Jenna Claypool to pitch Kinbee business at OpportUNITY summit for $30,000 grand prize

Feb. 8—BEMIDJI — Though she resides in the humble community of Puposky, Jenna Claypool hopes to make a national impact through entrepreneurship.

As it turns out, she'll have a chance to accomplish that goal at the

Hy-Vee OpportUNITY Inclusive Business Summit

and Pitch Competition on Thursday in Minneapolis, during which she will deliver a five-minute pitch on her daycare technology platform, Kinbee.

A day-long professional development conference, the summit's pitch competition will award a total of $50,000 to minority and women-owned businesses from across Minnesota.

Out of more than 140 applicants, 15 businesses were selected to participate in one of three pitch competition categories to showcase their products and services.

A panel of judges will select one grand prize winner to win $30,000, as well as one business from each pitch category — food and beverage, technology and innovation, and health, wellness and beauty — to win $5,000. Additional cash investments may also be awarded.

Claypool will compete in the technology and innovation category, and is the only competitor not residing in the Twin Cities area.

"It can happen from Bemidji," Claypool said regarding her entrepreneurial pursuits. "You don't have to live in California and don't have to live in a big city. We've got talent, we've got resources, we've got supporters right here. So you can do it, and I'm going to prove it."

In preparation for the competition, Claypool delivered a practice pitch at the Bemidji

LaunchPad

on Friday complete with a question-and-answer session and feedback from attendees.

She asked each of the attendees to fill out a practice pitch presentation scorecard and give her constructive feedback on the content of her pitch, her slideshow presentation, and any other notes they wanted to add.

Claypool detailed Kinbee as a platform that connects families who need short-notice or intermittent child care with daycare providers who are under their licensed capacity.

"We use the network of over 850,000 licensed daycare providers so families can rest assured that they're leaving their children in the care of screened, trained and regularly inspected professionals," Claypool said during her practice pitch.

Detailing difficulties with finding child care, Claypool noted that the child care crisis has had a $57 billion impact on the economy and in 2019, 2 million families had to quit, change or refrain from taking jobs because of child care challenges.

As a segue into Kinbee's business model, Claypool added that many daycares report being full, but since not all children attend daycare five days a week, the average daycare operates at 70% capacity.

She explained that daycare providers would sign up for Kinbee — whether through Kinbee's website or mobile application — and list their availability and rates. Families would be able to indicate their children's ages and search for nearby daycares that have availability on the days they need child care.

Families would pay a 10% commission on top of the provider's rate, and Claypool added that 75% of daycares expressed interest in using the platform during her own research.

"I surveyed daycare providers, learned more about their needs, what their capacities were and whether or not this was something they would use," Claypool said, "and I found out there was something there."

Claypool conceptualized Kinbee in 2020 and began working alongside

Greater Bemidji,

which set her up with a mentor for weekly meetings to iron out the details of her business.

Such a support system helped especially with the upcoming pitch competition.

"I've never entered a pitch competition before, so I'm learning a lot," Claypool said. "I have gotten assistance and mentorship from people who know more things than I do."

Claypool also thanked members of her "4-H family," some of whom attended her practice pitch. Claypool currently serves as Interim Extension Educator for Beltrami County 4-H and remains active with various projects involving her dogs in 4-H and Bemidji Area Reading Canines.

Though she doesn't have her own children, Claypool is an aunt and also feels like an aunt to children in 4-H.

"Sometimes, I wish my story of coming up with Kinbee had to do with my child care challenges, but I don't have children so I can't speak to that," Claypool added, "but all these kids, they just love me and I love them."

If any loophole was present, Claypool has an identical twin sister, meaning her sister's four children are biologically her own.

"So if we did a maternity test, I'd be their parent," Claypool said with a laugh.

Moving into the future, Claypool plans to attend the Bemidji

GigaZone TechXpo

on Saturday, April 22, at the Sanford Center, which will give businesses a chance to demonstrate their technology and how it's used in northern Minnesota.

Such an event is an opportunity for Claypool to raise awareness for Kinbee, which she stated would be an invaluable takeaway from the pitch competition if nothing else.

"Obviously, I do want to win. But if I don't win, I'm still really excited to just get noticed, get recognized, for people to hear about (Kinbee)," Claypool left off. "I think that will bring even more opportunities, which is what we need to succeed."