Fran Maier

CEO and Founder, BabyQuip

Fran Maier is a serial entrepreneur and Super Founder with over 25 years of experience pioneering category-disrupting B2C and B2B internet businesses. Fran is widely recognized for her leadership as Co-Founder and first General Manager of the online dating service Match.com, Founder of the privacy compliance tech company TRUSTe (now TrustArc), and Founder and CEO of her current venture, BabyQuip, the #1 global baby gear rental brand. She is also known for breaking boundaries as a Latina business leader.

Since launching BabyQuip in 2016, Fran has made game-changing contributions to both the family travel industry and gig economy model with its breakthrough platform, which gives traveling families access to high-quality baby equipment rentals through proprietary technology and an independent contractor community called Quality Providers. Under her leadership, BabyQuip currently serves over 1,300 markets and maintains a network of independent gig economy entrepreneurs in the thousands. To-date, Fran has raised over $8.5M in seed funding for BabyQuip. In 2022, BabyQuip's GMV nearly doubled vs. 2021 and grew its QP network by over 60%.

Previous career highlights include establishing the first membership business model at Match.com, which drove $3 million in revenue and attracted over 500,000 subscribers, and raising more than $30 million in venture funding for TRUSTe. As a founding member of Kmart Corporation and Softbank’s former joint venture BlueLight.com, Fran drew four million subscribers to the Internet service in less than nine months.

Fran is often sourced for her insights and expertise in the areas of entrepreneurship, women in business, and family travel. She has appeared in major media like Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times, Travel + Leisure, Wirecutter, Forbes, and CNBC, and is a regular podcast guest, contributing author, and keynote speaker. Fran was also a featured expert on entrepreneurship in the acclaimed documentary film “She Started It” and appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank.

As an award-winning business icon, trailblazer for women in tech, and advocate for female entrepreneurship, Fran has been named to the “150 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” by the SF Business Times, “Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch in Silicon Valley” by AlwaysOn, and “100 Most Influential Women in Technology” by Hot Topics. She is also the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Jerry I. Porras Latino Leadership Award from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she earned her BA and MBA.

Fran has served on numerous commercial and non-profit boards including GE Capital Bank, Children’s Council of San Francisco, Stanford Women on Boards, and Girls in Tech. She is currently a member of Women Corporate Directors and is the former Chair of the Steering Committee for Stanford Women on Boards. As a mentor, she has advised start-ups such as Portfolia, Women’s Start-up Lab, Sign-up.com, and Kango, among others. Fran is also passionate about supporting female founders, and honors her Hispanic heritage by promoting Latinx leadership and Latina entrepreneurs.

For more information on Fran Maier, visit www.BabyQuip.com and www.linkedin.com/in/franmaier.