Co-Founder, Chief Executive
HopSkipDrive
Joanna McFarland co-founded HopSkipDrive in 2014 with Carolyn Yashari Becher and Janelle McGlothlin. The founders, all mothers, were looking for a solution that would help them coordinate the complex logistics of taking children from schools to their after-school activities while balancing their own full-time jobs and personal schedules. HopSkipDrive, a business-to-business platform that works directly with schools, after-school programs and other organizations, raised $3.9 million in seed stage funding in 2019. The company mobilized during the Palisades and Eaton fires in early 2025. They started programs to pick up and drop off children who were displaced by the fires, helping to bring a sense of normalcy to families scrambling to rebuild.
YEARS ON LA500: 2 Years on the LA500