Kabir Bhatia on Helping Aging Parents Stay Home Safely Without Watching Them

Most aging parents want to stay home, but how do caregivers keep them safe without taking away their independence, dignity, or privacy?

In this episode of From Guilt to Good, Jeanette Yates talks with Kabir Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Hello Everyday, about aging in place, caregiver worry, senior safety technology, and how families can support loved ones without making them feel watched.

Kabir’s work began from personal experience. After supporting his father through three rounds of cancer and watching his mother adjust to living alone after his father passed, he began thinking deeply about one of the hardest questions caregivers face: how do we help loved ones stay in their own homes safely without turning every conversation into a check-in?

Jeanette and Kabir discuss what aging in place actually requires beyond physical safety, including autonomy, community, financial readiness, purpose, and dignity. Kabir also explains why many older adults resist complicated technology, why cameras and apps are not always the right answer, and how Hello Everyday was designed to offer reassurance without surveillance.

They also talk about solo aging, advance directives, family conversations before a crisis, dementia-friendly technology, and Hello Tunes — a simple music and reminder device created for people living with cognitive decline or dementia.

This conversation is for family caregivers, adult children, solo agers, and anyone trying to help an aging parent, spouse, or loved one stay home safely while still protecting their independence and quality of life.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Jeanette Yates speaks with Kabir Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Hello Everyday, about how caregivers can help aging parents and loved ones stay safe at home without taking away their independence or privacy.

Kabir shares the personal caregiving experience that shaped his work, including supporting his father through three rounds of cancer and helping his mother adjust to life alone after his father passed. That experience led him to think about the emotional reality many caregivers face: wanting reassurance that a loved one is okay, while also wanting to respect their dignity and autonomy.

The conversation explores what aging in place really requires beyond physical safety. Kabir explains that older adults need financial stability, community, purpose, and support systems that allow them to remain connected without feeling monitored. He and Jeanette also discuss why advance directives and care conversations are easier before a crisis, and why families often wait too long to talk about what an aging parent actually wants.

Kabir explains the design principles behind Hello Everyday, a simple safety sensor built for older adults who want to live independently. The device does not use cameras, microphones, apps, or Wi-Fi setup. Instead, it helps caregivers know when something may be wrong while allowing the older adult to control privacy settings and avoid feeling watched.

Jeanette and Kabir also discuss Hello Tunes, a dementia-friendly music and reminder device designed for people living with cognitive decline. Kabir explains how familiar music, simple controls, reminders, routine, and presence detection can support both the person living with dementia and the caregiver.

This episode gives caregivers a clearer way to think about aging in place: not just as staying home safely, but as staying home with dignity, connection, purpose, and the right kind of support.

Audio Chapters

00:00 — Helping Aging Parents Stay Home Safely
01:20 — Meet Kabir Bhatia, Co-Founder and CEO of Hello Everyday
02:00 — Caring for His Father Through Three Rounds of Cancer
05:05 — How His Mother Adjusted to Living Alone
06:40 — Why Constant Check-Ins Can Feel Like a Microscope
08:40 — Grief, Identity, and Learning to Live Differently
11:20 — What Aging in Place Actually Requires
13:20 — Planning Ahead Before a Crisis Happens
15:20 — How to Talk About an Aging Parent’s Wishes
17:40 — Why Advance Directives Are Easier Before the Hospital
19:20 — What Makes Hello Everyday Different
20:14 — Safety vs. Autonomy in Aging in Place
21:40 — Why Older Adults Struggle With Complicated Technology
23:20 — The Story That Inspired Hello Everyday’s Sensor
24:40 — A Safety Device With No Cameras, No Microphones, and No App
26:20 — How Privacy Settings Work for Families
27:40 — When Caregivers Only Get Alerts if Something Is Wrong
28:40 — Daily Texts, Activity Updates, and Family Peace of Mind
30:27 — Supporting Both the Older Adult and the Caregiver
31:07 — Why Hello Everyday Supports Existing Relationships
32:40 — The In-Between Stage: Not Nothing, Not Full Monitoring
33:27 — Solo Agers, Peer Support, and Aging in Community
35:40 — Hello Tunes for Dementia and Cognitive Decline
37:20 — Why Music Helps People Living With Dementia
39:00 — Reminders, Routine, and Reducing Caregiver Friction
40:20 — Call Buttons, Presence Detection, and Dementia Care Support
41:20 — Designing Technology Older Adults Actually Want to Use
42:40 — Aging in Place Successfully, Not Just Safely
45:40 — Being Mortal, Elderhood, and What Medicine Misses About Aging
48:40 — What to Do if You Worry About a Parent Living Alone
51:20 — Helping Loved Ones Stay Home Without Constant Fear

Guest Bio

Kabir Bhatia is the co-founder and CEO of Hello Everyday, a company building simple safety technology for older adults who want to age in place without giving up their independence or privacy.

Before Hello Everyday, Kabir held senior leadership roles at Nike, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch, and led two biotech companies as CEO. He is a mechanical engineer by training, an entrepreneur by choice, and a caregiver by experience.

Kabir’s work is shaped by his own caregiving journey, including supporting his father through three battles with cancer and helping his mother adjust to life alone after his father passed. Through Hello Everyday and Hello Tunes, he focuses on creating technology that supports safety, dignity, autonomy, connection, and human relationships.

Resources / Links 

Hello Everyday
Hello Tunes:
Kabir Bhatia LinkedIn
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Elderhood by Louise Aronson
Buried in Work
Jeanette’s website

Feeling overwhelmed by caregiving? 

In From Guilt to Good Enough, Jeanette Yates offers a powerful guide for struggling caregivers. Having been a caregiver for her mother since childhood, Jeanette knows firsthand the emotional toll caregiving can take. In this memoir-turned-self-help guide, she shares her healing journey, setting boundaries, and reclaiming her life.

Grab your copy TODAY!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My mother wanted to stay home. Her home was where she belonged and where she wanted to be. It's where her life was. What I didn't always know was how to do that safely, how to give her the independence she needed without fear that something would happen and no one would know. That fear is very real and it's also very common. Today's guest lost his father after three rounds of cancer, watched his mother navigate the isolation that came after, and built something to make sure other families don't spend their days in the same quiet dread. My guest today is Kavir Batya, co-founder and CEO of Hello Everyday, a company building safety technology for the people who want to age in place on their own terms without giving up their independence or their privacy. It is simpler than you'd expect, which is one of the reasons I really love this tool. And it is designed around the person who matters most, your loved one, in their own home and on their own terms. Welcome to From Guilt to Good. Hi, my name is Jeanette Yates, and I'm the founder of The Self-Caregiver. I cared for my own mother for several decades and now help caregivers set boundaries and use simple tools that make care and life easier so they can feel good, not guilty. My guest today is Kabir Bhatya, co-founder and CEO of Hello Everyday, a company building safety technology for the people who want to age in place on their own terms without giving up their independence or their privacy. Before Hello Everyday, Kabir held senior leadership roles at Nike, Bank of America, and Merrill Lynch, and led two biotech companies as CEO. He is a mechanical engineer by training, an entrepreneur by choice, and a caregiver by experience, having served as the primary support for his father through three battles of cancer. Kabir, welcome to From Guilt to Good.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Jeanette, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for that kind introduction.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

I had such a great time chatting with you. I remember when we were talking before, we were got we got so excited, and all of a sudden you were like, I've got to go. And we had to hang up. And so we didn't even get to finish our conversation. There was so much around care technology to talk about. And we're going to try to talk about a lot of it today and get as much accomplished as we possibly can. But I want to start where I start with everyone else, because I believe the best tools come from the people who have lived the problem or have some experience with it. And I know yours came from somewhere quite real. So can you tell me about your father? And I know that you were the quarterback for his care. You were helping your mom through the three rounds of cancer. What did that look like for you and what did it teach you?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah, my dad's name is Lal. My parents moved to Lagos Rico, which is where we are here in Oregon in 2019. They had always had this desire to be closer to their kids. And we were originally living in Southern California, and that was just too much to move to. My brother lives in New York City, that wasn't going to happen either. But when we moved to Oregon, it felt like it was much more conducive to a retired lifestyle. And they made up their mind back in 2017, they moved here in 2019. I remember helping them set up. We did house shopping together. They ended up just taking one of our cars because we didn't want to do car shopping. We did all the furniture shopping. And then the pandemic hit and in 2020, and right as the pandemic hit, my dad discovered this something growing in his mouth. His skin, there was a lesion of some sort, and he thought it was an impacted tooth. He was worried if he could go see a dentist. I was like, Yeah, we can. They're still open. So we went to go see a dentist. They're like, This is not an impacted tooth, this is something else. And so we went to go see a surgeon, and they were like, Yep, this is this looks malignant. He was fine after the surgery. It was a little bit of an adjustment, and then he was the cancer came back on his lymph nodes. Uh in a in I think it was maybe six months later, and it was discovered in a PET scan. And so he went to radiation in chemo. I remember driving him, so he had six weeks of radiation, so five sessions a week. And I remember driving him through an ice storm to his radiation appointment. And then he was fine for like a year and a half, and then it came back with a vengeance. We tried immunotherapy, and my dad had always prioritized his quality of life over the length of his life. And so he was very clear he wanted to he wanted to be okay in his own home. He didn't want to spend his last days in a hospital. And I remember about four or five months into the treatment, we got word that it wasn't working. And we were like, well, we can go back to chemo, but the odds are much lower. And so he's like, you know what? Let's just stop treatment. I'd rather just spend my time at home and enjoy my time, the remaining days. And he was he was with us for another month and a half before he passed away. I was in his room when he passed away.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Thank you for sharing that. I know sometimes going through and talking about things like that is hard, but thank you for sharing that because I think it's really important to hear not only your story of watching all of that, but also to hear like how your dad navigated those decisions as well. I think that's very admirable. So thank you for sharing that. And also what did tell me your dad's name again, Lol.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Oh, it was Lol.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yes. So thank you, Lol, uh, for uh teaching us something today as well. You mentioned that after your father passed, you your mother had to learn how to live by herself for, you know, for the first time, maybe ever even. I don't know. I know I I know I lived with my parents pretty much until I got married. So, you know, so she had to learn to live by herself and that isolation that happens. Can you say more about her in that time and how that that inspired maybe a little bit of what Hello Every Day does?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

My mom's name is Manju. She's always been an educator, and she had been teaching at a local community college. She continued to do that even when my dad was sick. And she was very clear that she wanted to live independently. And she's healthy, she's relatively young, she's in her mid-70s. And so, you know, once the grief passes, and once there's the relief of not having to care directly for somebody who is in hospice, that's when it's you start to process what's gonna happen now, right? All the decisions that come with having to close out accounts, the managing the estate, etc. Where does this bill go from and what account does this go from? All that takes is overwhelming, and so I worked through that. And for the first six months, I would go with the for a walk with my mom every day, and we wouldn't necessarily talk very much. We would go in the same park that my dad really loved, and it was our way of just kind of sharing our grief. My mom adopted our dog, which was great because she had gone off to college, and I was like, Well, you know, this our dog is a very sweet temperament and very therapeutic personality, and so she became her dog, and that was really helpful. But you know, we were adapting as we go, but one of the things that was really clear to me was you know, you start every conversation when you're in a caregiver role, whether you're implicitly or explicitly asking about the person, but you're asking about them by putting them under a microscope, right? You're asking them things like, well, how'd you sleep today? And like, how's your activity? And I was doing that with my dad, and then I kind of flipped with my mom. And that's not a very dignifying place to be, right? When you're dealing with an acute illness and you're doing it temporarily, that's okay. But when you're living, when you're gonna be there for the rest of your life, you're like, you don't want to be under that microscope. And so I started to think about well, how do how would we keep people in their own homes when they want to live in their own home, just like your mom did? How do we surround them and envelope them when in a way that takes away some of those frictional elements so that when you're calling them, you're calling them for them, not calling them because you're wanting to check up on them. And and what as we were thinking about this, I got introduced to my co-founder, Mark Levitt, who had had a similar but different experience, and he had developed the precursor to our technology now. Uh, and it was we sat around his dining table and it was immediate from day one. That was the solution, right? It was we had both come at it from a point of can we create a non-intrusive way of staying, of keeping people connected with their existing relationships, because we think that virtual village is so important, but we also have to do it in a way that is that gives them the autonomy to decide who gets that information, when they get it, etc. And give them the power of that dignity.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, and we're gonna dive more into that autonomy and dignity piece in a second. But something that you were talking about with when you were talking about your mom, and just first of all, like maintaining that relationship instead of just turning it into a like, are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay all the time? But also that idea of like her having to learn new things. And I interviewed an occupational therapist recently for the podcast. Her name is Rhondolyn Whitley. I'll include her podcast in the show notes too. But she talks about something she went through a grief experience and she lost her spouse, and she talked about the occupational identity. So, like, yes, there's the heavy grief, and then there's stuff like learning how to cook for one person instead of two, and like, you know, learning the laundry again, you know, like all of these little things. And so I don't know if your mom experienced something similar, but it would make me think of that when when you were talking about that.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

It's such an important aspect, right? When you're in that caregiving moment, you don't really have the ability to process your own needs and project what your needs are going to be as things change. You're dealing with the emotion of the person that you're supposed to be with, or that I supposed to be there forever if you're a if you're if it's your parent, they're changing in front of you. At the same time, you're trying to figure out what you're gonna be doing. So yeah, we took her a long time to figure out not just learning how to cook for one, but getting motivated to cook for one.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Oh, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

My dad was always the he loved food and he loved my mom's food, and so it's gratifying in some ways to cook for somebody that appreciates it as much as as he did. And so trying to find it for yourself, I it took her a long time. And that's it's been a journey. It's been it'll be three years in July, and I can still see sort of that evolution. I think the first three or four years are still evolving. We haven't reached steady state yet.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yeah, I can totally relate to that too. I remember when my mom passed away, relearning how to just go through my day without have, you know, having anything to do for her was, you know, I would find myself just in my car driving to the nursing home because I didn't know what else to do. And of course, my the nursing home people were so nice to me. They they were like, come on, Ingennet, have a cup of coffee. Like it's fine. Like they they I probably wasn't the first person that just didn't know what to do with myself. But, you know, my mom did end up having to go to a nursing home eventually. But like I mentioned in the intro, and like we talk about all the time, most people that I talk to that their parent, you know, and they're telling me about their parents and most older people I know, a common wish is to be at home. And we want to try to foster that as much as we can. But we also like are worrying all the time. And so, like trying to figure that out is very hard, which is why, you know, what you do is so important. But what does aging in place actually require to work well beyond just that physical safety piece? And what are conditions that can make it more sustainable?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, that's such a tough question to answer because it's so nuanced, not because we don't have the data. Everyone's different. My conviction is for someone to age in place, you've got to have three core elements. You've got to have a foundation of what your financial world allows you to do, right? And if you live within that and the ability to live within that, you've got to have community, you've got to have people that either check in on you or you check in on them, or you have the ability to call somebody so you're not socially isolated, and then you've got to have purpose, and those are the three things that maintain your ability to be relevant in the world around you. Because if you're if you don't have those three things, it just becomes rudderless, as it were. I was talking to a son of a customer of mine yesterday, and his dad passed away a couple of weeks ago, and he was still dealing with the grief of that. His dad was 93, lived in in a in a one of the best communities here, uh, independent living community. And he was so grateful to have had our devices to keep them connected so they knew A, that his dad felt comfortable that his son was involved and knew that he was being safe, and the and his son, just knowing that his dad was up, etc. But and he was like, I wish we had that earlier, because I think I think if we had had that earlier, I think we could have extended his runway more, right? But that's the I think a lot of times when we go into aging in place, by my estimating, based on my limited experience with sort of dealing with our customers. I think about 25% of people that are going into aging in place are dealing with it with a from a planful state. They are they're like, okay, this is what I'm gonna need. I'll give you an example. I've got a customer who I spoke to a few weeks ago. Her name is Chris. Chris was an electrician by trade, and she's like, I am determined to live in this house for as long as possible. The uh about six months ago, my laundry room is in my basement. I was walking down with a hamper of clothes and I fell down. And I was like, Well, that's not because she's like, I can never let that happen. Fortunately, I was okay. But now I put my clothes in an IKEA bag, I throw them down the stairs, and then I walk with my hands on the on the handrail to keep myself safe. And I'm also working on figuring out how to move my washer and dryer up to the main level. Chris takes it to a whole new level, right? She is being planful and deliberate about how to age in place. I think for many people, it's hard to be that planful because you don't really know how you're going to how your body is going to behave, and you don't really know what your environment's going to be. Uh, and so you take in more one day at a time. But the challenge with that strategy can be a lot of times you're doing nothing about the aging in place until it's too late. And now you need a big step. And that big step is really overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Right. Well, first of all, Chris sounds amazing because I love that idea of just chucking the dirty gloves down there. That sounds like a great, not only a creative solution, but also like maybe like it, it's like a little, you know, it gets a little angst out, you know, every now and then you can just really just give it, you know, give it a good toss. So uh I love that idea. I love some creativity. But and you're also hitting on something else that is really important is even if a loved one or, you know, our parents, let's say, are being planful, if we don't know about it, it's not really a plan. So I know that one thing you've said is that you wish caregivers knew more about what their older adults' wishes were and priorities before that crisis came. And so can you talk a little bit about how we can actually have that conversation or what it looks like when it goes well? Of course, we all you can talk about what it looks like when it doesn't go well too, but I think we've all been there.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

So I categorize relationships, Jeanette, in sort of four categories, right? And it's a relationship with your usually it's a parent-child relationship. In some cases, the child or one of the children is the effective decision maker. The parent trusts them implicitly, they are they're their go-to, they've got a great relationship. In certain cases, the child is more of a consultant. They check in with them, but they're otherwise sort of, you know, they're they make their own decisions. In other cases, they're only an influencer. So they may have they're more distant again as we go down this list. And then the last one is they're actually distant, they're not really involved in their day-to-day, they're involved only cursorily, they meet, you know, once or twice a year. Mom lives her own life, etc. And sometimes it's because the parent is as independent, and sometimes because kids have a lot going on in their lives, and that's just the way it's evolved. And I've learned there's no judgment in me in any of those. That's just the way their environment is, and that's just the way their relationship has evolved. When you're a decision maker or a consultant, much easier, right? Then you have the ability to kind of have those conversations, ask them what they want. For some, talking about their own mortality is really hard. I've got a I've got a customer who was like, My son did not want to hear about my advanced directive. He was not ready for that until his friend had an event with his parent, and then he was like, Well, mom, do you have an advanced directive? And she's like, Yeah, I've been wanting to tell you about it, right? But it takes both parties to be involved. I think there's a there are great resources out there to facilitate that conversation. Social workers are an incredible resource and often very inexpensive to have that conversation around what an advanced directive would look like, but also what your options are. And it also depends on sort of what your, you know, what is your family history with with what your medical history is, right? If you're if you're relatively healthy, maybe you can defer that until things start to happen. But I'll tell you, it's way easier to have that conversation when it's not emotionally charged because you're dealing with a a life event. When you're in the hospital, you don't want to have to make that decision. And that's unfortunately why a lot of Americans still die in hospitals because they couldn't figure out how to have that awkward conversation.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Well, and I think too, you know, I know my mom spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital. And of uh, you know, all the things we could have done differently, I will say one of the things that we did do is because she was sick for so long, we had a gajillion conversations and all of the paperwork. But they, you know, in the middle of that crisis, they are gonna ask you, do you have advanced directives? Do you have a power of attorney? Are who's the medical surrogate? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, and if you have no idea, first of all, what any of those mean or or whatever, it's even more, you feel even more helpless and hopeless than you do already just because of the situation. And so, you know, we're constantly advocating for that here as well. And not a sponsor, but there is a website called Buried in Work that I really love that walks people through how to do those things. They even have a, you know, like a card game you can play at the dinner table that's like, let's talk about this kind of thing. But I will uh put that in the chat as well. But speaking of things that I really want to talk about is we need to dive into what you and your co-founder are have created, what you've built. When I first heard about this and we started talking, I was like, this is such a great idea for so many reasons. The idea that you can have a loved one with Hello Every Day, have a loved one feel safe, you know they're safe, but also there's not this sense of, you know, monitoring more than needed or surveillance or or this like, you know, you're being watched all the time. I just love that. And I think more and more, especially people who want to age in place, partially because they want to be independent, right? They want to, you know, eat when they want, eat dinner when they want to eat dinner, watch what they want to watch on TV, all these kind of things, you know, to have something that does provide that safety, but also keep that privacy is very important, important. Tell us about Hello Everyday. What is the design principle behind it and what makes it different from the other safety options that families might already be aware of?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Okay, so let's talk about the design principles first. We were inspired by, as we were starting to think about how to approach this concept, we were inspired by Dr. Atul Gwande's book, uh Being Mortal. And in that book, if you haven't read it, it's a book about a physician's journey about aging, uh, and aging of his parents specifically. Uh, and he talks about this notion that when when anyone is asked about what they want for themselves, they describe autonomy. They want to make their own decisions, they want to make, they want to have control over what happens to them. But when you ask them what they want for their loved ones, they say their safety. They prioritize safety over autonomy. And I think that's a really important, almost bias that we have to be conscious of when we're thinking about how to care for our loved ones, whether that's a parent or whether that's a spouse that's dealing with something. How do we ensure that we continue to prioritize their autonomy, at least in conjunction with their safety, right? We all should be able to make some bad choices. It's our choice, it's part of living. And if we're not comfortable with that, we're not gonna make be able to make them human or keep them human. So that was really important for us when we first started. There's a second notion, and the second notion is that you know, when we're younger, we have capabilities that are here and our needs are here, and life is fine. We are able to manage our kids, we're able to able to manage our parents, etc. But at some point in our lives, that equation flips, our needs start to become. Greater and our capabilities become less. We were I watched my dad, and I could tell how good how well he was feeling by two actions that he did. The first action was if he got in the car, was he able to put on his seatbelt himself? And the second was, could he open his cell phone by swiping, right? Because his hands were shaking. For a lot of older adults, you don't have the natural oils that is required for a um a touch screen to work. And we were convinced, like it was interesting to see how difficult it is for people that are dealing with stuff to navigate the technology that's around them. And it makes them naturally averse to taking on technology. That's not the default that they think of when they're thinking about solving a problem. I hear countless times when someone tells me, Oh, I got my mom an Apple Watch. I'm like, Can she operate it? Um I think so. Like, I'm like, I can't operate an Apple Watch because the the font is so small. Um is she charging it? Is she wearing it regularly? She's like, I got the watch. And when I did our first, when we did the first 40 or so installs, I was going personally into people's homes. And without fail, when we were talking through this, they would show me the drawer full of stuff that their well-intended kids had bought them that they no longer use because it was too cumbersome, it required charging, it needed the it needed an instruction manual. And inevitably they would ask me, Do you know how to work a photo frame? Because it's not working. And I was like, right? And it you're like, it was a it's a great concept, but it just the it doesn't work. So when we started, Mark Levitt, who's my co-founder, was actually a volunteer with a village-to-village chapter, which is based here in Westland, Lake Espago, called Willow. One of their members who was active, very active, her name was Laura. She had a sudden medical event. She collapsed on the floor of her home. She wasn't found for like three days until somebody noticed that we hadn't heard from Laura. She had a dog and she ended up passing away. And that was hugely disturbing for Mark and the members. And so Mark was like, he pulled together a group of volunteers at the village and said, What would technology have to look like in order for you to accept something so we could prevent something like this? And so they said the first few things they said was it has to be really basic and easy. It has to be, there should be no cameras or microphones, uh, and it should work sort of autonomously. And so Mark went around. Mark being both a PhD in electrical engineering and a physician, decided I can take this on. And he developed the precursor to this sensor. So this is our hello everyday sensor. Uh, all you have to do is, I'm sorry about the lighting, but all you have to do is plug it into a wall outlet, right? And it basically looks for human activity. There's no cameras, there's no microphones. When we first started, we said, oh, we think we can operate this using Wi-Fi, and we'll ask people to download an app. Both of those were terrible. Immediately we ran into problems with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is notoriously unreliable. People change their modems, they can't remember their password. So immediately we said, no, we've got to have every device has to have cellular connection built in. So all you better do is plug it in. And then the second piece was it can't have an app because the app was created so much friction. Uh just the act of downloading it. So now all we have when people buy the sensor or subscribe to it, we ship them the sensor, they plug it in, and then they fill out a form that says here are the three, we have up to five people, most people select two. Here are the five people that we want the notification to go to, and here's the privacy setting that we want to use. So, and that's it. And I talked to a woman who's did who's deployed 30 of these sensors for Willow Village, uh, here in the Western Lake Osfigure area. And I was like, what is the one theme that keeps coming up? And she said, you know, I will tell them what it is, I'll describe how it works on the phone, and I'll tell them how easy it is. And then when I go there and actually install it, they're still surprised at how easy it is. And I was like, that's awesome. That's exactly what we want.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Yes, yes. Literally, you take it out of the box and you plug it in the wall, essentially, is pretty much. So speaking of privacy, you just mentioned this a little bit. There is some information, obviously, that hello, the hello everyday component is getting. And you just mentioned that the person can set those privacy levels. Tell me a little bit more about how that works and how much information and how they can determine what information goes to whom and how often. And because this is one of the things I think sets this apart from so many other tools out there, is that this does not feel intrusive. And I love how you've set this up. So let's go into this a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Yeah, so there's another design principle that that comes up here, which is I was very clear and I get strong alignment for with my co-founders, Mark and Huang, that we needed to make sure that everything we do has to be customer-centric and has to be customer-led. And when we first started out, we said, oh, well, you know, you you put in, you get access, everybody gets access to all the information. And we quickly ran into a wall with some of our customers who recoiled at the idea that their kids would get a text every day. They were like, What do you mean? Like, we don't want them to get that information.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Mind your business.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Exactly, right? And they were like, we have to have a privacy setting where they only get a message if there's something wrong. So at our very basic level, our maximum privacy setting is where the only time a message will go out that says that from this device will be if there's been no activity for a certain period of time that they have described, if the temperature in the house is unsafe, so it's too high or too low. There's a temperature sensor built-in because we know as our environment changes, we're getting temperature extremes and furnace goes out, and people are hesitant to be a burden, and they can put themselves in unsafe situations, and or if the uh sensor has lost this reception or has lost power. So those are the three conditions, and about a third of our customers will choose to send that, you will choose that privacy setting. So two-thirds of our customers choose to send a message every day, but a third of them only want to send a message if there's something wrong. I should also point out you can customize different people in your group to receive at different privacy levels.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

So not every relative needs all of the information. So yes, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Not to stereotype, but daughters are the ones that tend to get the all the information. They also are the ones that actually check in on the parent more. The sons are very happy with just getting a text, they're like everything's good. So go ahead, medium privacy, you get a text, but it doesn't allow you to see the activity data. Maximum reassurance, you can get up to two notifications. You get a notification when they're first up and around. That was again a customer request who's by a customer who lives locally. His mom lives like 40 miles away. And he's like, if I knew my mom was up, I would call her more. And so now he gets an up and around notification, and she's like, Yeah, he calls me every day because he knows he keeps odd hours, and so this way he knows that she's up. And then you also get a link to your activity so you can see you can effectively walk in their shoes. And that's been really instructive. There are days when I will I'll look at my mom's dashboard and I'll see that she was up till midnight, and then it becomes a point of conversation. Like, mom, what were you doing up so late? And she's like, Oh, I got caught up in a movie.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Or I was gonna say she might change those settings. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

It's reassuring for her that we have that baseline information because part of what happens is, and and this is this has been another innovation for some of our customers, we give them a weekly dashboard of like, hey, here are your trends for the last three weeks or four weeks. Uh, and we're noticing that you're getting up earlier in the morning. And sometimes that self-awareness is helpful, sometimes it's helpful for the kids, but it becomes it's amazing what we can see with just one sensor in the home.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

One of the things I was gonna mention, and then we can move on to the next thing. But what I really liked about the way you've been talking about Hello Every Day is you are referring to both the aging parent and the caregiver and their child as the customer. So you're seeking to address both of their needs, not just focusing on what the caregiver wants, going back to your our previous thing where we're talking about ourselves, we want autonomy when we're talking about our loved one, we want safety. So you're you're really balancing both of those things when you are thinking about who your customer is. And I really think that's for any of our fellow care tech people out there, I think that's very important.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

So, Jeanette, you picked up on two really important elements there. The first is we want to facilitate relationships that already exist. We're not doing central monitoring because we think that's fundamentally not what solves the problem. We want to augment relationships, we want to reduce the friction in relationships, whether it's a neighbor or whether it's your whether it's your loved one that lives hundreds of miles. So that's that's a really important point. The second point is if you don't have the contract with both the user and the well-being partner, this doesn't work, right? Our competitor inevitably is do nothing. And the reason why it's do nothing is because they're like we either don't need it or we feel like it's just too much of a burden. It's so we don't want to be that stranded technology that sits in that drawer. We want to be a long-term relationship, which is part of the reason why we also made we want to be involved well before that event takes place and hopefully prevent that event from taking place. I just heard about this, I hear about this constantly, where even if someone's living in an independent living, they fell in the shower and they were there for two days. I'm like, we have the technology where they don't have to wear a thing to prevent that. Now we can do that right now. It's $200 a year. Like we're still okay with that, which just feels wrong to me.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah. Well, and I like you mentioned this, you know, you mentioned two things I want to highlight again. I remember you said this too in our previous conversation. You're, you know, you're not trying to replace those types of tools that, you know, for someone who really does need 24-7 monitoring, all that kind of stuff. What I love that your tool is coming in for people who are in that in-between of, I don't need nothing, but I also am not ready for all of this monitoring, all of this. This is really allows that continued independence for longer. And then another thing, you know, you're talking about you want to foster those existing relationships. And it just made me think again about the son who's calling his mom more. You know, there's that communication, there's the conversation starter that you mentioned with your mom. You know, these are things that is what is going to help that person age in place. Like that is one of the things that's going to help is those continued fostered relationships, right? Or at least that's the way I think about it.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

I think that's right, Jeanette, but I I want to introduce another element here that we haven't actually talked about. We pride ourselves as a society on our independence, our individual independence, right? And what that often means is as we get older, we don't want to be a burden on our families. Uh, and I think one of the other areas where we are evolving is how do we help how do we help older adults, solo agers, be more self-reliant, but also be more reliant or be more involved with their peers. And I think that's another area where this, our technology is really beneficial on a peer-to-peer level. I'll give you an example. We've got a we serve a village here in in Portland. They're North Star, they were the one of the first villages that adopted our technology. And they would they were led by three solo ager women, and they were very skeptical. They were like, Why would we do this? I'm not sure we want this, etc. And they and we were like, Well, why don't you guys try it for yourselves? Uh, and we'll give it and then we'll see. And a couple of them didn't have family, and so they were reliant on each other. And within a few weeks, they were like, This is really cool. Like it, it just gives me awareness that Mary's okay and Barbara's okay, and Jan's okay. And I think that peer-to-peer organizations that are serving those individuals that are aging in their play in place, this becomes a really important tool for that peer-to-peer community as well.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, we are we always we are talking in children and children and parents, but this is not, you know, for those solo agers, which there are a lot more out there. This is also just something that you can use as part of the community. I also I would I feel like I want to already go ahead and invite you on again for another episode where so we can talk more about that peer-to-peer, that independence versus community, communal mindset that we have, because I think that is so important and something that not a lot of people are talking about. And I think it's a really important conversation. But we still have another, another bit of the hello everyday ecosystem to talk about. Uh, so I want to uh make sure to let you talk about something that you're building. I think you're still building it. I don't know if it's out yet. I can't remember. You know, it is out. Okay. Uh you guys, he already knows what I'm gonna ask about, but there's a significant proportion, uh significant portion of the aging population, people listening today that are dealing with uh a loved one with dementia or cognitive decline. And you and your team have created something that helps a little bit with that situation. Tell us about HelloTunes. What is it? Who's it for, and what does it do that nothing else quite does?

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah. We got again, this was this was customers pulling us in this direction. We started noticing that our hello sensors were being used for caregiving for people with dementia. And people were like, Look, I want to make sure mom's safe at home. I know she's dealing with with like mild to moderate dementia, but she's able to take care of herself. I just need I if I put a camera, she's gonna unplug it, etc. So can I put can I put a hello tune, hello sensor in there? And so we were like, Yeah, you can, you know, we can, but a lot of people with cognitive impairment get confused by something new, and so their their first instinct is to unplug it, I don't want it, etc. Right? There's the confusion of dementia or cognitive impairment often leads to paranoia, and that paranoia is just them, it's the body's biological reaction of trying to make sense of the world around them. And so Mark was like, Look, I think we can make something that is actually much more for them that they would be willing to accept. And so he wouldn't show me this for a while until he had this ready. Uh, but he came up with this.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

So this I was gonna say, I'm giggling because I love this so much. I hope I hope everybody that's watching, for those of you that are listening, head over to YouTube so you can see this. Tell tell everybody who's listening what it is.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

So this is Hello Tunes. So this is it looks like an old-time radio. There are two knobs, one with volume, one with one with channel to tune. So it serves as a music player. And we know that music is a hugely important tool for that provides therapy for people with dementia. It builds new neural pathways, especially if it's music they recognize and it's the music of their youth, that they can sing along to. Singing and dancing are the biggest ways of building new neural pathways and connecting their long-term memories to what's happening today. And so that's the goal. So if you can, but a lot of our a lot of our customers, I met with one yesterday, I asked, and it she she lives with her daughter, and her daughter's a full-time caregiver. And I was like, Well, can she operate the remote? She's like, No, but she watches DVDs all the time, and so we were like, Well, we're if we put the music that you like on here, you can turn it on yourself. And that sense of autonomy of being able to turn on the music yourself is so powerful. We saw people that with moderate cognitive impairment that spend their days coloring or other activities like that, they were listening to four to eight hours of music on this player just because they could control it, because they could they could turn it off, they could turn it on, they could change the channel, especially if it was their music. The other piece that's really important is I asked my customer yesterday, can what time is it? There was a clock right in front of her. It's like she looked at the clock and she was like, I don't know. But that's a very common aspect. You lose the ability to tell time, you lose the ability to your biological clock becomes much more subdued. So you're not feeling hungry or thirsty as like you would otherwise. And so this is has the ability to give them that structure. So it announces the time at the top of the hour, but a caregiver can also layer in reminders for breakfast, for lunch, for medications, for going to bed. And the interesting aspect of it is when you're a caregiver for somebody that is dealing with a chronic issue like Alzheimer's or dementia, pretty soon those directions become frictional. There's resentment. Why are you telling me it's time to go to bed? But when it when that direction comes from a box, that friction gets alleviated. And it's uh it's really helpful. We saw one of our early customers that we did testing with. After two weeks of this having this device, he was suddenly waking up at the same time. He was going to bed at the same time, he started to put on weight because he was eating better. And then when we when they were leaving on a trip and they they didn't take the device with them, he immediately lost that structure again. So its stickiness is really important. And then the third piece of it is it has all the same features as this sensor. So it's looking for human presence. As a caregiver, you can program this call button so that it sends you a text if they press it, so you can go for a walk with your dog uh if you need to, and still know that mom's gonna be okay and she can press that button. So fully self-contained. All you do is plug it in. You can load the music of your choice, it's on an SD card right here, but just super intuitive for both the caregiver and the person with dementia.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

I love it so much. It was one of my favorite things that we talked about that first day. And so I'm so glad that uh you got to share it with everybody. I know that for myself, like I kind of want one too. Because I actually grew up with one of those radios in my home. And we also had one of the record players that you had to wind up. I don't know if you ever, so we had one of those too.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

So it's funny, Mark, Mark has a fascination for older radios, and he's got a big collection of them. And so he clearly took it to from inspired by that. But I think one of the things that has been really interesting is to see the reaction from people with cognitive impairment. This, the form factor, not only appeals to them, but just the simplicity of it, the ability to use these outrigger knobs, which we have to make ourselves because nobody makes them anymore. Those are just those things are really important when you don't have the physical strength to turn a knob.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

One of the things that has come up over and over again as our conversation has been going on today is just how much you are listening to the people that you're, you know, your customers, you're listening to what they are needing, what they are wanting, and you're doing the research around what you're building as well, so that you know things like, you know, like even you mentioned like as you age, you don't have the oils in your fingers to use the screen. Like, who is thinking about things like that when they're building a technology for aging people? You, which is great. But so I just want to highlight that and just, you know, on behalf of, you know, I'm speaking on behalf of people that haven't asked me to, but I just think it's it's so needed and such an important piece of this care tech and age tech space that these tools that are being created are really mindfully created. Another thing that I want to talk to you about, you mentioned it briefly earlier in the in our conversation. So I want to zoom back out a little bit, but we are we're talking about this aging in place. And there is really like a bigger philosophy around aging in place than just like growing old at home, right? It's not just about staying at home, but staying at home well. And so I'd love for you to talk about what it really means to age in place successfully, not just safely, but with that quality of life.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah, it's a it's such an important question. I remember listening to this podcast where there was an economist on, and he said, if we had to describe all of the events of the last hundred years as a species in one headline, what would that headline be? And his response was that we have doubled our lifespan in the course of 100 years, right? We had our average lifespan was in the 40s, and now our average lifespan is in the 80s. What that means is people are spending upwards of 20 to 30 years beyond when they stop working and they're they're aging. And that comes with a whole host of challenges. One, you've got to be economically prepared for it, you've got to be financially prepared for it. But two, you've got to go in with this with a notion of you're it's gonna be a this is not a steady state. Right, so in in our lives, our period from 30 to 60 is pretty much steady state. We're we're taking care of kids, we're some things are changing, but our bodies are roughly the same between the ages of 30 and 60. And that's not necessarily the case as you get into your 70s and 80s. And so being prepared for the different zones that come with aging in place, whether you know you're going to be losing your community and friends, so replenishing that, you're going to have different capabilities. The number of people that can walk 10,000 steps diminishes dramatically as you get older, which means you may not be able to travel as much. So you're going to have to create purpose closer around. One of the common themes that I find, including with Mark Levitt, is a lot of our customers have a jigsaw puzzle that they're working on when I go visit them. And that it's a it's an interaction that they have with their grandkids, it's something that they can do together, it's something that when their kids come along, they can do it together, and just becomes a moment of joy for them. Having the ability to, I yesterday the customer that I was with, they have their car family, but she was crocheting a race car on a pillow. She would do that with her mom who has cognitive impairment, and it was like, oh look, mom, look at what's happening. Or they would write, they would write Bible verses together. But those joint activities are so powerful, and you've got to figure out what make what brings you that joy and what you can do, because otherwise it's really hard to find that joy in your life, and I think that's so important.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

I want to talk a little bit more. You mentioned one book already, but you typically recommend two books: Being Mortal, which is the one you've already mentioned by Atul Gawande, and Elderhood by Louise Aronson. Talk a little bit more about what being mortal gave you that shapes your work, and then tell us a little bit about elderhood as well.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Yeah, both of those books are about physicians dealing with aging. Dr. Atul Gawande was deals with it for his parents. Elderhood deals with it from a from a perspective of a physician dealing with aging. And it basically highlights that as a medical community, we don't really know what to do with aging. Aging is really an accumulative process of our body breaking down. Those are the two big ones off, like that's going to be beneficial as you age. But when you think about it from a physician's perspective, you're kind of physicians are playing whack-a-mole trying to deal with different symptoms, but they're not necessarily thinking about it holistically about what is really what you want out of this. And so I think that's where the role of the individual and the the adult child becomes so important. So you can start to think about what the priorities are, rather than, and I had to do this with my own dad. And there were times when my mom and I had to make the call. Is it better for us to take dad to the hospital? Because he's going to have it's going to be highly interventional. It's going to be, but they may be able to get him a little bit better, or is it just going to make him worse? Right. And when should we make that call? And it's it's a really difficult decision. I think it's so we put caregivers in that spot all the time where they have to make the kind make that call. And for most caregivers, it's their first time being a caregiver, right? So they're dealing with all the emotions associated with that as well. So I think both of those books are really instructive to get a perspective from a physician, sort of what tools they have for dealing with aging and what tools they bring.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Right. Well, and I think like in the book Being Mortal, I think that there's this idea of like the doctors are focused on just like, like you mentioned, symptoms, management, prolonging, like we can get you better or fix the symptom and move you along, but they're not addressing like whether or not you're living well, you know. And of course, what that means is different for every person, all that kind of things, all that kind of stuff. And so having going back to those conversations that we have to have, we, you know, have to have those conversations with our loved one to know what that means for them and then help them fulfill that as much as possible. So I'm gonna, I know I'm gonna be reading both of those books. And so I encourage, I'll put the that in the description as well. So other people who enjoy reading as much as I do can get those because I think it would help those of us who are trying to navigate this caregiving and caring for others, it'd be very helpful and our aging ourselves. Oh my goodness, this has been such a great conversation. If a caregiver Kabir is listening right now, their parent is living alone, maybe they're across the country, maybe they're they worry every morning until they get that text. What's the first step that you recommend that they take?

SPEAKER_01 49:07

I I I think it depends on on their relationship, right? It there are some parents that are motivated that, and I see this with our customers, they're like, Mom, I worry about you. This censor is for my benefit, right? So just plug it in. And you're you it's not gonna tell me anything. I can't distinguish one person from the other, but if you're living alone, this is just for my benefit. Um, and we've had customers who are like who were resistant at first, and they're like, My kids really like getting that text, and now I have to keep it. Uh, right? Uh, and so it's it it works both ways. Um, but we've had, I I think our goal, and I think it's for most kids, the goal is can we extend your runway and can't keep them aging where they are? So even if they're living in an independent living, anytime that there is a big change that you've noticed, it's there's a there's a health event, there that's the time I think that it's the the barriers are lowest for adopting technology. It's the barriers are highest when it's steady state, when things are going things are going normal. So look for those opportunities to introduce simple technologies. And I think one of the other things that we've done very intentionally is there are no buttons on this device. There's a reason for that, right? Uh, there it is intended to be a single purpose device uh that allows them to just ignore it for the most part once it's button. Um, and I think that's that those are all very intentional in a world where we're like, let's pack everything and a computer into one of these devices, it's very intentional. Uh and because it it we that's kind of what you need in when you're dealing with something like this. So um, but yeah, I think I think our if the our principles resonate, if you're an organization or if you're an individual, come talk to us. But I I I'd also offer up um something else in it. I I love to be a resource uh and and love to be a thought partner. So if people are if the if your listeners are like, hey, what do you think about this? I'm always happy to have an email conversation or have a phone conversation.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

That is so wonderful and so generous of you. And thank you so much for this time and sharing your wisdom and knowledge. Like I said, I learn from you every time I read something that you post on LinkedIn or talk to you. So thank you so much for joining us today and for building something that lets our loved ones stay exactly where they want to be at home and lets the rest of us take a deep breath and be able to do our lives when we're not with our loved ones without worrying. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

J'ai with such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

And if your parent has told you they want to stay home and you've been lying awake at night wondering how to make that safe, I hope this conversation gave you something, a question to ask, a tool to look at, a book to read, or a little more peace about what is possible. And if this episode resonated, please share it with another caregiver in your life, the one who is trying to hold everything together from across the country or across town. Send this to them. And if you haven't already, subscribe so that you never miss an episode. You can find more resources in the description and on my website at jeanette.com. Until next time, feel good, not guilty.