The Small Business Project: Start-up aims to turn childcare industry on its head

Monday, 20 October 2025

The Small Business Project is a weekly series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.

Mum and advertising executive Haylee Killip built a platform that makes finding a nanny as easy as booking a rideshare. After a year in market and 200 nannies on her app Nod, Killip has plans to take the business global. Killip tells Aimee Shaw she is taking the first step, launching in Australia.

What has your venture set out to achieve?

Nod is an on-demand childcare service. We liken ourselves to the Uber for nannies, because we can get a nanny to your door in under an hour. The premise of it is to give parents back their freedom; such as last-minute work meetings, daycare sick days, or even just two hours to breathe.

We've built this to connect families with police-vetted, trusted nannies in record time, and we've also just launched on-demand on-site care too, so drop-off playgroups outside of the home. We're trying to solve the biggest pain point of modern parenting - the need for reliable, flexible childcare when life doesn't go to plan, which is most of the time as a parent.

Nod was born off the back of my own postpartum struggles with my firstborn. He had severe colic and reflux. He did not sleep, therefore I did not sleep. My partner worked long hours, and my parents lived miles away, which tends to be the case for the majority of families these days.

The idea of intergenerational living, and having that support, is very rare, and life is getting busier.I was at my wit's end, and just needed a couple of hours; some breathing space so I could reset, come back, and be the best parent I could possibly be. But it didn't exist. I couldn't get a sitter or a nanny or anyone sort of qualified to look after a newborn for a couple of hours until later that week, and it just wasn't going to work waiting for that help, so that's what inspired me to sort of start this.

Obviously, that was the nugget. I had no idea if anyone else lived with this problem, or whether it was just me, but it inspired something in me to push through and to start researching to see whether this could be a thing.

I started working on the business in July 2024 and it went live in September. Until now, we've facilitated over 10,000 hours of childcare across Auckland. We've got 150 repeat regular families on our books and over 200 nannies.

How much time and money have you invested?

It was all of my own savings. I also got into an accelerator programme at the start of this year, so that came with some capital, that was based in Australia, and that helped me accelerate Nod a lot faster. Outside investment has been $87,000, and including my own that is $100,000.

We’re looking for investment to help accelerate our Australia launch, but are not relying on it, so we're doing it anyway. Any capital that comes in through a private raise or through angels will help us meet our goals faster. So far, I have three amazing technical partners, developers, who are all over the app side of things, and one operations assistant.

What’s the biggest challenge your business is facing?

Because it is a two-sided marketplace there's always going to be supply and demand challenges to meet. When demand sky-rockets, we have to make sure we've got supply ready to go. That will constantly be a juggling act.

What’s the biggest issue impacting your industry?

The safety and regulation. I don't take it lightly that families are trusting us with their most precious thing, their children, so making sure we're ruthlessly on top of safety, and ahead of the curve in all our markets, because that is something that we never want to drop the ball on. We're also looking to use AI in a way that's never been done before, to support taking safety next level.

How do you make sure the nannies on the app are trustworthy?

Everyone goes through a strict vetting process. They get ID-verified, police checked, in Australia they must have a valid “working with children” check already, and we also do an interview with everyone. We get families to rate them as well. We take on about 80% of the people who apply, and filter out a lot of people who don't meet our very strict standards. They're going into a high-stress scenario with most of these jobs being on demand. About 80% of our jobs are booked and facilitated the same day, so these nannies have to be the best of the best to go into a high pressure environment.

What’s next for Nod?

Our goal is, within the next two weeks, to push go on Sydney. From there, we'll go into Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and keep expanding.

In three years’ time you will be …

We'll be operating fully across New Zealand and Australia. I see a USA launch in the very near future as well. Within the next three years, will be across the three markets, and aim to be the go-to for flexible childcare.

We aim to be a viable and competitive alternative to the current ECE model, and we’ll be looking to rally government to be subsidy-backed in the future as well because it's crazy to me that a flexible model doesn't exist. The way the workforce is going, and people are juggling working from home with more flexible hours, we need childcare to keep up with that.

What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?

That uncertainty in yourself. You never really feel settled. I'm only a year in, but you just get better at working with it. Know that your customers are your biggest source of truth, so whenever you doubt yourself, go back to your customers, seek their feedback, ask them so much, and it will just give you the confidence to move forward to the next stage.

Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?

Start before you think you're ready. You're never going to reach a level of perfection. I can guarantee billion-dollar businesses still have things they want to change. Get something out there, however scrappy it is, and see what comes back, because that is the best way to test whether or not this is a viable idea, and you're going to find a product market fit much faster than churning it around in your head and doing surveys and research. Just do it.

If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz