 and welcome to our first episode of Hawaii Reimagined on Think Tech Hawaii. This show was conceived because we're living in a world of uncertainty and facing massive disruptions to our labor markets due to automation and now COVID. In Hawaii Reimagined, I will be featuring innovators and entrepreneurs both locally and globally for creating innovative solutions that will make a positive social impact in people's lives and our communities. Our focus in this show will be to learn what these innovators are doing so we can have inspired conversations about what Hawaii's economy and the future of work might look like as we emerge from the effects of these disruptions. I'm Ruby Menon, your host, and as we're trying to find our way in the world of work, I help people navigate career transitions in my career, get it done, mastermind community. If you'd like to learn more, you can go to brainsmartdesign.com. My guest today is Ifra Khan and she is an entrepreneur and the CEO of USIT, an innovative startup that allows college students to earn extra money by matching them with parents who need vetted babysitters and fun activities for their kids. Her business was humming along and then COVID happened. We'll be talking about how did she come up with her business concept, what challenges she faced along the way, how she came up with her pivot idea for COVID and what brought her to Hawaii. I found Ifra's startup fascinating because it ties into this show in that she's an example of a young entrepreneur who is solving huge pain points for busy parents and college students. For busy parents, her on-demand service provides them with vetted babysitters and fun activities for their kids. And for college students, she provides them with a way to earn extra money while they're in school by providing services for these parents. So with no further ado, Ifra, I am so happy you're here to tell us your story about USIT. So let's dive right in. And I really love to learn a little bit more about your background, what led you to what you're doing now, and how did you even come up with this idea? Yeah, Aloha everyone. I'm happy to be here. I'll start with how this all started. I was in college. It was my last year, 2017, and I babysit a lot. I was babysitting through my sororities, babysitting Facebook group. And before that, I babysat in high school. I babysat my little brother who's 14 now. And in college, all of my friends were babysitting. And I saw a huge gap of, especially parents who needed last minute babysitters and college students who needed flexible gigs, especially college students. So the way it was going on currently was everybody was posting on Facebook groups and it was really like old school and inefficient. So I came up with USIT for university sitting and launched it end of 2017, really, and got it going in the Atlanta area first and grew it to about $50,000 a month in gross revenue. And got it going there in that city. And I wanted to scale it. So I did it on the side for a while. I did it as a side hustle. I was in college while I had a job. And then I left my job in 2018, in mid-2018, and was working on USIT full time. And then COVID happened. So we can talk a bit about that as well. And then the business changed. And this is my new venture now. While USIT is still alive in Atlanta area, we're doing something national now. Yeah. And that's, I think that's what drew me so much to, I mean, not only is USIT such an innovative concept, and you found that pain point that you're able to solve just from something that you experienced yourself. But I definitely want to get a really good grasp on how did you even come up with your pivot idea? Because that's where a lot of businesses are getting stuck right now is they're getting hit with COVID, and they just don't know where to go. So let's talk about that. Talk about that. Walk us through your process and how did you even come up with that concept? Yeah. So in March, you know, all of the things, everything was shutting down on social distancing was happening. And that's when I saw immediately was like, okay, USIT's, you know, babysitting is going to be over for the rest of the year. Like, it's not going to happen. That's, it's not. So it was really like, change or die at that point. And what I was thinking of like, it was a good opportunity at the same time to do something different and solve a new problem. Because now new problems arose, like parents were working from home. They needed someone to entertain their kids and all of these new problems, like summer camps were canceled, like, and that's, you know, what I was thinking was like, okay, we have all these college students, and we can definitely get more like so many are using losing jobs, so many have nothing to do, especially over the summer. And God knows like how long this is going to go on for. So that uncertainty for like the future was, and you know, gigs for the students gave me an opportunity with USIT to do something where they could get other gigs to solve the new problem that arose. So first we pivoted to virtual babysitting. It was basically that younger age group from three to eight. And the college students got online with them for an hour, did either like a science virtual sitting session doing science experiments or art virtual sitting parents could sign up on it set it up really quickly through a website. So we got that going within a week. So attraction with that. And I was also really bored at home, I was in Tampa for quarantine. So the whole family was at home. I was like, Okay, well, I need to do something because the babysitting is slowing down. Right. So set that up in a week started getting clients from the current USIT customers to newer clients from, you know, out of the state, which was really cool. That was really intriguing to me because USIT was very hyper local at first. And then I saw a lot of other babysitting companies going to virtual sitting doing it. I saw a lot of gaps in that market. I saw less retention, less attention from the little kids. It wasn't like super sustainable. So then when I decided, you know, saw a new problem in the virtual camp space, older kids, it was like six to 13. What I really, that was really intriguing to me because all of the summer camps were getting canceled. So I was like, Okay, now we can use our college counselors who are passionate about certain things from like robotics to music production to YouTube, talk dancing, even things that are fun. And also, you know, kids can learn from them and use it in the future too. So launch summer camps kind of the same way, like it was like week before June. So summer camps were about to start, but they all got canceled. So launch that parents, there was a problem parents were searching for virtual camps or anything to keep their kids in that older age group, entertained and had so they had something to do. So virtual camps was pretty successful. For those two months, you know, we got clients from California, New Jersey, Chicago. So that went, you know, everywhere in the US as well, for the short amount of period that we launched it. And then that was kind of like the MVP, the minimum viable product for clubba, which is what our product is now, which is the big COVID pivot, the most sustainable one year round one as well. And that's a virtual after school clubs for kids ages seven to 13 led by college student counselors. And they are, you know, skilled at creative writing, they're skilled at fashion. So there's fashion majors teaching fashion clubs. And it's something that's really unique that you, you can't find in schools. There's not, we're not doing math clubs, you can find that in school, we're doing something that kids actually learn and have fun and make friends from around the world even. So that is the new pivot. So it's been quite an adventure since March. A couple of pivots based on this pandemic being flexible with that. So I wanted to find out a little bit about your educational background as well. Do you have like a coding background or like you said that you got this up and running in a week? Did you put your website together? I mean, what's, do you have a business background? Like where, where did all this like amazing talent come from where you were just able to pull this all together and execute? Yeah. So no coding. I have a CTO and co-founder that I brought on in June. So that was awesome. Because clubba, that's where, you know, I wanted, I realized I needed another, you know, someone who was good at other things. I wasn't good at coding. I don't know how to code it. And I was using a lot of no code products like Webflow and through Zapier, which is, you know, things that I didn't have to code for, but could just figure it out and put a quick website up. And now my CTO and co-founder came along and we have, you know, a product that we can scale with clubba with huge help. So beginning, I did, I did like where the entrepreneur came from. I've always like been like, you know, wanting to do something and start things like ever since I was a kid, I had like that, you know, eagerness to start something and do something. And then when I was in college and I was just like, I want to do use it. This is, you know, the perfect opportunity. Just go for it. And I was in the undergraduate business school in Atlanta at Emory. And I took an entrepreneurship class when I had the idea that was the one time I took the class. And I enjoyed it. It's hard to like really teach entrepreneurship, I would say, like you entrepreneurship is all about like learning, like you can't really teach that to someone, but it was a good like introduction. And I was just so intrigued, like, I was studying finance, I didn't really like finance, like I worked in finance even and interned in finance. And I was like, this isn't what, you know, I think my mindset is where my passion is. So I just found myself like really excited about tech, the people I meet, the founders, the people I meet in the community, I think, you know, the conversations are great. And like, just how much you grow and learn and problem solve, I think the problem solving is the funnest. Yeah. And what's kind of intriguing to me as well is how you were able to get the word out about clubba and just go beyond the local region. Can you talk a little bit more about what your marketing strategy was and how did you get the word out? How did people find you and get to know about this product? Yeah, so we did a couple things. Over the summer, it was a lot of like Instagram, Facebook ads. And then during the school year now, it's a lot of school newsletters. So we actually work with, you know, putting our flyers on school newsletters and building because parents trust school. So that's the best medium to use when marketing to parents. So we see a lot of parents coming from schools from in-person schools that are in-person right now, schools that are virtual right now. So those are the two ways we get parents and kids. And then for college students, it's all about, you know, the university. They're always looking for jobs, university career portals, help with that. So we post on those and let the students know about that. And then it's all word of mouth from the student side. They tell their friends and they're like, get on this, you'll be perfect for this club. Fashion schools, if it's a fashion club, like different people with majors in college who want to, you know, teach kids, make good money and have something, you know, meaningful that they can have their own client group through us, basically. Oh, okay. And we have a question that just came in from a viewer. They're asking, do you try to recruit university students to lead clubs? Your organization is lacking, or do you take what you can get? Yeah, we do. The way we recruit students is we let them pick their own club and make their own curriculum, or they could choose from one of our options. We actually give them the opportunity to whatever, like some students wanted to teach Irish dancing. So they made their curriculum about Irish dancing and parents took that club. I mean, kids took that club. Parents had their kids take it. So we're definitely seeing a lot of that, which is causing a lot of new clubs to form and new opportunities for the kids as well. Awesome. We're going to take a short break. I'm Ruby Menon, and this is Hawaii Reimagine on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. And we're talking with Ifra Khan from Yousit about how her startup provides college students a way to earn money by providing busy parents with on-demand babysitting services and fun activities for their kids. We'll be back in a minute. So stay tuned for more of her story. Hello, I'm Lillian Kumi, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor, and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. I'm Ruby Menon, and this is Hawaii Reimagined on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. I'm talking with Ifra Khan from Yousit. She helps college students earn money by matching them with busy parents who need vetted babysitters and fun activities for their kids. And we've been talking a little bit about how she got started and how she has been marketing her Yousit and her babysitting services and now her COVID pivot to Klubba, which is a bunch of different fun activities for kids that are taught by college students. It's not your typical types of activities that most kids can find in school, not your math or English or your tutoring stuff. These are really, I'd love for you to talk a little bit more about some of the projects and some of the things that your college students are teaching, like your Beyonce class, your TikTok class. Maybe you can give us a little bit more insight into some of those classes and what you're doing with the kids with those activities. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit. So sing like Beyonce, TikTok, fashion, self-care, wellness, and meditation even. We have meditation wellness vloggers teaching that. What is really unique about these clubs is there's a club party at the end of the series. So each club has multiple sessions. And then at the end of the series, there's a club party. Kids have a final project that they do when they can show it off or if it's a fashion club, they do a fashion show. So there's all of these cool things that they get to do. And what's unique about it as well is it's not a class, it's a camp life. So it's learning and they're socializing with kids that may live in a different city, may live in a different country, may look different than them. So they have a lot of diversity from their counselor, from the kids in their club, and it's a small group, which a lot of parents, you know, what we heard is that they don't like big grouped camps or big grouped classes, especially when it's virtual, because it keeps looking for that much attention. So the small groups of five that we have are really working in terms of, hey, the kids get attention, they're interacting, it's not a class, it's back and forth and fun. So we really say, oh, it's like the right type of screen time for your kids. Instead of, you know, parents who, like we don't want to put them into much screen time because of all these classes, but this is something that, you know, we get the kids moving, they have different movement breaks, and even if it's a robotics club or if it's a music productions club, they still have movement breaks. So they actually get to move during the clubs. One of my favorites, I think, is actually the meditation one. I think that's so needed. It's called self-care, wellness, and meditation for kids, because especially during this time, it's definitely, you know, a lot of people are emphasizing it for adults, but it's good, you know, it starts at an early age, and I think it's really good for promoting like mindfulness within children, especially in the 7 to 13 age before. They're being, you know, led by college student counselors. So these counselors are people that they look up to. It's cool to be a college student. So they meet, you know, college students that can be their mentors in the future. So it's dynamic. I think the business model is really different from what you see in, you know, other companies. So the business model then, if I'm a parent and I want to subscribe my child, do I just pay like a, is it a subscription model or do I pay per class? Or how does that, how does that business model work? Yeah, so workshops are free. So if a parent wants to try it out, they're not sure yet, they can do a free one-time workshop. They're weekly, so they can sign up for a fashion one, a paint like Picasso one, a thing like Beyonce one. And if they like it, they can buy a club. So a club is like eight to 12 sessions. The price range is about $15 to $30 per session, depending on what club it is. And it ranges from one to two months, and then they can take another level. So their kid likes the, let's say they like the YouTuber club, they can take YouTuber level two when they complete the club, complete like 12 sessions. And then level two comes with like unpurchased, it comes discounted for the parents because they already took up, they had their critique one level already. So that's how the pricing works for it. Oh, great. I want to talk a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey. You know, being an entrepreneur is not easy. And given that this is sort of, well, your first end going into your second venture, can you talk a little bit about what that's been like for you? And also, what brought you to Hawaii specifically? Yeah, I'll talk about the entrepreneurial journey first, a lot of ups and downs now, especially with the new product, a lot of ups and downs. So it's really like understanding that you need to be flexible, that problem solve, like perseverance too, it doesn't come from like one working day, it comes from like, day by day by day. So it's really important to persevere, but also like take breaks. I think like a lot of entrepreneurs, like, you know, they just get so bogged down and so tunnel vision with the work that people get to take breaks. So that's really important. It's definitely like, it sucks when you, like, you're not doing, like you're not getting enough sales or, you know, you're not getting the reaching your milestone with like an investor. It's not the best feeling, but it's like pick yourself up and try something different. Just don't make the same, I don't like, I try to learn from the mistakes I made or understand why something went wrong or why we didn't reach our sales goals, like this week or, you know, so I think that's important to keep in mind. It's definitely like just without a person here. That's what I tell myself. And it's just, I like to have fun with it, like if I'm not having fun, like why am I doing it? So like reminding myself to have fun when I'm doing this, I think that keeps me flowing, like when you're an entrepreneur, you get really stressed out and bogged down and then you like have this focus, but then the creativity goes away. So I try to keep that really and make sure that, you know, I'm not, I don't have tunnel vision with what I'm doing. Understand all of the moving parts. What brought me to Hawaii? Yeah, it was my first time in Hawaii as well. Blue Startups is the accelerator that you sit with our COVID Pivot Club got accepted to. And I applied during, you know, the COVID times. It was like a weird time. I had this idea, had some traction and it's not Hawaii. Blue Startups in Hawaii was a really good accelerator, accepting applications. The mentors seemed awesome. The companies that have gone through it seemed really interesting. And some of them seemed like there was like a connection kind of like there were some companies that I was like, oh, they've helped them grow. We have some similarities. They can help us, you know, this program can help us in certain ways. The goal during the program is really like growing our client base, growing the revenue and figuring out the right model for the product. So it's been really great. It's accelerated, it's an accelerator. So it's fast paced and it helps the founders and it stay on top of it. All of the founders are amazing. Everybody's working really hard. And that I think the best things that have come out of that program are the mentors, the insight that it gives the founders and it's really well structured. Like they start with customer discovery from the initial and they go from like all of the different things like legal, go-to-market, fundraising, all of that. So it really covers, you know, things that, you know, first-time founders especially like don't necessarily know. So I think it's definitely been good and great. And I got to be in Hawaii for a little bit. So that was also a very cool ecosystem and got to talk to, you know, mentors who live in Hawaii and people who've started businesses in Hawaii. And I think there's like so much opportunity there for, you know, growth and startups and a lot of people willing to help, really, really willing to help. So I'm good. So are you thinking of maybe launching this for like UH Minoa students? Or could they apply to the, well, I guess maybe club instructors? Yes. So it's open to UH Minoa students. It's open to Hawaii Pacific students, University of Hawaii, all of that. And so we actually have, I think, some Hawaii students. Awesome. So it is open. And some students, it's funny, it's like some, we have videos on the page of the club of the club and it's some students are like, we're from Hawaii and we live in Tampa now. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. Like, oh nice. So it is, we students can apply through getclubba.com. So they can go on there and they can apply. They go through the process. It's fairly quick and then they get to teach their own club. Awesome. And we're getting to the end of the show. So I want to make sure that people know how to reach you. Can you give us like the best places for people to go and find out more about what you're doing and how to contact you? Yeah. So number one, our website, definitely check it out. It's really fun. Getclubba.com. And then Instagram, we're very active on that. It's under the main company, use it, underscore app. So USIT, underscore app. So check it out, follow us and thank you for listening. And now clubba, is that SEL with a C or a K? T-L-U-B-A? T-L-U-B-B-A. E-B-A. Okay, clubba. Okay. Yeah, that's important. Otherwise, people aren't going to find you. So, well, gosh, I could probably talk to you for another hour, Ifrah. No, thank you so much for being on the show and telling us about this amazing evolution of your product and your pivot. So I just want to remind everyone that I'm Ruby Menon and this is Hawaii Reimagine on Think Tech Live Streaming. And we've been talking to Ifrah Khan from USIT. And I want to thank all of you for being here. And I hope that you tune in to our next show on Thursday, October 8th at 5pm. And we're going to be talking to Chas Williams, Executive Director of WorkNet, who runs an innovative nonprofit that helps sex offenders prepare for their reentry to the communities and find work. So Aloha and until next time, and be safe and be kind to each and everyone. Aloha.