Modernizing the Future of Childcare with Alessandra Lezama, Founder & CEO of TOOTRIS

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper captains counting beans Contador quentan frijoles Founders trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy and coffee my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos El gordo the taco standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean Watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside to Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the Moon SD TechOS with your host Neil Bloom.

Come on.

Startups get the party, Startups get the.

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech podcast where we discover cutting edge San Diego technologies and the builders making it happen. I'm your host Neal Bloom, San Diego's Tech ambassador and together you're going to put a face to the name of today's tech leaders with our own blend of local lifestyle. I want to take a moment to thank our friends at Cox Business who have enabled us to tell these amazing stories of local leaders, technologists, founders and funders. Cox is actually a 121-year-old family run private company that thinks in terms of decades in building community a lot like we do in building a startup community. For years the local Cox business team has helped us grow through partnering at San Diego Startup Week, South Dakota. Quick pitch and in celebrating our technical leaders at the Top Tech Awards. The Top Tech Awards are September 17th and you can join this unique, unique virtual networking event and awards ceremony with a very cool avatar environment built by local tech company Verbella. Buy your tickets and see who the nominees are at toptechawards.com thanks again to Cox Business for your partnership.

Welcome back to the Talkers and Tech Podcast. I've got some some fun co hosts with me. We're doing this live in front of the TCA Power Hour audience. So thanks TCA for hosting the pod. And we've got Ashok Kamal from Techos Angels. Hello Ashok. And Al Bechera both from Techos Angels and Seismic Software. Thanks guys for joining in Howdy. And we are lucky enough to have Alessandra Lozama, the only time we've ever had a second interview with a founder and executive for her second company. So thanks for joining the podcast again.

I am more than delighted. It's always great fun. Thank you for having me.

So Alessandra has a company called Tootris, which we're really excited to hear about. You want to give us a quick overview of what it is?

Yeah. So we are a tech enabled service provider and we connect parents with child care providers in a geographic area of their choice based on their requirements. And truly, we are reinventing the child care system. We feel it's broken, it's highly antiquated. There are so many issues, there aren't enough providers and families can't afford it. And so we got to the root problem of it and we decided to completely recreate the system. And so we are absolutely excited to bring to market a brand new system that will enable parents and families out there to access high quality childcare in a convenient and affordable way.

Wow. How timely. I know you've been working on this since before COVID but wow, what a good time to reimagine when it's so desperately needed. Now even more so. Right?

So a fun fact is that while I don't want to age myself, but my very first career was a Montessori teacher. And then I realized that I absolutely love designer shoes. And so I had to very quickly cross over to something that would pay me more so that I could afford my shoes.

But you've been passionate about child care, Alessandra, since I've known you, and I know well before that, but when my son was born, he had a surgery. And you had just joined TCA around that time because of course you are the founder of Tootris, but you're also a very active investor and you're a member of tca. You told me kind of about your personal mission. I mean, you were running a huge tech company, Abacus Nexus, as the CEO, and you were literally CEO of the Year for the San Diego Business Journal, but then you chose to go into childcare tech. So you know what else has kind of led you on that journey where you could be doing a lot of things right now?

Well, I have a very personal story, the first of which is I have one son and he's way past the early stages in life. Thank goodness he's about to turn 20 and he's a college student now. But I almost had to tell the story where I Didn't have a son, right. So he, he went through a really tough early childhood. He was bitten by a rattlesnake. He almost died. I could go on and on and on. And one of the reasons for that was he didn't have appropriate childcare when he was very young. And part of the reason for that was that I was a single mom and I was trying to get myself through kind of the executive ladder and do whatever I had to do to provide for my family. So, you know, that in compilation with my background being an early childhood educator in a Montessori world, where I recognize, recognized how critical those first five years were for a child and kind of putting it all together as a woman in business and that kind of pulling you back in your priorities and tough decisions that you have to make. And me being as blessed as I have been to have neighbors and loved ones and family that have supported me, but how many other families and women in a great degree don't have all that structure? So it's tough for them to get ahead. So for me, it's a very personal mission. And you know, through my 20 years in San Diego and 24 now and a half years in the workforce and the privilege that I've had to lead different technology companies, I felt that this was the right time to give back and to put all my talent and all my resources and all the folks that have contributed to the success of the companies that I've had the privilege to lead to work for a very noble cause. And you know, we never planned for Covid. I don't think anybody did. But look at here, you know, in the last only six months, we have been able to really step up to the plate and make a true impact in our region and beyond.

That's incredible. What I think really interesting is just one, your diversity. To be able to operate in so many different industries, to come off building a really big company and say, okay, I'm ready to go start from scratch again and do this kind of new two sided marketplace in a brand new industry that isn't just going to add some tech to it. You literally have to go and change regulations. I think you've talked about how you've had to work with the governor of at least California, maybe some other states. You want to talk about that aspect of, of how you're involved.

I've got to say that there is a true partnership with many different entities, but primarily I can't highlight the relevance of our San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. And it is through my partnership and engagement with them through the course of 20 years in this town where I have leaned on them for their expertise and for their role in policymaking to take a look at what is necessary for our region to thrive from beyond abacus. Next. And my engagement with the chamber, I had the opportunity and privilege to serve on the board of directors. As such, I sit on some committees, and one of those committees was the workforce and Education committee. And a lot of people don't connect those dots. They don't really recognize how imperative child care can be to a thriving economy and more importantly to employers and how they develop their workforce and attract talent and retain talent. So I had that privilege of sitting on those committees. And so it was through the chamber that I was able to really delve into the core issues behind the lack of child care providers in our region and the regulatory compliance impediments and kind of bottlenecks that we have. So through that engagement and that relationship, I was able to sit on some committees and make some recommendations that truly moved the needle as it relates to review of our current policies and licensing requirements. And just a lot of the ordinance that that are key to remove the barrier so that a we can elevate the early childhood education profession, which is so key in so many ways. I mean, it develops our future workforce. I could go on and on. I know we don't have all the time, but it really makes a difference as it relates to having a different perspective into the role of early educators and what how we set up a child to succeed for not only their academic life, but for their workforce years in that early stage in life. So it's such a critical investment. And the ROI is beyond belief. So the highest yielding ROI is an early childhood education. And we're very lucky in our region because we have a community that truly buys into this concept. So, you know, here I am.

So, you know, Alessandra, any entrepreneur needs to kind of see around the corner. That's what great entrepreneurs do. And you know, when I looked at even some of your marketing materials for Tootris, you know, pre Covid and a lot of what you've been saying has now accelerated, you know, 10x or 100x, you know, what you've been saying about gender parity, what you've been talking about with economic development, with, you know, healthy childhood development, we even hear some of our biggest political figures talking about childcare locally and nationally and creating grants and new funding to be able to make child care accessible. In tca, we have a TCA Parents Channel on our chat platform, one of the biggest questions right now is what are you going to be doing with your kids come the fall? So how is Tootris working on the supply side? Because the demand is obviously there to create more childcare platforms, meaning in real life for parents that are looking for a place to send their kids in the fall.

I love the question. And the truth is. Let me answer the first part of your question, which was what resources are there? We know that there are subsidies and childcare is certainly at every headline nowadays, and our legislators are incorporating them in their proposals. But we can't sit on our laurels because what we do know, that if, even if the world was my oyster and it had a pearl and the pearl was pink and everything happened, there aren't enough resources, not federally, not statewide. So just to give you some stats, you know, in the last two years, only one out of nine children that qualified for subsidy for 100% child care subsidy were served, which means that, I mean, we're not even scratching the surface. So the reality of it is that it takes a village to raise a child, but more importantly, it takes the engagement of the entire community. And we firmly believe in private public partnerships. And I think that's the secret to our gravy. Right? So we build a technology platform or a SaaS application with obviously all of the extended apps that incorporates all of the different stakeholders that need to come together, provide resources so that every child has an opportunity to quality early childhood. And a lot of, you know, folks don't realize that there's a number of different flavors in childcare. And one of the most ideal that is truly stepping up to provide solutions now, especially during COVID is a family child care program which is basically, you know, early childhood educators, stay at home moms, you know, folks that have a background and credential in child education, that open up their home and establish in home classrooms and very small settings that are so ideal to bring solutions of the caliber of, you know, the quality that we're looking for in curriculums, but more importantly now within the safety guidance of the CDC and what we're probably going to be living through as our new reality for the next at least two years. So there's all these combinations. We have the privilege of working with early childhood educators that are looking at an opportunity to change the model. And that model means that we need neighborhoods that have in home classrooms that are designed to help guide small groups of children through, for example, now, virtual classroom settings and disciplines and also create programs on site for Essential workers and essential employers that need to have their workforce 100% focused on being productive. So there's a number of different flavors. And where Tootrisk comes in is in we're kind of like we could be thought of as the sticky glue that holds all the stakeholders together because we provide a technology platform that allows for real time inventory of childcare slots. And if we think about the 44% deficit that we have in our region today prior to Covid, and the 55% deficit that we'll have coming out of COVID the first and most important order of the day is being efficient with the slots that we have available. And if you can't connect the slots to the demand, there's a problem. So Tootris provides the technology tools for the child care provider, whether it be a center based and or an in home, to manage all of the vetting, touring, enrolling that entire process online. For parents, they have a tool that allows them to vet, compare virtually tour, check in, check out their child, including pain on demand, which is so critical parents don't always have the full month upfront to pay for enrollment fees or you know, the hefty fees that that entails. Toorus has a platform that allows them to only pay for what they're using when they're using it, allowing for their cash flow. And then for employers provides all the tools to sample their workforce and to create very unique solutions either on site with small classroom settings so that their staff can bring their children either for grade school virtual classrooms. Now that we know for fall we're going to have that issue and, or for child care meeting zero to five. So we've got a number of solutions and in the end, and we believe that A, we need to be, you know, we need to converge digitally so that we can connect all the stakeholders in a real time platform, which is what Tootris has built. And B, we need to break down the very broken system that exists today and rebuild it from the ground up so that we can bring a solution that's good for everyone and not just the one segment of the market that can afford it. Because we have a huge issue with the chasm. And the chasm, just to define it, is the median income in San Diego, which is about 60% of our families that don't qualify for subsidies and can't afford child care. So there you go.

Yeah, well, never waste the opportunity of a good crisis. It sounds like you've created that connecting tissue. And whether it's the cashless real time payments or the tools that you're kind of empowering these almost micro entrepreneurs to create the supply side. It's very timely.

This is super fascinating. I have a five year old boy who just wrapped up kindergarten and this is a critical socialization time for kids of that age and they're really missing out on that person to person sort of stuff. And my wife and I have been talking about how we expect some teachers to maybe just say, hey, you know what, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to keep this class small, I'm going to charge a certain amount of money that's probably going to make me more money than I would if I was a regular teacher and I'm going to educate a small group of children. And you hit on all of these things. And it's interesting to me that you're set up to have a platform forum to do this. You answered a bunch of questions that I already had. Most of them were about how the product works and things like that. So I think we probably covered that. But what I'd like to kind of understand is like how has, have you seen this uptick, this crazy uptick in your product of new teaching people or new care providers or whatever it is that you refer them to? Have you seen a crazy uptick? And do you expect, especially since schooling, you know, is at least in the beginning months is it's all going to be virtual at least in San Diego and Encinitas in our regions, do you expect that to continue? And what do you see happening in the next six months specifically with that regard?

So thank you for those questions because they're great. So the first one is have we seen an uptick? And the answer to that is exponentially. Right. So childcare has always been a theme, but I feel that since COVID it truly took that headline where the community recognized and realized that childcare providers are essential workers and that our school system is critical for anyone to get anything done. Right. I mean I am on so many zoom calls where you got the five year old climbing on, you know, somebody's back. And while parents are loving this quality time and it's been very humbling for families feel and for everyone at large, we, I think has given everyone an opportunity to recognize how little we really need to be happy and to appreciate life and all that's important. But at the same time, I think parents have truly appreciated that in order to be productive at work, whether they're a telecommuter or otherwise, children do have their place and they do need Their structure so exponentially I can't even begin to tell you. I mean we're a startup, early start stage. We went live September of last year. We're not even a year old. We are all over the map. We've engaged with over 2,000 providers, we've helped over 600 families. I mean I can't begin to tell you how busy we are. So the answer to that is yes. But the second question I think is the more critical and that is Covid or no? Covid. And as devastating and tragic as Covid has been, I think that we all knew that a digitalized world was inevitable. And there are some professions and certain sectors that have been the laggards and I come from. Right Abacus Next was legal and accounting and so they're kind of on that tailwind as well. Well, childcare is kind of like 1983, so. Right. It's super antiquated. But and I feel, and I know that everyone's kind of thinking, well COVID 19 was like a shot straight to the artery in saying there are no excuses. We're going to have to move digitally and we're going to have to make our world a world of technology. That's first and most importantly, distant learning is in our cards in our future. Not only in the near future, but in the long future. And what we have to recognize is that children need guidance. So the fact that we can enable through technology this distant learning is not enough. They need structure, they need routines, they need guidance. And for us that's a tremendous opportunity in our mission and this huge movement, the tutorist movement to re engineer childcare and school care really. And with that, what it means is that there is a framework in our system with family childcare providers and early childhood center providers that already exist that simply need to adopt a new kind of program to incorporate neighborhood grade appropriate classrooms that are in small groups to guide children through their studies, right through the virtual studies. And that will allow parents, whether they're telecommuters or whether they have to come out and go to the workforce because they're essential workers, to place their children in small group environments that are guided with credentialed teachers and or early childhood educators that understand the routine and the discipline and the different, the really important, the developmental milestones of kids. So kids need to get back to normalcy. But we know that in the cards, in the near future, going back to school as normal is not the right answer. So we just have to get agile right. I come from a software development kind of background so agile is kind of the key word, but I think we need to apply it to our go forward strategy. As we think about life and as we think about reopening and as we think about every aspect of our lives, we have to be agile and we have to be creative. And for kids is in small group settings.

That's awesome.

What learning pods and other buzzwords that I know, Al, my son's a little bit younger, he's in the home pod. But I know Alsa probably investigating thoroughly.

Yeah, I mean, I'm just super interested to see how education changes after this. I mean, obviously you've got the distance part, but I just feel like this is an opportunity where this is when disruption happens, right? When you're forced into a different kind of a world. And I could see like you're talking about these little local pods of education where they're smaller groups, they're more one on one, which is always beneficial than bigger classrooms and things like that. And if you have enough people that are really good at educating and they get rated and reviewed and they become the teacher that everybody in this little local area wants to go to.

I.

Just wonder how much of that is going to expand beyond once the dust settles from everything we're dealing with right now. So, yeah, it's super interesting and it's going to be an interesting time for all of us that have young kids and growing into this new world together. So.

So, Al, can I just add that this is an incredible opportunity for women and mostly it's because I don't know if you've ever seen the stats, but one out of every four women drop out of the workforce or reduce their hours in the workforce significantly when they have one or more children in the 0 to 5 age group.

Okay.

And so we're talking a lot about women on boards and, you know, equity for women in the workplace and all of that good stuff. But the first step in that, right. The root cause to that those limiting opportunities for women is family. And so we view our mission in that we are elevating women in two ways. The first is because we are enabling more women to stay at home, yet become entrepreneurs by creating in home classrooms that are high quality learning pods for early childhood programs and or now since COVID for even, you know, school age children, that's the first thing we're investing in them. We help them through, we guide them through, we give them resources to do that. And so that enables this brand new economy for women entrepreneurs that are passionate about kids. And if that's not their course. It also enables women to know that there are other passionate women that love this profession that are developing high quality learning pods where they can place their children and have the peace of mind to go to work and stay focused and pursue their corporate careers in a way where they don't have to be concerned about the quality of learning of their child or the safety and the nurturing environment of their children. So for me, when we started the conversation, you said, you know, what compelled you? For me, it's very personal. I'm an immigrant to this country. I am a single mother. I am an entrepreneur and executive in a predominantly male industry, technology. And despite all that, I've had tremendous success. And the reason for that is that I've had the privilege of a support system around me. And so for me, it's all about empowering women. And especially now in a time where we're all so aware that women of color are in this kind of segregated class where they don't have these opportunities. So sorry to get on my soapbox, but this is very close to my heart. And the Latin women and brown and black women in our communities, they hold the fabric of this community together. And so tutors is all about that. And I feel that that's the wind beneath our wings and why we're soaring.

And if an entrepreneur can't get on a soapbox, that's to all of you listening, then you probably need a mission you're more passionate about because see Alessandra, exhibit A.

It's so true. No, we love it and we love that we're able to tell the story. So thanks for joining us here. Where can people find more about two trips? What are, what's the website and social handles?

So Teutris, spelled phonetically is T as in Thomas O O T as in thomas r I s.com and the, the Latin root word is tutris, which means tutor or governess. So that's kind of the the story behind the name. And we'd be delighted to hear from any and all of you and please come see us. This is an absolute 100% free service for child care providers. 100% free service for parents and families. You know, if you were to ask us what's our model, you know, we are employer sponsored. We work with different government agencies and other strategic partnerships. But our mission is to provide this very empowering tool for our community so that they can thrive.

Oh, incredible.

That's amazing.

Yeah. I think we probably have some signups immediately from this recording. Alessandra, obviously You've been busy working, building this. I think your office is over in Sorrento Valley. Is that right?

Yes. We haven't done the big launch because of COVID but we will. We'll do a big party.

Okay. We'll look forward to that. But in the meantime, you know, you gotta eat. You got a favorite taco spot nearby.

You know, I'm a great. I love to entertain because I'm super Italian at that, so I love to do Tacos Taquisa in the house, and so I miss that because I can't have anybody over but Tacos el Gordo. Come on. I love Tacos al Gorda. I just can't go wrong with that. Love it, love it, love it. Mis carnitas. And, you know, I was based out of Mexico when I worked for COMSAT International, and so I miss miscarnitas, the lengua, the sesos, the. You know, all the crazy stuff. And I love Tacos el Gordo because of it. A la salsas. Those are great.

And I know you speak Spanish fluently, as well as we can tell. And, you know, Neil, we'd be surfing Coronado. We'd be eating Tacos el Gordo. Right?

They're in our opening song.

Just like the theme song now it's.

Stuck in my head. That's all it took, a show stuck in my head again.

You know what? That goes like Gordo. They should send us, like, a portion just for the. For the. You know, for the shout out.

It's true. Yeah. Every episode. They. They should be sponsoring us to eat a little. Hard to interview while your mouth's full of tacos, but just send us some of those.

Homemade.

Yeah, I agree. Well, Alessandra, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We love hearing you clear a new blaze, a new trail, especially for our local community, which we know it'll scale to much bigger than that. And thank you, everyone, for listening into the podcast.

Thank you. Big shout out to Tech Coast Angels. I love Ashok. That's why I joined.

We love you too, Alessandra.

He's a man.

He's a man.

Thanks, Ashok. Thank you all for joining us.

You saw my thunder, Al. I was gonna say that.

Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Bloom. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. Big shout out to School of Rap for our rad intro music. And thanks as well to Nest Podcast Network, where we are recording live inside their studio at Nest, coworking in Bankers Hill. You can find Neil Bloom on Twitter eelbloom as well as Fresh brewed Tech and Tacos and Tech Pod on Twitter too.

Startups get the party Startups get the party started. Startups get the party Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos, tacos in tech. You know we got it. Hey Sa.