A B O U T
Built by operators. For operators.
— Origin story
If you run a youth enrichment business, you already know this story
You started with a passion and one program. Then you grew. And as you grew, you discovered that no one had built the tools you actually needed. So you patched it together — a registration tool here, a spreadsheet there, a scheduling app, a payroll system, a parent communication thread that lives in your text messages.
That is exactly what happened to me.
Journey to STEAM started as one program. Then two. Then ten. Then seventy-five school sites across Oregon and Washington, serving 2,500+ kids with a 95% school partner renewal rate.
As the business grew, the logistics ran me. Partner communications. Scheduling. Hiring, training, and payroll. Curriculum and inventory. Marketing. Every piece lived somewhere different.
I searched endlessly for a platform built for enrichment. Not for fitness studios. Not for retail. Not for daycare. What I found were pieces of solutions spread across too many tools. The gaps between those tools created more work, not less.
So I built what I needed. A single platform, designed for a business that operates exactly the way an enrichment business actually operates.
enrops is that platform.
Arielle Hammond, Ed.D.
Founder and CEO, enrops
Founder and CEO, Journey to STEAM
Host, The Enrichment Entrepreneur podcast
Teach For America alum. Licensed school principal. Built J2S from one program to 75+ sites, serving 1,300+ kids a year.
Jessica Vorster
Program Manager, Journey to STEAM
Platform Lead, enrops
Runs J2S operations across 75 school sites today. Systems thinker and platform builder. She lives the problem we're solving.
Why this, why now.
— A note from Arielle
Every enrichment operator I know has the same story. You start because you care about kids. You grow because you are good at what you do. And then you hit the ceiling that has nothing to do with your ability to teach, inspire, or build programs that change kids' lives. You hit the ceiling that is spreadsheets, platforms that do not talk to each other, a registration tool that takes a cut of your revenue, and a team you cannot scale because onboarding a new instructor takes a week of manual work.
We built enrops to break that ceiling. Not for me. For the operators I meet at conferences who tell me they are burning out because the business operations are eating the business. For the operators who want to grow but cannot afford to pay a percentage to the platform every time they do. For the operators who know there has to be a better way because they are the better way.
You are the ones who make this industry what it is. enrops is built on the belief that the tools should finally be built for you.
This work is better when you are not doing it alone.
If you run an enrichment business, check out The Enrichment Entrepreneur podcast. Every week we talk to the operators, founders, and leaders making this industry work. Honest conversations about what it takes to build a business that serves kids and pays the people who show up every day.