Find Your Squad: How Founder, CEO Created Startup To Solve Parenting Needs
Jennifer Beall Saxton, founder and CEO of Tot Squad, with her husband, Kern Saxton, daughter Sophie (L) and daughter Charlotte (R).
The third envelope in the class exercise at Goldman Sachs Small Business Program was the key.
Jennifer Beall Saxton, founder and CEO of Tot Squad, recalls the class exercise was to open three envelopes in succession. In the first envelope was a fake check for $50,000. The assignment was to figure out what as a start-up, you could do with that influx of cash. Saxton had plenty of ideas.
The second envelope was a fake check for $500,000, and Saxton says, this was a little more difficult, but she could figure out where that money could go and why.
The third envelope, with a fake check for $5 million, stumped her, she says.
“I couldn’t think beyond a $20 million business,” she says. That is, until she reinvented Tot Squad, which is like Best Buy’s Geek Squad, or Home Depot’s services, but for new parents.
““I couldn’t think beyond a $20 million business,” says Jennifer Saxton. That is, until she reinvented @TheTotSquad, which is like Best Buy’s Geek Squad, or Home Depot’s home services, but for new parents. #femaleentrepreneur”
“All of a sudden I was looking at a possible $700 million business,” says the Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and mother of two daughters who revamped her award-winning idea in 2020.
Saxton may have been destined for entrepreneurial greatness stemming from an idea rooted in family. Growing up in Austin, Texas, her parents owned the Zilker Eagle Miniature Train in Zilker Park from 1985 to 1996. While her dad managed the trains and her mother helped with administration, she and her sister, Ashley, collected tickets.
After studying math at Duke University and graduating in 2005, Saxton says she was inspired by fellow Texan Michael Dell (founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies) and wanted to be an entrepreneur in a tech startup.
After graduation, she worked in management consulting and strategy, then headed to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, earning her MBA at Kellogg in 2010.
“I had 40 ideas and a spreadsheet,” Saxton says.
She settled on the business plan for the first iteration of Tot Squad at Kellogg, and won first place in the university’s annual startup competition. She did not have children then, but she started the business as a service to clean baby strollers.
“My job was to clean poop and vomit on strollers, but I was the CEO,” she says. “It was a dirty job with a lot of turnover.”
She sold that business on March 12, 2020, to a company in the travel industry, who renamed the business, and she retained the Tot Squad name. That day she signed the sale deal was the day the World Health Organization declared COVID a global pandemic. She knew she was lucky to sign off before the pandemic changed everything.
With a newborn first daughter, Charlotte, Saxton knew there were many new parents like her with lots of questions, about breastfeeding, nutrition, sleeping, stress—all that confounded her without a readily available support system.
“With a newborn first daughter, Saxton knew there were many new parents like her with lots of questions, about breastfeeding, nutrition, sleeping, stress—all that confounded her without a readily available #support system. #parenting”
“I had way bigger problems than a dirty stroller,” she says.
So she recreated Tot Squad as a referral service for experts on any and every issue that can come up for parents of small children. And she is a month into her deal with Walmart, that now lists Tot Squad services online and in store alongside every product sold for babies and small children.
The pandemic was also impetus for the need for Tot Squad 2.0. Pregnant with her second daughter, Sophie, now one year old, Saxton says she sees the needs of millions of Millennial and GenZ parents who do not live nearby family to call on them with questions.
For a cost of less than $50, customers can connect with Tot Squad’s pool of more than 1,000 certified experts on topics from how to manage car seats to how to ensure a properly nutritious diet for a baby.
The website explains, “Tot Squad's mission is to create an accessible marketplace and community that connects parents with Providers. Whether you're newly pregnant or already have little ones at home, Tot Squad connects you with experts that align with your budget and schedule.”
With services to connect with an expert and schedule the 20-30 minute consultation offered online and in 3,200 stores at the point of purchase, Saxton’s idea is revolutionizing parenting for the 21st century.
“With services to connect with an expert and schedule the 20-30 minute consultation offered online and in 3,200 stores at the point of purchase, Saxton’s idea @TheTotSquad is revolutionizing #parenting for the 21st century. ”
“My mission is to normalize parents asking for support,” she says. “I’m really excited for millions of families for $40 to $50 having access to all these services.”
She adds, “We democratize access.”
While the National Center for Health Statistics reports a 4% decline in birth rates in 2021, to 3.6 million, the general fertility rate was 55.8 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, also down 4% .
The lack of access to support and help for expectant and new mothers is growing.
“ The lack of access to #support and help for expectant and new mothers is growing. #parenting #childcare”
CBS reports a crisis of maternity deserts. “More than 2 million women in the U.S. live in counties with no access to prenatal care or obstetricians, what's known as maternity care deserts, according to the March of Dimes. Millions more live in areas where medical support is extremely limited.”
COVID complicated the support systems for new mothers, according to new research. And the isolation was not only of mothers and their babies, but of extended family not able to gather and offer help.
“#COVID complicated the support systems for new mothers, according to new research. And the isolation was not only of #mothers and their babies, but of extended family not able to gather and offer help. #newmom #advice”
The University of Michigan reports, “For many, having a baby during the pandemic era may have been a more isolating experience than usual. Masks during delivery. Birthing without a partner in the room. Skipping traditional baby showers. Fewer visits from family and friends.
“And now, two new studies suggest that living in the times of COVID has taken a toll on new moms’ mental health. One in three new people who had babies in the beginning of the pandemic experienced postpartum depression – potentially triple pre-pandemic levels – while one in five had major depressive symptoms, according to research led by the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Michigan Medicine.”
According to a new report from Vice, The Gen Z Parents Global Report, “Nearly 1 in 10 Gen Zers in the U.S. are parents, and nearly 1 in 5 of annual births are to Gen Z mothers. In just a couple of years, Gen Z in the U.S. will make up the majority of first-time parents.”
A key finding in the report aligns perfectly with Saxton’s vision for Tot Squad. “Gen Z parents are cognizant of their own imperfections and know that being open about them is necessary to improve their wellbeing. These are priorities for this generation as parents, not just as people.”
This is validation for all Saxton is hoping to do.
With her team of eight working for Tot Squad, Saxton says she sees expansion in the future, taking to heart the need for flexible work, and a culture that understands the juggling act of parenting, particularly with the more than 1,000 experts she contracts with for services.
“With her team of eight working for @TheTotSquad, Saxton says she sees expansion in the future, taking to heart the need for #flexible #work, and a culture that understands the juggling act of #parenting.”
“We are helping our providers find flexibility and balance while helping consumers get the support they need,” Saxton says. “It is a core value for my internal team as well.”
The lessons she has learned over her years as an entrepreneur are many, and some are painful, Saxton says. She learned the hard way to “Hire slow and fire fast,” after early on enduring a colleague’s anger and hostility contributing to a toxic workplace on the first iteration of Tot Squad.
“I made a million mistakes. I kissed a lot of frogs,” Saxton says. Referring to a poor employee fit, she says, “I had a person who was poisoning the well. I knew it was not a fit and I remember crying asking, ‘What have I done?’”
““I made a million mistakes. I kissed a lot of frogs.”—Sarah Saxton, founder and CEO of the multi-million dollar business, @TheTotSquad. #entrepreneur #startup #womeninbusiness”
She corrected that problem and now embarks on a much slower, more strategic hiring process.
Clearly doing well with her idea and her business, Saxton says, “This may be my last startup.” She adds, “I may sell this company in five to seven years, maybe have an IPO. I do that visualization exercise. And I see myself at the New York Stock Exchange ringing the bell.”
