FIRST IDEA

“I did a lot of babysitting when I was younger. Since I was very busy, I saw how great the needs of parents were. They appreciated my availability, my flexibility and the feeling of security of my service. Then, for 11 years, I worked in hotels around the world and each establishment had requests for a babysitting service. Since it didn’t exist, I took these contracts with pleasure and I loved it. These two experiences gave me the idea to create an online babysitting service on demand for families and hotels. We served this clientele during the first four months of the company.”

FIRST COMPANY NAME

“It was Kiid and it took me months to find it! I finally hired a name search specialist. After a brainstorming session where she got to know me and my business vision, she gave me six or seven choices. As soon as I saw Kiid with two ii’s, I knew I had found it. Then, with a designer, we developed the logo with different sized i’s to evoke the adult and the child. It was visually beautiful, it was simple and understandable in both languages!”

FIRST COMPETITION

“It was for the Montréal Inc. startup grant. In 2018, I made a pitch. I remember a man in the room who didn’t understand the need my company was meeting. I had received so much encouragement from those around me up until then that I liked being “challenged” to explain my business model. I didn’t get the grant, but I did get 12 months of mentoring. The following year, I launched Kiid and proved that the model worked. I took a chance and got the grant, which encouraged me to continue my efforts and grow.”

FIRST BUSINESS LESSON

“I had my first website developed abroad and I regretted it. I didn’t have the budget to pay a Montreal company. In the end, I should have found the financing, because I had to start over six months later. The first site contained a lot of plug-ins and there were several bugs that took a long time to fix. The web platform is where all transactions are made. Doing it locally was the best decision to ensure its effectiveness.”

FIRST SUCCESS

“What Kiid has become since its founding. After a few months of activity, business leaders contacted me because they wanted to offer Kiid to their employees. I did a market study and finally evolved the company towards B2B, serving companies in Montreal and Toronto. We abandoned the service to families. My first success was signing the first contract with a major Canadian law firm. Today, we have about twenty companies as clients.”

FIRST CUSTOMER

“The first company to offer the service to their employees was Explorance, which did so during the March break in 2018. Since then, they have been using the services regularly. I also remember this mother who managed to participate in a meeting while a babysitter took care of her baby in the adjoining room. I thought it was great that the employer supported a woman who wanted to stay in touch during her maternity leave. Since I had a child during Kiid's first year, it is a source of pride to support parents who are entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers or others in their work-family balance.”

Montréal Inc. is a foundation that promotes the success of young, innovative and ambitious companies through scholarships, access to a prestigious business network and the expertise of seasoned volunteer coaches.