Two moms from northern Indiana have created an app that helps parents find babysitters.

“GittaSitta” was made by Anna Johnson and Mandy Kinnucan, after they said they got frustrated by the “text-and-wait” process of finding a sitter.

Kinnucan, who serves as CEO of Gitta LLC, told Inside Indiana Business they had zero startup experience when they first started in 2019.

“I really find it remarkable the Indiana ecosystem, the startup ecosystem and the support that’s available there,” said Kinnucan. “We worked with the IDEA Center (at Notre Dame) initially and so that was a great connection and then from there, getting connected with the gBETA folks was tremendous. It’s a pre-accelerator; it was seven weeks long and put us in touch with tons of mentors and investors.”

The app allows parents to rank and order babysitters. When they pick a date and time, the app sends out a text to the sitters in order of preference until one accepts the offer.

Kinnucan says they’ve been able to grow over the last two years through support and funding from competitions and programs. In May, GittaSitta won the $25,000 Community Venture award from Startup South Bend-Elkhart and Indianapolis-based Elevate Ventures as part of the 2021 McCloskey New Venture Competition at Notre Dame.

The GittaSitta app is currently available on iOS for Apple phones, and Kinnucan says the company is currently working to bring the app to Android devices as well.