Why We’re Buzzing About Parentswarm
Carly Buxton and Michelle Cunningham of Parentswarm
When two founders combine lived experience with technical expertise, the result is usually pretty impressive. This combination yields a product or service that feels both intuitive and indispensable.
When Carly Buxton and Michelle Cunningham launched Parentswarm, we wondered how we lived without it?
Let’s start off with a quick scenario.
Every parent has been there. The regular sitter canceled. The must-attend dinner that you swore was scheduled for Friday is actually….tonight.
Whatever the reason, you need childcare — and you need it now. You text Lily, but she’s booked. So you text Kaylee, but she is busy until 8pm. She has a friend named Madison who babysat for you once. Then, you reach out to Rachel, but she doesn’t text back right away. Did you try Kaylee? What about Cindy? Who is Madison, anyway?
If you’ve ever been caught in a scheduling Maelstrom like this, we see you — and so do the two founders of Parentswarm.
The inspiration behind Parentswarm has always been simple. The founders wanted to reduce the overwhelming (and never-ending) mental load of parenting.
As a mother and seasoned professional, Carly Buxton knows firsthand the constant juggling act between work, childcare, and the never-ending search for backup help. After spinning her wheels, she recognized an important trend. Sometimes, the best solutions aren’t always riddled in technological bells and whistles.
Instead, they’re the simple solutions to the real problems — delivered in straightforward, everyday ways.
That’s where Michelle Cunningham’s engineering background came into play. Michelle transformed Carly’s “hacky” scheduling system into a scalable, polished product.
Together, they’ve made Parentswarm into more than a digital concierge. It’s becoming a true co-pilot for modern parents.
When Simple is Better: What Parentswarm Does
The newly-launched Parentswarm is the perfect example of the duo’s philosophy in action.
For over a year, Carly had been quietly using her own homemade system with her own hive of sitters. Friends saw how effective it was and urged her to stop gatekeeping and turn it into a product.
So, that’s exactly what Michelle and Carly did.
Here’s how Parentswarm works:
Parents list their upcoming childcare shifts.
With a single click, Parentswarm sends one text to all their trusted caregivers.
Sitters claim shifts instantly with just a tap. The other sitters are notified once the shift is covered. No need to send dozens of texts and no app downloads required!
The genius is in its simplicity. It’s the Occam’s razor of coordinating childcare in a pinch. Just like Occam’s razor, the simplest approach is the best one.
Instead of endless group chats, ghosted texts, and double-bookings, Parentswarm centralizes the request into one clean flow. The first caretaker to accept gets the shift.
Why Parentswarm Is a Game Changer
For working parents, time and energy are scarce resources. Parentswarm saves both.
One-to-many efficiency. Instead of texting five sitters individually, you send one request and let the system handle the responses.
No tech barriers. Sitters don’t need to download an app or learn a new tool. A simple text is all it takes.
Real-life tested. Parentswarm wasn’t dreamed up in a vacuum; it was honed in the chaos of Carly’s own childcare calendar.
This is the kind of “quiet revolution” in family tech that doesn’t just look good on paper. It actually works in the trenches of everyday parenting.
Parent-First Entrepreneurship at Its Best
The launch of this scheduling tool underscores what makes Carly and Michelle’s entrepreneurship so compelling:
They start with the pain point, and (inadvertently crowdsourced) Carly built a system because she needed it. Friends confirmed (and increased) the demand, which led to the product.
They keep it simple. Rather than burdening parents or caregivers with heavy onboarding, Parentswarm integrates seamlessly into how people already communicate: by text.
They listen to parents and iterate. Carly has opened Parentswarm with a free 14-day trial. During this time, she is actively seeking feedback to shape what comes next.
It’s a clear reminder that sometimes the most impactful startups aren’t about groundbreaking new technology. Sometimes, it’s about applying smart, easy-to-use tech to real, everyday challenges.
What’s Next for Parentswarm
Parentswarm is just the beginning. With its clean, scalable approach to childcare coordination, it has the potential to evolve into an even more powerful ecosystem: predictive scheduling, fairness algorithms for caregivers, integrations with workplaces offering backup care, and beyond.
For now, Carly and Michelle have achieved something rare: they’ve given parents back a slice of sanity in the endless balancing act of jobs, kids, and care.
For anyone who has ever juggled sitter texts at 9 p.m. before a big meeting, Parentswarm feels less like a product launch and more like a lifeline.
We know we would rather spend time and energy doing anything else.
