Stapleton parents are extremely busy. In fact, we can assume no other neighborhood in the country has busier people than Stapleton. “There is always something going on,” said Stapleton mom Jodi Young. “I mean, soccer practice, dance class, my yoga, school events, and errands. It never ends. Sometimes, I feel like I live in my car.” In fact, over 85% of Stapleton parents consider their lives “more hectic” than other American families, compared to only 2% who consider their lives “significantly less hectic” than other American families. “When you have kids, and you’re a good parent, your kids are involved,” said resident Marc Potter. “And when your kids are involved, you are carting them all over the place. Most Stapletonians just want the very best for their kids.”
The challenge for Stapleton parents is the inability to be in two places at once. “Aiden has his soccer practices on Mondays from 5 to 6:30,” says involved parent Jim Lembeck. “And then we have Amber who has gymnastics from 4:30 to 6. It’s important to us that they are able to be in these great programs, but my wife and I are really struggling to have both of us get out of work and get the kids to their programs on time.” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and his team saw an opportunity because of situations like this. “We have parents in our company,” said Kalanick. “And they have discussed their challenges of getting kids to the right place at the right time. This is an obvious area we can capitalize on, so we started figuring out what we could do.” Kalanick and his team did some research on where they should do the testing and it didn’t take long before Stapleton in Denver became an obvious fit. “Denver is a hip, technologically-driven city,” said Kalanick. “And when we looked at Denver communities with the need, Stapleton came up, and it’s a perfect match for our test.”
Uber says they will be test marketing “Little Uber” to see if it ends up being viable in other parts of the country. “It will be very similar to Uber,” said Kalanick. “But, we will actually conduct background checks on the drivers, and they will have car seats in their car, and will also be required to play “Kids Bop” while they have passengers. We will also allow people to schedule drop offs and pick-ups, which we haven’t done in the past.” Andrea Doyle is excited about the possibilities. “This way, we always have a backup,” says Doyle. “We don’t have to hire a nanny, or worry about burdening others to carpool with us. We can just call Lil’ Uber. I love it.” Young agrees. “It could be used for school drop off and pick up as well,” said Young. “Heck, maybe we can hire them to encourage the kids at practice as well!” Kalanick says they plan to conduct the test from March through September, and then make a decision on whether or not Lil Uber is viable on a national scale. ]]>