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Paperpinecone.com Develops New Preschool And Childcare Directory To Help Parents

Meet Paperpinecone

Stacey launched Paper Pinecone after her own frustrating preschool search. She spent hours searching Google by neighborhood to find programs that were nearby, and hours more trying to track down basic information, like ages accepted and hours of operation.

Often she’d have to email or call for these details. The inconsistent terminology on preschool websites was maddening – part-time at one school meant five half days, and meant three full days at another. Full-time at one school meant 7-6 but 9-2 at another. Tour scheduling was another headache entirely and home-based programs rarely have sites at all.

The entire process was so much more difficult than it needed to be and other parents were saying the same thing.

Where was the Zillow of preschools? Where was the Open Table for a tour booking? Stacey looked and looked, but couldn’t find anything that had the content I was searching for.

Paper Pinecone is a seemingly simple concept. It’s a searchable, filterable directory of preschool, daycare, and before and after-school programs. Paper Pinecone provides parents with all of the information they need to make a short list of providers who may be a good fit. They can see a list of places with openings, view open houses, and book tours through our site.

However, what Paper Pinecone doing for childcare providers really sets them apart. Right now childcare providers have little to no data about the parents looking for care. They may ask some questions when those families come in for tours or get some basic data through Yelp, but details on the families are lacking.

The information Paper Pinecone is collecting from the parents who use their site includes their zip code, email address, child’s name and date of birth, budget, desired enrollment date, and more.

Paper Pinecone is tracking user behavior on Paper Pinecone and allowing providers to download this information. This is huge for them – the data analytics package developed gives them actionable information to tailor their messaging and improve conversion rates. If they know a parent has filtered by ‘Accepts Special Needs Children’, they can spend time on their tour talking about their experience with special needs children. If they know a parent is only looking at Montessori programs, they can spend less time selling the concept of Montessori and more time talking about why their Montessori program is better than others around.

If you talk to most parents of preschoolers, they’ll tell you that there are years-long waitlists everywhere. That you should start touring while you’re pregnant, and get your name down before a baby comes. And while there are some preschools that are more difficult to get into than Harvard, nearly 50% operate below capacity and that number jumps to 82% for providers with 20 plus locations.

High-quality schools have openings and parents just aren’t finding them. Instead, they’re playing into this stressful waitlist cycle and telling others they need to do the same. Meanwhile, there’s a really great program right down the block that can accommodate them, but maybe the director isn’t great at marketing, or maybe the school doesn’t show well, or maybe a family who committed to them decided to back out last minute and they didn’t have a waitlist. For a myriad of potential reasons, they have openings to fill and we’re giving them the tools to fill them.

Paper Pinecone is free for parents to search and works on a freemium model for providers. A basic listing includes a profile page and one photo. Paper Pinecone’s first paid tier allows providers to post current and future openings, events, and open houses and enables online tour booking.

Paper Pinecone’s next tier adds our media package, giving providers additional photos and a video on their profile page. They also receive premium placement in search results and we promote them on our social media pages.

Finally, the top tier gives providers access to a data analytics package.

The future holds really exciting things for Paper Pinecone. As they continue to expand they are working to add curriculum planning for home-based providers who don’t have the same resources as large centers. Paper Pinecone is also actively looking for the right software partner. The childcare SAAS market has exploded in recent years and Paper Pinecone has a built-in customer base for them.

There are other dynamic verticals that are a natural extension of Paper Pinecone’s service as well.

Paper Pinecone user base feeds right into the search for summer camps and private elementary schools. However, they have also begun to explore the senior care market, which continues to grow as baby boomers age. The current directories are really referral systems, which don’t work in the best interest of people looking for a place to care for their loved ones. Paper Pinecone can create the unbiased source needed and disrupt the current system.

Paper Pinecone is poised for rapid growth and strategic acquisition in the not-too-distant future.

Paperpinecone pitch deck

Paperpinecone Pitch Deck

Learn more about Paperpinecone

Please visit the Paper Pinecone website for more details.


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