Introducing Gerry — the first data driven concierge for senior living
4 years ago, in late March, I received a frantic call from my mom; my Dad had taken the family car and was missing.
My father ended up driving 550 miles — nearly 8 hours — until our Camry Hybrid ran out of gas. Luckily Quebec Provincial Police found him and brought him to an emergency room to spend the night. The next morning, when my Mom and I arrived to pick him up, my dad simply greeted us with a smile, as if nothing had happened.
And we immediately began an incredibly stressful journey into the opaque, predatory and prohibitively expensive world of senior caregiving.
For our family , that 8-hour unplanned road-trip forced us to confront the fact that Dad’s forgetfulness was not due to “normal aging” but to dementia, and we were in a serious crisis that we had neglected to plan for.
We raced head-first into trying to solve the problem by:
- Hiring a rotating squad of personal support workers
- Setting up nanny-cams to see if Dad had fallen again
- My mom cutting back on her night shifts as a nurse
- Finding (and getting expelled from) two adult day-cares
- Researching the best adult diapers, condom catheters, and walkers
- Hastily selling our family home — privately, without an appraisal, to our neighbor’s cousin
- And now — two and a half years and counting in a 24/7 live-in memory care community
At every step of the way, we had to interpret conflicting advice and manage our stress, while being bombarded by predatory sales pitches and barely avoiding financial ruin.
Turns out we’re not alone -- there are more than 35 million unpaid caregivers of seniors struggling with the very same issues.
After my experience, I felt compelled to explore these issues on a broader scale. I met personally with 70 caregivers to understand their stories and I saw common concerns emerge:
- “This is not normal aging, but what is?”
- “How much longer can I take care of Dad?”
- “How do I make sure Mom is safe 24 hours a day?”
- “How do I get by (financially)?”
They are rightfully worried, considering horror stories of home health aides making people prisoners in their own homes, gross neglect at senior living facilities and drug-resistant infections in nursing homes.
But by keeping loved ones at home and trying to cope on their own, caregivers face serious consequences — often sacrificing their own mental and physical health, pausing their careers, and putting their own retirement at risk.
Taking the plunge
During this exploration, I talked to others whom I trusted about the subject — entrepreneurs, investors, operators and life insurance executives. Many were increasingly concerned about the state of our eldercare system and its implications for our society. I connected with my now co-founder, Ajay Rajani, who had been advising a large organization in the senior care industry on new products/businesses and was excited to bring digital innovation to this legacy industry.
We all agreed that there had to be a better way to solve the problems that my family, and millions like us, faced when caring for our aging loved ones. And so — we did.
Enter Gerry
Our Mission is to put families at ease with a pain-free path to quality senior long term care.
We primarily help caregivers in three key ways:
Understand & Plan
We give families unbiased information provided by a Licensed Social Worker. This helps caregivers understand the level of long term care needed, and determine a realistic, personalized plan, given their goals and resources.
Evaluate & Decide
Using data science we’re able to evaluate and rank 15,000 in-home care agencies, and 43,000 senior living communities. We’ve invested a significant amount of time into unifying the industry’s absolute best dataset, enabling transparency and personalization.
Ongoing Support
Our Care Advocates forge ongoing relationships with families for 12 to 24 months, throughout the ups and downs of long term care. We’re working to align financial interest across the value chain to realize our ultimate goal: Optimizing senior longevity and vitality.
In order to have the greatest impact, we currently provide our services free of charge to the family caregivers.
The Road Ahead
It’s early in our journey, but we’re inspired by the 100+ families we work with every month, and we look forward to helping more seniors avoid predators, reduce anxiety, and create personalized plans for their long term care.
We’re also fortunate to be backed by some phenomenal venture capitalists who have the conviction to tackle a very broken industry.
This is a tall order, but it’s possible with our world-class and mission driven team of engineers, data scientists, social workers and operators, which we are continuing to grow. If you are interested in joining us, you can see the roles we’re actively recruiting for here.
Finally, If you or someone you know needs help in finding high quality senior living, please connect with us, at www.meetgerry.com and on Twitter or Facebook.
Thank You,
Farron & Team Gerry
