From Challenge to Champion: How Proximity Turned Vision into Victory
Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Filipino-American entrepreneur and founder of Care.com, whose personal experiences fueled her mission to revolutionize family care for millions worldwide.
As a venture intern with Kapwa, I have the opportunity to research and meet with founders from a variety of unique backgrounds. Amidst these stories, I discovered a fascinating pattern: the founder's personal proximity to the main problem that their company aims to solve is an important, but often overlooked, metric for evaluating startups. In fact, this relationship can be a powerful indicator for current and aspiring angel investors as a predictor of the quantity and quality of the founder's (and by extension the company’s) output. Filipina entrepreneur Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a strong example of how proximity can drive performance. From caring for both her two children and her father as a first gen student working through graduate school to leading a company worth half a billion dollars, the story of Sheila Lirio reflects true entrepreneurial spirit and demonstrates how our personal trials can become our greatest triumphs.
Setting the Foundation
Sheila's entrepreneurial drive is rooted in her upbringing in the Philippines, where her family ran multiple businesses in agricultural production, providing her with early exposure to entrepreneurship. After receiving education in both the US and the Philippines, she earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Mt. Holyoke College. She went on to complete a demanding JD/MBA program at Harvard Business School while balancing the intense pressures of raising a young family as a first-generation immigrant.
As if those pressures weren’t enough, Sheila’s father would suffer a serious stroke shortly after she graduated from Harvard, and Sheila soon found herself in need of both childcare and senior care. There is a name for this group of people who are caring for both their children and their parents at the same time: The Sandwich Generation.
According to Pew Research, roughly one-in-seven middle-aged adults is a part of the Sandwich Generation. Members of this group are often characterized by emotional and financial strain as living costs continue to rise across the country. Despite facing these struggles, Sheila was able to use her entrepreneurial mind to recognize the need for better care options for the Sandwich Generation and develop a meaningful solution: Care.com
Care.com: A Caregiving Solution
During a six-month tenure as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Matrix Partners in Boston, Sheila received the resources and connections necessary to build and officially launch Care.com in 2006, eventually leading the company to an IPO in 2014. By 2020, the company was considered the largest online marketplace for family care, generating close to $200 million in annual revenue. At that time, the company also boasted a network of almost 20 million families and 14 million caregivers. In February 2020, Care.com was acquired by IAC at a valuation of $500 million.
The Overlooked Advantage
It was a combination of Sheila’s background and close proximity to the problem – actually living as a member of the Sandwich Generation – that allowed her to create such a successful solution. Her personal experience fueled her work and allowed her to clearly see the opportunity that Care.com capitalized on. Furthermore, reflecting on her success, Sheila believes that Care.com displays not only her past but also her Filipino heritage. For a culture that holds family and community to such a high level of importance, the mission of Care.com certainly reflects the spirit of the Filipino people.
At Kapwa, I am learning that understanding our founders and their backgrounds is critical to our mission and investment thesis. We believe that founders, especially underserved founders, with close proximity to their needs and solutions have a significant competitive advantage, and these are the founders we seek out. We encourage you to consider this metric when conducting your own company or founder analysis: find the founder whose life is the proof of market validation.
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Meet Jose Centenera (he/him)
Jose Centenera is currently a venture intern at Kapwa Capital for Fall 2025, where he contributes to early-stage investment research and founder outreach in the Washington, DC-Baltimore area. He is currently studying Finance and Philosophy at The Catholic University of America and is an active member of the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship. Proud of his Filipino heritage, Jose strives to weave elements of his culture into his academic and professional journey, using his work and writing to highlight the importance of founder proximity, community values, and innovation within diverse backgrounds.
