GoGoGrandparent “makes life meaningfully better” at Y Combinator Demo Day
After a feverish summer participating in Y Combinator’s Summer 2016 batch, we’re ready for YC Pitch Day! As explained by Fortune magazine:
Twice a year, scores of investors and a few journalists pack into a large room at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. to watch the Silicon Valley equivalent of a debutante ball: Demo Day for Y Combinator, the popular startup accelerator.
Y Combinator, which took in its first group of startups in 2005, is often praised as the most prestigious of the accelerator programs. That’s debatable, of course. But to its credit, Y Combinator’s program has spawned such highly valued companies as home rental king Airbnb (reportedly $30 billion), cloud storage provider Dropbox ($10 billion), gaming entertainment network Twitch (acquired by Amazon for about $1 billion), and autonomous vehicle company Cruise (acquired by GM for a reported $1 billion).
Some startups were surprising; others, predictable. I was pleasantly surprised by GoGoGrandparent, which lets senior citizens order a ride with a phone call (and without needing a smartphone or an app like Uber or Lyft)… And some were entirely expected. Many young companies specialized in the perennially popular categories of developer tools, enterprise software, and e-commerce. (Not that predictable can’t mean successful.)
Finishing Y Combinator (YC) reminds us of what initially attracted us to the program to begin with. As explained by Geoff Ralston, partner at Y Combinator, in our debut YC interview:
“GoGoGrandparent is solving an important problem for an aging population. Staying independent is deeply important to seniors, and the service Justin and David have built allows them to stay on their own and autonomous. At YC, we love founders who are not only solving a problem they know intimately, but also are also taking advantage of modern technology and services while making life significantly better for their customers.”
As seen in the story of Grandma Betty and fictional Grand, Inc mentioned in the YC interview, we started on this journey to fill a need important to us and our loved ones. What keeps us going, though, is the amazing feedback from our users and future users, like Sandra in the Demo Day audience:
A couple of months ago, my dad told me his driver’s license was about to expire. He had lost most of the vision in one eye after his last driver’s exam, and he wasn’t confident he’d pass the test this time.
I started to brainstorm solutions — he can just Uber! My parents can move closer to town! — but a deep and growing sense of dread kept overwhelming my thoughts. I wondered how my dad would take care of everyday errands. I worried he’d be trapped in the house all day, every day. He’d lose out on the incidental exercise that comes from pottering around town, heading to the grocery store, or zipping off to the library whenever he pleases. Losing all those daily activities struck me as nothing short of disastrous. So I thought about getting him a smartphone.
Consumer technology has not been kind to the older generation. I’ve watched as technological indignities have amassed at a startling rate for my parents. To browse the web, one consults a series of steps spelled out on a notepad. To restart the router, one follows another checklist, documented line by line. To take and then email a photo using an iPad, one flips through a notebook to find where the process was all written down the first time. Brandishing a smart phone at my father and pointing at the Lyft app seemed like a long shot. Too long.
So when I saw Justin Boogaard present his company at YCombinator’s summer Demo Day last week, I felt an immediate jolt of kinship. His startup, GoGoGrandparent, is an automated hotline that lets people without smartphones summon Uber rides or order groceries. A user dials a phone number, navigates a straightforward menu of options, and orders up the desired service. Against a backdrop of presentations touting a future full of drones, virtual reality and 3D-printed pills, GoGoGrandparent was the only company that spoke to me, and my troubles, right now.
Do I think GoGoGrandparent will someday sprout a unicorn horn? No. Will it even survive another year? Hard to say. As Boogaard acknowledged to me in person at Demo Day, investors were expressing concern about how defensible the company’s platform is. But Boogaard’s idea had one key difference from many of the other incredibly talented, hard-working founders who trotted onto the stage at the Computer History Museum last week: it was rooted in compassion. Thinking of my otherwise able-bodied dad imprisoned in his home because of failing vision bums me to pieces, and here was someone who shared my concern, and better yet, was building a workaround.
This story has a happy ending, though. My dad did pass his vision test, and he renewed his driver’s license a few weeks ago. I’m incredibly relieved. (And I’ve seen him drive: don’t worry, he’s good!) But my admiration for Boogaard still stands.
Elder care services don’t make for great clickbait. It’s not easy to get your heart thumping over a more user-friendly product for the disenfranchised. But for every new live-streaming app, “API for human labor,” or artisanal delivery service (all of which could be great!), I hope there’s a team of founders dreaming of new ways to extend the benefits of technology to more and more people. Many larger companies could have built a similar service to empower people like my dad, but they haven’t. It doesn’t seem quite fair to neglect some humans because they’re too small a market to bother with.
We’re excited to keep building solutions for Sandra, Grandma Betty, and the thousands of others that could benefit. We would be honored to serve your family, as well: signup for free today by visiting our website (www.gogograndparent.com) or calling us toll-free at 1 (855) 464–6872.
GoGoGrandparent helps older adults maintain their independence by accessing on-demand services like Uber & Lyft with a simple phone call (no smartphone required). Rides are available 24/7 in 200+ U.S. cities and usually cost 35% less than a taxi. There’s no charge to register, so get ready for your first ride today on our website or by calling toll-free 1 (855) 464–6872.
