Genevieve Thiers Speaks to Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University
November 5, 2007FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Chicago, Ill.) - As a Northwestern School of Music Graduate, Genevieve Thiers -- founder and CEO of Sittercity.com, America's first and largest online source for babysitters, nannies and petsitters -- was invited to speak at her alma mater's InNUvations forum for the opportunity to encourage and inspire Northwestern's future entrepreneurs.
As Northwestern University’s only interdisciplinary entrepreneurship and innovation forum, InNUvation aspires to kindle the entrepreneurial spirit by providing opportunities for education and idea-exchange, thus fostering commercialization and new venture formation.
Thiers discussed her entrepreneurial spirit, which was born when she attended college in Boston. As an undergrad, Thiers worked her way through school babysitting for more than 30 families. One fateful day, Thiers saw a pregnant woman slowing climbing the 189 steps to Boston College's upper campus to post flyers for a babysitting job. Horrified, Thiers asked the mother-to-be for the flyers, sent her home and posted them herself. While papering the university, Thiers had an epiphany. What if there were one central place where parents could meet all of the sitters and nannies in that city? And with this, Sittercity was born. Despite the many “no’s” and doors slammed in her face, Thiers ventured on to make a name for herself as a powerful business owner and an award-winning innovator in her field.
About Sittercity.com
Sittercity.com®, the inventor of online caregiving, is the Web's leading parent-sitter matchmaking site for child care and pet care, dedicated to making the process of finding a caregiver fast, easy, safe and fun. With access to hundreds of thousands of sitters nationwide, parents of children or pets can find a wealth of qualified caregivers in their area by using Sittercity's four-step screening process, which includes references, parent-to-parent feedback, personal interviews and free access to background checks. Registration for sitters is free, and parents pay $7.99 per month for an annual membership, which gives them unlimited ability to post jobs, and search, contact and hire sitters in their areas. A true pioneer in its field, Sittercity.com has been featured by hundreds of media outlets, from the Today Show to the Wall Street Journal. It received a Webby Worthy Award in 2005, won the Women's Business Development Center Rising Star Award in 2005 and won the U.S. Small Business Administration Champion Award in 2006 from President Bush. For more information, visit the company Web site at www.sittercity.com.
