Heroes in Business - Fran Maier, Super Founder CoFounder Match, TRUSTe, and BabyQuip

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Making travel easier for parents. Fran Maier, Super Founder CoFounder Match.com, and TRUSTe (TrustArc), now CoFounder BabyQuip is interviewed by David Cogan Host of the Heroes Show and Founder Eliances entrepreneur community. find a special offer for listeners 

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. And we're back and thank you again. I'm just so excited. You know me. I get so excited because everybody is just amazing who comes on this show. I mean, I just had recently the CEO of Gerber Baby Foods. So make sure that you go to alliances.com.

That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com and check out the past episodes by clicking on radio. All right. Well, with us today, she is the founder of a number of companies. I'm excited to have her on the show. Fran Meyer. First of all, make me a match, find me a match. She's the co-founder of Match.com, TrustArc, and now the founder of BabyQuip. So welcome to the show, Fran. I'm so happy to be here with such good company, David. Thank you. Yes. All right. So let's go right into the first part of being the co-founder of Match.com. I think everybody here knows Match.com. They probably either used it, wanted to use it, or wish they could use it, or will eventually use it. So talk to us,

like how did that come, how did that even come to be? So, you know, I'm taking you back almost 30 years. It was founded in 1994, very early internet years. And the idea was, let's look at the categories that are classified advertising, and in this case, personals, and see what the internet will do. But personals, and I'm not sure if you can remember this, David, were considered very, very sleazy back in the day. And so what we did is we tried to make it a clean, well-lit space, something that women would enjoy using, because basically we felt that if you could get the women, you'd get the guys. And we worked really, really hard on making sure we had the right brand values.

And thinking back to those, they were safe, anonymous, and fun. So those are the things that we launched with. We really tried to make it a trusted environment. People will be surprised, but back then in the mid-90s, people were getting on the internet on their phone. So it had to be very simple. We only had five matching questions, and most of them had to do with how you looked because people didn't have digital photos in the mid-90s.

Industry. Can you imagine? So obviously things have changed, but what's crazy is dating online is pretty much the prominent way people meet somebody. Right. Or in my case, you know, Or in my case, you know, I remet my current boyfriend on a dating site. So we knew each other, but then we reconnected on one of the dating sites. So kind of fun. And again, Match.com, a household name. Where do you think things are going in the future regarding matchmaking? Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

And it's Valentine's Day week. So there's a lot of stuff looking back on it. I think we're going to get away from the omnipresent swipe left, swipe right. And try to focus on ways people will really find somebody that they could get to know and not make that initial judgment just on looks. I'm not saying that that's going to go away completely. It's not, especially for younger people. But I think as people get older, they understand more intrinsically that, you know, it takes more than just looks to have the right kind of relationship. Right. All right. And again, we've got with us Fran Meyer, super founder,

co-founder of Match.com. And if that wasn't enough, also now of TrustArc. And then what became, you know, why not just go, hey, this is great, Match.com, huge success. Yet that doesn't stop. You know, those late 90s, early aughts were interesting years. We sold Match in 1998 for way too little, way too early. So at that point, I went and worked with Women.com, which was a web property aimed at women market. And believe it or not, in the mid-90s, there was only like three or four women-oriented websites. Isn't that crazy? That IPO in 99, Isn't that crazy? That IPO in 99. And then I worked at BlueLight.com, which was sort of Kmart and Yahoo and, you know, fast growing, but fast crashing with the dot com bust.

And then I found myself at Trustee. It's now called TrustArk Internet Privacy Company. And right now they do a lot of data management technology and so on. And that was interesting. And I'd say, David, that the throughput in everything I do is building a trusted brand. You know, the key to success for Match was trust, right, was making it safe. And back then, anonymity was really important. Trustee was all about being safe with your data and helping your brand carry that attribute. And now with BabyQuip, from the very beginning, I knew there had to be a safe and clean and trusted way to rent baby gear. In fact, that's what I want to talk about next.

Again, you're listening, watching me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure you go to alliances.com that's e-l-i-a-n-c-s.com because we have with us fran meyer super founder co-founder of match.com uh trustee which is now trust arc so what happens when you found match.com and two people get together they end up having babies when they end up having babies what do you do well that's probably somewhere along the line that BabyQuip came. In fact, BabyQuip has what? Over 1,200 locations. And this is about, well, I'm going to let Fran steal the thunder. This is about why BabyQuip? So let me ask you, David, are you a dad? I am. Do you remember carrying all that baby gear?

Yes, way too much and ended up buying way too much. And everywhere we went, we had to buy this and that whenever we took family vacations because it was too much to haul. Exactly. That's the problem we're trying to solve. Now, I came into it because when I left TrustArk in 2012 or so, I bought a house in San Francisco up the street from Airbnb, and I started renting rooms in my house. And then I bought a house in Santa Fe, and that's where I'm coming to you now. And I started to think, look at the way people are traveling. It's changing. Look at the way people are working. All of a sudden, I was making money from doing a, quote, gig economy or sharing economy kind of thing.

And as being an entrepreneur, I'm always thinking, OK, what are these changes going to require? And I looked at property management companies and I looked at cleaning companies. But I knew that as an Airbnb and verbal host, I did not want to store, clean, be responsible by all that baby gear that my guests wanted. And so I saw that one was starting here in Santa Fe. And we took a look at it and launched it in May of 2016. Because, you know, honestly, I looked across the country. And while there were a lot of mom and pops renting baby gear, right, especially around Orlando, or, or Anaheim, or, you know, in Hawaii, so on, there was no national brand, there was nobody who was

looking at it and saying, How do we make this big? How do we make something that people will want to come to again and again? And the keys to that, we're really building a trusted experience. Now, how, you know, again, and the number one thing I think as a parent that I would ask is, is one of the quality of the equipment. And then two is, is, is it clean? Right. That was the how is the cleaning process? right? That was the, how is the cleaning process? Yeah. Yeah. So the way we work is we have this network of quality providers. That's what we call them. They're mostly moms. And this is a really good side gig because they can do it with their kids. And they are responsible for owning, cleaning, delivering, picking up and setting up the baby gear. And they do a terrific job. In the

six or seven years that we've been doing this, we've probably taken 10 people off the platform because they didn't meet our standards. Now, we teach all these quality providers how to clean the gear. We teach them about safety. They get training on hospitality, social media, business development. This is really their business. So they're motivated to get those five-star reviews. I can tell you that it's incredible. Our customers give us a 94 net promoter score.

That's roof class through the roof. We should charge more money. Wow. Now, are they going to pick it up, or is the person delivering it, or how does that work? The typical experience is that they deliver it to the vacation rental, the grandparents' house, the hotel, and they pick it up as well. But sometimes customers can pick it up at the quality provider's home. And sometimes we deliver to the airport. This is amazing. I mean, again, what you even come up with it and then be able to launch it and then be able to get others, it's getting the customers, getting the providers, doing the

matching, the locations and that. Where have you seen as far as the trend going to it? I mean, is, you know, I guess let me ask you kind of some of the basics is, is what's one of the, what's one or two of the most popular things that people are renting, I suppose it is, from baby quip? Well, you know, there's the typical things, cribs, car seats, strollers, high chairs. A lot of parents rent gear. I rent toys. Toys are incredibly fun. Just think about it. Even when you were a kid, you go to a new house and they have a whole new set of toys. Well, you're happy, right? I would say a big difference from when I was a parent of young children is there's things like the SNU. The SNU is a smart bassinet that, you know, really helps babies sleep. It helps parents sleep as well.

So if you're a parent who's using the SNU at home, you definitely want to use the SNU when you travel. But what's also fun is our quality providers, they know what their markets want. So people in beach towns also rent beach chairs and umbrellas and play mats and people in ski areas rent snow suits and things like that. So, you know, we even rent things for parties, kids parties. Amazing. What an idea. What an idea. And to be able to come up with it. And you've had such a successful career in these various companies that you either founded or co-founder of.

What do you see as far as the link between all of them? I mean, how are you able to come up or do these things? And what inspiration or how, what do you feel others can motivate or get something of that idea popping up in different industries to be able to do a quarter of what you've done? You know, it's so much fun to be an entrepreneur. And once you, once you kind of are one, you keep on being one. I'm sure you've seen that with so many of the other of your guests. I think what's inspiring to me is, you know, having some sort of impact and clearly with Match, you know, having some sort of impact. And clearly with Match, you know, millions and millions of people have found each other through online dating. And with BabyQuip, I'm inspired both by customers having a much better vacation than they might otherwise

have. That's a pure good, right? And on the other side of it, seeing all these moms make some real money that makes a difference to their families. So they're able to pay some household bills. They're able to take their own vacation with their family. Some of them have shared how they've been able to leave a challenging relationship or they've been able to pay off their student loans or something like that. I find and we're teaching them how to be entrepreneurs themselves. This to me is super rewarding. How did you get the word out about it? I mean, great idea, great concept, but if you don't have people listening or providing in the gig and then those that are wanting it. How do you get that going? You've got to get that flywheel going. And our initial approach, honestly, was to buy some advertising.

You know, a lot of startups really shun spending money on marketing. And I don't get it because I think you've got to get the word out. And the more you get the word out through paid advertising, the more you'll get people coming to you directly or organically, and it makes it work. So it can be expensive at the beginning, right? But it's kind of funny. Most marketplaces, they would say, start in one market and get that market down. And I think my insight in looking at Babyquip was, no, we're a traveling brand. We've got to go to where people are traveling. I want them to be able to use us in Orlando and Hawaii and Chicago, you know.

Now, having had a very successful career in that, what advice do you have for young children, young adults, young children out there that want to be able to make an impact? adults, young children out there that want to be able to make an impact. Many see this as the entrepreneur, as the almighty of being in that. What kind of secrets can you provide to inspire? I may be old school, but I still believe in a solid education. get a good business and get a good business. But also don't forget the creative aspect of your education. And I don't care what it is. It could be music. It could be art. It could be writing.

But do a little bit of that, too, because I think and be an entrepreneur, you really want to, you know, sure, you need business. You need analytics. You need to understand how to hire people and how to create a business plan and so on. You also need some ideas. So be in the market. Go to the grocery store. Go do things. See what other people are doing. For me, I was doing that the whole time. I also spent early in my career at a horse company that was all about brand and brand marketing great experience i think a lot of entrepreneurs do come from a place where they feel they have confidence in the area and they can take it further um excellent and then go ahead no go ahead and then you know one of the things that you have to do is you have to be confident and be willing to take the risk you

know quit the job raise the money um and i think one thing that slows a lot of founders or entrepreneurs down is they think through too many steps they're trying to solve tomorrow's problem today and one thing i like to say is just solve today's problem today you know you'll figure out those other problems when you get there solve today's problems today so what does it solve don't don't solve tomorrow's problems today got it i love it well friend you're the super founder you create experiences that customers want and now you're helping make travel fun again. That's a hero. Fran Meyer, super founder.

That's right, super founder. Co-founder of Match.com. Trustee, which is now TrustArt. And founder of BabyQuip. You can reach her at babyquip.com. B-A-B-Y-Q-U-I-P.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.