It all started in 2019 when, fresh from 15 years leading Teach First, tiney’s co-founder and CEO Brett Wigdortz OBE teamed up with seasoned tech founders Edd Read and John Newbold to solve the big problem on all of their minds: early years education was in crisis, families couldn’t access the care they so desperately needed, and children were starting school unprepared.
From tiney beginnings…
to the fastest-growing childminder agency in the country
Photo: tiney community day 2022
At tiney our mission is to enable affordable childcare for parents, high quality early education for children and amazing careers for childminders
Our story
"During my time leading Teach First I saw young children up and down the country who were starting school without the basic emotional, social and education skills to be school ready."
- Brett Wigdortz OBE, founder and CEO tiney
Despite Covid, tiney has become the fastest growing childminder agency in the country
The covid pandemic has tested the issues in the childcare market to it’s limits and arrived shortly after tiney was founded. Despite this unexpected curveball, there are now hundreds of tiney homes around the country, run by childminders from a wide range of backgrounds but all united by a mission to change children’s lives while working flexibly around their own families. We’re proud of our big, warm, vibrant professional community of early years educators; they are the heart of tiney.
tiney is now nationwide and accelerating towards our goal of a tiney home around every corner. With each tiney home that opens, more children can access a first class early years education and create life-changing bonds with their carers and peers.
Business with a deep rooted social purpose
At tiney, we believe that a high quality early education is the right of every child. We also know (and studies have shown) that improving childcare options for children impacts the whole of society. At tiney, we are enabling this social impact 3 fold; creating job opportunities for childminders, providing flexibility and choice for working families and delivering amazing early education for children!
As part of our commitment to social impact we have pledged to play our part in meeting the 2030 Global Goals initiative around Quality Education set by World Leaders. We are also proud to be part of the Meaningful Business Network.
Meet some of our team
Our rapidly expanding team of more than 50 work from across the country (with a HQ in central London) and come from varied backgrounds in education, childcare, safeguarding, tech, media, customer service and more.
Brett Wigdortz OBE
Chief Executive Officer
Founder and former CEO of Teach First and Co-Founder of Teach For All and the Fair Education Alliance. Brett’s lifelong mission is to help every child access an excellent education.
Kim Esnard
Education & Training Lead
Kim comes to tiney with more than 20 years experience in the early years sector. Previously an outstanding childminder herself with experience working with local authorities and PACEY.
Sarah Read
Head of Safeguarding
Sarah was the former Head of Early Years at Action For Children and has a long and impressive history in the early years sector, starting out as a registered childminder herself almost 20 years ago.
Edd Read
Chief Technical Officer
Previously co-founder and CTO at Graze.com, Edd knows a lot about building tech and teams that put customers at the heart of the experience. As a new dad, he’s passionate about how tiney can enhance outcomes for children.
Lisa Holmes
Head of Customer Operations
Lisa built up relationships with thousands of childminders across the country during her 13 years at Morton Michel, the UK’s leading childcare insurers. She is hugely passionate about home-based care and a champion for childminding.
John Newbold
Chief Product Officer
John founded one of the UK’s leading design studios and led product design there for over a decade. As a Dad himself, John is passionate about building the type of childcare company he would want for his own family.
tiney’s Early Years experts
Our Early Years experts are all shareholders in tiney and form part of our wider team. Our experts provide training and resources for our community, as well as acting as ambassadors for tiney within the wider sector.
Joss Cambridge-Simmons
Child led development champion
Founder at Jossy Care, child development expert, advocate for gender representation in childcare & men’s mental health, & National Diversity Award Winner 2019.
June O’ Sullivan MBE
Sustainability and Early Years expert
Speaker, author & regular media commentator on all things Early Years, Social Business & Child Poverty, for the past 10 years June has been instrumental in driving a major positive shift for Early Years education.
Sarah Seaman
Outdoor Learning Specialist
Author of The Muddy Puddle Teacher: Creative curriculum for Early Years Setting, owner & founder of MPT, podcaster, vlogger & a weekly feature on BBC Radio.
