is better than zero, right?
0:33:38 Absolutely.
0:33:40 You have to start somewhere.
0:33:42 But one thing I learned about licensing at this point,
0:33:45 though, as long as you have less than four children,
0:33:46 you’re OK.
0:33:47 You know, you can probably start off
0:33:50 watching just one child, right, and see how that works out.
0:33:52 And then as you’re working your way through the licensing
0:33:56 process, that’s perfectly legal to do one or two children.
0:34:00 But once you have four plus, you definitely need to be licensed.
0:34:03 Yeah, one of the things we do with a lot of our directors
0:34:05 is we look at how much their rent is,
0:34:07 how much they want to earn.
0:34:10 And then we help them think about how much to charge
0:34:13 to make sure that they cover the cost of being
0:34:14 able to operate the business.
0:34:16 So one of the things that popped out to me is, like,
0:34:18 fair is not an option, right?
0:34:21 I have a saying, there’s no plan B, it’s plan me.
0:34:25 We’ll make it happen, figure it out, no matter what’s popping.
0:34:27 But this is actually a question for Bing.
0:34:32 Do you think entrepreneurs are born or made?
0:34:35 Yeah, no, I think–
0:34:37 look, I think it’s mostly made because nobody
0:34:39 knows how to do it.
0:34:44 I’ve never met a natural who comes in and does everything
0:34:45 right.
0:34:48 Everybody comes in and does everything wrong.
0:34:50 And then it’s a matter of will.
0:34:55 And what is true is you can’t do it
0:34:59 if you don’t have the will and you need unbreakable will.
0:35:03 But will encourage are things you develop.
0:35:05 You’re not necessarily born courageous or, like,
0:35:06 with extreme will.
0:35:09 That’s something that you can build in yourself.
0:35:12 Really what it takes more than anything
0:35:15 is you have the courage to not listen to the people that go,
0:35:17 wow, that’s the stupidest thing in the world.
0:35:21 Do you have the courage to deal with, like, I could fail,
0:35:23 and those people are all going to be right?
0:35:24 And how am I going to feel then?
0:35:27 Like, all those kinds of things are always
0:35:29 at you as an entrepreneur.
0:35:31 But nobody knows how to do it.
0:35:33 Chris and I, on the right over, we’re talking about, like,
0:35:35 yeah, I don’t know a single entrepreneur that’s
0:35:37 done a good job at executive hiring.
0:35:38 Like, who knows how to do that?
0:35:40 That’s not like, your mom doesn’t teach you,
0:35:43 this is how you hire a CFO.
0:35:45 It’s a real thing.
0:35:46 So what are your thoughts on this here?
0:35:48 I kind of have a different perspective on that,
0:35:51 because I believe that there’s certain children that I
0:35:54 see in my program every day that just have a will.
0:35:55 Yeah.
0:35:55 Yeah.
0:35:56 Just a will.
0:35:58 Like, they just naturally are just go-getters.
0:35:59 Yeah.
0:36:00 You know, then there’s some kids you
0:36:03 have to constantly push, and you’d be there chilly to the whole
0:36:04 way through, you know?
0:36:06 But you can’t teach that.
0:36:07 Leaders and followers.
0:36:08 Yeah.
0:36:08 Yeah.
0:36:10 Chris was an experienced man.
0:36:11 I agree with both of you.
0:36:14 I think a lot of this starts at a really young age.
0:36:15 You know, there’s a lot of studies
0:36:20 that prove that grit, persistence, a number of these things
0:36:22 are learned at a really, really young age
0:36:25 and can be fostered in preschool.
0:36:27 Developing those skills early on
0:36:29 are really important to being an entrepreneur.
0:36:33 But then once you actually start that company,
0:36:35 there’s so much failure and so much learning
0:36:38 that you have to go through to be able to be successful.
0:36:40 And so I think a lot of–
0:36:42 it’s in you, but it’s also– you have
0:36:43 to learn a lot along the way.
0:36:44 All right.
0:36:44 Great.
0:36:47 Well, I would love to thank our guests, Chris and Sherry,
0:36:49 for a wonderful conversation.
0:36:51 And thank you, Essence.
0:36:54 Happy 25th anniversary.
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with @bhorowitz @shakasenghor @8ennett & sherie james
Hustlin’ Tech is a new show (part of the a16z Podcast) that introduces the technology platforms — and mindsets — for everybody and anybody who has the desire, the talent, and the hustle to do great things. Read more about it here.
Episode #1, ”The Hustler’s Guide to Preschool” features Chris Bennett, CEO and co-founder of Wonderschool, a network of modern early education programs that helps both parents and teachers to start and manage early childhood education centers; Sherie James, who uses Wonderschool to operate her own in-home preschool and daycare — both interviewed by Ben Horowitz and Shaka Senghor, live at the 25th Anniversary Essence Festival Global Economic Black Forum in New Orleans.
music: Chris Lyons