Launch HN: Trustle (YC W20) – On-demand child development experts for parents

It seems that the underlying assumption here is that people who are highly educated and work in "clinical child development or similar" are superior at giving advice. Is this actually true? I'm also skeptical of the idea that support is best given as advice as opposed to something tangible.

If you indeed have a way to give superior advice to parents and result in presumably superior outcomes for parents and their children compared to the default, which is a parent who uses their own resources wouldn't it be more profitable to just open up a daycare?

In any case, I wish the Trustle team good luck, but I'm very skeptical that this is superior to just talking to people who have kids already. Kids are unique, but what constitutes a good environment isn't as broad as the landing page and marketing make it sound. Furthermore, if one does believe kids are unique that is with odds with the technology aspect of this business. Either kids are so unique that technology can't really be used to make things more efficient, or kids can be roughly grouped into categories, in which case - surely said information about children is already out there?

Finally - if blogs and content out of the web cannot be trusted, why should your experts' advice be? There are very smart people out there who have written books and blog posts. What's the value add beyond that? Since you're only paired with a single person, what if there is contradictory advice between your experts? Would you not simply be back at square one then?

Lots of great thoughts here, thank you for sharing them. The line between parent support and parent coaching and behavioral health requires great care in navigation - I agree with you. Before I started Trustle, I worked both as a child psychologist in a traditional capacity, and provided video-based parent coaching. There are a LOT of parent support organizations that don't use credentialed providers because of the nuances here - and many parent coaches don't have any credentials in the space. I think instead that the licensed providers should be in the space of provided remote support, for many reasons, but also because they know when a referral for more intensive support is needed. Having licensed professionals helps to ensure that we refer when we need to. And, we often work with parents who have in-person therapists as an additional support.

I think the service replaces parents who turn to google searches, facebook groups, and blogs for advice. This advice isn't always evidence-based, and it can't be tailored to the family. Zero to three reported from their national survey that 84% turn to articles specifically aimed at helping parents, but only 49% find them helpful.Parents do want guidance from child development professionals. 54% of parents say they would like information from a “special web site or blog from child development experts.” Additionally, 63% of parents overall say “I am skeptical of people who give parenting advice and recommendations if they don’t know my child and my situation specifically.” And this instinct is right. Trustle aims to fill this need.

Also, as a child psychologist, I spent SO much time speaking to friends and family who wanted support (and to know which advice was evidence-based), but the challenge didn't call for a professional (potty training, typical tantrums, etc).

I would love to hear more about what you think!

We think there is a great opportunity to learn about efficacy in child development and parenting practices here, and are very excited by the potential that brings!

I think friends can be an excellent resource for support - and they often are! I think the key thing that is missing at times is that friends speak from their own experience, not from a background of child development. This can mean that the advice is skewed. Having experience being a parent is great, but what works for one parent doesn't always work for another. This is where Trustle (or a trusted expert) can come in.

Take sleep for example (a really common challenge we support parents with) - a lot of people have STRONG philosophical beliefs about sleep. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that - but research doesn't support that ONE approach to sleep is better than another (for example, sleep training vs. co-sleeping). However, the science of sleep can inform supporting a parent to make a plan that aligns with their philosophy (rather than their friends) AND is informed by science. We can help parents understand sleep patterns, the importance of timing of sleep (night and naps), pros and cons or various sleep training, shaping, or supporting approaches (etc, etc), and how to do it safely.

I think this is the main difference.

We can support parents in thinking though challenges and decisions as a partner - they bring their experience and expertise on their family and child - we bring the expertise on child development to inform choices.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

I have had basically the same idea, after feeling the problem myself as a parent of young kids. There is so much garbage on Google. Social science is always going to lack the consensus of a hard science, but we can do better than content farms that have assembled articles from freelancers who probably don't have children and are mustering up advice that's barely common sense. I hope for your success!