November 28, 2025 • 43 mins
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Kabir Bhatia introduces Hello Everyday, a device designed to help aging loved ones maintain independence through non-invasive activity monitoring without requiring Wi-Fi or smartphone apps.
• Device was created after Kabir witnessed his father's cancer journey and his mother's adjustment to living alone
• Co-founder Mark developed the initial concept after a senior in his community passed away at home and wasn't found for days
• Hello Everyday works via cellular technology - simply plug it in and it starts monitoring
• System detects motion patterns and alerts up to five contacts when unusual activity (or lack of activity) occurs
• Privacy-focused design uses no cameras or microphones, only detecting presence in a room
• Dashboard shows hourly activity patterns, providing reassurance without constant check-in calls
• Users can customize alert preferences from minimum (alerts only) to maximum reassurance (full activity visibility)
• Temperature monitoring provides additional safety feature, alerting contacts if home becomes too hot or cold
• Stories of community building, including Steve, who received a device and immediately wanted to help others
• Approximately 90% of Americans cannot afford assisted living, making aging-in-place technology increasingly important
If you'd like to learn more or try Hello Everyday for yourself, visit hello-everyday.com to explore how this simple device can provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello, Mr Bhatia.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi Esther, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm fine.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to hang out with me for
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh, absolutely.
Thank you for taking the time.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh sure, no problem.
I love the concept of yourproduct.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh, I'm glad to hear that.
Did you check out our website?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I'm looking at it right now.
I mean I love the best thingthat I think about it.
I think about it is that it'syou don't need Wi Fi, right?
That's the one issue that Ihear a lot of people say well,
my parents don't have Wi Fi.
Well then, what?
You're stuck, so I love thatconcept.
(01:11):
What I wanted to know about it,though, was when it sends a
message and I mean I haven'tlooked at the video or anything,
but when it sends a message, isit always a text message, or
does it do phone calls as well?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, it could be text or email, excuse me.
We find that text is much moreimmediate and reliable.
And why don't I show you whatit looks like?
If you have a minute?
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
okay, so I'm going to share my screen and also um the
Lake Oswego area that you guysare in is beautiful have you
been?
I've been.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You're very lucky yeah, we, we enjoy it.
Where are you now, esther?
I'm uh northeast of AtlantaGeorgia got it and have you been
there long.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've been here since, yeah, about 20 years now.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, 18, 20 years.
Before that, I was in SouthFlorida.
Before that I was in Brooklyn.
Before that, I was in Venezuela.
My parents are from Sicily.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
My sister's born in London.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I don't know.
We're from everywhere.
I say we're from the planetEarth.
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
A global traveler.
What brought you to Portlandand Lake Oswego?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, actually we went to Portland for our honeymoon.
Oh, awesome, yeah, because itwas the only part of the country
neither of us had ever been toand we were there two and a half
weeks and we traveledeverywhere.
We went to the coast, we wentto mount hood, we went north, we
went south and we, every timewe came back, you know, we went
(02:52):
to a different part of portlandbecause you, it has those five
boroughs and each one is veryunique and different.
It was amazing and I go backevery now and then and I look
for a place on Cannon Beach or Ihave a friend out there.
It's just, it's beautiful,that's.
You're very lucky to be livingthere.
It's a beautiful state.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We've really enjoyed the diversity of landscapes and
how quickly you can get from thecoast to the mountain, to high
desert, etc.
And it's been reallyinteresting to see all the
(03:35):
different seasons and etc.
We moved up from SouthernCalifornia 10 years ago or so,
and, exactly, we moved up fromsouthern california 10 years ago
or so, um, but we not weweren't strangers to the area.
My in-laws have lived heresince the 80s, so we were
combining, sort of bringingfamily together, and then my
parents decided to move here in2019 as well, and so I guess
we're here now, and my daughteruh is just about to go off to
college.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
And so congratulations.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Thank you.
So on to new adventures.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes, and I hope not too expensive of an adventure.
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, she's fortunately going to a public
school up in Washington, atUniversity of Washington.
So she's close by and she will,so it'll be fine.
It's only we only have onlyhave of Washington.
So she's close by and she willbe fine.
It's only we only have the one.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So oh, okay.
Well, that's not too bad.
I hope she picks a major thatAI will be friendly to.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, I hope so too.
I think it's somewhere biologyrelated, but it's not clear
whether it's going to bebiochemistry or it's going to be
biomedical engineering.
So we're figuring that out.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
No well, it sounds like she's on a good path.
I have a friend of mine whojust her daughter is now in
Boston for product design.
I didn't even know that wassuch a thing, oh yeah, product
design.
So she wanted to meshengineering and graphics.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
There you go, yeah, anyway, so show me.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Before we dive deep into the product, tell me a
little bit about sort of whatyou do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Oh, so I am an occupational therapist.
I'm a retired occupationaltherapist and when I retired
from OT a few years ago, I wentinto internet marketing because
at that time with OT, I wasdoing a lot of training,
continuing ed, and so I wasusing the internet a lot and I
just thought it was amazing.
So I retired from OT because Iwas getting too old.
(05:32):
I worked in geriatric headinjury.
That was my specialty, and sonow that I'm 67, I'm officially
retired, I wanted to dosomething where I could combine
both skills.
So I developed a blog severalyears ago Senior Safety Advice,
and it's just, you know,information about what I know
(05:54):
about caregiving and caring forseniors and aging in place.
And I come to find out that Iwas getting a lot of emails,
people asking me well, you know,where are all these people that
you keep talking about?
And I I thought that they wouldbe easy to find and they
they're not.
You know there's one onFacebook, one on LinkedIn.
(06:15):
Many of them don't havewebsites or any kind of presence
, and I thought this isridiculous.
I mean, obviously, 10,000 pluspeople a day are turning 65,
till forever, it seems, with ourgeneration, you know, boomers,
and then the next generation.
(06:37):
So I thought, well, there has tobe some kind of an Angie's List
for Aging in Place Not only theproviders, but products,
services, anything relatedresources.
And that's how I started Agingin Place Directory.
So I'm in the process ofbuilding that and getting that
going, and you know, and then inthe midst of all that AI and
everything else that's comingalong, and then in the midst of
all that AI and everything elsethat's coming along.
(06:58):
So so now for the members ofthe directory, I do weekly
webinars on marketing and I useall my internet marketing skills
for that, training andequipment programs and
everything else.
So I'm really enjoying it.
It's much better than a lot ofmy retired friends, you know, go
out to lunch and go to the bookclub and, you know, I think
(07:21):
it's a little better than thatAt least I feel like I'm doing
something I'm giving backsomehow.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Absolutely.
Tell me a little bit about howmany people visit the directory
every day, or what are themetrics for that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Oh, we're getting about 150 a day so far.
It's a fairly new directory sowe're slowly building that up.
You know I'm working on, I havearticles on the directory to
attract homeowners and then I'm,you know, putting articles and
newsletters out almost every dayon LinkedIn, trying to attract
(07:59):
the business services to getonto the directory.
So I know that I have to buildup the directory before I can
really market it to homeowners,although what I'm hearing now
from the members of thedirectory is that they're
getting calls from the directory.
So that makes me feel goodbecause I mean I can't track.
(08:19):
I don't track that part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But it's getting there.
I just opened up a podcast forit and that one, I think, had
600 downloads last month, sothat was pretty good, and then a
YouTube channel that I'mputting the podcasts on.
For that, okay, and the oh, sothe the way, because I wanted to
(08:43):
build it up for the homeowners.
I can't really market it tothem until I have a lot of
providers, so that's why I madethe first 365 days free for the
providers.
Get them on board and have themand then later, you know, charge
a nominal fee.
I mean, I can't decide yetwhether I'm going to make it 15
(09:04):
a month or 20 a month.
I don't know, I can't decideyet.
But anyway, whatever it is, itwon't be very much and I'm just
looking for advice from anyone,any of the members.
Like what else would you likethe directory to do for you?
You know, besides give people aplacement of where you are,
because not everybody is local?
You know, your product isworldwide, I would imagine yeah,
(09:27):
at least us and canada, butyeah yeah, at least us and
canada.
So I want to.
That's why I have differentsections on their services,
products and um.
But then what I would like todo eventually is like, like to
take the products and make likea little commercial and put that
in the pages with the serviceproviders you know and then
maybe, like you know, have amonthly thing or I don't know,
(09:51):
something like that.
But what I would love to dowith you, if you don't mind, I
would love to do a interview, apodcast interview, which then
goes on YouTube, and then we canshowcase the product there.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I'd that YouTube video and I can put the shorts
out on LinkedIn or wherever else.
But yeah, so we can schedulethat later.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
But anyway, that's where I'm at, so if you have any
ideas, I have lots of ideas,Esther, and I have lots of
places where I need help.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So I'm more than happy to help.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay of places where I need help, so I'm sure more
than happy to help, okay, sobefore I dive into the product,
let's talk a little bit aboutwhy we developed this.
So I we have three co founders,including myself, fong and Mark,
and I came to the space and Idragged Fong into the space.
Because I came to the space andI dragged Fong into the space
(10:48):
because, when I told you, myparents moved here in 2019 and
then in 2020, my dad wasdiagnosed with cancer.
He fought cancer three timesand then the third time it
spread everywhere and he passedaway in July of 2023.
And then watching him sort ofdeal with illness in hospital at
(11:12):
home and it's just remarkablydifferent and then watching my
mom figure out how to live byherself for the first time in
her life made me realize thatthere's just not many tools to
help people stay connected whenthey aren't aging in place, and
so we started to think aboutwhat could we do to help people
check in effectively.
(11:32):
That was our, our Fong and Iwere thinking about before we
met Mark, and around the sametime, mark had been thinking
about a similar space, so he has.
He had been volunteering for anorganization called Village to
Village which is a virtualcommunity for older adults so
people help those that can'tright, so they give rides to
(11:54):
each other, et cetera.
And he had volunteered for them.
So Mark is 75.
He had volunteered for them tobe IT support because he's an
engineer, electronics engineerand a physician and one of their
members here in the Lake Oswegoarea had a medical event passed
(12:15):
away unexpectedly, wasn't foundfor a number of days in our
house and Mark was like it was avery disturbing event for a lot
of the members.
And so Mark was like there'sgot disturbing event for a lot
of the members and so mark waslike there's got to be a better
way and so he put on his oldhats of being an electrical
engineer, electronics engineer,and he came up with a precursor
(12:36):
to this device.
So this is our hello everydaydevice, which the lighting is
not great.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Uh, I apologize, but it's fine, you can see it and I,
and I also see it on thewebsite too, but I can see it
now.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's good uh he basically created a device that
was looking for human presenceand he started to give it to
some of the village members totest out and at the time, it was
just basically a proof of lifedevice, right?
so, uh, are they up every day?
Are they not up every day?
Somebody should check with them.
And last year he and I gotintroduced because we were both
(13:12):
thinking about the same thingand Mark was like, well, I think
there may be a market for this.
And I said I agree, given thatI've been thinking about it, and
we built a company and we'vebeta tested this with a number
of people.
We found exactly what youhighlighted in the beginning,
which is Wi-Fi is not a winningstrategy, downloading an app not
(13:34):
a winning strategy.
So we eliminated both of thoseand we took out a lot of the
friction and said, okay, well,all you've got to do is
basically take it out of the boxand plug it in and it'll work
via cellular and then we willsend messages via text and that
way, people will get notifiedabout whether you're doing okay
or not.
My mom was one of our firsttesters and usually I use her
(13:57):
sensor for demos, but she'straveling, so it's not very
exciting.
So I'm actually going to useMark's sensor, which is in his
office.
So every day, I get a series ofreports from a bunch of
different people.
I get a notification fromMark's sensor, who is my
co-founder, that he's activetoday, and then there are days
(14:19):
where I get a sensor report whenhe's traveling and I get a
report that he's away.
Report when he's traveling andI get a report that he's away.
And I also had a report from mymom's sensor that says and
right now it says that she'saway.
So let's look at Mark's sensorfor a second.
So this is a link thatbasically changes every day and
(14:40):
it's valid for two days.
So that's how we ensure that ifthe link falls into the wrong
hands, it doesn't get usedinappropriately.
But if you click on that link,it takes you, it opens up a
browser window and it lets youknow that this is basically
Mark's dashboard and it lets youknow that Mark's sensor is in
(15:01):
his office.
It displays his phone number.
So if I wanted to call him, andI was on my phone, I could press
that button and it would openup the phone app.
It lets me know that there's noalerts right now.
His last activity was today atnoon, between noon and one, and
the temperature in his house isa comfortable 75.
(15:23):
Excuse me, I can click on thedaily chart and I can see sort
of I can walk in Mark's shoes.
So Mark came into his officebetween seven and eight and he's
been in his office at leastonce every hour for since this
morning, and that seems likeit's a consistent pattern for
(15:44):
Mark, right.
And there are some days wherehe's in his office till pretty
late.
And that seems like it's aconsistent pattern for Mark,
right.
And there are some days wherehe's in his office till pretty
late.
And I know he's working reallyhard because he's trying to
solve a problem, and then thereare other days where he's out
and about for a couple of hours,but, as Mark says, his office
is his happy place, so I'm notsurprised that he's in his
office a lot right.
So this allows someone like mewho is invested in Mark to get a
(16:10):
really good idea.
Even though the sensor is onlyin one place in a person's home,
get a really good idea of whattheir activity levels are, et
cetera.
But if I suddenly saw Markhaving activity in the middle of
the night, or if I saw Mark'sactivity being sporadic, that
would be an alert that wait asecond, there's something has
(16:31):
changed and I should check inwith him.
Or if I saw no activity and Idid expect to see activity, that
would also be an data point forus to follow up on.
And that's the whole idea.
So you can have up to fivepeople get these messages and
you can tailor those messages Ifyou want highest privacy.
(16:52):
Then all they would get is amessage if there was something
wrong.
And there are three conditionsthat could prompt a message.
It could be either that thesensor is unplugged and it's not
receiving information.
It could be that thetemperature in the home is too
high, it's above 90, or it's low50, or that they didn't detect
activity throughout the day, soany of those would prompt a
(17:14):
message, but otherwise theywouldn't get a message.
Two, what we're seeing here,which is the maximum reassurance
where you're actually able tosee the hourly charts, and what
we find is daughters tend to goin more and check in on their
parents, not surprisingly,compared to sons.
So sons tend to be very happywith just getting a texting
(17:36):
everything's okay, whereasdaughters will often go in and
check multiple times a day, andwhat we're finding is that this
substantially changes therelationship that you have.
This is a nonverbalcommunication tool that allows
people to get reassured thatthey're doing okay without
(17:56):
having to actively engage.
So when you are engaging live,you're actually engaging about
them rather than are you okay,engaging about them rather than
are you okay, and so thatreassurance can be a really
important element that peopledon't always know they're
missing.
If they're, if they're using anactive engagement model like a
(18:18):
text or a phone call to check inon each other.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It's non-invasive, you're not a person person right
correct.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We can't tell one person from the next.
There are no cameras, there areno microphones, we can't record
it, uh, etc.
So, uh, in fact, one of thethings we were talking about
today on the from on our teamcall was I was in.
I was asking mark to figure outa way that we could show my
sensors activity on our websiteto show that there isn't a whole
(18:50):
lot of invasiveness.
Right Like this allows peopleto see that we are walking the
walk, as it were.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
You mean like a live feed?
Yeah, yeah, that would be verycool.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, that would be very cool.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, that would be very cool.
I love that idea.
You know I do.
I live alone.
My husband passed away yearsago.
So what I do is every day Itext something fun to a group of
(19:23):
friends.
You know, know, I used to dolike the crazy holiday, you know
today's National Pancake Day orwhatever.
I did that for a few years, andnow what I'm doing are idioms.
You know a crazy idiom and thehistory of it.
So it's just something to sayI'm here, I'm up and if they
don't hear from me by noon, thento check in on me.
(19:47):
But I think the check-inprocess is so very important.
I mean, if you want toincorporate those fun ideas into
another product, go ahead, it'sall yours.
But I love the idea that one.
It's not invasive.
I love now when someone gets amessage.
(20:07):
They just get that message once, right, and then they can check
in throughout the day.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The phone is constantly buzzing all the time.
No right, not buzzing all thetime, so it's just one.
And then they have thedashboard to go to to check, and
I love that.
You're right.
You notice that the person isgetting up in the middle of the
night now and they weren'tbefore.
Or you notice they're not inthe office, you know, by 9 am,
and they normally aresomething's off.
(20:34):
I I think it's an excellentproduct and, like I said, the
fact that it doesn't need wi-fiis, I think, the best.
I don't know how you guys didit, but how did you do that
without wi-Fi?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
It's my experience there's actually a cellular
modem built in.
Let me see if I can show you apicture of that.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
What is your background?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I'm an engineer, esther, I'm a mechanical
engineer, and then I've gonearound the block a few times.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I've gone around the block a few times.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I've been an investment banker, I've been in
corporate finance, et cetera,and so it has allowed me to be
on the cusp of where multipledisciplines intersect.
I've always believed thatthat's where value is created,
rather than being superspecialized in one thing.
So this is what the inside ofthe device looks like.
(21:32):
So what you're looking at soright here is the cellular modem
that basically connects viacellular to the cloud, and then
here is the ESP32.
That's a processor inside thesensor and that's what gives us
the ability to provideintelligence so that we can
(21:54):
disregard pets or we can set upso that if somebody has blinds
in the background that wavearound, we can ignore those
blinds, et cetera.
So that intelligence is reallyimportant to prevent false
positives or false negatives.
So it gives us the ability tocalibrate, because everyone's
room is different and everyone'shome is different, et cetera,
(22:15):
of course, so we can ignore.
That is what makes it much morehelpful from a and that's from
the perspective, yeah, Okay,does it matter?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Does it have to be plugged in at a certain height?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That's a great question.
So there are two ways to dothis.
I'm going to unplug this, sothis is what it looks like.
If you had a stand and if thewall plug was behind a furniture
, this is what you would do, butyou also have the ability to
plug it in directly into a walloutlet, so you can disregard the
(22:59):
wire and the stand completely,and then that's.
This little plug goes directlyat the back of this.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And you can plug this in directly into the wall
outlet.
So then all it all, it'ssitting there, is doing this and
it acts as a nightlight, so itglows white during the night, so
it becomes even better.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
So it does have to be at a certain height, I mean you
don't want it on the ground no,you can.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You could have it on the ground, uh, the only the
only downside of having it onthe ground is if you have a dog,
for example.
Uh, you would want to have iton a cover height.
Uh, if you have cats, we can.
Basically.
If you have cats, we canbasically disregard the.
We can make sure that the there, that it disregards any
(23:43):
activity right next to thesensor, which is where cats like
to go to and, and so that willnot trigger the the sensor would
it work behind glass?
it would.
Yeah, it works okay, but we hada blast yep wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
It's great.
Well, I I hope we can do apodcast.
What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to send you a link to
schedule for that and then wecan do the podcast and I, in the
meantime, I'm going to if it'sokay, I'm going to do an article
on it oh, I'd love that yeah,and send that out not only to
the websites but to linkedin.
I'll do it on both websitessenior safety and aging in place
(24:21):
and send that out, and I wouldlove for you to go ahead and
join the directory.
I'll send you a link to thattoo.
We'd love that get your producton there and I see that you
have, um, that partnershipprogram, that you have two of
the people there are on thedirectory and do.
Is that an affiliate program orwhat is the okay?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And we can add you to that as well, Esther.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I actually sent in my info already.
I signed up.
So when I saw that, because Iwas looking for an affiliate,
because I think it's soimportant in this niche for
senior care, I think it's soimportant in this niche for
senior care, I think it's soimportant to work in a team
effort and what I find, as I'mtalking to so many aging in
place specialists now across thecountry, is that you're my
(25:06):
fourth call today.
So as I'm talking to everyone,I noticed that so many people
aren't working together.
Many people aren't workingtogether.
You know the declutter personshould be working with the
contractor, with the.
You know not only just thehomeowner, not the client and
the family, but all the otherpeople.
There's so many, sir, as yousaw with your father, there's so
(25:27):
many services involved incaring and in in in adapting a
home and you know, I'm sure yourmother now is your work looking
at all of those factors for herand I hope that she's doing
well.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know, after the, advice I gave her was you have
two choices.
When my dad passed um and Isaid you can either you can
either think of this as anadventure or you can withdraw.
Yeah, and I highly recommendthinking of it as an adventure
and, to her credit, she hasleaned in as if it's an
(26:02):
adventure and she's throwingherself.
She went to Prague.
She's been teaching at thelocal community college and she
actually went to Prague withthem as a part of their program
and she had a great time.
She's in India right now andit's it's still hard.
Loneliness is hard and andgrief is hard and it comes in
(26:24):
waves as, as you know, and it'sbeen a.
It's been a, it's built a lot ofempathy and understanding and
it's it removed a lot of thejudgment that that seeps in if
you don't really know things upclose and personal.
Uh, and it's taught me just howthe differences and how people
(26:46):
cope with all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So it's true, I mean, everyone does cope with it
differently.
You know, some people just staystuck in that grief and and
wallowness or whatever I don'tknow.
Then they eventually they endup becoming a victim of it
really, and they don't know howto get out of it, which I can
imagine.
I mean, I, I know that it'shard to get out of that, but
you're right, you either have tolive in that or you take life
(27:13):
as an adventure.
What comes next?
Um, and I'm sure you know yourgrief also.
You know, obviously it'sdifferent from hers because you
know when, when you're in arelationship, you just you know
that's your plan, that's your,your.
Your plan is to be with thatperson and then all of a sudden,
when that breaks, and even ifyou know it's coming, um, it's
(27:35):
still very difficult.
It's so hard to changeeverything.
And yeah, I, I know, but I'mglad that she is taking that
adventure.
You are very lucky to have youI.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I'm glad.
I'm glad my parents had theforesight to think of it as an
adventure in the first place tomove to lake oswego from india,
which is a big leap, uh, butthey've done.
I'm glad we got to buildmemories here with my dad, which
I'm very, very grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And good yeah, um you've turned out a very good
life for yourself, bucky Iappreciate that.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I would love for you to try our product.
Would you want to?
Would you want me to ship ademo unit to you, and would you
want to Sure?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I would love that.
I'll put my address in theemail.
And then what's a good emailfor you?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's Kabir at hello dash everydaycom.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Oh, okay, well, I got that, hello dash, I got it so
good, I will go ahead and getthat at helloeverydaycom.
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Hello, Dash Every Day .
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, dash Every Day, I will go ahead and get that.
Yeah, I would love to go aheadand test it Then, that way I can
do an unboxing and then I cando.
I don't know why people are sofascinated with unboxing, but
you know, whatever, um, you gowith what the crowd needs or
wants, right, um, yeah, so Iwill go ahead and do that and
send that out to you, and I solook forward to talking to you
(29:05):
again.
I I am always so amazed at howpeople can take a problem and
then create a thing or a serviceor whatever in order to
accommodate that problem.
I, I, just, I love thecreativity that people have, and
I think this niche this, with10 000 plus people a day,
(29:27):
turning 65, it just seems likeit's a no-brainer, you know, to
go for products and services inthat niche our thesis is that 90
of the people in the UnitedStates are not going to be able
to afford independent orassisted living.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It's true, we find all the time.
In fact, that was at a.
We donated one of our devices.
So a couple of stories, Esther,if you don't mind.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
No, I don't mind at all, no, no.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So a couple of stories.
One when we started thiscompany, one of the first people
that were testing this devicethat Mark had been testing the
device with her name is Joan.
She's on our website.
She approached us and she saidthis has been such a huge value
(30:15):
to my life because she's's anorphan, she's never been married
, never had kids, and she wasdealing with some health issues.
And she was like that this justprovides a lot of reassurance
to me that if something happensto me, someone would know.
And she's like I would love topay this forward.
And we said and I rememberclearly we were visiting
colleges for my daughter inCalifornia and we got on the
(30:37):
call and I was scratching myhead and saying, okay, well, how
is this going to work?
Like we're not a nonprofit andthis is not.
And so we wrote something upand we thought, okay, well, if
you want to give us like $5,000,we can support 10 units or
whatever.
And she's like, okay, okay,this is helpful, but I'm going
(30:58):
to give you 50 000 and I want tobuy 170 sensors for about a
third of the village membersthat are in the portland metro
region that she thought livedalone.
And so we are in the process offulfilling that gift and by the
end of the year we'll have 250sensors out in the market I love
it so it's been so rewarding,uh and uh, just reassuring to
(31:24):
have that someone have that kindof confidence in a young
startup.
So that's one story.
The second story was, uh, wedonated a couple of our early
beta units that we took backbecause they are not, they had
not been certified whatever.
Um, and we donated a couple ofour early beta units that we
took back because they had notbeen certified whatever, and we
donated a couple of them to anorganization here in Lake Oswego
called ReFit.
(31:45):
Refit does basically what youused to do, which is they help
retrofit people's homes withgrab bars, ramps, etc.
So that they can age in place,and one of the people that they
nominated to get that firstdevice was a guy named Steve
Goldman.
Steve is a former physicaltherapist.
He had a number of seizuresthat happened since April of
(32:12):
this year.
Suddenly he finds himself he'snot able to drive.
They haven't figured out whythe seizures are happening.
It may be related to diabetes.
Himself he's not able to drive,he's he's.
They haven't figured out whythe seizures are happening.
It may be related to diabetes,it's not really clear and so I
went to visit him and Iinstalled a device for him, etc.
And he was just so not onlygrateful, but he was like I want
(32:33):
a purpose, I want I want to behelpful for people, because
people are helping me, so tellme how I can help you.
And so we get people all thetime who are like I would love
to buy this device, but I don'thave someone on the other side
that could actually receive amessage so that they would
invest in my well-being.
(32:54):
And we're like well, steve,would you be willing to be that
person?
And he's like I would love that.
So it's one of our visions, forthis device is to build both
community and purpose.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's the purpose that you are creating with your
friends of checking in on eachother.
That is immeasurable in valuein creating that engagement, and
that's what we want to do at abigger scale.
So I wanted to share those twostories with you because they're
so important to what we do.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
They are.
I love that idea of people whodon't have anyone else.
You know, my mom-in-law liveduntil 102.
And she said one of the worstthings about growing older for
her was that everyone else thatshe grew up with was gone.
Yeah, you know, she outlivedeveryone, so she didn't have
anyone else to send to, except,you know well, the children.
(33:51):
But if she didn't have childrenshe would have no one.
So I love that idea.
I love that idea of of stevenow.
Now are you going to beactively looking for people to?
I mean, otherwise, what he'sgoing to get?
50 or 100 or 1000?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
no, no, we, we don't intend that to be, but I think
what was interesting was howquickly steve went from I love
the idea, I want this in myhouse to how can I help?
Yeah, everybody has thatcapacity.
Yeah, right, and and what we'rehoping to do is, as we, as we
(34:29):
find new customers, can weconnect them with people that
might be of interest, similarinterests, etc.
So we're that, that's.
We're still early days, butthat, though, that's how we're
thinking about it right, that'sanother thing on the on the
whiteboard for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Our whiteboard is unfortunately very full already
I know I know it's like you needthree or four or five
whiteboards.
I know I understand that verywell.
Oh, thank you so much, Kabir.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to hang out with me and
geek out with me a little bit.
I enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You're in the right company if you want to geek out.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yes, I love geeking out.
None of my friends.
Their eyes roll in the back oftheir head, so I enjoy it.
I love it.
Oh, one question I do have toask how do you see AI affecting
you, if at all?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
There's a lot of noise right now about.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
AI, that's for sure.
Sure One of our four pieces isthat humans need?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
we are social animals and we need connectivity.
Mm, hmm and and I know there isa lot of chatter, pardon the
pun of can we use AI to toartificially provide stimulus or
connectivity with people?
To artificially providestimulus or connectivity with
people, but I think that's a.
I've tried a couple of them.
I think it's a band-aid, butpeople need like what we're
(36:07):
doing is a good facsimile, butthey need more in-person, they
need a sense of belonging, theyneed to feel like they're seen,
and farming that out to amachine is not, in my opinion,
an answer.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I agree.
I agree, I mean we need tactiletouch at some point.
I agree, I keep thinking ofthat movie, her with Joaquin
Phoenix, where he falls in lovewith the little thing with
Joaquin Phoenix, where he fallsin love with the little thing.
And you're right, it can'tpossibly replace but the
(36:46):
technology that AI is bringingabout.
It's going to be interesting tosee how that evolves.
And you're right at this pointit's a lot of noise, it's a lot
of.
Everything is being thrown likespaghetti on the wall and who
knows what ends up, you knowlasting.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I have to also say, though, Esther, we are huge
beneficiaries of AI, right?
So when we run into a problem,we rely on AI to say hey, we've
run into this problem.
Give us leads Some of them arewildly wrong, but many of them
are good leads into how to thinkabout sort of solutions, and so
the way I describe AI it's agreat way to lift all bolts if
(37:23):
you're willing to sort of engagewith it, but it isn't
necessarily the right answerwhen you're looking for true
creativity or innovation, right.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
It's a great way to.
It's effectively a libraryresource, but you still have to
do something with it.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Exactly exactly.
It's just another tool in thearsenal of tools and if you can
see it that way, you're right.
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It's amazing, right?
Your daughter is going to growup in another world.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Oh, what I've said in the past and I continue to say
is the job she's likely to dohasn't even been invented yet.
It's changing so quickly, andso figuring out how to add value
and how to learn in a newenvironment is so important.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I know it's going to be.
I think, for the future, forthe young people, it's going to
be skills, all about skills.
What skills can you contribute?
It's amazing.
I wish I was 20 again, but onlyif I know, only if I knew what
I know now what do you do forfun, sir?
(38:29):
oh, I love.
I love movies, I love to read.
I live in a walking community,you know.
I have shops and restaurantsand parks within walking
distance here, so, and I have aslew of friends that come and
drag me out of my office mostevery day I'm in the process of
renovating my home for aging inplace, so just today also, I had
(38:52):
the contractor and everybodyhere.
There's festivals at the parkright up here all the time, so I
do that, so it's mostly local.
I've traveled a lot in my life,so, um, I've lived in.
This is my 29th house that I'velived in.
Oh, my goodness my life.
So I'm, um, I'm ready to, justyou know, have a nice easy life.
(39:14):
My goal for my 67th year is tomake life easy, and so I'm ready
to, just you know, have a niceeasy life.
My goal for my 67th year is tomake life easy, and so I'm
looking for systems, forprograms, anything at all to
make my life easy.
But I need to keep learning.
I love learning and I don'tthink learning without teaching
(39:36):
is beneficial.
I have some friends who go tothose free college courses, but
then that's it.
They go to the course, theylearn about ancient history or
whatever, and then that's it.
They never visit it or doanything with it.
Write a book, write an article,do something with it, but they
don't.
They just go on to the nextthing.
And that's why I do web and Ilike the webinars that I do for
(39:59):
the direct, for the directorymembers, because it keeps me, it
forces me to keep learningabout all of these new programs
that are coming out, and I justfinished a course on agentic ai
and um.
It's going to be.
It's just amazing what'shappening.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
It's mind boggling but I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
And I love learning from other people, because who
am I to think that I knoweverything?
I don't know everything and Idon't want to know everything
you know.
I want to surround myself withpeople who know everything,
learn from all of them, as longas they can honor the other
person's knowledge base as well.
I think that is so important.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I think that's a very portland kind of thing to do
yeah, I, there's a lot to unpackthere, um, and I think, I think
, but I think you're you'reright on the application of that
knowledge is so important toretain and process it.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah, so important.
What's the point of learning itif you're not going to do it?
You could read a thousandself-help books, but if you
don't do it, right.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Plus that knowledge fades right like if you don't
apply it, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So yeah, I mean it was just a waste of time, but
but it was entertaining, but youknow yeah, yeah, but I love it
and I think the group of peoplethat are all in this niche
they're so, they're fascinating.
So many different things thatthey're doing and everybody's
coming from so many differentbackgrounds.
You know, as an ot, you neverget rid of that ot mentality.
(41:34):
You you're constantly lookingat your environment and how can
you modify the environment tothe person?
And I mean that is justingrained in me.
I can't get rid of it.
And since my experience washead injury, I'm always looking
at, you know, at at that aspectof it and analyzing it.
And my husband was apsychologist and he then became
(41:57):
a PA.
So you know I have all that.
I mean we were together 25years, so I have all of that.
You know experience from him.
He used to come home from workas a PA and he would say people
aren't coming in to see me forthis, they're coming in to see
me for this.
So of course he would know thatbecause of all his history of
(42:18):
psychology.
But you know it, it's, it'sjust fascinating.
People fascinate me, they arethe most interesting group.
The brain fascinates me.
It's um, I don't know, it'scrazy, but I love your product
and I think you guys are on areally good path.
I love how you brought allthree people together, um with
(42:39):
all your experiences, and youyou can't not do well I mean,
that's the word of confidence.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, you can't like that, but I appreciate it would
have come for sure you can't.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I don't think you can not do well, I mean, either you
continue the company or it endsup being bought by a bigger
company or merging or whatever.
And you know, you never know,you never know.
But yeah, all right, so I'mgonna send you that info.
Thank you for your time andenjoy beautiful lake asuego, you
(43:11):
lucky dog have a great day,esther.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Thank you ciao.
Hello, Mr Bhatia.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi Esther, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm fine.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to hang out with me for
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh, absolutely.
Thank you for taking the time.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh sure, no problem.
I love the concept of yourproduct.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Oh, I'm glad to hear that.
Did you check out our website?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I'm looking at it right now.
I mean I love the best thingthat I think about it.
I think about it is that it'syou don't need Wi Fi, right?
That's the one issue that Ihear a lot of people say well,
my parents don't have Wi Fi.
Well then, what?
You're stuck, so I love thatconcept.
(01:11):
What I wanted to know about it,though, was when it sends a
message and I mean I haven'tlooked at the video or anything,
but when it sends a message, isit always a text message, or
does it do phone calls as well?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No, it could be text or email, excuse me.
We find that text is much moreimmediate and reliable.
And why don't I show you whatit looks like?
If you have a minute?
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
okay, so I'm going to share my screen and also um the
Lake Oswego area that you guysare in is beautiful have you
been?
I've been.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
You're very lucky yeah, we, we enjoy it.
Where are you now, esther?
I'm uh northeast of AtlantaGeorgia got it and have you been
there long.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've been here since, yeah, about 20 years now.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, 18, 20 years.
Before that, I was in SouthFlorida.
Before that I was in Brooklyn.
Before that, I was in Venezuela.
My parents are from Sicily.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
My sister's born in London.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I don't know.
We're from everywhere.
I say we're from the planetEarth.
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
A global traveler.
What brought you to Portlandand Lake Oswego?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, actually we went to Portland for our honeymoon.
Oh, awesome, yeah, because itwas the only part of the country
neither of us had ever been toand we were there two and a half
weeks and we traveledeverywhere.
We went to the coast, we wentto mount hood, we went north, we
went south and we, every timewe came back, you know, we went
(02:52):
to a different part of portlandbecause you, it has those five
boroughs and each one is veryunique and different.
It was amazing and I go backevery now and then and I look
for a place on Cannon Beach or Ihave a friend out there.
It's just, it's beautiful,that's.
You're very lucky to be livingthere.
It's a beautiful state.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We've really enjoyed the diversity of landscapes and
how quickly you can get from thecoast to the mountain, to high
desert, etc.
And it's been reallyinteresting to see all the
(03:35):
different seasons and etc.
We moved up from SouthernCalifornia 10 years ago or so,
and, exactly, we moved up fromsouthern california 10 years ago
or so, um, but we not weweren't strangers to the area.
My in-laws have lived heresince the 80s, so we were
combining, sort of bringingfamily together, and then my
parents decided to move here in2019 as well, and so I guess
we're here now, and my daughteruh is just about to go off to
college.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
And so congratulations.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Thank you.
So on to new adventures.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yes, and I hope not too expensive of an adventure.
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, she's fortunately going to a public
school up in Washington, atUniversity of Washington.
So she's close by and she will,so it'll be fine.
It's only we only have onlyhave of Washington.
So she's close by and she willbe fine.
It's only we only have the one.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So oh, okay.
Well, that's not too bad.
I hope she picks a major thatAI will be friendly to.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, I hope so too.
I think it's somewhere biologyrelated, but it's not clear
whether it's going to bebiochemistry or it's going to be
biomedical engineering.
So we're figuring that out.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
No well, it sounds like she's on a good path.
I have a friend of mine whojust her daughter is now in
Boston for product design.
I didn't even know that wassuch a thing, oh yeah, product
design.
So she wanted to meshengineering and graphics.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
There you go, yeah, anyway, so show me.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Before we dive deep into the product, tell me a
little bit about sort of whatyou do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Oh, so I am an occupational therapist.
I'm a retired occupationaltherapist and when I retired
from OT a few years ago, I wentinto internet marketing because
at that time with OT, I wasdoing a lot of training,
continuing ed, and so I wasusing the internet a lot and I
just thought it was amazing.
So I retired from OT because Iwas getting too old.
(05:32):
I worked in geriatric headinjury.
That was my specialty, and sonow that I'm 67, I'm officially
retired, I wanted to dosomething where I could combine
both skills.
So I developed a blog severalyears ago Senior Safety Advice,
and it's just, you know,information about what I know
(05:54):
about caregiving and caring forseniors and aging in place.
And I come to find out that Iwas getting a lot of emails,
people asking me well, you know,where are all these people that
you keep talking about?
And I I thought that they wouldbe easy to find and they
they're not.
You know there's one onFacebook, one on LinkedIn.
(06:15):
Many of them don't havewebsites or any kind of presence
, and I thought this isridiculous.
I mean, obviously, 10,000 pluspeople a day are turning 65,
till forever, it seems, with ourgeneration, you know, boomers,
and then the next generation.
(06:37):
So I thought, well, there has tobe some kind of an Angie's List
for Aging in Place Not only theproviders, but products,
services, anything relatedresources.
And that's how I started Agingin Place Directory.
So I'm in the process ofbuilding that and getting that
going, and you know, and then inthe midst of all that AI and
everything else that's comingalong, and then in the midst of
all that AI and everything elsethat's coming along.
(06:58):
So so now for the members ofthe directory, I do weekly
webinars on marketing and I useall my internet marketing skills
for that, training andequipment programs and
everything else.
So I'm really enjoying it.
It's much better than a lot ofmy retired friends, you know, go
out to lunch and go to the bookclub and, you know, I think
(07:21):
it's a little better than thatAt least I feel like I'm doing
something I'm giving backsomehow.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Absolutely.
Tell me a little bit about howmany people visit the directory
every day, or what are themetrics for that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Oh, we're getting about 150 a day so far.
It's a fairly new directory sowe're slowly building that up.
You know I'm working on, I havearticles on the directory to
attract homeowners and then I'm,you know, putting articles and
newsletters out almost every dayon LinkedIn, trying to attract
(07:59):
the business services to getonto the directory.
So I know that I have to buildup the directory before I can
really market it to homeowners,although what I'm hearing now
from the members of thedirectory is that they're
getting calls from the directory.
So that makes me feel goodbecause I mean I can't track.
(08:19):
I don't track that part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But it's getting there.
I just opened up a podcast forit and that one, I think, had
600 downloads last month, sothat was pretty good, and then a
YouTube channel that I'mputting the podcasts on.
For that, okay, and the oh, sothe the way, because I wanted to
(08:43):
build it up for the homeowners.
I can't really market it tothem until I have a lot of
providers, so that's why I madethe first 365 days free for the
providers.
Get them on board and have themand then later, you know, charge
a nominal fee.
I mean, I can't decide yetwhether I'm going to make it 15
(09:04):
a month or 20 a month.
I don't know, I can't decideyet.
But anyway, whatever it is, itwon't be very much and I'm just
looking for advice from anyone,any of the members.
Like what else would you likethe directory to do for you?
You know, besides give people aplacement of where you are,
because not everybody is local?
You know, your product isworldwide, I would imagine yeah,
(09:27):
at least us and canada, butyeah yeah, at least us and
canada.
So I want to.
That's why I have differentsections on their services,
products and um.
But then what I would like todo eventually is like, like to
take the products and make likea little commercial and put that
in the pages with the serviceproviders you know and then
maybe, like you know, have amonthly thing or I don't know,
(09:51):
something like that.
But what I would love to dowith you, if you don't mind, I
would love to do a interview, apodcast interview, which then
goes on YouTube, and then we canshowcase the product there.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I'd that YouTube video and I can put the shorts
out on LinkedIn or wherever else.
But yeah, so we can schedulethat later.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
But anyway, that's where I'm at, so if you have any
ideas, I have lots of ideas,Esther, and I have lots of
places where I need help.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
So I'm more than happy to help.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay of places where I need help, so I'm sure more
than happy to help, okay, sobefore I dive into the product,
let's talk a little bit aboutwhy we developed this.
So I we have three co founders,including myself, fong and Mark,
and I came to the space and Idragged Fong into the space.
Because I came to the space andI dragged Fong into the space
(10:48):
because, when I told you, myparents moved here in 2019 and
then in 2020, my dad wasdiagnosed with cancer.
He fought cancer three timesand then the third time it
spread everywhere and he passedaway in July of 2023.
And then watching him sort ofdeal with illness in hospital at
(11:12):
home and it's just remarkablydifferent and then watching my
mom figure out how to live byherself for the first time in
her life made me realize thatthere's just not many tools to
help people stay connected whenthey aren't aging in place, and
so we started to think aboutwhat could we do to help people
check in effectively.
(11:32):
That was our, our Fong and Iwere thinking about before we
met Mark, and around the sametime, mark had been thinking
about a similar space, so he has.
He had been volunteering for anorganization called Village to
Village which is a virtualcommunity for older adults so
people help those that can'tright, so they give rides to
(11:54):
each other, et cetera.
And he had volunteered for them.
So Mark is 75.
He had volunteered for them tobe IT support because he's an
engineer, electronics engineerand a physician and one of their
members here in the Lake Oswegoarea had a medical event passed
(12:15):
away unexpectedly, wasn't foundfor a number of days in our
house and Mark was like it was avery disturbing event for a lot
of the members.
And so Mark was like there'sgot disturbing event for a lot
of the members and so mark waslike there's got to be a better
way and so he put on his oldhats of being an electrical
engineer, electronics engineer,and he came up with a precursor
(12:36):
to this device.
So this is our hello everydaydevice, which the lighting is
not great.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Uh, I apologize, but it's fine, you can see it and I,
and I also see it on thewebsite too, but I can see it
now.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's good uh he basically created a device that
was looking for human presenceand he started to give it to
some of the village members totest out and at the time, it was
just basically a proof of lifedevice, right?
so, uh, are they up every day?
Are they not up every day?
Somebody should check with them.
And last year he and I gotintroduced because we were both
(13:12):
thinking about the same thingand Mark was like, well, I think
there may be a market for this.
And I said I agree, given thatI've been thinking about it, and
we built a company and we'vebeta tested this with a number
of people.
We found exactly what youhighlighted in the beginning,
which is Wi-Fi is not a winningstrategy, downloading an app not
(13:34):
a winning strategy.
So we eliminated both of thoseand we took out a lot of the
friction and said, okay, well,all you've got to do is
basically take it out of the boxand plug it in and it'll work
via cellular and then we willsend messages via text and that
way, people will get notifiedabout whether you're doing okay
or not.
My mom was one of our firsttesters and usually I use her
(13:57):
sensor for demos, but she'straveling, so it's not very
exciting.
So I'm actually going to useMark's sensor, which is in his
office.
So every day, I get a series ofreports from a bunch of
different people.
I get a notification fromMark's sensor, who is my
co-founder, that he's activetoday, and then there are days
(14:19):
where I get a sensor report whenhe's traveling and I get a
report that he's away.
Report when he's traveling andI get a report that he's away.
And I also had a report from mymom's sensor that says and
right now it says that she'saway.
So let's look at Mark's sensorfor a second.
So this is a link thatbasically changes every day and
(14:40):
it's valid for two days.
So that's how we ensure that ifthe link falls into the wrong
hands, it doesn't get usedinappropriately.
But if you click on that link,it takes you, it opens up a
browser window and it lets youknow that this is basically
Mark's dashboard and it lets youknow that Mark's sensor is in
(15:01):
his office.
It displays his phone number.
So if I wanted to call him, andI was on my phone, I could press
that button and it would openup the phone app.
It lets me know that there's noalerts right now.
His last activity was today atnoon, between noon and one, and
the temperature in his house isa comfortable 75.
(15:23):
Excuse me, I can click on thedaily chart and I can see sort
of I can walk in Mark's shoes.
So Mark came into his officebetween seven and eight and he's
been in his office at leastonce every hour for since this
morning, and that seems likeit's a consistent pattern for
(15:44):
Mark, right.
And there are some days wherehe's in his office till pretty
late.
And that seems like it's aconsistent pattern for Mark,
right.
And there are some days wherehe's in his office till pretty
late.
And I know he's working reallyhard because he's trying to
solve a problem, and then thereare other days where he's out
and about for a couple of hours,but, as Mark says, his office
is his happy place, so I'm notsurprised that he's in his
office a lot right.
So this allows someone like mewho is invested in Mark to get a
(16:10):
really good idea.
Even though the sensor is onlyin one place in a person's home,
get a really good idea of whattheir activity levels are, et
cetera.
But if I suddenly saw Markhaving activity in the middle of
the night, or if I saw Mark'sactivity being sporadic, that
would be an alert that wait asecond, there's something has
(16:31):
changed and I should check inwith him.
Or if I saw no activity and Idid expect to see activity, that
would also be an data point forus to follow up on.
And that's the whole idea.
So you can have up to fivepeople get these messages and
you can tailor those messages Ifyou want highest privacy.
(16:52):
Then all they would get is amessage if there was something
wrong.
And there are three conditionsthat could prompt a message.
It could be either that thesensor is unplugged and it's not
receiving information.
It could be that thetemperature in the home is too
high, it's above 90, or it's low50, or that they didn't detect
activity throughout the day, soany of those would prompt a
(17:14):
message, but otherwise theywouldn't get a message.
Two, what we're seeing here,which is the maximum reassurance
where you're actually able tosee the hourly charts, and what
we find is daughters tend to goin more and check in on their
parents, not surprisingly,compared to sons.
So sons tend to be very happywith just getting a texting
(17:36):
everything's okay, whereasdaughters will often go in and
check multiple times a day, andwhat we're finding is that this
substantially changes therelationship that you have.
This is a nonverbalcommunication tool that allows
people to get reassured thatthey're doing okay without
(17:56):
having to actively engage.
So when you are engaging live,you're actually engaging about
them rather than are you okay,engaging about them rather than
are you okay, and so thatreassurance can be a really
important element that peopledon't always know they're
missing.
If they're, if they're using anactive engagement model like a
(18:18):
text or a phone call to check inon each other.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It's non-invasive, you're not a person person right
correct.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We can't tell one person from the next.
There are no cameras, there areno microphones, we can't record
it, uh, etc.
So, uh, in fact, one of thethings we were talking about
today on the from on our teamcall was I was in.
I was asking mark to figure outa way that we could show my
sensors activity on our websiteto show that there isn't a whole
(18:50):
lot of invasiveness.
Right Like this allows peopleto see that we are walking the
walk, as it were.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
You mean like a live feed?
Yeah, yeah, that would be verycool.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, that would be very cool.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, that would be very cool.
I love that idea.
You know I do.
I live alone.
My husband passed away yearsago.
So what I do is every day Itext something fun to a group of
(19:23):
friends.
You know, know, I used to dolike the crazy holiday, you know
today's National Pancake Day orwhatever.
I did that for a few years, andnow what I'm doing are idioms.
You know a crazy idiom and thehistory of it.
So it's just something to sayI'm here, I'm up and if they
don't hear from me by noon, thento check in on me.
(19:47):
But I think the check-inprocess is so very important.
I mean, if you want toincorporate those fun ideas into
another product, go ahead, it'sall yours.
But I love the idea that one.
It's not invasive.
I love now when someone gets amessage.
(20:07):
They just get that message once, right, and then they can check
in throughout the day.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
The phone is constantly buzzing all the time.
No right, not buzzing all thetime, so it's just one.
And then they have thedashboard to go to to check, and
I love that.
You're right.
You notice that the person isgetting up in the middle of the
night now and they weren'tbefore.
Or you notice they're not inthe office, you know, by 9 am,
and they normally aresomething's off.
(20:34):
I I think it's an excellentproduct and, like I said, the
fact that it doesn't need wi-fiis, I think, the best.
I don't know how you guys didit, but how did you do that
without wi-Fi?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
It's my experience there's actually a cellular
modem built in.
Let me see if I can show you apicture of that.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
What is your background?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I'm an engineer, esther, I'm a mechanical
engineer, and then I've gonearound the block a few times.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I've gone around the block a few times.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I've been an investment banker, I've been in
corporate finance, et cetera,and so it has allowed me to be
on the cusp of where multipledisciplines intersect.
I've always believed thatthat's where value is created,
rather than being superspecialized in one thing.
So this is what the inside ofthe device looks like.
(21:32):
So what you're looking at soright here is the cellular modem
that basically connects viacellular to the cloud, and then
here is the ESP32.
That's a processor inside thesensor and that's what gives us
the ability to provideintelligence so that we can
(21:54):
disregard pets or we can set upso that if somebody has blinds
in the background that wavearound, we can ignore those
blinds, et cetera.
So that intelligence is reallyimportant to prevent false
positives or false negatives.
So it gives us the ability tocalibrate, because everyone's
room is different and everyone'shome is different, et cetera,
(22:15):
of course, so we can ignore.
That is what makes it much morehelpful from a and that's from
the perspective, yeah, Okay,does it matter?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Does it have to be plugged in at a certain height?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
That's a great question.
So there are two ways to dothis.
I'm going to unplug this, sothis is what it looks like.
If you had a stand and if thewall plug was behind a furniture
, this is what you would do, butyou also have the ability to
plug it in directly into a walloutlet, so you can disregard the
(22:59):
wire and the stand completely,and then that's.
This little plug goes directlyat the back of this.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And you can plug this in directly into the wall
outlet.
So then all it all, it'ssitting there, is doing this and
it acts as a nightlight, so itglows white during the night, so
it becomes even better.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
So it does have to be at a certain height, I mean you
don't want it on the ground no,you can.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You could have it on the ground, uh, the only the
only downside of having it onthe ground is if you have a dog,
for example.
Uh, you would want to have iton a cover height.
Uh, if you have cats, we can.
Basically.
If you have cats, we canbasically disregard the.
We can make sure that the there, that it disregards any
(23:43):
activity right next to thesensor, which is where cats like
to go to and, and so that willnot trigger the the sensor would
it work behind glass?
it would.
Yeah, it works okay, but we hada blast yep wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
It's great.
Well, I I hope we can do apodcast.
What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to send you a link to
schedule for that and then wecan do the podcast and I, in the
meantime, I'm going to if it'sokay, I'm going to do an article
on it oh, I'd love that yeah,and send that out not only to
the websites but to linkedin.
I'll do it on both websitessenior safety and aging in place
(24:21):
and send that out, and I wouldlove for you to go ahead and
join the directory.
I'll send you a link to thattoo.
We'd love that get your producton there and I see that you
have, um, that partnershipprogram, that you have two of
the people there are on thedirectory and do.
Is that an affiliate program orwhat is the okay?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And we can add you to that as well, Esther.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, I actually sent in my info already.
I signed up.
So when I saw that, because Iwas looking for an affiliate,
because I think it's soimportant in this niche for
senior care, I think it's soimportant in this niche for
senior care, I think it's soimportant to work in a team
effort and what I find, as I'mtalking to so many aging in
place specialists now across thecountry, is that you're my
(25:06):
fourth call today.
So as I'm talking to everyone,I noticed that so many people
aren't working together.
Many people aren't workingtogether.
You know the declutter personshould be working with the
contractor, with the.
You know not only just thehomeowner, not the client and
the family, but all the otherpeople.
There's so many, sir, as yousaw with your father, there's so
(25:27):
many services involved incaring and in in in adapting a
home and you know, I'm sure yourmother now is your work looking
at all of those factors for herand I hope that she's doing
well.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know, after the, advice I gave her was you have
two choices.
When my dad passed um and Isaid you can either you can
either think of this as anadventure or you can withdraw.
Yeah, and I highly recommendthinking of it as an adventure
and, to her credit, she hasleaned in as if it's an
(26:02):
adventure and she's throwingherself.
She went to Prague.
She's been teaching at thelocal community college and she
actually went to Prague withthem as a part of their program
and she had a great time.
She's in India right now andit's it's still hard.
Loneliness is hard and andgrief is hard and it comes in
(26:24):
waves as, as you know, and it'sbeen a.
It's been a, it's built a lot ofempathy and understanding and
it's it removed a lot of thejudgment that that seeps in if
you don't really know things upclose and personal.
Uh, and it's taught me just howthe differences and how people
(26:46):
cope with all of that.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So it's true, I mean, everyone does cope with it
differently.
You know, some people just staystuck in that grief and and
wallowness or whatever I don'tknow.
Then they eventually they endup becoming a victim of it
really, and they don't know howto get out of it, which I can
imagine.
I mean, I, I know that it'shard to get out of that, but
you're right, you either have tolive in that or you take life
(27:13):
as an adventure.
What comes next?
Um, and I'm sure you know yourgrief also.
You know, obviously it'sdifferent from hers because you
know when, when you're in arelationship, you just you know
that's your plan, that's your,your.
Your plan is to be with thatperson and then all of a sudden,
when that breaks, and even ifyou know it's coming, um, it's
(27:35):
still very difficult.
It's so hard to changeeverything.
And yeah, I, I know, but I'mglad that she is taking that
adventure.
You are very lucky to have youI.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I'm glad.
I'm glad my parents had theforesight to think of it as an
adventure in the first place tomove to lake oswego from india,
which is a big leap, uh, butthey've done.
I'm glad we got to buildmemories here with my dad, which
I'm very, very grateful for.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And good yeah, um you've turned out a very good
life for yourself, bucky Iappreciate that.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I would love for you to try our product.
Would you want to?
Would you want me to ship ademo unit to you, and would you
want to Sure?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I would love that.
I'll put my address in theemail.
And then what's a good emailfor you?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's Kabir at hello dash everydaycom.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Oh, okay, well, I got that, hello dash, I got it so
good, I will go ahead and getthat at helloeverydaycom.
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Hello, Dash Every Day .
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, dash Every Day, I will go ahead and get that.
Yeah, I would love to go aheadand test it Then, that way I can
do an unboxing and then I cando.
I don't know why people are sofascinated with unboxing, but
you know, whatever, um, you gowith what the crowd needs or
wants, right, um, yeah, so Iwill go ahead and do that and
send that out to you, and I solook forward to talking to you
(29:05):
again.
I I am always so amazed at howpeople can take a problem and
then create a thing or a serviceor whatever in order to
accommodate that problem.
I, I, just, I love thecreativity that people have, and
I think this niche this, with10 000 plus people a day,
(29:27):
turning 65, it just seems likeit's a no-brainer, you know, to
go for products and services inthat niche our thesis is that 90
of the people in the UnitedStates are not going to be able
to afford independent orassisted living.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It's true, we find all the time.
In fact, that was at a.
We donated one of our devices.
So a couple of stories, Esther,if you don't mind.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
No, I don't mind at all, no, no.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So a couple of stories.
One when we started thiscompany, one of the first people
that were testing this devicethat Mark had been testing the
device with her name is Joan.
She's on our website.
She approached us and she saidthis has been such a huge value
(30:15):
to my life because she's's anorphan, she's never been married
, never had kids, and she wasdealing with some health issues.
And she was like that this justprovides a lot of reassurance
to me that if something happensto me, someone would know.
And she's like I would love topay this forward.
And we said and I rememberclearly we were visiting
colleges for my daughter inCalifornia and we got on the
(30:37):
call and I was scratching myhead and saying, okay, well, how
is this going to work?
Like we're not a nonprofit andthis is not.
And so we wrote something upand we thought, okay, well, if
you want to give us like $5,000,we can support 10 units or
whatever.
And she's like, okay, okay,this is helpful, but I'm going
(30:58):
to give you 50 000 and I want tobuy 170 sensors for about a
third of the village membersthat are in the portland metro
region that she thought livedalone.
And so we are in the process offulfilling that gift and by the
end of the year we'll have 250sensors out in the market I love
it so it's been so rewarding,uh and uh, just reassuring to
(31:24):
have that someone have that kindof confidence in a young
startup.
So that's one story.
The second story was, uh, wedonated a couple of our early
beta units that we took backbecause they are not, they had
not been certified whatever.
Um, and we donated a couple ofour early beta units that we
took back because they had notbeen certified whatever, and we
donated a couple of them to anorganization here in Lake Oswego
called ReFit.
(31:45):
Refit does basically what youused to do, which is they help
retrofit people's homes withgrab bars, ramps, etc.
So that they can age in place,and one of the people that they
nominated to get that firstdevice was a guy named Steve
Goldman.
Steve is a former physicaltherapist.
He had a number of seizuresthat happened since April of
(32:12):
this year.
Suddenly he finds himself he'snot able to drive.
They haven't figured out whythe seizures are happening.
It may be related to diabetes.
Himself he's not able to drive,he's he's.
They haven't figured out whythe seizures are happening.
It may be related to diabetes,it's not really clear and so I
went to visit him and Iinstalled a device for him, etc.
And he was just so not onlygrateful, but he was like I want
(32:33):
a purpose, I want I want to behelpful for people, because
people are helping me, so tellme how I can help you.
And so we get people all thetime who are like I would love
to buy this device, but I don'thave someone on the other side
that could actually receive amessage so that they would
invest in my well-being.
(32:54):
And we're like well, steve,would you be willing to be that
person?
And he's like I would love that.
So it's one of our visions, forthis device is to build both
community and purpose.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
It's the purpose that you are creating with your
friends of checking in on eachother.
That is immeasurable in valuein creating that engagement, and
that's what we want to do at abigger scale.
So I wanted to share those twostories with you because they're
so important to what we do.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
They are.
I love that idea of people whodon't have anyone else.
You know, my mom-in-law liveduntil 102.
And she said one of the worstthings about growing older for
her was that everyone else thatshe grew up with was gone.
Yeah, you know, she outlivedeveryone, so she didn't have
anyone else to send to, except,you know well, the children.
(33:51):
But if she didn't have childrenshe would have no one.
So I love that idea.
I love that idea of of stevenow.
Now are you going to beactively looking for people to?
I mean, otherwise, what he'sgoing to get?
50 or 100 or 1000?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
no, no, we, we don't intend that to be, but I think
what was interesting was howquickly steve went from I love
the idea, I want this in myhouse to how can I help?
Yeah, everybody has thatcapacity.
Yeah, right, and and what we'rehoping to do is, as we, as we
(34:29):
find new customers, can weconnect them with people that
might be of interest, similarinterests, etc.
So we're that, that's.
We're still early days, butthat, though, that's how we're
thinking about it right, that'sanother thing on the on the
whiteboard for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Our whiteboard is unfortunately very full already
I know I know it's like you needthree or four or five
whiteboards.
I know I understand that verywell.
Oh, thank you so much, Kabir.
Thank you so much for takingthe time to hang out with me and
geek out with me a little bit.
I enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You're in the right company if you want to geek out.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yes, I love geeking out.
None of my friends.
Their eyes roll in the back oftheir head, so I enjoy it.
I love it.
Oh, one question I do have toask how do you see AI affecting
you, if at all?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
There's a lot of noise right now about.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
AI, that's for sure.
Sure One of our four pieces isthat humans need?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
we are social animals and we need connectivity.
Mm, hmm and and I know there isa lot of chatter, pardon the
pun of can we use AI to toartificially provide stimulus or
connectivity with people?
To artificially providestimulus or connectivity with
people, but I think that's a.
I've tried a couple of them.
I think it's a band-aid, butpeople need like what we're
(36:07):
doing is a good facsimile, butthey need more in-person, they
need a sense of belonging, theyneed to feel like they're seen,
and farming that out to amachine is not, in my opinion,
an answer.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I agree.
I agree, I mean we need tactiletouch at some point.
I agree, I keep thinking ofthat movie, her with Joaquin
Phoenix, where he falls in lovewith the little thing with
Joaquin Phoenix, where he fallsin love with the little thing.
And you're right, it can'tpossibly replace but the
(36:46):
technology that AI is bringingabout.
It's going to be interesting tosee how that evolves.
And you're right at this pointit's a lot of noise, it's a lot
of.
Everything is being thrown likespaghetti on the wall and who
knows what ends up, you knowlasting.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I have to also say, though, Esther, we are huge
beneficiaries of AI, right?
So when we run into a problem,we rely on AI to say hey, we've
run into this problem.
Give us leads Some of them arewildly wrong, but many of them
are good leads into how to thinkabout sort of solutions, and so
the way I describe AI it's agreat way to lift all bolts if
(37:23):
you're willing to sort of engagewith it, but it isn't
necessarily the right answerwhen you're looking for true
creativity or innovation, right.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
It's a great way to.
It's effectively a libraryresource, but you still have to
do something with it.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Exactly exactly.
It's just another tool in thearsenal of tools and if you can
see it that way, you're right.
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It's amazing, right?
Your daughter is going to growup in another world.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Oh, what I've said in the past and I continue to say
is the job she's likely to dohasn't even been invented yet.
It's changing so quickly, andso figuring out how to add value
and how to learn in a newenvironment is so important.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I know it's going to be.
I think, for the future, forthe young people, it's going to
be skills, all about skills.
What skills can you contribute?
It's amazing.
I wish I was 20 again, but onlyif I know, only if I knew what
I know now what do you do forfun, sir?
(38:29):
oh, I love.
I love movies, I love to read.
I live in a walking community,you know.
I have shops and restaurantsand parks within walking
distance here, so, and I have aslew of friends that come and
drag me out of my office mostevery day I'm in the process of
renovating my home for aging inplace, so just today also, I had
(38:52):
the contractor and everybodyhere.
There's festivals at the parkright up here all the time, so I
do that, so it's mostly local.
I've traveled a lot in my life,so, um, I've lived in.
This is my 29th house that I'velived in.
Oh, my goodness my life.
So I'm, um, I'm ready to, justyou know, have a nice easy life.
(39:14):
My goal for my 67th year is tomake life easy, and so I'm ready
to, just you know, have a niceeasy life.
My goal for my 67th year is tomake life easy, and so I'm
looking for systems, forprograms, anything at all to
make my life easy.
But I need to keep learning.
I love learning and I don'tthink learning without teaching
(39:36):
is beneficial.
I have some friends who go tothose free college courses, but
then that's it.
They go to the course, theylearn about ancient history or
whatever, and then that's it.
They never visit it or doanything with it.
Write a book, write an article,do something with it, but they
don't.
They just go on to the nextthing.
And that's why I do web and Ilike the webinars that I do for
(39:59):
the direct, for the directorymembers, because it keeps me, it
forces me to keep learningabout all of these new programs
that are coming out, and I justfinished a course on agentic ai
and um.
It's going to be.
It's just amazing what'shappening.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
It's mind boggling but I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
And I love learning from other people, because who
am I to think that I knoweverything?
I don't know everything and Idon't want to know everything
you know.
I want to surround myself withpeople who know everything,
learn from all of them, as longas they can honor the other
person's knowledge base as well.
I think that is so important.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I think that's a very portland kind of thing to do
yeah, I, there's a lot to unpackthere, um, and I think, I think
, but I think you're you'reright on the application of that
knowledge is so important toretain and process it.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah, so important.
What's the point of learning itif you're not going to do it?
You could read a thousandself-help books, but if you
don't do it, right.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Plus that knowledge fades right like if you don't
apply it, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So yeah, I mean it was just a waste of time, but
but it was entertaining, but youknow yeah, yeah, but I love it
and I think the group of peoplethat are all in this niche
they're so, they're fascinating.
So many different things thatthey're doing and everybody's
coming from so many differentbackgrounds.
You know, as an ot, you neverget rid of that ot mentality.
(41:34):
You you're constantly lookingat your environment and how can
you modify the environment tothe person?
And I mean that is justingrained in me.
I can't get rid of it.
And since my experience washead injury, I'm always looking
at, you know, at at that aspectof it and analyzing it.
And my husband was apsychologist and he then became
(41:57):
a PA.
So you know I have all that.
I mean we were together 25years, so I have all of that.
You know experience from him.
He used to come home from workas a PA and he would say people
aren't coming in to see me forthis, they're coming in to see
me for this.
So of course he would know thatbecause of all his history of
(42:18):
psychology.
But you know it, it's, it'sjust fascinating.
People fascinate me, they arethe most interesting group.
The brain fascinates me.
It's um, I don't know, it'scrazy, but I love your product
and I think you guys are on areally good path.
I love how you brought allthree people together, um with
(42:39):
all your experiences, and youyou can't not do well I mean,
that's the word of confidence.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, you can't like that, but I appreciate it would
have come for sure you can't.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I don't think you can not do well, I mean, either you
continue the company or it endsup being bought by a bigger
company or merging or whatever.
And you know, you never know,you never know.
But yeah, all right, so I'mgonna send you that info.
Thank you for your time andenjoy beautiful lake asuego, you
(43:11):
lucky dog have a great day,esther.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Thank you ciao.
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