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Kangarootime CEO shares his passion for Australia ahead of upcoming CCMS launch
Jason Roberts
Sep 22, 2020
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In light of the upcoming launch of Kangarootime in Australia, Jason Roberts, founder of The Sector got together with Scott Wayman, founder and CEO of Kangarootime to learn a bit more about Scott, his interests, journey and the upcoming launch.
Jason kicked off the interview by asking Scott to share a bit about himself and his interests. “Well firstly thanks Jason for making the time to catch up with me. We are so excited about launching in Australia and I appreciate the opportunity to share a bit about me and our journey.” “OK, so let's start at the beginning, my name is Scott Wayman and I am the founder of Kangarootime. I am married and we have two mischievous little “bugs” (boxer / pug mixes) that keep us very busy. We currently split our time between Buffalo, New York on the East Coast and Long Beach, California on the west coast. Outside of Kangarootime I am a keen cycler and enjoy brewing beer.” So what drew you to the early childhood education and care space? “I became passionate about early childhood education at the age of twenty-eight when I unexpectedly adopted my youngest brother after our parents passed away. He was enrolled in early education and care at that time. I became responsible for ensuring that his education continued and by default I became very aware of the amazing work taking the place at his centre day in and day out.” “That being said, I wasn't the perfect Dad. I was often running late and always forgetting to pay my bills on time. During this period I realised that there had to be an easier way for parents and centre managers to manage these basic tasks.” “That was when Kanagarootime was born. It was 2015 and I decided that there was a big opportunity to create a new child care management system that helped centre managers manage their businesses more efficiently and also help families engage more effectively with their centres.” “I realised that if we could get these two fundamentals right then not only would the managers and families be better off but so would the educators and our all important children.” So what happened next? How has the journey unfolded? “Well it’s been a ride, I can tell you that much! To be honest, from our very customer I knew that we had something special. I was able to see first hand the difference we were making to their daily routines and through a relentless focus on customer feedback we have continued to be able to give them back more and more time of their day.”“We make a real effort to go out to meet our customers. It's very important to us and part of our culture. That's how we give back and how we learn. Its key. Recently, we visited a service and were so humbled to hear the feedback about how our system is helping all stakeholders.” “It wasn't just the centre manager who was appreciative. That's a really important point. The teachers were thrilled with the predictive text capabilities in the programming and documentation features, the families were excited about seeing their children on their smartphone every day and the regional managers, who were probably the most enthusiastic, raved about our billing tools helped them keep the cash flowing.” So why Australia? What attracted you to the Australian market? "Well the first time I visited was in 2017 and I have never really looked back. I was invited over by our partners Childcare CRM and Micare Global to discuss possible integrations but the trip turned into much more than just business. We split our time between Brisbane and Sydney but the most memorable spot for me was in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast.” “The beaches and beautiful weather reminded me so much of my home at Long Beach, California. We had some really fun times doing out, walking on the beach, going to the races and doing some good old fashioned tourist stuff like visiting the Kangaroo rescue. It was a great trip and cemented some important relationships which has led unto where we are today." So now with the launch pending what do you think Kangarootime can bring to the ECEC sector over here? Kangarootime, with its focus on adding value to customers, and its belief in being “relentless” in helping customers to make their professional lives more seamless, is excited to bring value to the Australian ECEC market. "We talk a lot about our mission, and our ethos to work relentlessly for our customers. I believe that we should not exist unless we make the very deliberate decision to partner with our customers in serving as a thermostat and not a thermometer in Australia's early education sector.” “We want to help set standards, and become a very dependable and mission driven part of early childhood education in Australia. We want to humbly serve alongside educators as they educate and care for children and support families and relentlessly work to help them carry out their missions.” “Are we driven by being the largest or fastest growing software company in the space? No way. We just want to be the best at what we do, and the best partner as well." Is there anything in particular that you are most excited about bringing over here? “For years we have been working on our data and analytics layer that gives our customers more actionable data. We have also worked on delivering a really beautiful user experience. Our designers and product managers are obsessed with creating delightful, breakthrough experiences.” And finally, I understand you will be participating in the ECEC Innovation Forum - Virtual Edition next month?
“Yes, that’s right, we are super excited about that. I will be participating in the headline Childcare Management System Roundtable with all the other CEO’s of the large providers in Australia and also sitting down with you again to talk innovation in our Fireside Chat session. I am so pleased that we are involved. It gives us a great opportunity to showcase our products and our values and feel confident that the delegates will love what they see.”
Thank you so much for your time Scott, we wish you well for your upcoming launch and of course look forward to connecting at the Forum next month.
To learn more about Kangarootime, please visit the website, here.
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