First time Edinburgh dad launches ‘Rightmove for nurseries’ after headache of finding childcare
An Edinburgh dad has launched a website to help parents secure nursery places across the UK, in what could be a game changer for parents and the nursery sector.
Steven Clarke became a dad for the first time in 2023, and after being tasked with finding a nursery for his daughter, he soon discovered the headache that many first-time parents go through and was determined to make the process easier for others.
After ‘experiencing complexities’ across the sector, the Edinburgh dad carried out qualitative research in his spare time, surveying parents across the UK and meeting with nurseries, before ‘taking the jump’ and quitting his job to found his new company, Nuuri.
Nuuri allows parents to filter nurseries by postcode, preferred start date and age of child, with features including virtual nursery tours, room capacities, cost calculators and an essential parent advice hub.
Steven said: “As a first-time parent, I had no idea how hard and time-consuming looking for a nursery would be. I had lots of different tabs open on my browser and I was trying to piece together what my options were, but the search process was very fragmented.
“Some nurseries have websites, some use Facebook instead, and others were not very transparent - this made it really difficult to compare nurseries because there was no consistency as to how they present information about their nursery. Some were even hard to find.
“The whole process wasn't aligned with how our generation make informed decisions online. We reference Rightmove quite a lot for looking at houses or flats, or Skyscanner for looking at flights - these platforms provide a very digital friendly way to present information to make informed decisions quickly.
“But the nursery sector wasn't doing that. We've had a very good experience of childcare at out nursery and our daughter loves it, but we were left feeling that the process leading up to her first day was not a good process.
“And that wasn't specific to the nurseries that we looked at, it was a consistent problem we were hearing from a lot of other friends from across the UK, whether it was Edinburgh, London or Manchester, it was the same issue across the sector.”
Nuuri was piloted locally in Edinburgh last year before launching across Scotland, England and Wales in May – it is now the UK’s first platform to digitise nursery search and enrolment in one place to ‘make life easier for both parents and nurseries.’ And in the last two months the Edinburgh startup has seen between 10 and 13 nurseries sign up each week.
The website also offers an advice hub, allowing parents to weigh up their options when it comes to childcare and consider if a nursery is the right choice for them. The hub includes a range of explainer articles, from nursery costs, different nursery types, how to get government support, and understanding the sector and the challenges nurseries face.
Steven said: “Nuuri helps nurseries be more efficient, provide a better pre-enrolment experience and it saves them time.
“It can take up a huge amount of time you've got quite a manual process to receive inquiries, answer questions and arrange tours. Any time spent on pre-enrolment takes time away from enrolled children.
“We wanted to design nursery profiles with a digital media focus, using virtual tours, drone footage, professional photography and be able to really show off the nursery to the parent in a form that that parent is really comfortable with.
“One nursery manager we work with was doing around eight viewings a week that were lasting up to an hour. But after incorporating virtual tours, they’ve been cut to four a week and last 20 minutes because it’s more of a validation visit for the parent rather than a viewing.
“Waiting lists are also very complex to manage. You might have multiple rooms within a nursery, some parents are looking for two days a week, others for five days a week, staff rotas - all these sorts of things. I think I was certainly naive to how complex waiting lists are and I think by educating parents on that actually helps the process.
“Some of our customers see Nuuri as a bit of a website replacement, they don't have to manage a complex website and all the costs that come with that. Larger nurseries who have 10 plus settings and have a good website already use it for creating efficiencies for them across their portfolio of nurseries.
“What we have to remember is it's not just a new generation of parents coming through, it's a new generation of nursery managers as well and the way they advertise and use digital tools to help them run a nursery may be slightly different to generations gone by.”
“It’s been a very rewarding year”
It’s been one year since the Nuuri founder left his job to pursue his startup full time.
Looking back over the last 12 months, he said: “I was in commercial property for 10 years, I had a comfortable corporate career, and in the beginning, Nuuri was an evening and weekend research project. The research and feedback gave me confidence to make a complete career pivot, because it's a hard decision to make, especially when you've just had your first child and you've got your own nursery fees to pay.
“I always said it would have been ironic if I created a platform for nurseries and then couldn't pay my own nursery fees as a result of it so I had a lot of discussions with my wife about taking that jump. But I'm very glad I did, it’s something I'm really enjoying and every day is new.”
The Nuuri founder added: “The initial feedback has been great and we're really pleased with how the launch has gone. It’s incredible to see parents and nurseries feedback positively on something that you’ve built. It's been a very rewarding year and we couldn’t be happier with the progress to date.”
For more information you can visit the Nuuri website.