New Resource for Services in Arlington Launches - With a Twist

ARLINGTON--Arlington residents have a new resource for hiring a variety of services, and they can help local mothers launch new businesses while they’re at it. Pepperlane is a local startup that officially launched its platform in Arlington this week. Founded by a team of three area mothers with startup backgrounds, Pepperlane provides mothers with the opportunity to build their businesses one step at a time, all while nurturing a community of parents who support one another and discover new possibilities by sharing skills and businesses.

The platform, which formally launched this week, already has dozens of area mothers providing services and hundreds of members hiring them. Pepperlane provides a new avenue for people to hire locally for a wide range of needs - all while supporting local mothers. Services include home chefs, tutors, dog walkers, photographers, personal trainers, home organizers, business services like copywriting, editing and many more.

“For many women, motherhood and work simply don’t work together,” says Pepperlane Co-Founder Sharon Kan. “Yet so many mothers have amazing skills that they can take outside the traditional workplace or transfer to their own business--but they don’t know where to start. With Pepperlane, our vision was to help these mothers find their start with new businesses, or grow and build existing businesses, all while connecting them with a community that wants to work with and support its parents.”

Kan’s co-founders, Margaret McKenna (Cambridge) and Jess Petersen (Somerville) are mothers at various stages of parenting, and all with serious startup chops that put them in a unique position to help other women start, grow and scale their businesses. Kan has been at the helm of several startups, most notably Tikatok, which she sold to Barnes & Noble in 2009, and as co-founder of the Babson Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab. McKenna is the former VP of Platforms at Runkeeper, which serves more than 50 million users, and Peterson is a startup veteran; she was an early employee at local startups Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB) and Hopper, both of which she built from 0 to millions of users.

Pepperlane isn’t a platform for hiring moms into jobs; rather, it helps moms take ideas and build them into businesses, allowing mothers to create their own outlet to express their creativity, personal and professional ambitions. One great example is Carmel Murphy-Kotyan, an Arlington-based elder care specialist who joined Pepperlane last fall after a year running her own company. She turned to the community to provide her with networking opportunities that fit her schedule, which includes being an entrepreneur and the mother to three children.

Pepperlane provides a free membership for both business owners and those seeking services. You can visit www.pepperlane.co to search for service providers in your area or to create a profile as a business owner.