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Connecting families with local nannies and senior caregivers (app)
Jakob Jelling
July 31, 2024
Meet Willow.
Willow is based in Dallas, Texas. She is the founder of AyiConnect, an app that connects families with child and senior caregivers who speak their preferred language.
Her background is a little different from your typical tech founder. Before AyiConnect, she led product and deployment for a contract engagement platform within a large enterprise.
Willow - AyiConnect
The story told by Willow
The idea for AyiConnect sparked from a personal need – finding reliable and culturally sensitive caregivers for my own family.
As someone with Asian heritage, I saw firsthand the challenges faced by many first-generation immigrant caregivers. They were highly skilled and dedicated individuals, but due to language, technological and resource restriction, this limited their job opportunities within their tight-knit communities.
Screenshot of the AyiConnect homepage
Families, on the other hand, were looking for trustworthy caregivers who could communicate effectively with their loved ones in a culturally appropriate environment.
The desire to build something meaningful and to bridge a gap in my own community, especially after my father's passing, has made me start working on the app as a tribute to him in late 2021.
Building the app
The concept quickly grew into a side hustle project.
We opted to build the app using Flutter, a robust framework for creating cross-platform applications. While no-code tools are becoming increasingly powerful, we felt Flutter offered the flexibility and control we needed for our vision.
Building AyiConnect wasn't easy. As a non-technical founder, I faced numerous obstacles.
Finding the right development partner proved difficult, and working with agencies didn't quite deliver the results we needed. To top it all off, we tragically lost our tech lead to Covid during this period. This pushed the development timeline back considerably, with AyiConnect remaining in beta/alpha for a significant period.
Our team is intentionally small and nimble. We now have about 6 dedicated team members who wear many hats. This allows us to be efficient and adaptable, which has been crucial during our growth phase.
Launching the product
Despite the obstacles, we persevered. We launched a beta version of our product in 2022 and in May 2024 we finally launched the app via Product Hunt.
We prioritized a controlled launch to provide a smooth user experience. This meant focusing on a smaller user base initially to identify and address any potential issues ("kinks").
Marketing the app
Fortunately, we had already built a strong community outside the app itself, which helped us convert our initial 100 users fairly quickly during our beta/alpha testing.
Initially, we prioritized building a user base through established platforms like WeChat and Facebook. This generated a good initial following, but we quickly realized we needed a more scalable solution to handle the volume of requests. That's when we decided to transition into a dedicated app.
While SEO has been our primary focus, recent Google algorithm changes have impacted our traffic. We are still figuring out what works the best for us. Links from articles definitely help. Product Hunt launch drove some traffic.
Paid marketing, including Google Ads, has mixed results. We've decided to shift our focus towards strategies that improve not just awareness, but also conversion and engagement.
We're currently evaluating and refining our marketing strategy.
What’s next?
There are a few initiatives we are working on as a next step:
Actively looking for resources to support our community of users, from wellness to education.
Focus on providing peace of mind and value to users with an accident coverage and health benefits for our helpers.
We've transitioned to a freemium model, where everyone can access basic features for free. This aligns with our belief in making quality care accessible. Users can then upgrade to premium features only if they need additional functionalities.
Looking back
Looking back, AyiConnect's journey has been an adventure filled with both learning experiences and triumphs.
While we're still early on, we have already made thousands of connections. We have many caregivers who are ready to connect. We're constantly learning and evolving, actively seeking ways to better connect families and caregivers across language barriers.
A few links to learn more about AyiConnect:
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