Meet Erin Beck | Founder & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erin Beck and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I started Wana Family Network with the slogan that, “It’s okay to have everything!” because I deeply believe that we can make choices that allow for an active career, flourishing relationships, and happy, healthy kids all at the same time. For Wana, that starts with giving and receiving within your community, because when we allow ourselves healthy co-dependencies on those around us, we all gain the shared resources not just to survive, but to thrive. (We work to this in a few ways, like Wana’s Millennial Fam podcast and the Komae “free babysitting” cooperative childcare app.) How do I make that work for me at home? I founded my own business so I could be mobile, remote, and on my own schedule, so I could be where I wanted to be, when I wanted to be there, with the people that matter most. In particular, I had just left my in-the-office/factory job to be a full-time parent to my daughter, and I believed running a company of my own would let me be both active and available. I still believe that! But it’s a lot. And startups are hard. Komae hosts 23,000 families worldwide who have swapped tens of thousands of hours of free care, and keeping us on the leading edge of supporting these parents is still a challenge we have to put our all into every day. Sometimes you have to ask, “How long am I going to do this? Is this still the right thing for me? For my family? What does it mean to have succeeded, or stopped, and when is the right time for what?” And the answer has nothing at all do with the business, with the numbers or the charts or the dollars. The answer comes from other questions, “Did I spend time with my little girl today? Was I there to wake up with her and help her at school and read her a nighttime story? When’s the last time I saw my parents? Did I spend quality time in conversation with my husband today? Have we traveled recently?” Then, “Was work fun today? Did I learn something new? Did something I did help someone else?” Because those are the actual reasons I do what I do, and if I can still answer yes, then I’m doing the right thing. If not, it’s time to walk away without hesitation. (Knowing that, one must always have their business prepared for successful handoff, and to me that’s a realistic, universal founder’s responsibility that reflects wisdom, not any form of lack of commitment.) That, to me, is balance. Knowing why I’m really doing something, and basing my decisions fiercely and deliberately on that priority.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Komae is our flagship, the mobile community where families connect and take turns watching each other’s kids for points instead of dollars. Give and receive in kind and it’s actually free babysitting. Need to receive a bit more than you can offer, and we sell you the care credits for just $5 an hour. Got to give a bunch this quarter? Redeem your extra credits for cool gifts from women- and parent-owned small businesses (including Joelle Schorr, another VoyageLA highlight!) When it became undeniable in 2020 that families cannot sustain themselves without the support of their schools and employers – that organizations at the highest level have shared responsibility for parental success – it became immediately clear that our “care for all means” had to apply not just to individual families, but to the support entities, too. The estimate for businesses in the United States that provide childcare benefits is somewhere between 6% and 20% depending on your source. Either way, that’s not enough. And for many, the issue is cost. We know childcare is expensive for employees, but it’s expensive for the employer, too. So we developed a three-tier pricing model for Komae Cooperative Care for Schools and Business that is based on the same foundation as the normal point system – give back, and your in-house cooperative care network is forever free; or buy extra support from the Komae team, and it’s still (much) less than the cost of traditional care. Why? Because we believe affordable care is an immutable social responsibility we can actually achieve for one another, together. (And, we want employers and schools to be able to choose multiple types of care platforms to support the real diversity of family needs. We do what we do really well, and in the same spirit of collaboration over competition that brought Wana together, we’re proud to recognize fellow family benefits providers that also do what they do really well. #famtech)

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I can’t say enough about the joy of living in and showing friends around Los Angeles! Each neighborhood is so intensely unique. We would catch an Encore children’s theatre show at the Warner Grand in San Pedro, then pop into the open mic next door at Sacred Grounds with a Mocha Freeze. Our foodie tour through San Gabriel Valley can keep us busy on just one street corner, with Xioa Long Bao at One One Dumplings, fried Hiu Tou at Hui Tou Xiang, and croissants and egg tarts a D’ange Bakery (take the time to get to know the owner!). Special dinner? Bottle Inn in Hermosa Beach, ask for Helen. Extra-late night coffee chat? Bourgeois Pig in Los Feliz, hide away in the forest room. Summertime? Arrive early to the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival and explore the Old Zoo on the hill. (And for a fun hike with kids, we love Amir’s Garden at Mineral Wells for its adventurous-feeling-but-actually-very-tame twists and turns through the flora.)

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m shouting out to the four other founders who joined me in this journey of making free and affordable care accessible to all families – Amy Husted and Audrey Wallace of Komae, Laura Farnsworth of Sitster, and Shar Ghoudsifar of Helpkin (a VoyageLA celebrated local himself!). Together we decided that we were better as collaborators than competitors, and we fused our companies into one under the Wana Family Network banner, adopting the best of each’s unique experiences and talents. As founders, we are always seeking to duplicate ourselves, to find that person who sees the world we do and is just as determined to make it real … and I found four!

Website: http://wanafam.ly, http://mykomae.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/my_komae
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinatwana
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wanafam_ly
Facebook: http://facebook.com/mykomae
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI5JVrkh254
Other: http://facebook.com/millennialfampodcast

Image Credits
BKM Photography, Amber & Honey, Izida Lukmanova (as indicated in the photo labels)