Meet Gretchen Salyer | Founder and CEO of June Care

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

Hi Gretchen, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
June Care was started based on my own personal experience as a full time working mom, and a full time stay-at-home mom, but really born out of the pandemic. I was a full time stay-at-home mom when the pandemic hit. Although it was hard, I felt fortunate that I wasn’t trying to work a second job while caring for my kids. My friends and neighbors, on the other hand, were not able to leave their jobs and their childcare completely disappeared. And of course this was happening everywhere, resulting in more than 3 million working moms leaving their jobs over the past 2 years.

In order to help, I arranged childcare swaps locally so that parents could have consistent time each week when they knew they would be able to work / run errands / get a break. It was such an incredible solution. In a time when most of the country / world was feeling isolated and overwhelmed, we felt more connected than ever. Our kids were happy and socialized and we all felt encouraged by the fact that we had, and could provide support to our communities. I started to wonder whether it would be possible to create similar communities of support for parents, everywhere. And that was the birth of June Care. We launched in the summer of 2021 and we are now serving families in cities throughout California and we hope to expand quickly throughout the U.S. Families can sign up and get matched with another family in their neighborhood at Junecare.co.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
June Care is a new approach to childcare. We built a platform that connects parents who are looking for childcare with qualified, stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids. The main problem we are trying to solve is access to childcare and income for families, everywhere. Today, 51% of American families don’t have access to the childcare they need, which means (most often) the mom is leaving the workforce, sacrificing her career and financial opportunities due to a lack of access to the childcare she needs. On the flip side, for parents who are home with their kids, opportunities to earn an income while parenting are few and far between. June Care brings moms together on both sides of this paradigm, enabling new access to childcare and income for families, everywhere.

Core to the June Care brand is our vision: Moms supporting moms in their most important work… whether that work is inside or outside the home. Parents come to June Care because they trust us to support them in their most important job – raising and caring for their children.

In achieving our mission, we are seeing communities and neighborhoods come together to solve some of our most pressing needs as a society and that is the fuel that motivates us day in and day out. June stands for Joining Up Neighbors Everywhere, finally helping every family build their village.

One of our core values is trust. We know that choosing a caregiver is one of the hardest decisions many parents face, which is why we fully vet and background check every host parent, and collect reviews after every childcare experience. 100 percent of our June Care hosts are “mom-and-dad-approved” and have received positive reviews. Also, 95% percent of our hosts have prior childcare or teaching experience; though that is not a requirement to host with us.

Parents can sign up for free to host or request childcare at junecare.co and there is no upfront cost or monthly fee to join our network and get matched.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
A kids playdate at Cayton Children’s Museum in Santa Monica (fun & interactive), a meetup with a girlfriend on Abbot Kinney in Venice for food and shopping, definitely meeting friends/ kids for a beach playdate, hiking at Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades (kid friendly hike), Pitfire Pizza in Mar Vista is super kid friendly with gourmet pizzas, beer/ wine, cookies and space, Culver City has a great downtown with open spaces and a lot of different restaurants (very walkable), also Stand Up Paddleboarding in Marina Del Rey!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to give a shout out to my friends, who inspire me every day. I feel so lucky to have a social circle that is also a wellspring of inspiration, including full-time moms, career -driven powerhouses, and those who are balancing both career and family.

Many of my friends are full-time moms who amaze me with their dedication to their children, their communities, and their families. While also making time for their own hobbies, talents and dreams, they are great friends who are always there for me when I need support. They remind me of the importance of prioritizing my own family, and offer me a judgment-free space to share my own mom-guilt and career struggles. These ladies truly inspire me to be a better mom, a better friend and a better partner.

I am also inspired by my friends who have insanely large and impactful careers. Many of them have large jobs / roles where they are making a dramatic impact on the world around them. These friends are seen as rockstars (sometimes literally) in the world’s eyes, but they also manage to maintain their sense of humility and authenticity with those who are close to them. They motivate me to chase my dreams and help me keep my feet on the ground. They mentor me, lift me up and cheer for even the smallest wins to encourage me to continue to pursue my dreams.

Lastly, I can’t overlook my friends who skilfully manage full-time work and full-time motherhood. These are the friends who understand the daily challenges, the triumphs and the struggles of being a working mom. They offer empathy, encouragement and support, often with a knowing glance or nod. Together, with these friends (many of whom work with me at June Care), we dream about a more family-friendly work culture, not just for ourselves, but for our own families and work hard to set an example that our children can build upon as they grow into their own careers and start their own families.

It is truly a privilege to be able to point to the many women in my life to draw inspiration and power and support from them. I love walking through this life with strong, powerful and diverse women who consistently inspire me to be the best version of myself.

Website: junecare.co

Instagram: @junecare.co

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-june-care-company/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JuneCareCo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/junecare.co

Youtube: @thejunecarecompany7356

Image Credits
Lauren Lindley