Co-founder of the Sunrise startup Ksenia Lobanova on why it is easier to open a summer camp than a kindergarten

Today I will talk about the difficulties we encountered in organizing kindergartens in large corporations. We were actually the first to do this on the Russian market. We were inspired for this experiment by the example of the American company Bright Horizons, which became one of the founders of the concept and over a quarter of a century has opened more than 750 kindergartens and family centers around the world.

"Sunrise" -

operating company of kindergartens and centers using the Montessori method. Created in February 2012. The Montessori educational method is based on the principles of freedom and respect for the child, and is used by schools and kindergartens in 110 countries around the world. The company develops several formats: nurseries, kindergartens and centers in corporations and development projects, private kindergartens, summer camps, one-day family seminars.

Just like the Americans, we decided to rely on working with large businesses and quite quickly concluded our first contract - with Johnson & Johnson. HR specialists from other large holdings responded positively to our proposals, from which we concluded that we had chosen the right direction and can count on rapid growth. However, the enthusiasm of HR managers was not supported by quick decision-making. It turned out that the companies had already planned their budgets for the year, there were problems with premises, and in addition, a limited number of employees would be able to use the kindergarten service - with children from 3 to 7 years old.

We realized that we need to come up with simpler, budget programs. As a result, we decided to introduce a new format: children's holiday camps in the office or nearby. In addition, in order to build relationships with customers more smoothly, we decided to introduce a test format - seminars for family employees, which will help them be harmonious parents and work more efficiently. This way we can demonstrate our effectiveness to clients and promote more complex and expensive projects.

Of course, we did not abandon our basic format - kindergartens. We are currently solving problems with premises and budget in the Krylatsky Hills business center, where several tenants wanted to organize a kindergarten for the children of their employees. Initially, we planned that customers would invest about 3 million rubles from their own funds into launching a kindergarten for 40 children and would pay about 30,000 rubles monthly for one child. But there was no suitable space in the office center itself, so now we are looking for one within walking distance. We have also revised the investment issue: now we are investing in starting a garden with the help of our financial partner, and customers will only pay a monthly fee. When offering our services to companies, we have repeatedly heard the objection in response: kindergarten services are needed only by a small part of the employees. We have expanded our corporate programs and now target children from birth to 14 years of age, as well as expectant and young parents. A corporate baby room (for children from birth to 14 months) and groups for babies who can walk (from 14 months) allow young mothers to leave maternity leave earlier. For companies, this is a significant savings and an opportunity to retain their most valuable employees.

Now the structure of our sales looks something like this: half comes from summer camps for preschoolers and schoolchildren, a third from corporate kindergartens, and 10% from consulting and seminars for parents. I’ll say a few words about completed projects and plans. Last year, we acted as consultants during the launch of a kindergarten in Goa and a Montessori studio in the Moscow region. This summer we plan to open three summer camps (one of them is for J&J; we did a similar project for the company a year ago), hold seminars in five companies, and launch two kindergartens in the fall.

Having been working with corporate clients for a year now, we understand that there are not many companies open to new and non-standard employee loyalty programs. We made sure that our product is designed for HR innovators. We will be glad to hear your advice: how to find such innovators and “train” the rest.

Why do large companies need rooms for newborns?