GetSidekicks: An Atlanta Founder’s Solution to Childcare for Military Families
Finding quality, affordable childcare is an ongoing struggle for families nationwide. The predicament is further complicated for the millions of military families whose situations involve constant relocation and the added stress of uncertain or lengthy overseas deployments.
Identifying this distinct childcare gap, Shelly Scott, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur, seized the opportunity to connect these military families in a meaningful way. She did this by launching GetSidekicks, an innovative platform aimed at rectifying the childcare issue experienced by military personnel.
Connecting Military Families with Sidekicks
GetSidekicks provides an ingenious solution to the childcare dilemma faced by military families. It’s essentially a marketplace where military families can connect with affordable, vetted, and verified childcare providers who themselves have military connections. That way, the caregivers, or “Sidekicks,” comprehend the unique challenges that military families experience.
Upon signing up, users are given a specially curated list of Sidekicks that correspond to their specific childcare requirements at that juncture. The platform’s aim is to aid military families in building a “squad” of caregivers always ready to step in when needed.
The Journey from Silicon Valley to GetSidekicks
Before stepping into the entrepreneurial world, Scott had a successful corporate career. After completing her studies at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, she began as an investment analyst in Nairobi, Kenya. Eventually, she found her way to one of Silicon Valley’s leading software companies, Intuit.
Scott’s illustrious career at Intuit spanned over a decade, holding various management roles and ultimately pioneering Intuit’s first business unit dedicated to forming partnerships with globally leading companies. Her critical input enabled the rollout of Quickbooks Self-Employed and what later morphed into Intuit Financing. However, the “Covid Exodus” brought her and her young family back to Georgia, where she embraced the challenge of the startup world and launched GetSidekicks.
Building GetSidekicks with Passion for Military Families
Although not from a military family herself, Scott hails from the military-dominated town of Warner Robins, Georgia. This upbringing sparked her passion for developing technologies that serve military families – a fervor that clearly emanates when she talks about GetSidekicks.
She firmly believes that there are often misconceptions about how much support military families receive from the Department of Defense (DoD). This opens up significant opportunities for civic-minded entrepreneurs like herself to provide practical solutions to the challenges that military families face.
Scott brought her invaluable product building and team management skills from Silicon Valley to Atlanta, which she believes is the perfect place to scale her initiative. Her vision is to ease the burden for military families by enabling them to establish a support system within minutes, as opposed to the months it usually takes. By doing this, she feels that she will be assisting military families, regardless of their location.
