Camperoo (YC W14) Helps Parents Find and Book Summer Camps, Activities for Kids

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/20/camperoo-helps-parents-find-and-book-summer-camps-other-activities-for-kids/

by emmiechang • 12 years ago

69 30 12 years ago

sjayman• 12 years ago

Genius! I have 2 kids and spent the last 3 weeks fretting about camps and getting kids into camps. Its all word of mouth at the moment. Brilliant idea!

emmiechang5• 12 years ago

Thanks! Are you in the Bay Area by chance? I'm Emmie, the founder. New site design to push out this weekend, please take a look again soon. (we wanted to push it out before the TC article, but it was too unstable)

arethuza2• 12 years ago

Please come to the UK - my wife and I spend a remarkable amount of time trying to organize stuff to keep our son constructively occupied!

[NB One thing I would love is some way to enter into a discussion with our son about what he wants to do and to rate different options - at the moment we do this through email and printing stuff out, which is dreadful.]

mbreese2• 12 years ago

My wife and I (mainly her) just finished planning for my son's first summer of camps, and it was a pain. So much so that I remarked that I should build a webapp to manage it for us and his classmates.

Thanks for building this, I can't wait to look at it.

Unfortunately, it's probably a little late to launch to target this summer. Planning has already started and been done for most. For a lot of camps, you need to put down deposits pretty early to secure a spot. But, for the couple of weeks we might need to fill in, I'll certainly take a look. (Bay Area)

tarr11• 12 years ago

I'd love to list on your site. I'm starting up a program to teach kids to code in Mill Valley (in Marin)

My summer program isn't quite ready but I'd love to put something there for people to contact me when it is.

Contact info for me is in my profile. Would love to connect.

HavonaMadama2• 12 years ago

looking forward to seeing the new site. i am the founder of a similar site in NY Kidklass.com. i look forward to watching you grow along with us, its important work we are both doing.

j2d32• 12 years ago

"Expedia for..." sounds pretty weird. Think of something else. I can't remember what actual Expedia is for.

j2d32• 12 years ago

...that said, I do like the idea - have a 3 year old, and trying to understand what is available out there is incredibly difficult and haphazard.

subpixel• 12 years ago

I literally had to think...what is Expedia?

hablahaha• 12 years ago

The whole title sounds a bit weird. What about "Kayak for childrens' camps and activities" or instead of Kayak, Hipmunk? Since they are in YC, they should totally mention that in the title as well.

emmiechang5• 12 years ago

We actually do the registrations, not just an affiliate thing like kayak or hipmunk....opentable for kids camps?

gargarplex• 12 years ago

Just a friendly reminder for parents to not turn a blind eye to anything that goes on at camp. For example, bullying. Teach your child strategies for dealing with it and keep a close emotional attunement. This is a PSA for parents who actually care and don't just use camp as a glorified babysitting service.

pstuart• 12 years ago

Damn. I started down this path but had to give up -- it was too hard to scrape the data. Add to that building relations and the site itself (by myself).

Best of luck!

nicoles2• 12 years ago

Great work Emmie! This is totally needed, finding and registering for camps has been a mess for years.

jfornear2• 12 years ago

The resemblance to http://www.zappos.com/ is somewhat ethically questionable.

emmiechang5• 12 years ago

Love how you're the only Person ever to say that! We were definitely inspired by it. Switching in a few days to the new look and feel, designed specifically for us!

jfornear2• 12 years ago

That's good, congrats on the launch!

cfontes• 12 years ago

I remember this being here as a SHOWHN a few months ago.

Now it's YC14? Congratulations.

Alex_Jiang• 12 years ago

During early elementary school I learned more in camp than I did at school.

I was also first exposed to C++ in a summer program around 1998.

With the right vendors this is more than a marketplace for camps, it could radically change education. Kids can pick up technical skills VERY early (that schools won't give them), and they'll have years to master them.

lrichardson• 12 years ago

I remember being pitched this idea at START pitch day - I really think it is a great idea.

I agree with the comments above: "OpenTable for camps" is a much better (or at least more recognizable) comparison than Expedia.

Congratulations on becoming part of YC 14!

angersock2• 12 years ago

Very happy to see another successful venture from Houston.

Great work folks! :)

emmiechang5• 12 years ago

Thanks! H-Town represent!! (wait that sounded really silly...probably less silly than if I really said that out loud)

stephenhuey• 12 years ago

It's encouraging to the rest of us Houston startups to see your progress!

hackergirl• 12 years ago

Have you seen CampEasy? Looks pretty big and complete

Camperoo (YC W14) Helps Parents Find and Book Summer Camps, Activities for Kids

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