13. Where Do Senior Living Founders Come From?

How old is the typical Senior Living entrepreneur when they launch their business? What fields did they work in before launching that prepared them for taking the entrepreneurial leap? Are there any commonalities in their educational backgrounds? SLCP tries to answer these questions by taking the ASHA 150 Largest Providers list and pulling in research from past interviews, official company websites, newspaper features, and more.

0:06 Why I was uncomfortable posting during the pandemic

0:50 Intro

1:25 Methodology and why sample sizes differ

2:24 How old were the founders when they launched their companies? (Min, Max, Average and a few anecdotes)

4:15 Are founders getting older? See graph on the website (http://seniorlivingconceptspodcast.com/2022/03/28/13-where-do-senior-living-founders-come-from/ ) or the podcast’s LinkedIn Page

(Notes: 1- From a small sample size of 40 founders it appears that the average founder may be older at launch than in previous generations. There are some biases though since this is only looking at the current largest companies so there’s inherently a bit of a lag in capturing recent founder data)

4:30 What were the professional backgrounds of these founders?

8:00 Random fun backgrounds I wanted to include (athletes, a musician, and serial entrepreneurs)

9:12 Education Trends (Or lack thereof)

9:52 Wrapping Up

10:30 Why the past doesn’t necessarily predict the future in a changing industry

12. Fahad Aziz, Cofounder and CTO of Caremerge

In this episode, Fahad Aziz shares his insights into his journey as Caremerge’s cofounder. Fahad offers great stories including what he learned from living in a senior living community, why “Facebook for health care” wasn’t such a great idea, and what advice he has for aspiring gerontechnologists.

0:42 What does Caremerge provide?

1:35 Where did the idea for Caremerge come from?

4:27 At what point did you start to expand into other technologies? Was this the plan from the beginning?

7:26 Was there immediate buy-in with voice activation technologies? Or did you have to elaborate on the value proposition?

9:00 What was the biggest surprise from living in a senior living community and how did it shape the way that you built your company?

11:15 How have you seen seniors defying ageist stereotypes and what is the next wave of technologies that seniors will use to improve quality of life?

13:40 How have you been using data to predict falls?

15:34 How will community personnel use this additional data that indicates high fall risks?

17:02 How has your role changed with Caremerge’s growth?

20:20 What advice do you have for someone who is looking to work in gerontechnology?

11. Landing Your First Senior Living Job

The senior living industry wants young talent yet there is no defined path for college seniors pursuing entry-level positions. This short episode offers a few creative suggestions to help you get your foot in the door.

The ASHA 50 list that I reference can be found here: https://seniorshousing.org/filephotos/resourceLib/asha_50_august_2019-final-lo-res.pdf