New app to help mums make cash from childcare

ALICE Pritchard-Davies and Mille Zinner have one of those businesses you wish you’d thought of yourself. Meeting 23 years ago at Mosman Primary School, they’re the combined brains behind Motherhood, a new app which in very basic terms facilitates childcare for mums. But there’s a twist.

Alice Prichard Davies and Millie Zinner met at Mosman Primary School more than 20 years ago, now they have started a business together with The Motherhood app. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Andrews

ALICE Pritchard-Davies and Mille Zinner have one of those businesses that you wish you’d thought of yourself. The women, who met 23 years ago as students at Mosman Primary School, are the combined brains behind Motherhood, a new app which in very basic terms facilitates childcare for mums. But there’s a twist.

As well as allowing parents to sign up and find a babysitter at the drop of a hat from a like-minded community of sitters, parents can also use the app to offer up their own services as a childminder — with or without their own kids present — to earn cash.

Transactions are done tidily, behind the scenes, with money dropping directly in to the minder’s bank account.

It’s kind of like Uber, but for childcare.

“It’s similar to Uber in that it is a sharing economy solution, but that’s probably about it,” said Pritchard-Davies, 33, who is originally from Perth and moved to Mosman when she was 10.

“We have been compared to Tinder, though, because we’re connecting parents to others in the neighbourhood. ”

While they are not parents themselves — yet — Zinner, 32, worked in childcare for 16 years, including a stint for a strict Mormon family in California, without a support network and who relied on her entirely.

“It was an interesting experience as it wasn’t something I knew much about.
“They had five years’ food supply, went to emergency meetings twice a week and gave me a strict curfew which I’d never had before because I wasn’t exactly a rebellious teen,” she said.

What the Motherhood app looks like.

While Zinner’s experience in childcare undoubtedly gave her an insight into parenthood, both she and Pritchard-Davies said watching friends who’d had kids sparked their idea.

“We witnessed the sacrifices friends made entering parenthood — giving up careers, hobbies, date nights and hearing about financial struggles,” Zinner said.

“It made us question, ‘does being a parent have to be this tough?’

“In modern western society we have become isolated and raise our kids largely alone.

“If we all stepped in to share childminding within our community, we could achieve more balance.”

The catalyst to get started came on the back of big life events for both women. Zinner broke up with an ex who told her he didn’t want children because it would mean too much sacrifice. “It was devastating,” she said.

Zinner collecting an award on behalf of Motherhood at the Australasian Business Start-Up Awards.

For Pritchard-Davies, it was working long hours and nights at Universal Music, where she managed the Australian launch of Spotify.

“It was full on, working nights and going to gigs. I wondered how I’d juggle motherhood when the time came,” she said.

Both women quit their jobs (Zinner was working in production at the time) and set to work.

They contacted suppliers to get quotes to build an app, but were on new territory in the tech world. “I literally had to Google ‘How to write an app brief’,” said Pritchard-Davies.

Zinner in the play Wayne Tunks play, Hell Hath No Fury, at Newtown Theatre in 2007. Alison Griffiths, Emily Beale, Neveen Hanna, Zinner, Jacinta Moses. Picture: Lynden Jones

As luck would have it, her brother David runs an app development company, Geek Apps, so they employed him for the build.

Meanwhile, both women took on full-time childminding roles to get hands-on experience.

Zinner credits their different personalities and life experiences — Pritchard-Davies studied business at UTS and worked in London, while she went to LA to pursue acting for a stint — in making their relationship work.

“Alice is the brains out of the two of us — she excels in everything she puts her mind to,”

She said.

“We challenge each other, but importantly we have an abundance of trust and respect for one another.”

It’s a friendship that has endured, starting in Year 5 on the netball court, before continuing at Mosman High School.

“Alice was in the year above and was definitely the cool kid. I was a goodie-two-shoes and never even had a detention.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Later they worked at the Mosman Hotel, partying at Cargo Bar after hours and holidaying in Las Vegas before life took them on different trajectories.

Now they are going through Motherhood together.

The app, which is free to download, already has an 8000-strong community mums, some earning $1000 a month.

“The app took nine months to create, so we laugh it’s our baby,” said Pritchard-Davies.

“’Guys, you know Millie and I have been spending a lot of time together — well here’s our news!’”

Download Motherhood App free on iOS, and register for speed dating in Mosman at motherhoodapp.com.