Sarah Alexander &
Olivia Rosenthal
Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Patch Caregiving
THE INNOVATOR AWARD
Meeting needs and creating new opportunities with fresh approaches that challenge the status quo
Area of focus: ChildcareAbout
patch caregiving
Patch Caregiving is the first and only childcare benefit designed specifically for the frontline workforce. Informed by years of research with employers, its backup childcare programs address workers' scheduling constraints, trust and safety preferences, and accessibility needs while offering the benefits of onsite care without the associated cost or setup time. Employers see reduced absenteeism and improved retention, while parents gain reliable care they feel confident about, helping them show up fully for both their families and their jobs.
Learn moreget to know sarah and olivia
What inspired you to do this work? Was there a particular moment or person or incident that sparked a new level of commitment?
It was the height of COVID, and Sarah and I were fascinated by the frontline workforce — we spent months talking to frontline working parents before we had any idea what we'd build, coming in genuinely open-minded. Those early conversations were the spark: parents opened up to us about what childcare support actually needed to look like for their lives, and we built Patch alongside them, not for them.
What drives you to keep questioning the status quo and building new ways to overcome tough challenges?
For us, it always starts with listening — thorny problems can feel abstract and insurmountable until you get on the ground and hear directly from the people living them. Our rule has always been to start simple: just start, learn, and iterate from there.
What solutions are you working on that make you excited and hopeful for the future?
We're continuing to learn from the parents we serve, which pushes us to build new Patch models every day to meet their evolving needs. What also makes us most hopeful is continuing to find employer partners who genuinely care about supporting their workforce and aren't afraid to take a risk on doing it differently.
What are the "unlocks" — approaches, practices, or principles — that have helped you be effective in building this innovative approach to place-based opportunity development?
Three principles have guided us throughout: start and end with listening — every decision, big or small, starts with the people we're building for and ends by checking back in with them. Start simple — thorny problems feel insurmountable in the abstract, so we've learned to take the smallest possible first step rather than waiting for the perfect plan. And equity is our compass — it's the lens we use to navigate every difficult tradeoff, not just in Patch, but in how we approach problems in general.
Expert advisor
Lindsay Jurist-Rosner
CEO, Wellthy
I'm a huge fan and supporter of Sarah and Olivia's work addressing the gap of reliable childcare support for frontline workers. They built Patch, acquired by Wellthy in 2025, into something so essential, and now serve as COO of Backup Care and Chief Growth Officer. Their work offers lessons in combining deep empathy for the people they serve with the operational discipline to deliver and scale a needed solution.
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