Oneva’s journey to create quality in-home care and jobs

If you have aging parents or young children, you’ve probably experienced the scramble to find trustworthy in-home care. You may be – or are responsible for hiring – a primary caregiver for a dependent loved one. You have a backup, a backup for the backup, and a list of family and friends to call as a last resort. It’s a stressful process, and you want to get it right every time.

What if you could remove the stress of schedule juggling and responsibility for a loved-one's in-home care?

This is the question that Anita Darden Gardyne, co-founder of Oneva, asked herself several years ago when she found herself firmly entrenched in the Sandwich Generation: between two aging parents and two children.

I want to make sure my parents can live in their home as long as they are able. - Anita Darden Gardyne, CEO & co-founder of Oneva

As full-time professionals in responsible finance and technology roles in Silicon Valley, Anita and her husband Bob felt the strain of balancing their demanding work schedules with the on-going and pressing need to provide consistent, trustworthy, and reliable in-home care for their family. At the same time, both realized they were very likely not the only family who struggled with finding quality child and elder care in addition to the other demands of their home and jobs.

Anita & her husband Bob Gardyne, co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

Uber can send you a car, and you don't know who the driver is. We can send you a car where the driver is cleared by the FBI.

Starting with her own family, Anita began bringing trusted in-home care to her community on a client-by-client basis. She raised the bar on caregiver qualifications – making sure that caregivers would be fully vetted – in order to alleviate safety and trust concerns. In fact, all Oneva caregivers must pass FBI, criminal, and reference background checks to work for the company.

Our mission is to care for yours like they're our own.

Starting with Anita and Bob’s family, then moving into their local community, the seed was planted for the company that became Oneva: a concierge care organization that provides in-home care as well as a full range of ancillary services, like driving, housecleaning, special needs, massage, pet services, and overnight assistance, across the Bay Area. Oneva is prepared to provide full-service care for infants, children, adults, elderly – even pets! With the financial support of family and friends, Anita began developing a technology platform to replace the manual process of matching caregivers with those seeking caregiving assistance.

Oneva started by delivering great care; then determined how to integrate a tech platform to enhance the service.

As a former Silicon Valley executive, Anita understood how to build and launch her service by testing and refining her online platform, certification, and employee training processes. As a result, Oneva was awarded “Best Startup in Silicon Valley 2015” by The Startup Conference from a pool of approximately 1,500 entrepreneurs.

Anita & Oneva win "Best Startup in Silicon Valley" 2015

Getting big is all about the little steps.

In 2016, Anita began to look for additional funding to invest in her growing business. As an African-American woman, she was well aware of the challenges faced by women and racial minorities in obtaining financing. She had been introduced to Kiva while attending a National Venture Capital Association event at which Kiva’s President, Premal Shah, was featured on a panel.

More than 50% of Kiva’s loans to U.S. entrepreneurs have been to women and people of color, versus traditional banking sources whose loans most often go to white men. In 2016, only 18.5% of the Small Business Administration’s loans went to women-owned businesses, and 3.8% went to businesses run by African American entrepreneurs. Kiva’s support for women and entrepreneurs of color, along with exceptional loan terms, made Kiva a great place for Anita to raise institutional capital.

Kiva offered terms that not even my mother would give me. - Anita

With the help of Kiva’s Brian McKeown, who works with entrepreneurs in Oakland and San Francisco, Anita started a campaign on Kiva’s platform and successfully funded a 0% interest, $10,000 loan powered by 84 lenders and 19 Kiva lending teams. On her fundraising process, Anita notes, “We were fortunate to reach the target with the help of lenders from all over the world. The process moved very quickly. As a result, we were able pay our team. Our Kiva loan was critical to keeping us afloat during this time. We could not have done it without Brian’s help. He’s a warrior!”

Less than 20 African-American women entrepreneurs have raised over $1 M in venture capital

Anita has gone on to raise more than $850,000 from personal sources to fund Oneva’s business growth, putting her in a class with very few other African-American women. As of today, the Kiva loan remains Oneva’s sole institutional source of funding. It’s clear that Anita has an incredible network that believes in her ability to develop Oneva into the nation’s top concierge care service. Oneva continues to raise capital to fund their service expansion into new locations. Demand is currently outpacing than the supply of workers, demonstrating that Oneva is a great opportunity for investors.

From Oneva's website - a passion for caring for their community

Anita is as passionate about helping our employees as her clients and committed to serving the community. As a business woman, Anita has done her homework. She's disrupting and 'Uberizing'. - Fernando Hernandez, Director of Supplier Diversity and Global Procurement at Microsoft

Hernandez has been mentoring Oneva since 2014. Microsoft selected Oneva for a pilot program through which Oneva’s concierge care services are provided as a corporate benefit to Microsoft employees in the Bay Area, and on February 27 of 2017, three thousand Microsoft employees gained access to the Oneva platform.

When discussing the pilot program, Hernandez says, “Anita approaches her business with the same level of care she requires from her caregivers. The pilot program has been very successful. We are now exploring how to expand into additional geographical areas. Oneva’s success is largely due to Anita herself – her excellent leadership, dedication to quality, and trustworthiness. With Oneva, clients are part of a family with a heart for and deep understanding of the service they are providing.”

We are thrilled to partner with Leaders-Up, founded by a Richmond native and funded by Starbucks through their incubator. - Anita

Anita is not only focused on providing exceptional home-care, she is also passionate about providing meaningful work for those who need it most. Along with their pilot program with Microsoft, Oneva has also partnered with LeadersUp to hire and train hundreds of Bay Area youth. This partnership will bring hundreds of new caregivers across the Bay Area. Future plans will bring Oneva to at least 5 US cities, creating as many as 10,000 additional jobs.

We also thought about the needs of our caregiver employees.

Each new Oneva client is required to complete an in-take survey ensuring that their home is a safe place for caregiver employees to work. “We are all about care – for our customers AND for our employees,” says Anita. Her employees are paid a living wage. Through her leadership and initiatives in training, employees can gain the opportunity to learn new skills and grow into new positions within the company.

Although Anita’s story is unique, she has a common message for all entrepreneurs striving to succeed every day:

Here is my advice to potential Kiva borrowers: Never give up and never surrender. As long as your feet are moving, you're still in the game.