This woman left a corporate job to bootstrap a babysitting service in Japan

Founder and CEO Megumi Moss greeting visitors to her website.

Megumi Moss’ Carefinder could be a boon to Prime Minister Abe’s “Womenomics” aspirations. Womenomics, the term coined in 1999 by Kathy Matsui, chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs, has seen a resurgence in Japan as Abe pushes for equal representation and advancement of women in the workforce. Critics say that Japanese companies institutionalize long working hours and childcare services are too few for women to have a real shot at successful careers as working mothers. Carefinder, a babysitter-parent matching service, believes it can make a difference.

The service, which went into public beta from July, is fairly straightforward for both parents and babysitters to use. Registration is free for both parties. Parents fill out a job request and babysitters create a profile that parents can use for screening. Babysitters that pass Moss’ initial screening can also actively propose themselves for positions they like.

Parents are encouraged to set up interviews prior to extending hiring offers. CareFinder also suggests that the babysitter meet the entire family prior to officially starting. Communication is done via the CareFinder website so as to avoid sharing personal contact information prior to interviews and hiring.

Unlike most childcare services which aim to just provide a caretaker for a child, CareFinder welcomes babysitters with various skills. It particularly emphasizes the benefits of hiring a bilingual babysitter so children can become fluent in both Japanese and English from a young age.

Moss is the engine behind the entire operation. She has bootstrapped the company and has hired only a few part-time staff and outsourced development work. She remains the only full-time employee.

First a baby, then a fight with Gree

Moss, formerly a 10-year employee at Sony, decided to leave the comforts of corporate work when she saw how difficult it was for her colleagues to juggle both professional and private responsibilities.

With the idea for CareFinder solidified, Moss left Sony in April 2013. As luck would have it, she was pregnant herself and looking at an October delivery. The happy news did not change anything. As planned, CareFinder was registered as a company in May 2013.

The euphoria of July’s beta launch was quickly dampened by the appearance of a wholly unexpected rival. Gaming leader Gree diversified its business portfolio and introduced Smart Sitter in August.

See: Gree launches babysitting app

Gree’s take on childcare matchmaking is basically the same as CareFinder. One key difference is price. Babysitters on SmartSitter have rates starting at JPY 1,500 an hour (approx US$15 ), while on CareFinder the prices can be lower depending on what the individual sets their rates at. Gree’s service is also only available in Japanese with no bilingual support at this time.

Another difference is that SmartSitter is a bit more of an active intermediary than CareFinder. To protect the babysitters, the company has both cancellation and insurance policies. It also will try to find a babysitter for parents that have an emergency need for someone to take care of their kids.

CareFinder, on the other hand, hands independence to the babysitters to deal with people they work for. Each individual selects or negotiates on the families, hours, locations, terms of work, and so on.

Moss’ company is still very young, with less than one hundred combined users and babysitters registered. She understands the challenges ahead but is undeterred. She tells Tech in Asia, “As a mother myself, I think of my service from the perspective of a parent […] With use of the Japanese-English functionality, the service can also act as a bridge for supporting kids from other cultures being raised in Japan.”