Who Founded enrops? The Team and Story Behind It

Updated September 17, 2026

enrops was founded by me, Arielle Hammond, Ed.D., and built by a team of youth enrichment program leaders. I spent a decade in public education, leading schools, then founded Journey to STEAM in 2023. It now runs kids STEM programs at 75+ school sites. We built enrops because the tools for running kids programs were spreadsheets and logins that don't talk to each other. Every feature runs at Journey to STEAM first.

There is a version of this story where I kept going exactly as I was. Where I signed the next school, hired the next two instructors, figured out another workaround for a billing tool that was never designed for me, and added one more site every quarter. That version was available to me. It was even a good version. It wasn't the right one.

Who founded enrops?

I founded it, and a team of program leaders built it with me. We are operators who needed it. I've been the teacher. I've been the principal. I've been the business owner doing rosters at midnight, and I'm a mom of three who registers her own kids for programs from her phone. I have sat in nearly every seat this software touches.

Journey to STEAM is my first company. We run hands-on STEM programs inside schools and community sites: 75+ school sites, 2,500+ students, and 95% of our school partners renew. I wasn't struggling when I started enrops. I wasn't looking for a way out. I was looking at a ceiling.

What problem was I trying to solve?

The ceiling was structural. It was built into every tool I had access to, every process I had improvised and every late-night reconciliation in a spreadsheet that was never designed for the job. I thought that once I had grown and could hire more people, this would only become easier over time. That was not the case. Year two grew, and it cost me more work than year one did.

So I kept a running list. Specific problems I wanted solved, written down the day they bit me. Three of them stayed at the top.

1. One view of every site. You manage enrollment for 12 school sites, every school is set up a little differently, and nowhere shows you all of it as it really is today.
2. Sub coverage. An instructor calls out, and you cross-reference four documents to figure out who is free, who has been to that school before and who can handle that group of kids.
3. Billing that matches the model. Getting paid for a school program looks nothing like billing a studio family, and every tool I tried treated the studio as the default.

Why didn't I keep working around it?

Because the workaround was the whole industry's plan. I called veteran operators, some of them twenty years in, and asked how they ran scheduling, payroll and registration. Everybody said the same thing: a spreadsheet. Okay, so I wasn't crazy. The toolbox was the problem.

Later I asked operators to describe their dream tool. They described enrops. They had never heard of it.

The decision itself was quiet. I let myself ask a question I had been avoiding. If the tool I need doesn't exist, and I know exactly what it should do, and I have the proof in dozens of school programs, what am I waiting for?

One more thing shaped the build. I came to software as the least technical person in my school building. I was the principal who got locked out of her own account. So enrops has to work for someone who is nervous about tech, on her phone, at 9 PM, with no manual.

Did I stop running programs to build software?

No. People who care about me worried I was walking away from something good. I wasn't walking away from anything. Journey to STEAM is still running, and it is the first customer for everything we build.

That is the method. We build it. We run it at Journey to STEAM, with real families, real instructors and real school partners. Then we hand it to you. Built for us, by us. Running on enrops, Journey to STEAM cut $83K in annual admin costs. The details are in the Journey to STEAM story.

I chose something bigger than one company. Everything I learned, built, broke and rebuilt at one operation can now serve every operator who needs it.

What does enrops do today?

enrops handles the path from "a parent is interested" to "the kid is on the roster and you've been paid." You sign up, create a program and publish a registration link with a QR code, in under 5 minutes. Here is what is live when you do.

• Mobile checkout for parents, with cards and wallets through Stripe.
• Payment plans you set.
• Digital waivers you can edit.
• A schedule builder that knows the school calendar. Pick the district and school, and it calculates class dates and shows no-school days.
• Rosters with names, emails, grade and homeroom teacher, and a live count of total enrolled.
• Confirmation and welcome emails, reminders to families who started registering and didn't finish, and discount codes.
• Refunds, with the enrops service fee refunded to the family whenever the registration is refunded.

Instructor onboarding, class matching and sub offers, my number two problem on that list, are set up with our team today. School-paid contracts still get invoiced from your accounting software, and I explain my process in how to invoice a school for your program. The full walkthrough is on how it works.

Who is enrops for?

enrops is for the people who run kids programs. That started with school-based operators like me, and it now covers after-school programs, camps, classes and studios.

It also serves the institutions on the other side of the partnership. Schools, PTOs and parks agencies are set up with our team through a demo, at no cost to the organization.

If you are the person who partners with the school, runs the program, manages the instructors, handles registration and does it across several sites while trying to grow: this was built for you. I know, because my team built it for me first.

Frequently asked questions

Is enrops only for programs that run in schools?

No. School-based programs are where it started. Camps, classes, studios and community programs use the same registration, payments, waivers and rosters.

What does enrops cost a business?

Free for businesses. Your only cost is Stripe's standard processing. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.

Is Arielle Hammond still running Journey to STEAM?

Yes. Journey to STEAM keeps running programs, and every enrops feature runs there before it reaches other operators.

How long does it take to set up?

Under 5 minutes to create your first registration and get a live link. Connecting Stripe to collect payments takes a few minutes more.

Where can I read more about Arielle's background?

The about page has the full story: the schools, the businesses and the mission.

Create your first registration. Free for businesses. Live in under 5 minutes. Or click through a sample registration first.

Arielle Hammond, Ed.D. is the founder of enrops and host of The Youth Enrichment Leader, presented by enrops.