Sara Schaer is the co-founder and CEO of Kango, an award-winning, app-based ride and childcare service for busy families. Schaer is a Silicon Valley veteran who helped grow the Snapfish global product team from a team of two product managers through the company’s acquisition by HP in 2005. Previously, Schaer worked as a senior consultant for Accenture and as a product manager for InsWeb (later sold to Bankrate) through its IPO. Schaer received a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and an MBA from ESSEC Business School in Paris, France.
Schaer currently resides in San Francisco with her husband and two sons. In her free time, she is an avid traveler and volunteer mentor at Technovation, an organization that encourages STEM learning in young women.
What is Kango all about?
Kango is a mobile app-enabled transportation and childcare service designed especially for kids going places, their families and their schools. As parents ourselves, we believe the entire family should be able to do the activities they love without compromising the people they love, so we created Kango, a service that rethinks what it means to provide rides and childcare for kids.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
Kango is my third startup, but it’s the first one that I co-founded. I graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Political Science, then attended business school at ESSEC in France. Along the way, I realized that what I really loved to do, was to solve problems for people, so I got a job as a consultant in Accenture’s Paris office.
A few years later I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area with the hope of working in emerging technologies.
After roles in Product Management at online insurance quoting service Insweb (IPO, 1999) and digital photography site Snapfish.com (acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2005), I left to start something new. As a working parent of two young children, the challenge of getting them to and from preschool had conflicted daily with my work schedule. iPhones had recently made everything possible for parents on the go – but not quite!
That’s how the idea of Kango – an app-enabled, safe way for parents to find reliable, trustworthy drivers and caregivers for their children, was born.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
We initially launched Kango as a mobile app to help parents find each other in order to more easily form new carpools for their children. However, carpools were complicated, and users didn’t want to pay for a carpool app. We quickly realized that what parents really needed help with – and what they were willing to pay for – was finding and booking a safe, trustworthy driver for their children. So, we updated the Kango app, became licensed and insured as a transportation carrier for children – and vetted the drivers ourselves.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
- Fail fast – Some experiments we ran could have been shorter.
- Done is better than perfect – The faster you get early feedback on your product, the faster you can improve it.
- Don’t take rejection or failure personally – View it as a learning opportunity, because it is.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I religiously read the news at least twice a day – about current events, about our industry and competitors, about the areas we operate in – but I also like to periodically immerse myself in non-business, non-tech topics to learn about something completely new. In my experience, I’ve found that creative ideas often spring from the combination of entirely different subject matter.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
- The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- Strengths-based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I wish I had realized how hard it would be, how long it would take, and how many iterations would be needed to find product-market fit.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
With transportation for kids, trust is paramount. Awareness of the service isn’t sufficient, so relying on advertising alone doesn’t work. Referral programs and word of mouth provide the human element that is necessary.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
I would use it to build a prototype! And use that prototype or beta product to show potential customers (and investors when the time is right). Early feedback is key, and there’s nothing like putting a product in front of those you want to use it. You need to know as quickly as possible, whether people want what you are building, and whether they want it enough to eventually pay for it.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
My advice would be to find your passion, and follow it. If you don’t feel passionate about the problem you’re building the solution for, don’t embark on the entrepreneurship journey. Building a company is hard, unpredictable, and takes time. Success isn’t guaranteed. Your mission will carry you through the difficult times.
What is your favorite quote?
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Since Kango is a marketplace, balancing supply and demand is key, as well as understanding our metrics.
Recruiting workflow management tools such as Fountain help make the driver screening and hiring process more efficient.
SMS messaging integration via Twilio is useful in order to communicate with customers and drivers across different mobile platforms.
And analytics tools such as Mixpanel and Chartio provide visibility into what is working and what isn’t.
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
Every day it strikes me how human-centric our service is, even if Kango can be called a tech company. It’s about people trusting each other and communicating with each other, and that’s what we spend the most time doing. Tech is the backbone and the enabler – the mobile apps for drivers and for parents, our operations dashboard and backend, our powerful matching algorithms. All of those must work seamlessly. But, fundamentally the service is powered by people: customers who trust us with their most precious cargo, and providers who take on the responsibility of transporting children. Our most-used customer-facing features, like instant chat and location tracking, are about connecting people.
How can readers get in touch with you?
At Kango we are always happy to hear how we can help you! Feel free to contact us at support@kangoapp.com, or via Chat from within the Kango app.
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