About us

Hi, when I grew up my two brothers and I spent every waking hour playing outside, and all the mums & dads in the neighbourhood knew each other. Roll the clock forward a few decades and many of us have become strangers in our neighbourhoods. Rather than blaming technology for the decline, Juggle Street believe it should be embraced; to build face-to-face relationships, create lasting friendships, and help bridge the generation gap, not widen it.

When I founded Juggle Street, we had one child in daycare, one in primary school, one in high school, and one at university. We were, and still are, living on Juggle Street! Our family life has always revolved our neighbourhood, I am a volunteer Surf Life Saver, I am the Chair of the P&C Canteen at our son’s school where my wife is also a volunteer ethics teacher. And in our spare time, I Coach my daughter’s soccer team, and my wife is the manager of our son’s rugby team. Juggle Street has been built around these family principles of trust, “belonging” and giving back to your neighbourhood.

When we started Juggle Street in 2014 the team’s mission was to “connect one million neighbours, street-by-street, across Australia and New Zealand” and I could not be more proud of what we have achieved so far. We have a trusted community of over 125,000 mums & dads, babysitters, nannies, au pairs, and tutors. More than 50,000 jobs have been posted and thousands of life-changing connections and friendships have been created.

My hope is that every Juggle Street job will build a relationship, it will help-out a neighbour, and it will breathe life into the local community.

David James
Founder & Chief Juggler

Juggle Street was launched at our local public primary school in December 2014, offering simple one-off babysitting jobs only. We knew from the outset that TRUST was Juggle Street’s currency and we met thousands of parents face-to-face explaining Juggle Street’s goals and listening to their concerns. We built trust one parent at a time, one sausage sizzle at a time, one primary school at a time, slowly expanding Juggle Street suburb-by-suburb across Sydney.

In 2017 Juggle Street expanded to Melbourne closely followed Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. In September 2018 we decided to expand to New Zealand and held a community launch in Auckland, then quickly rolled out across the whole of New Zealand. The user uptake rate in New Zealand, powered by word-of-mouth not marketing dollars, surpassed all of Juggle Street’s previous geographic expansions in Australia. Juggle Street’s unique supply and demand business model guarantees fair market pricing for parents and helpers alike. Parents set the price they are willing to pay for each job and helpers decide if the job is for them and apply or decline in real time. Helpers get paid at the end of each job and Juggle Street does not “clip the ticket” so helpers get to keep 100% of what they earn.

The Covid pandemic had a huge impact on the childcare sector, and Juggle Street was particularly hard hit. But not only did we survive, we believe Juggle Street is in a stronger position now than it was before the pandemic. Restrictions, lockdowns, and home-schooling affected us all, but they also highlighted the positive role local community plays in our everyday life. Juggle Street’s unique business model is proving ideal in the tight, post-pandemic labour market. And with the “new norm” more families are juggling work & home commitments, more locals are seeking work closer to home, and more families are placing greater value on trusted face-to-face relationships.

In the post-pandemic economy where labour markets are extremely tight, companies of all sizes are actively seeking ways to keep their cohort of family employees happy. Juggle Street is an effective way to boost employee engagement, improve retention, and help build a company’s reputation as a family-friendly workplace. In August 2022 we launched Juggle Street Employee Benefits, a corporate licensing program for companies to subscribe to Juggle Street on behalf of their employees, without getting involved in the hiring process.

The current labour shortages across Australia and New Zealand have left SEMs with very few cost-effective hiring solutions. Juggle St Pro was launched in August as a subscription service for SMEs to post one-off and multi-shift recurring childcare jobs. Juggle St Pro is a cheaper, tech-based alternative to online job boards (such as SEEK) and traditional employment agencies (such as Randstad).