What kind of platforms seniors need?
The tech map for seniors is full of startups already, so we in Vozrastech project are selecting interesting cases like Sanoste platform from Finland.
The simple idea is to use teleconference technology for group exercises like phisyotherapy or yoga for seniors. The implementation should include something like hundreds of interviews with seniors, best geriatrician in the country and dedicated team. So Vozrastech talked about seniors, platforms and attitude with Marianne Dannbom, CEO and founder of Sanoste.
What is the story behind the creation of Sanoste?
I was previously working in development company and was involved in development work for well-being and healthcare for the City of Helsinki. I have started virtual home care project in Helsinki, and I’ve noticed that elderly people they need all kinds of support to be able to stay in home. That’s how Sanoste started. The idea is that we have something for everybody. So people can become what they want. There’s a lot of companies already in care field, municipalities are mainly doing it, we didn’t see the room for us and also we wanted to be in a digital world. Everybody is expecting is that private sector will grow up, because of baby boomers. Municipalities will not be able to provide needed support. We saw the opportunity to supply activities in digital form.
Who are the customers?
We are supplying services for B2B, so nursing homes are using this for recreational services. We have private customers. Typically, there are relatives who purchase services for their elder relatives because they worry for their parents, their loneliness and that they are not moving, not exercising.
What kind of services are the most demanded by seniors?
Most popular 3 services — chair exercise, brain exercise, and then Asahi, which is Finnish invention. The reason why they’re popular is that elder people are aware of it. Singing is very popular too. Music tends to calm your down, give you very positive feeling when you’re singing or listening to music you like. A lot of studies telling about advantages of music for well-being was published recently, that’s the reason a lot of startups now emerging.
Do You plan to offer more services through the platform?
There are two possibilities — first we could offer more activities for elders — cooking classes or learning languages or things like that. Second, platform can be used also for other segments. So we could use it for training or with disabled people, or in rehabilitation. We are startup, we don’t have a chance to do all by ourselves, but we could make licensing for activities like that.
What are the difficulties when working on such a product for seniors?
Apart for all the time searching for money, the main challenge is when you’re bringing something new to the market is the attitude. And it’s quite interesting that the elderly people, they love it. They’re waiting for our services. But it’s the attitude or relatives and care personnel. To lower the threshold for the purchasing what we’ve done now that people can try free services for once, people are amazed, it’s the fun it’s like having physiotherapist present. It’s the attitude, You should try to change people, thinking that their relatives are not able to do it and be excited about it.
We do have some elderly people who can purchase our service themselves, use the ipad and download the app, but mainly they’re dependent on their relatives or care personnel. That’s the level where we’re working on to convince them that this is really wonderful. All our users are really enthusiastic.
Do You communicate with universities, gerontologists and elders themselves?
We’ve been working with some universities in some pilots. One of our founders is geriatrician. He’s following up all the time what is happening in this market and we’re getting the information, so we have expert inside.
We’ve had over 100 elderly people involved in development of this service, developing applications, testing webstore. We’ve started with interviewing them and finding out what they want in their lives.
It’s quite funny, in many seminars I’ve seen very important people involved in elder care and they wondering how can they get elder people involved. And I’m ready to jump up and say: well, ask them. Actually, if you’re asking them, they are really willing to tell how to improve your product. We’ve got many many improvements from their suggestions.
What do You think about competition in the segment of services for seniors?
Most important thing about Sanoste’s service is that it’s real time. Main competitor for us is one to one physiotherapy. Main competitive advantage is that we are cost-effective, because physiotherapist can have more clients simultaneously. You can have this service everywhere. If you live in small village in Finland and you have WLAN, 3G or 4G, you can have the same quality as in big city. It’s also environmental safe, cause nobody driving anywhere. The main factor our users appreciate is that instructor is present and that you can have quality services, provided by instructor everywhere.
How do You work with senior care companies?
We consider care companies more like partners. We are negotiating with them, they can buy that service from us rather cheap. In one nursing home, they’ve been using our services about 3 months. They were skeptical at start, because more than 80% are people have severe memory disorders. But they‘ve noticed after two weeks that the residents, they knew at 1 pm they have the chair exercise, so before that time went to the room , where they have big TV, because it’s so much fun for them. There are people who couldn’t remember their children or their names, so it should be really pleasant mark in the brain so they could remember it.
What about the plans?
We want to be #1 in this field, and now we are in the situation when we have no direct competitors. It’s good and bad. It’s bad, because there’s nobody else doing marketing for this, but good cause we have advantages. It starts to be an acceptable way of delivering services. For example, City of Helsinki starts to see benefits of our platform. We now starts to do export activities, cause we have made real international innovation. So 10 mln EUR revenue is good for now, but the whole market is radically growing.
What’s the situation with the company’s financing? Do You plan to attract additional investments from VCs?
There are 4 founders, I’m main shareholder. Year ago we did crowdfunding — all is private. We have had EU funding, Business Finland, Finnvera funding, but no VCs. With more money we could grow faster, but I find the valuations are quite low. When I’m talking with VCs, I see people just don’t understand platform’s economy, its different business, growth strategy. So instead of diluting our share, we are taking loans.
