Chris Bennett Wants Quality Child Care Within Five Minutes of Every Front Door

Chris Bennett's biggest business idea started in a Miami caregiver's home, long before he knew what a startup was.

Bennett grew up attending a home-based child care program run by a woman named Yoli. He's the son of Honduran immigrants, the first in his family to go to college, and a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He credits that early foundation for much of what came after.

Years later, in the Bay Area, friends kept telling him they couldn't find child care. His co-founder, Arrel Gray, felt it personally, struggling with waitlists for his toddler. The two had already built an e-commerce company together called Soldsie. Bennett didn't just study the problem. He rented a house in the Berkeley Hills, hired a teacher, and opened a program himself to learn how child care actually works. Wonderschool began in 2016.

The model is smart. Instead of building more big centers, Wonderschool helps educators open licensed programs, often in their own homes. It supports licensing, setup, marketing, billing, and the back office that bogs down providers. Early on, Bennett said about a third of its directors had been stay-at-home parents, and many roughly doubled what they had been earning.

The company has grown a long way since:

• 37,000 providers served, with a team of 100+
• State partnerships that include Michigan, Nevada, and Indiana
• A $25 million Series B led by Goldman Sachs, with Citi Impact Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and others joining
• New in 2026: an oversight platform for state agencies, and a national analysis finding that Wonderschool powers the country's top two child care finders

Bennett's stated goal is specific. Every child should have quality early care and education within five minutes of home.

Two lessons stand out to me. First, he tested the business in the real world before scaling it. Second, he treated providers as entrepreneurs, not just employees. That's a different way to look at child care: as a path to ownership, not only a job.

It also connects to what we do at IndeedBlack. Child care is the job behind every other job. When families can find reliable care, more parents can accept the offer, keep the shift, or start the business.

Learn more at wonderschool.com. Chris Bennett is the founder and CEO, and Arrel Gray is the co-founder and CTO.