When Sarah Agboola was a teenager, tragedy struck when her father passed away suddenly. Left to tend to three children on her own as a new single parent, Sarah’s mother struggled. As well as full-time work, she had to maintain the household on her own, monitoring her children’s needs, ensuring the domestic duties were completed, all the while, forfeiting her own space to grieve for the loss of her husband. The extended family all lived in Nigeria, the US and the UK.
More than a decade later, her eldest child Sarah, still felt the imprint of that period in her family’s life — one she called a “tremendously distressing period of grief” for her mother.
“What she really needed was someone to take care of her while she recovered from her own grief,” Agboola told Women’s Agenda.
“Watching my mum balance so much by herself stuck with me, and eventually drove me to build something that focused on taking care of parents so that they can take care of their families no what matter stage of their parenting journey they’re in, or what life may throw at them.”
Only as an adult did Sarah realise that parents of all backgrounds deal with their own struggles, and that there was a lack of services that truly addressed their needs.
Five years ago, Agboola decided to create a platform that matches busy parents with vetted and trained, in-home family assistants. These assistants, called Moncierges, are predominantly new or returning women to the workforce, and do a range of tasks, from making beds, washing dishes and vacuuming, to childcare, cooking and laundry.
Agboola was still in her twenties, and knew she’d created something that could change women’s lives.
“It would provide that second set of hands to support you when you needed it,” Agboola said of mtime, with working mothers who have just undergone a “life event” being the company’s largest clients.
“It could be the arrival of a new baby, a new job, a move, promotion or anything else that prompts a change in routine. We’ve always had dads sign up for the service too. Since COVID, the number of men coming to us increased quite significantly.”
Less than two years after launching the company, mtime received an $80,000 grant from Impact Investing Australia. Last year, they raised a seed round of over A$1 million, as well as a significant portion of a $10 million in early-stage capital investment from the Alice Anderson Fund.
This year, Agboola was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in Social Impact and last month, was announced the winner of the Small Business Leader Award at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards supported by Commbank.
Now entering its sixth year of operation, Agboola reflects on the business’s modest beginning.
“The very first step was a simple Instagram post describing what we pitched as a “parent helper”, describing someone who would come into your home specifically to give you a break from your day to day household tasks,” she explained.
“We were swamped with enquiries and chose ten lucky parents to deliver the service to.”
One parent, a woman named Jane*, was a working mum of a one year old. After she had her first visit with her “parent helper” Jane was asked what type of person she thinks would find the service most useful. She blurted out, “mums like me” and began sobbing.
Later, she confessed she didn’t know she was able to ask for help with her home life since she was such an overachiever at work.
For Agboola, Jane’s statement was a revelation.
“It really clicked at how impactful our service could be,” she explained. “It was the moment I realised mtime was solving a genuine, recurring problem for parents and it cemented my decision to go for it.”
Time and again, Agboola returned to the seed of her inspiration for the company — her mother.
“What she really needed was someone who could have come and taking care of her while she focused on her grief was what inspired me to build a company that focuses on giving people more time and more space to look after themselves,” she said in her acceptance speech at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards– an accolade the young entrepreneur says she is both humbled and grateful for.
“It was an incredible feeling to win,” she said. “I felt proud. The award was especially meaningful to me because of it’s theme: resilience.”
“The last three years for small business owners has been extremely difficult. And this year especially for our company has been really tough with the worker shortage as well.”
“To be recognised for our efforts at mtime in light of this challenge is such a blessing.”
For Agboola, the award was also an important acknowledgement of the innovation of female entrepreneurs.
“Women need to be given a platform to be seen and heard because it helps inspire the next generation of business leaders,” she says.
“You need to back yourself,” she adds, speaking on the advice she’s found useful throughout the years. “Whenever I’m in a room with other female founders I can’t help but be amazed and inspired by all the talent in the room. I wish we could see ourselves the way we see each other.”
Now, her greatest hope remains rooted in continuing to support busy families and creating job opportunities for women who are new or returning to the workforce.
“I hope mtime has become the best example of what it means to be a purpose led business that is both commercially successful and socially impactful”.