Plum District: A Plum Job for On-Ramping Moms
I had the pleasure of interviewing Megan Gardner, the CEO of the Bay Area based Plum District www.plumdistrict.com recently. Plum District is a "daily deal" website (similiar to groupon) that is geared toward moms. Each deal fits into one of three deal categories: for baby or child; for mom; or for the family. Each deal gives the user a discount on a product or service in their area.
Plum District is a unique company, as nearly the entire Plum District sales force is made up of moms. I asked Ms. Gardner why Plum District was a great place for moms to work and she said "We hire moms in local areas to source the deals for Plum District. Working at Plum District provides moms with the ability to be entrepreneurs, allows them flexibility to work as little or as much as they like and offers stay-at-home moms the opportunity to re-enter the workplace with no barrier to entry".
The Plum District sales people (they call themselves "District Consultants") are former professionals: MBA's, sales reps and attorneys who typically left the workplace to raise their children and are ready to return. The top sales person at the company is Jillian Grissin, a mom of four living in Orange County, CA. Jillian is a typical Plum District hire: she is involved with the PTA, philanthropy, and her kids' sports teams. This allows her to leverage her "mom" resources by connecting with the businesses she frequents to source deals. I asked Jillian why working for Plum District was so appealing, and she responded by saying, "I am the multi-tasking queen, and working for Plum District allows me to integrate my job with my mom life". She works from home and puts in approximately 30 to 40 hours per week.
New hires participate in a short training program and then are ready to source deals. It is a an appealing job for those women who are involved in their communities, their children's schools and in the online parenting community.
Plum District is rapidly expanding and just received an $8.5 million capital investment from a venture capital firm which will allow it to expand even further. The local deals are now available in 20 metro areas, and another 25 cities are coming soon and are hiring District Consultants.
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