A Conversation with Ashley Du, the Founder of Meaningful Beginnings Childcare

(upbeat music) - You're listening to Asian American History 101, a podcast about the history and pop culture of the Asian Pacific diaspora from generally known historical happenings to the deeper cuts that we don't hear about in school, where hosts Jen and Ted, the daughter and father team. - Welcome to season five, episode 38. Today we're thrilled to welcome someone making a real difference in the world of early childhood care. Ashley Doe, founder and CEO of Meaningful Beginnings. - Ashley started her child care journey in 2013 with what seems like a simple idea, and it was sparked while studying child development during her first pregnancy. She launched a modest in-home daycare to support her mortgage and it's grown a lot. Today, Meaningful Beginnings operates multiple licensed nurturing child care centers in San Francisco, rooted in a heartfelt mission to bring home-like care to families. - To underscore why her work matters, let's zoom out to the bigger picture. In the U.S., there are over 565,000 licensed child care businesses as of 2025, yet demand remains incredibly high. Around 58% of working parents rely on center-based care for their younger ones. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the situation is even more strained, only about 15% of infants have access to licensed infant care, making high-quality, trusted care hard to come by. - So, Ashley isn't just meeting demand, she's transforming it. She brings a personal edge to everything she does. Growing up as a first-generation Asian-American and a challenging home, she faced poverty and instability head on. With no parenting prep, she put herself through child development studies, not just to care for her own baby, but to build something better for the community. It wouldn't be exaggeration to state that meaningful beginnings is entrepreneurship driven by empathy. Ashley brings not only operational savvy, with systems adapted from her experience in family-run restaurants and real estate, but also a deeply rooted understanding of what a second home can mean for parents and kids. And their model has resonated, because they were able to open a second location pretty quickly after the first one. - Ashley is here to unpack her journey from a living room daycare startup to a thriving, compassionate childcare brand. And what keeps her vision growing today? We'll link to meaningful beginnings in our show notes. Enjoy the conversation. (crowd cheering) - Hi Ashley, welcome to Asian-American History 101 and thanks for joining us. - Hi Ted, hi Jen, thank you so much for having me and it's such an honor to be here. - Oh thanks. - Thank you. - Let's start with your origin story. Please tell us a little about your childhood and upbringing and how that plays into your philosophy on education and childcare. - Yeah, okay, let's start. I can't believe we're gonna dive deep right now, just straight into it. I am first generation American, born and raised here in San Francisco. My parents immigrated here from Vietnam, fresh off the boat. (laughs) Definitely grew up in a non-traditional, whenever we do that. Definitely grew up in a non-traditional Asian household that people often imagine. It was non-traditional whatsoever. My dad struggled with substance abuse early on and my mom had to raise all five of us by herself. That experience has taught me a lot of resilience, independence and that we definitely are not the Asian, the typical Asian stereotype where we're forced to get prefigate grades and become doctors. But through it all, my mom, she was just so strong and despite everything that she's gone through and that she went through, she still manages to have a really kind heart and she's always putting others before herself. And what I learned from that upbringing is some importance of creating stability and love for children because I didn't have that growing up and now I know how important that is. And honestly, whether it's a story like mine or a story like, let's just say someone else where their parents were just busy working or they had, there's no perfect childhood is what I've learned. Everybody's gone through something and the issue is that there's no guidebook that teaches you how to become the perfect parent. And so with that said, I know firsthand how much it matters when kids have a safe place to grow. And that actually became the foundation of my philosophy on childcare, which is holistic early childhood education. And at meaningful beginnings, I've built the type of nurturing, supportive environment that I wish every child could have. I mean, it sounds pretty incredible. And we know that you had other jobs before founding meaningful beginnings. How did those different work experiences have an impact or play into your whole philosophy or maybe your business sense when you began meaningful beginnings? - Okay, so I started working when I was 13 years old and I don't know, I don't even know if that was legal, okay? I was working at quickly, which is this little boba shop in San Francisco. I don't know how I got the job, but anyway, I was working there and I many times chose to go to work instead of going to school because survival came first. We had nothing. Again, grew up first generation American fresh off the boat, we didn't have anything. Like we were living off of government subsidies. And so surviving was always the most important thing for me. Like learning was not first. And that just made me have a focus on making money because I had to, I had to support my mom and making sure that she was able to support all of us and it was just survival instincts. And shortly after, after quickly, I just kept working at sales jobs. Like I worked at Fisherman's Wharf, I sold chocolate, I sold souvenirs, I worked at the blood centers at the Pacific where I was not forced, but I had to ask strangers to donate blood. And it was like a numbers game. And the truth is, I didn't always believe in what I was selling. I was hustling for survival, it was not passion. And that contrast is why meaningful beginnings now means so much to me because today, I get to pour my energy into something I actually truly deeply believe in. And I don't feel like I'm selling childcare. I know I'm building futures. And that's fulfilling in a way that like money alone can never bring. And now I want to inspire future generations to follow the same path and do work that you truly believe in, not just work that pays the bills. But of course, understand your situation first because a lot of people like to say, like follow your passion and believe in it and all these other things and you know, just drop everything and go follow your passion. But the reality is like, okay, you need to have some stability too before you do that. So don't go and quit your job and take the leap right away. Plan and think like five steps ahead. That is great advice. I mean, you know, a lot of people maybe like doing something but it feels like a leap to become a chef or run a restaurant if they just like cooking, let's say. What was the biggest surprise in transitioning from a home daycare to running a licensed childcare center? Okay, well, starting in the home daycare, I did everything. I was the one that was the babysitter, the cook, the teacher, the accountant, whatever you want to name it, I did every single piece. And at that time, compliance was not as strong because we were a mom and pop and we basically ran out of our home. And so really, shortly after going from a in-home daycare to a school, I realized that it's not just about kids anymore. It's actually, I actually became like a business woman overnight. I mean, I was already sort of like a business woman in my little home daycare, but now it's like on another level because I have to learn the true meaning of delegation because now I can no longer be everywhere at once. I needed to have more people. And yeah, it actually started as a nonchalant type of babysitting service. That was the truth, that's what it was. I thought, because I just had my first daughter and I thought to myself, okay, maybe it is, I want to create a home within my home and I want to start this babysitting service since I need to watch my own child anyways and might as well help others. But then after we expanded and we grew and we became like a pretty well-known brand as a small mom and pop, then it was time to grow. And now I have to learn about regulations, compliance, again, true delegation, letting go. And all of it at first felt very overwhelming, like it was a lot. But then I realized, okay, this is how you create true real impact. And then I also learned how important culture is because when you have employees in the beginning, it sounds cool, oh yeah, I have all these employees, right? And it sounded like, and it seemed like, oh yeah, they work for me, so it seems so cool. But the reality is, no, I work for them, like, and it's no longer just about like, oh, this is, I'm providing a job for them. It comes down again with purpose, like impassion and in early child education, you're doing the work because you truly enjoy what you do. You're not doing it for the pay. And so, what that said, as a leader, it's my job to create a place in a culture where people can really thrive and, you know, provide the best care. And so, community was very important. Systems are extremely important. They say that it takes a village to raise a child, but imagine having over a hundred students, you know? So it's like, okay, you need the whole world to raise a child, right? And by building like a strong business now, like I could serve so many more families and give my staff careers and it's not just jobs. And it quickly shifted from caring for children to creating lasting impact for everyone who's actually part of meaningful beginnings. Our families, our team, the children, and now it just goes much larger than that. Again, it's about purpose now. - Looking back on kind of that full journey, and I know there's much more to go, but are there things you would have done differently? Maybe as you were finding your footing. - Oh yeah, so I made so many mistakes. I made a mistake of delegating too much. I'm an extremist. And so I'm either far left or far right to my person. And I mean, now I've learned how to balance, but especially the beginning, I didn't know. And so I was always on the far right or far left, and it was always too much of one thing or the other. It was never a balance. I definitely gave too much power to one person and delegated too much. I wish I knew more about money. I was a business owner. Like I knew how to do the day to day, and you know, take care of the children customer service. But the money piece, I was not very, I guess educating that piece. I wish I had studied that more. Like know about my loan options, knew about like leveraging, knew about debt, and how to play it, how it plays in with the business, wish I knew about SBA loans earlier. Like there's just so many things I wish I would've known about. But again, like going through everything though, it's made me who I am today, which is why at the same time if I could go back and say, okay, let me change things up a bit, I won't, because I will do it exactly the same way, because it's made me who I am now. - Yeah, I think that having run a small business, I think that no matter how many videos or web pages I've read about it, it didn't really prepare me for actually running that small business. - And there's just so many things that pop up that you don't know about, you know, there's gonna, there's things that, if you could plan and you could say, when this happens, I'm gonna do this. But the reality is that it never really happens the way that you plan it in your head. And you basically just have to like, no, you have to be so flexible, adaptable, and just being able to know how to like pivot right away. That's the key there. - Yeah, I think that for us, building capacity in others was something that we probably struggled with a little bit, because, you know, when you pay minimal wage, you're not gonna get a chef to cover it and help with the prep. So you have to train them and we did our best, but I mean, I was the founder and the main chef and Jen was the sous chef and we were really highly skilled, but then everyone we brought in, it was like, you know, we would need like two or three of them to do the same work that Jen or I could do in the same amount of time. - Yeah, the training pieces are very important piece. Even right now with teachers, as you can imagine, it's, so that's the other piece actually going back when you ask about like the biggest difference, like in a in-home daycare too, you don't need the teachers to have units and credentials and to have their bachelor's and things like that. You can hire someone off the street and as long as they are background checked and see if you're a certified, they are good to be your assistant in your in-home daycare. But if you want them to work in the school, they need to have units, they need to have education and there's so many little like nuances that goes into that and there's ratios. So like, you know, with babies, it's one, two, four, one, two, six, one, two, 12. So you need to have one adult that has all these units to a specific set amount of a group of students. So yes, it is not easy and training is the key thing, which is why with us, we are about growth. Like we are all about growth mindset. I always send my team back to school, send them to professionals of element, all sorts of things. But going, which leads me into like with my teachers, I have teachers that's been with me for over 10 years, like almost 13 years. Yes, since I open my downstairs in my home, they're still in my centers today. And so even with them, they started, like I said, no experience, nothing. And now they're teachers, they have their units, we send them to school, we give them stipends. And we're all about growth and continue to grow in themselves and to become better for the betterment of society. Wow, that's really impressive. One of the most notable things that we read in reviews of meaningful beginnings was that it felt like a home away from home. And many of the parents often worry that daycare centers can feel too institutional. What are some keys to cultivating sort of that balance, though, of home away from home, atmosphere, but at the same time as a registered daycare center, there has to be a level of professionalism, fidelity to the mission, et cetera. Right. It comes down to relationships and culture. That's the biggest thing. And it's the people. In every business, it's always people or systems. And for us, it's definitely both. But the key thing is the people. The people is what drove us to where we are today. And the systems is what's going to continue keeping us driving and growing and scaling. And so we make sure that every family feels like they're walking into a second home by greeting the family. I mean, it's simple, but we know everything that's going on in the child's life. Like, you know, we greet them by their names. We're not yet at that point where we're so corporate where we don't know whose names are who or what's going on in the child's lives. And behind the scenes, though, we run things very professionally. Clear systems, train staff, curriculums, safety protocols, all of it. And also, I mean, I don't know if you guys ever heard of this, but it's called EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system. It's one system as a how your company operates. And that's how-- and we just recently signed up on this-- on the system. And basically, it helps us streamline everything on the back end. So on the back end, we're very corporate. We're very clean so that everyone knows what their roles and what their jobs are. When the front end, though, the love is just-- I don't-- it's just so overwhelming. Because it's the mix of love and structure that makes families trust us. And the culture we're building with our team, it all starts from the top down. And so, for me, I truly believe in kindness, compassion, love, and spreading that to everybody in our centers. And my team knows that. And so because my team knows that, they do the same thing. So again, top down. What I spread to my team goes to everybody else. And eventually, it goes into the staff, into the families, and into the children. And besides that, though, we also have very homey feel. Like, we don't have plastic things. It's all natural woods, lots of green trees, plans. And we try to make it-- have you guys ever heard of Montessori? Yeah. Yes. So we're Reggio Emilio Insparte, which is very similar to Montessori. The only difference is Montessori focuses on the child as an individual, whereas we focus on the children as a community. But everything else is very similar. And so ultimately, the long story short, it comes down to core values, which for us, our core values, again, love, which stands for the compassion and kindness piece, and then the grit and resilience, which is how I grew up. And for the grit and resilience, for adaptability and flexibility, the ability to pivot, like I mentioned earlier. And lastly, showing up is very important for us. So giving it 110%, and doing more than just a bare minimum. And we fire higher and reward based on these principles, because at the core, that's who we are. And what I tell my team is, OK, if the business is not here, throw the business out the door. Who are we at the core? Will we still stand by these core values? Some people, their core values are, oh, yeah, we're going to make amazing burgers or whatever. Let's just say you're at restaurant. But if the business is not there, you're not going to be like, oh, I'm going to make amazing burgers. Right? So for us, our core values are really truly who we are. And when I say we is me and the team that's behind us, because without the team, we wouldn't be where we are. So the homey field comes down to team and systems. Yeah, by the way, just one quick thing on Reggio Emilio. My wife ran the early years program at the school district she worked in. And so she was always talking about Reggio Emilio and being inspired by that and how the environment is really the additional teacher and kind of going through all of that. And now here in Vietnam, the school I'm working and it's also Reggio Emilio inspired. And it's where there are so many ways that we have our two year old to four year old kids that are at the school, our early years program, that we have them exploring nature and just playing and discovering. And my job as the director of innovation is how do we also balance in when technology can be used in a very intentional way to allow our students to catalog that or synthesize their understanding and not feel like it's ever replacing the environment. Right, exactly. Yeah, for us, environment is key. It is one of the biggest components. Even as we expand and we are looking for new sites outdoor space, it's so crucial for us. And it really makes a difference, especially now with AI and all these things in the world. And it's inevitable what our children are exposed to. And that's why for us, we like to just keep things natural and holistic. That's really what our philosophy is holistic meaning that it's the child as a whole. Like we encompass everything. We are the resource for everything around the children and the families. It sounds amazing, especially the emphasis on culture and whatnot. But what was it like to open the second location and to take that leap? It was very messy. I thought like, OK, we could just open a second location. And it would just run like the first location, right? I mean, we already have the people. We have the culture of the systems. I thought we were-- that would be it. But now I was wrong. It was really messy. And I thought it was going to naturally carry over. But we were scrambling all over the place. What I learned is that the secret to scaling is it about more doors. It's, again, back to people and great systems. Having great teams and great processes. And over the past few years, we've worked really hard to build both. And that's what's positioning us now for exponential growth. We also went back to, again, we went back to core values. And we had to ask our leadership team, but I just mentioned this earlier. But if we're going back to our core values, like if we didn't have the business who are we really. And so now I basically-- it became a cookie cutter now. In the beginning, it was really hard, really messy. It was really just all over the place. And we did not know what we were doing, OK? But then after going through that mess and going through all these hard messy times, then we created really true, strong systems. And we put people in the right places. So people in the right seats and the wrong people. We had to push them out. Again, everybody had to realign with our culture. And then that was how we fixed the second location. And then now we are really in a position where we're able to scale. Because the past few years, we've just been heavily invested in the people and the systems. Yeah. One of the other things that we really admire was that you've also launched consulting for other childcare entrepreneurs. And what was the motivation to help others essentially set up their own businesses that could be considered competition in a way? Yeah, well, I mean, at my core, I love helping people. And I love watching people grow. And that stems from my own childhood because I didn't get that. And when I started growing, seeing results, I knew where my true purpose in life lies. So helping others, like, I guess some people, they see it as competition, as you mentioned, but I see it so differently. I feel like there's not enough quality centers out there. One center, even 10, can't meet the need. But helping other entrepreneurs, helping other people who own childcare centers, I'm raising the bar for the entire industry. And lastly, I remember how hard it was for me. And there was nobody there to help me along the way. Like, again, I made so many mistakes that cost me money. Like a lot of money and also people, you know? And so, I mean, if I could be out there, which I am now guiding others so that they don't make the same mistakes that I have, like, that's enough for me. Like, that's my true purpose in life. I just want to make sure that we all come together as a team and create really great high quality education for young children. Yeah. I mean, you've accomplished so much already between both centers and the entrepreneurship consulting. But if you take a moment to dream, what does meaningful beginnings look like in five years or 10 years time? It's great that you asked that because we just completed our most recent leadership meeting. And one of our coaches was like, what's your big, hairy, audacious goal? And they're like, this goal has to scare you a little bit, you know? And, I mean, I always have the vision in mind. I was like, OK, I want to go nationwide. I want to build like, you know, 100 centers. And we want to be like the household name for child care centers. We want to be the MB way. And I knew this vision internally. But when my coach asked my team, I was surprised to see what the answers were, right? And my right hand, she's basically my COO, my operations. She was like, OK, I think we could do 50 to 60 centers across the nation in 10 years. And I was like, well, you just took that out of my mind, you know? And so our big, hairy, audacious goal, what that scares us, but that's what we're aiming to do, is to have to serve over 5,000 students across the nation, which that looks like 50 to 60 locations. And it'll be all rooted in the same love, care, and philosophy that started in my home. And we know what we have. We know what we're building. That this is our why, it's our core values. And we want to replicate this to so many more families with giving them experience of what a home away from home can feel like. And for me, it's not just about growing centers. It's about shaping the future members of society and giving them the best art possible. Our slogan is building futures together. That's so beautiful. And it's really inspiring. We don't know the exact statistics on this, but we've researched a little. And we're really interested to know your thoughts on being an Asian-American entrepreneur. What does representation mean to you in a field where a leadership maybe isn't always as diverse? Let's see. I will say it's breaking the barrier, breaking the mold. As an Asian-American woman, I know my story doesn't fit the typical stereotype. And this is why representation matters. People don't always see women of color or especially Asian women in leadership roles in business. And I want to show others that you can be both nurturing and ambitious, both hard-lead and also business-minded. And when I was growing up, and I feel like school teaches you that is either or. Like I mentioned earlier, my stream is black and white, right? And I think it's really truly about finding that balance. And I'm a mother myself. In the beginning when I was starting my whole entrepreneur journey, I used to think, oh, if I'm a business woman, I can't really be motherly. Or if I'm too motherly, I'm losing my strength as a business woman. And so it was always either or. And that, again, another mistake that I've learned is that then I kind of created these little soldiers instead of loving children, because-- OK, it's funny because my outlook in my business is totally different from how I do things at home. Because I am the leader. I have to have this facade. I have to be strong. I have to be like, I guess, like-- I was afraid to show emotions. And so throughout my experience now in learning everything, I've learned that you can do both. You can find that balance. You can embrace both. And what I'm bringing to the table now is basically that-- well, to bring more diversity into leadership. But also to really show people what's possible. And that, like, OK, let me go back a little bit. For me, I also worked on healing my inner child. And I'm always on constant growth. And I'm always learning. And I'm always building-- like my motto is to be better than yesterday, to always strive to be better than yesterday. And so now, I feel like as long as you continuously keep growing, keep wanting to learn, learn about yourself, heal things in the past, because nobody has a perfect past. Everybody has something. And if you continue doing that as cliche as it sounds, I feel like you could do anything. And as long as you have that in mind, anything is possible. There's no cap. There's no ceiling. Anything is capable. Anything can happen. And so for me, through my own journey, I've learned that, yes, I could be both a business woman. I could be both a nurturing. I could also be all the other things that I thought that I couldn't be when I was a child. But the biggest thing is, as an Asian American, I don't know how it was for you guys growing up. But I was not allowed to show feelings. It was always like, oh, suppress, suppress, and you didn't know how-- and my parents never said I'd love you. They never said I was proud of you. There was none of that stuff. It was just like, oh, you got straight A's. Oh, OK, that's cool. Why don't you get actually a 4.10? It was never enough. And so now, being an Asian woman in business, I just know that I want to be my true authentic self. And I'm bringing my true power and who I am to the table. And that's it. Because I no longer need to keep this mass or this facade and feel like I have to be a certain way. I have to fit a serial type. I have to be a very mean or stern or whatever. I know that I don't have to be that anymore. And that came with the healing journey. And so with that said, I am feeling like I'm breaking the barrier. And I want to inspire others to do the same. Yeah. I mean, you definitely are. I feel like I definitely see in the world that I don't see a lot of Asian American women in positions of power. So it's very awesome to see you building what you've built and also just continuing to push what you believe in. Because what you do is amazing. Oh, thank you so much. So we always like to provide a little time at the end for our guests to share any additional comments or ideas. So now's your chance. I just want to leave people with this. Chalk care is not babysitting. And whenever I tell people I'm in childcare, they're like, oh, so you babysit? I'm like, actually, no. Early childhood education is not babysitting. It's just like kindergarten or middle school or high school. You know, there's a heavy emphasis on education, right? For early child education is exact same thing, but just for younger members of society. And we are shaping the future, like literally. And every child we nurture today grows into tomorrow's potential leaders, creators, change makers, you know, whether your parent teach your entrepreneurs this matters. And when we do it with love and intention, we don't just build businesses. We build futures. It's great. I couldn't agree more. So thank you so much for joining us on our podcast. It's been really inspiring to hear your story. And we can't wait to hear about your progress towards your big Harry audacious goal. We'll be sure to link to meaningful beginnings in our show notes. And please, you're welcome back anytime. Oh, thank you. This was so much fun. I really enjoyed being here. Thank you for your time. Thank you for having me share my story. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much. [CHEERING] That's our show for today. Thanks again for listening to the Asian American History 101 podcast. If you want to support the history and pop culture of the Asian Pacific diaspora in general and our podcast specifically, then please be sure to subscribe to our podcast to hear each week's episode. We'd also love it if you share our podcast with your friends, family, and teachers. Please rate us and add comments to the podcast directories. And you can send thoughts, questions, or suggestions to our email at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. For links and resources between podcasts, visit AsianAmericanHistory101.libson.com. That's AsianAmericanHistory101.libsyn.com. You can also find our social media links and press via our CastPie located at c-a-s-t-p-i-e.com/aahistory101. We do post on Instagram. So if you want to be notified of our episodes there, then please follow and like our posts at aahistory101. In our next episode, we'll be sharing the history of chicken teriyaki. Stay safe. Bye. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]