Care.com co-founder Donna Levin played a key part in that company’s growth, and the passion was personal. Levin’s work plans were curtailed when her son was 11 weeks old and had a seizure following a difficult pregnancy. Tests were inconclusive. Her daycare situation evaporated; she and her husband took turns staying home with the baby for three years until his health stabilized. Her husband worked nights, she worked days, and somehow they muddled through.

“Everyone has a caregiving story,” says Levin. “At some point we will all either be a caregiver or need a caregiver.”

Levin later built the infrastructure, operating systems, policies, and procedures as Care.com, the website that came out of this experience, scaled. Today, it’s the world’s largest online destination for finding and managing family care, with more than 20 million members in 18 countries.

Not every company is so lucky: Half of startups fail by their fourth year, and 70 percent fail by their 10th year.

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