In a continuation of its industry and geographic expansion to meet demand for its health + wellness transportation solutions, Santa Monica, Calif.-based tech startup Ride N Care, Inc. is partnering with PRIME MSO, a leading surgical facility management organization, to provide patient transportation for PRIME’s outpatient facilities throughout Southern California. The partnership will give PRIME’s outpatients a safe, easy-to-use, and HIPAA-compliant transportation alternative.
October – when trade shows ramped up; vacations ramped down. Behold the press release. As the season of shows begins, rental trucks with exhibits roll up, presenters rev up their presentation skills and the big decisions are made. To walk around the stage or not? Take questions in real time or answer them afterward? Announce the partnerships in one release or multiple? These and other imponderables are perplexing. And as some events loom ahead, for example, LeadingAge, Aging 2.0 in a few, and then the cacophony of CES. Can you imagine the sonic racket from those smart speakers? Anyway, here are the six blog posts from October.
Rant on. Forcing tech onto the customer is standard operating procedure for companies. Because of advertiser pressure, for example, we have to make an effort to stop auto-playing videos in news feeds, news sites, ads, etc. – completely missing the possibility that the viewer might be staring at a smartphone in the train’s quiet car, or up early when a spouse is still asleep. Or worse, the news feed shows a video that no one should ever see --but has yet to be taken down by one of the 3000 take-it-down new hires.
Pitch events precede clarity of offering which precedes... Hopefully the best pitches of best offerings will be funded. But that funding is linked to detailed criteria (see the Link-age Ventures criteria as an example.) Or investment history, as with the five Generator Ventures, can be viewed online. Startups know that first multiple pitch events will smooth rough edges of the pitch and help refine the offering itself. For example, one year ago note that GoGoGrandparent started as telephone-based way to call Uber for, sigh, the founder’s grandmother, now refined as a nationwide “services that help families take better care of older adults.” Pitches represent a single step in this process for obtaining feedback, scoping markets, seeking seed funding, later stage rounds -- ultimately scaling the offering into long-term viability, with referrers, resellers, and revenue. With that as context, consider these three pitch events.
Tech-enabled transportation options for older adults. Who would have thought of such a specialization before Uber and Lyft, but today, even Uber and Lyft have introduced specialized offerings. All are interested in (or have been) expanding beyond their home base or current business. Some are scalable nationwide – or want to be. Is the service appropriate for the older adult population it is intended to serve? Is there a growing opportunity for home care companies to add transportation to their services, especially those home care companies that already have consumer apps? Does this signal a business opportunity for senior housing firms? Information below is from the websites of the firm or related media.
Tech-enabled home care -- what does the interview research reveal? The report will be posted later this month, but specific insights emerged after speaking with 21 leaders in the home care business and technology segments. The interviews are completed and the report is drafted. Here are six predictions that are drawn directly from that process: