a16z Podcast: Tackling Senior Care with Help from Technology
Apr 10, 2015
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Seth Sternberg, co-founder of Honor and former Meebo team member, teams up with Sandy Jen, Honor's Head of Engineering, to reshape senior care through technology. They discuss how to prioritize emotional well-being while ensuring seniors can remain at home longer. The duo emphasizes the importance of user-friendly tech that fosters human interactions, community connections, and personalized care. Their journey is not just about innovation but also about creating meaningful solutions driven by personal experiences and a commitment to enhancing the lives of the elderly.
Honor leverages technology to create a personalized matching service for seniors and caregivers, enhancing communication and oversight for families.
The company emphasizes the importance of addressing seniors' emotional well-being through community-building activities and fostering human connections.
Deep dives
Reinventing In-Home Senior Care
Honor aims to transform in-home care for seniors by providing a personalized matching service between seniors and care professionals. The founders' experience with aging family members highlighted the inadequacies of existing care options, which often leave families overwhelmed. By leveraging technology, Honor not only facilitates the selection of suitable caregivers but also ensures transparency and communication through notifications and updates. This allows families to maintain oversight while empowering caregivers to perform their roles effectively and with dignity.
Technology as an Enabler, Not a Focus
Honor emphasizes that while technology is integral to their service, it should enhance the human experience rather than dominate it. The approach seeks to create a seamless connection between families, seniors, and caregivers, enabling better interactions and support without the clients feeling inundated by technology. The platform’s goal is to provide an intuitive experience, making it easier for users to communicate care needs and preferences without feeling overwhelmed. By focusing on quality of service rather than flashy technology, Honor aims to instill confidence in the families they assist.
Building Community for Seniors and Families
The founders of Honor recognize the importance of addressing not just the physical needs of seniors but also their social and emotional well-being. By fostering a sense of community among seniors, they aim to combat feelings of isolation, encouraging connections through local activities and shared interests. The initiative includes plans for events like game nights or social meet-ups, helping seniors engage with others in similar situations. This community aspect not only supports seniors but also provides families with a platform to share experiences and advice, creating a supportive network.
It is something we all face -- the prospect of taking care of a parent (or two) when they can't quite take care of themselves. For Seth Sternberg, part of the founding team of messaging service Meebo (bought by Google) a trip in the car with his mother reinforced the inevitability of her aging. Today it was her driving, but soon how would she manage everything else?
For Sternberg, the answer to that question lay in part with technology. How could technology be brought to bear so that his mother -- and other seniors -- might stay in their homes longer and live not just physically satisfying lives, but lives that addressed their emotional well-being as well? The founding Meebo team got back together to build that technology, the backbone of their new company Honor. In this segment of the pod Sternberg and co-founder Sandy Jen discuss how technology needs to disappear into a human experience -- becoming something that isn't about the shiny and new, and more about human interaction. Also, after such a successful run at Meebo why torture themselves with building some new? The answer is exactly what you would hope.
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