(upbeat music) >> From Phoenix, Arizona, theCUBE, at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, JefF Frick. (upbeat music) >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We are in Phoenix, Arizona at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. About 400 people, fourth year of the conference. Something in the water here in Phoenix, every time we come down here to some Women in Tech event. We were here two years ago for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing which was fantastic, so we're really happy to be here, get a wide variety, really of women in tech stories from the people here at the conference, so we're excited by our next guest, Tejal Shah, the founder and CEO of Kid Admit. Welcome. >> Well thank you for having me. >> So what is Kid Admit? >> So we help parents search, compare, and apply to preschools based on criteria that's important to them. And so we partner with the schools, we give them the technology to bring their admissions process online, hence making it easier for parents to find schools nearby to them and based on criteria like philosophy that's important, schedule, that sort of stuff. >> So just for preschool? >> Right now just for preschool. The bigger vision is to add more products and services as the kids get older and so we'll have this great, rich data set of information on parents, so then we can give them more relevant recommendations and things that fit in their lives for their kids, like other extracurricular activities and that sort of stuff. >> So it's kind of like helping people with the college admissions process but for-- >> For preschool. >> The five year old right? So I mean, I've got kids, it seems like it's really kind of a function of proximity, is probably the number one thing, or is it in route to my office so I can drop the kid on the way to or from. What are some of the factors that are less obvious that people use in kind of deciding where they want their child to go to preschool? >> Yeah, I mean parenting has changed, because everything is available on the tips of your smartphone, so everyone is researching so many more things that are trying to make it more relevant to the child. It's not like, "Oh we're going to send the kid down the street "to the nearby preschool" anymore. It's like, "Oh we really want this philosophy "because they're going to excel in that." And really, that's kind of the more subtle things that parents are doing now is because it's so easy to find this information, matching up what's going to make their child succeed in these environments. >> And then how are the preschools, because now that you are saying that, I'm thinking of all these preschools in our neighborhood, that are very, very different, in kind of look and feel and the way they operate. How are you collecting that data, how are they getting you that data? How excited are they to have the opportunity to actually communicate how they're different, rather than whether they're on the main strip to the freeway? >> Yeah, it's actually really exciting, because I think the technology has changed so much since we started Kid Admit. And at first, there was a little bit of hesitancy, because people are like, "What are you doing? "What is this? "Why do you need a technology solution here?" And as technology has changed so drastic in the last few years, all of these schools are very excited to be part of a platform that makes their reach a lot bigger. You don't have to just put up fliers in your neighborhood anymore. You can attract people in a slightly bigger geo code. And there's been a lot of new preschools opening up as well for the demand. And it's nice for them to be able to be a part of a platform and easily get to families really quickly. >> Okay, so just a little bit more on Kid Admit. So you said you're three and a half years old? >> Yes, correct. >> And did you raise some outside funding? >> Yes, we raised 1.15 million dollars over a pre-seed and a seed round, so we're still early stage. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> And what metro areas do you operate in? >> So we're in about 9,000 preschools across 20 states, and we're poised to be nationwide soon. So we are actually here in Phoenix, we just launched here recently, which has been pretty exciting. And yeah, so we actually have listings for more than that many schools, but the ones that partner with us. So we get the information from the state licensing, and then we do our own data, and get more data on our data-mining efforts. After that, we reach out to the schools directly, so they become member schools, and then they can add any information that they need that makes their program special. And with that, once they be part of the platform, then it's easier for parents to navigate the whole process. >> And from how many preschools do generally people kind of search through, what's kind of their tam if you will when they're trying to figure out their preschool? They start with how many and whittle it down to one, what do you kind of see? >> Yeah, so it's interesting. Most people only hear about five, and then you go on Kid Admit and the search in San Francisco, there's 357 preschools so, obviously that's not the pool that they're going to go after, it's probably based on a couple of criteria filters, it will probably whittle down to maybe 10. And so now you're not researching 350, you're getting down to 10. But even if they go a little bit specific, it's usually they'll really evaluate about four to five. >> And what are the top five factors? Not necessarily the value in the factors, but the factors that they're looking at that help drive the decision? >> Yeah, location is definitely a big, big factor. You want to make your life as convenient as possible, and you don't want to have to, if you're dealing with work, and kids, and if you have multiple kids, you want to keep that obviously pretty proximal. And it could be on your way to work too, like you mentioned earlier. Then philosophy, so Montessori, Reggio, is it play based, those, and schedule is a big thing, whether you want part-time or full-time. Interestingly, people talk about price, but ends up being a secondary factor, cause people want what's best for their children, and they want to see what all of those options that are available. >> What is the most surprising factor that you had no idea mattered so much to people as you've gone through this process? >> That they think that it's going to dictate the rest of their child's life on this first educational milestone. And it's just surprising that how it's completely false. And it's just crazy to see how much people still buy into this. >> Right, right. It's like the old Seinfeld episodes right? From Manhattan, and people trying to get in that first, getting in that school, but that's not what you're about at all, you're really about just knowing what the options are and finding the right fit. >> Yeah, we want to like democratize it a little bit, get the access to it. So a lot of people in Manhattan, or even San Francisco hire consultants to help for this, and they're like $15,000 to help you just with preschool. And so you can search Kid Admit for free, you get to see all the information, things that giving access to more families to make better choices for their kids, and it's all about finding a nice environment for your kid, who's going to develop a life-long love of learning. That's the only thing about preschool that makes it great. >> And how did you come up with this idea? >> So I have kids myself, and I went through the process. It was super, super crazy cause Google didn't spit out any results when I did this, my oldest one's seven and a half. And when I was pregnant, people were like, "Are you on the wait list?" I'm like, "I don't even know my child, "how am I going to go and find a preschool at this stage?" So I didn't take that advice, I'm like, "You know what. "I will do this when it's appropriate, "and I feel comfortable." And I did, and then I created this crazy spreadsheet, and cause there wasn't a lot of information available on the internet, so I'd have to call around, and ended up being another full-time job of mine. And once I created this, then a lot of my friends started using it, and using it, and so that was kind of the start of Kid Admit. >> Awesome. So we've had a lot of conversations here over the course of the day, about pivoting and getting involved in tech, and not necessarily being a tech person, and changing career paths. We talked a little bit offline before we came on air, you've got kind of an interesting journey. You started out as a mechanical engineer I think you said, and then got into finance, and now you're doing a kid based, basically marketplace exchange. >> Yes. >> How did that happen? I think I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur, though I didn't quite, was not truthful to myself when I was younger. I became a mechanical engineer. I worked at Ford Motor Company right out of school designing fuel systems, and then I did a lot of other things. Ended up in finance and I kept switching these careers, but I learned all these different skill sets. And all these different things then when you become CEO and start a company, they actually really are very relevant cause you get to, I have to book keep, and manage my own finances for the start-up. I've had to, for when I did financial services, I also cold called. I did that when I started doing early customer development. I did marketing for a medical devices company a long time ago and that's part of it. So all of this journey, as different as it is, it kind of led me to be able to be a generalist to start a company. >> Right, and then what was the tipping point that you said, "Okay, I'm doing it. "I'm going to start this company, I'm going to quit my job and do this?" >> Yeah, so I wanted to leave financial services after 2008. So it's been a-- >> Good timing. >> Yeah, well, but I still stuck onto it for two more years, because in that timeframe, actually four more years, in 2010 we left to start our own wealth management firm, my husband and I, and then I wanted to ramp that up before I could actually formally leave to start my own. So I always wanted knew I did it, but I wanted to have the timing, as well as the idea. >> Right, right. Okay so we're running low on time. So what advice would you give to the budding entrepreneur out there that's got an idea, that's just needs that final little kick out of the nest to go for it? What are some of the learnings that you can share, and advice that you would give them? >> Yeah, you'll never have, you'll never be ready. Just like anything else in life. You just have to kind of take that leap of faith. You're not going to know everything on the journey, and there's something sweet about that. It's something, I kind of miss some of the naitivity I had when I first started this because it keeps you really excited and passionate and relevant in that. And tenacity, resourcefulness, you definitely have to have those things. And just enjoy the journey cause as much as it's a high and low and roller coaster of a start-up experience, you definitely have to enjoy it. And I've gotten to do some really amazing, amazing things and meet some incredible people along the way, and I relish those times. >> Excellent. Well, Tejal thanks for sharing your story with us. >> Well thank you, thanks for having me. >> Absolutely. So great story on entrepreneurship. Eventually you've got to jump out of the nest. It's never easy, but as you said, there's never a right time. You just got to go for it, like everything else that's important in life. So thanks for watching, we're here at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. I'm Jeff Frick, you're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

>> live from the Congress Centre in London, England. It's the queue at M i t. And the digital economy The second machine age Brought to you by headlines sponsor M i t. >> I already We're back Dave along with Student of American Nelson and Macca Fear are back here after the day Each of them gave a detailed presentation today related to the book Gentlemen, welcome back to to see you >> Good to see you again I want to start with you >> on a question. That last question That and he got from a woman when you're >> starting with him on a question that was asked of him Yes. And you'LL see why when you find something you like. You dodged the question by the way. Fair for record Hanging out with you guys makes us smarter. Thank you. Hear it? So the question was >> around education She expressed real concern, particularly around education for younger people. I guess by the time they get to secondary education it's too late. You talked about in the book about the three r's we need to read. Obviously we need to write Teo be able to do arithmetic in our head. Sure. What's your take on that on that question. You >> know those basics, our table stakes. I mean, you have to be able to do that kind of stuff. But the real payoff comes from creativity doing something really new and original. The good news is that most people love being creative and original. You look at a kid playing, you know, whether it there two or three years old, that's all that you put some blocks in front of them. They start building, creating things, and our school system is, Andy was saying in his his talkers, questions was, is that many of the schools are almost explicitly designed to tamp that down to get people to conform, get them to all be consistent. Which is exactly what Henry Ford needed for his factories, you know, to work on the assembly line. But now that machines could do that repetitive, consistent kind of work, it's time to let creativity flourish again. And that's when you got to do on top of those basic skills. >> So I have one, and it's pretty clear that that that are Kramer education model. It's really hard for some kids to accept. They just want they want to run around. They want to go express themselves. They wantto poke a world. That's not what that grid full of desks is designed to do. >> We call that a d d. Now I follow. Yeah, I have one >> Montessori kid out of my foot. Really? He's by far the most creative most ano didactic. You're a Montessori Travel Marie, not the story. Have it right? Is that >> Look, I'm not educational research. I am Amon a story kid. I think she got it right. And she was able to demonstrate that she could take kids out of the slums of Bologna who were, at the time considered mentally defective. There's this notion that the reason the poor are poor because they were they were just mentally insufficient. And she could show their learning and their progress. So I completely agree with Eric. We need all of our students need to be able to Teo, accomplish the basics, to read, to write, to do basic math. What Montessori taught me is you can get there via this completely kind of hippie freeform route. And I'm really happy for that education talk. Talk about you and your students. >> Your brainstorm on things that people could do with computers. Can't. >> Yeah, a lot of money >> this and exercise that you do pretty regularly. What's that? How is >> that evolved? A little >> something. We do it more systematically, I almost always doing in at talking over where With Forum. It's a kind of dinner conversation out we can't get away from. So we're hearing a lot. And you know, there's a recurring patterns that emerged, and you heard some of them today around interpersonal skills around creativity. Still, coordination is still physical coordination. What some of these have in common is that their skills that we've evolved over literally, you know, hundreds of thousands or millions of years. And there are billions of neurons devoted to some of these skills. Coordination, vision, interpersonal skills and other skills like arithmetic is something that's really very recent, and we don't have a lot of neurons devoted to that. So it's not surprising the machines can pick up those more recent skills more than the Maurin eight ones. Now overtime, will machines be able to do more of those other skills? I suspect they probably will exactly how long it will take. That's the question for neuroscientists. The AI researchers >> made me make that country think about not just diagnosing a patient but getting them to comply with the treatment regimen. Take your medicine. Eat better. Stop smoking. We know the compliance rates for terrible for demonstrably good ideas. How do we improve them? Is in a technology solution a little bit. Is it an interpersonal solution? Absolutely. I think we need deeply empathetic, deeply capable people to help each other become healthier, become better people. Right Program might come from an algorithm, but that algorithm on the computer that spits it out is going to be lousy at getting most people to comply. Way need human beings for that. So when >> we talking technology space, we've been evangelizing that people need to get rid of what we call the undifferentiated having lifting. And I wonder if there's an opportunity in our personal life, you think about how much time we spend Well, you know, what are we doing for dinner when we're running the kids around? You know, how do I get dressed in the different things that have here their studies sometimes like waste so much brain power, trying to get rid of these things and there's opportunities. Welcome, Jetsons. Actually, no, they >> didn't have these problems that can help us with some of that. I think people should actually help us with over of it. You know, I actually I have a personal trainer and he's one of the last people that I would ever have exclude from my life because he's the guy who could actually help me lead a healthier life. And I play so much value on that. >> I like your metaphor of this is undifferentiated stuff, that really it's not the stuff that makes you great. It's just stuff you have to do. And I remember having a conversation with folks that s AP, and they said, you know, sure would like to brag about this, but we take away a lot of stuff that isn't what differentiates companies in the back office stuff. Getting your basic bookkeeping, accounting, supply chain stuff done and it's interesting. I think we could use the same thing for for personal lives. Let's get rid of that sort of underbrush of necessity stuff so we can focus on the things that are uniquely good at >> alright so way have to run out when I need garbage bags with toilet paper. Honestly, a drone should show up and drop that on my friends. >> So I wonder when I look at the self driving car that you've talked about, will we reach a point that not only do we trust computers in the car, it's cars to drive herself? But we've reached a point where we're just got nothing. Trust humans anymore because self driving cars there just so much safer and better than what we've got is that coming >> in the next twenty years? I personally think so, and the first time is deeply weird and unsettling. I think both of us were a little bit terrified the first time we drove in the Google Autonomous Car and the Google or driving it hit the button and took his hands off the controls. That was a weird moment. I liken it to when I was learning to scuba dive. Very first breath you take underwater is deeply unsettling because you're not supposed to be doing this. After a few breaths, it becomes background. >> But you know, I was I was driving to the airport to come here, and I look in the lanes left to me. There's a woman, you know, texting, and I'd be much you're terrifying if she wasn't driving. If the computer is doing because then we could be more, that's the right way to think about it. I think the time will come and it may not be that far away. We're the norm's shift exactly the other way around and be considered risky to have a human at the wheel and the safety. That thing that the insurance company will want is to have a machine there. You know, I think this is a temporary phase with Newt technology. We become frightened of them. When microwave ovens first came out, they were weird and wonderful. Not most of us think of them is really kind of boring and routine. Same thing is gonna happen with self driving to accidents. Well, that's the story is, that is, But none of them were. Of course, according to the story >> driving, what's clear is that they're safer than the human driver. As of today, they are only going to get safer. We're not evolving that quick, >> but you got the question. Is that self driving, car driven story? Dr. We laughed because we're live in Boston. But your answer was, Will drive started driving, driving, >> you know, eventually, you know, I think it's fair to say that there's a big difference. You know, the first nineteen, ninety five, ninety nine percent of driving is something that's a lot easier. That last one percent or one hundredth of one percent becomes much, much harder. And right now we've had There's a card just last week that drove across the United States, but there were half a dozen times when he had to have a human interviews and particularly unusual situations. And I think because of our norms and expectations, that won't be enough for a self driving car to be safer than humans will need it to be te next paper or something like maybe >> like the just example may be the ultimate combination is a combination of human and self driving car, >> Maybe situation after situation. I think that's going to be the case and I'LL go back to medical diagnosis. I would at least for the short to medium term, I would like to have a pair of human eyes over the treatment plan that the that being completely digital diagnostician spits out. Maybe over time it will be clear that there are no flaws in that. We could go totally digital, but we can combine the two. >> I think in most cases what anything is right, what you brought up. But you know the case of self driving cars in particular, and other situations where humans have to take over for a machine that's failing for someway like aircraft. When the autopilot is doing things right, it turns out that that transition could be very, very rocky and expecting a human to be on call to be able to quickly grasp what's going on in the middle of a crisis of a freak out that's not reasonable isn't necessarily the best time to be swishing over. So there's a there's a fuel. Human factors issued their of how you design it, not just to the human could take over, but you could make a kind of a seamless transition. And that's not easy. >> Okay, so maybe self driving cars, that doesn't happen. But back to the medical example. Maybe Watson will replace Dr Welby, but have not Dr Oz >> interaction or any nurse or somebody who actually gets me to comply again. But also, I do think that Dr Watson can and should take over for people in the developing world who only have access instead of First World medical care. They've got a smartphone. OK, we're going to be able to deliver absolute top shelf world class medical diagnostics to those people fairly quickly. Of course, we should >> do that and then combine it with a coach who gets people to take the prescription when they're supposed to do it, change their eating habits or communities or whatever else you hear your peers are all losing weight. >> Why aren't you? >> I wantto askyou something coming on. Time here has been gracious with your time and your talk. We're very out spoken about. A couple of things I would summarize. It is you lot must Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking. You're paranoid tens. There's no privacy in the Internet, so get over. >> I didn't say there's no privacy. I know working. I think it's important to be clear on this. I think privacy is really important. I do think it's right that we have, and we should have. What I don't want to do is have a bureaucrat defined my privacy rights for me and start telling >> companies what they can and can't do is a result. What >> I'd much prefer instead is to say, Look, if there are things that we know >> Cos we're doing that we do not approve >> of let's deal with that situation as opposed to trying to put the guard rails in place and fence off the different kinds of innovative, strict growth, right? >> I mean, there's two kinds of mistakes you could make. One is, you can let companies do things and you should have regulated them. The other is. You could regulate them preemptively when you really should have let them do things and both kinds of errors or possible. Our sense of looking at what's happening in Jinan is that we've thrived where we allow more permission, listen innovation. We allowed companies to do things and then go back and fix things rather than when we try and locked down the past in the existing processes, so are leaning. In most cases, not every case is to be a little more free, a little more open recognized that there will be mistakes. It's not gonna be that we're perfectly guaranteed is that there is a risk when you walk across the street but go back and fix things at that point rather than preemptively define exactly how things are gonna play. Let >> me give you an example. If Google were to say to me, Hey, Andy, unless you pay us x dollars per month, we're gonna show the world your last fifty Google searches. I would completely pay for that kind of blackmail, right? Certain your search history is incredibly personal reveals a lot about you. Google is not going to do that. It would just it would crater their own business. So trying to trying to fence that kind of stuff often advance makes a lot of sense to me. Then then then relying on this. This sounds a little bit weird, but a combination of for profit companies and people with three choice that that's a really good guarantor of our freedoms and our rights. So you >> guys have a pretty good thing going. It doesn't look like strangle each other anytime soon. But >> how do you How do you decide who >> does one treat by how you operate with reading the book? It's like, Okay, like I think that was Andy because he's talking about Erica. I think that was Erica's. He's talking, >> but I couldn't tell you. I think it's hard for you to reverse engineer because it gets so co mingled over time. And, you know, I gave the example the end of the talk about humans and machines working together synergistically. I think the same thing is true with Indian me out. You may disagree, but I find that we are smarter when we work together so much smarter. Then when we work individually, we go and bring some things on the blackboard. And I had these aha moments that I don't think I would've had just sitting by myself and do I should be that ah ha moment to Andy. To me, it's actually to this Borg of us working together >> and fundamentally, these air bumper sticker things to say. If after working with someone, you become convinced that they respect you and that you could trust them and like Erik says that you're better off together, that you would be individually, it's a complete no brainer to >> keep doing the work together. Well, we're really humbled to be here. You guys are great contact. Everything is free and available. We really believe in that sort of economics. And so thank you very much for having us here. >> Well, it's just a real pleasure. >> All right, Right there, buddy. We'LL be back to wrap up right after this is Q relied from London. My tea.