{"id":55012,"date":"2021-10-12T10:54:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=55012"},"modified":"2021-10-13T11:59:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T15:59:48","slug":"founders-carewell-grayce-have-some-advice-to-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/founders-carewell-grayce-have-some-advice-to-share\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019re Suddenly a Caregiver. These Startups Want to Help You Navigate the Home Health System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"College
College friends Kassidee Kipp (left) and Julia Cohen Sebastien co-founded Grayce after Kipp cared for her mother, who had Parkinson’s disease. (Courtesy Grayce)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Caregiving<\/a> for the aging and elderly can be all-consuming, and for many \u2014 especially during the pandemic \u2014 it has turned into a second full-time job<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Startups and investors are taking notice, with female founders specializing in this area rapidly scaling their operations. They are hoping to fill a gap for families that are already stretched thin and eager for alternatives to nursing homes and hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Grayce<\/a>, which offers virtual one-on-one caregiver support as a benefit to employers, raised its first substantial amount of funding, over $3 million, in summer 2020. Meetcaregivers, a Boston-based company that connects seniors with help they need, recently secured over $1 million from investors<\/a>. And Carewell<\/a>, an e-commerce company, made Inc.\u2019s recent list<\/a> of 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to grow triple digits year over year,\u201d said founder Bianca Padilla, who started Carewell with her husband, Jonathan Magolnick, in 2017 in Charlotte, N.C. \u201cThis is a massive market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to statistics<\/a>, the global market for caregiving was estimated at roughly $110 billion in 2020 \u2014 and is expected to reach $234.6 billion by 2027. President Joe Biden recently tried to push a $400 billion provision in his infrastructure bill that would help home caregivers lighten their loads, but Republicans ultimately rejected<\/a> it as \u201chuman infrastructure,\u201d and the funding was excluded from the package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bianca
Bianca Padilla with her grandmother, whom she cared for before she started Carewell with her husband, Jonathan Magolnick. (Courtesy Carewell)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That \u201chuman infrastructure\u201d equates to real people, entrepreneurs argue. For both Padilla and Kassidee Kipp, co-founder of Grayce, the stakes are personal. Padilla cared for her grandmother following a knee surgery, and Kipp took care of her mother when she was suffering from Parkinson\u2019s disease, flying from San Francisco to her hometown of El Paso, Texas, every weekend to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCaregiving is a hidden problem in the workforce,\u201d said Kipp, who has worked for Google and early-stage tech startups. \u201cPeople tend to hide it because they think it will be damaging to their career. I felt like I was failing at being an employee and a daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when she spoke with her college friend and now-co-founder, Julia Cohen Sebastien, the week her mother passed away in 2018, they decided to start their own venture that would help other families. Grayce, which employers can purchase as an employee benefit, pairs individuals with specialists \u2014 mostly licensed clinical social workers and geriatric care managers \u2014 to help them navigate aging and elderly care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be paired with a Grayce expert to do a consultation session where the experts ask questions and then create a personalized care plan,\u201d Kipp said. She declined to say on the record which companies have signed onto the program, but \u201cwe\u2019re constantly expanding our number of employers,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re very quickly growing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Padilla is also rapidly scaling her business, although Carewell may reach a different segment of the market. As an e-commerce business, Carewell offers a wide range of home health products, from adult diapers to meal replacement items, and a roster of trained specialists on call to advise clients on the best products for their family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the questions people have are, \u2018How do I choose my product? How do I use my product?\u2019\u201d Padilla said. \u201cOur biggest differentiator is our personalized support. We give them the recommendations that best fit their unique needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that these specialists, who are trained in everything from empathy to nursing tasks, are the heart of the company \u2014 about 40 of them on staff field about 20,000 calls a month, and Padilla is looking to hire more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just goes to show how important [it is] to have a person listen and give you advice,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cSo much of this is being home alone and not feeling heard or appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a company that was started in 2017 with Padilla and Magolnick\u2019s savings \u2014 they sold a car in order to help fund their dream \u2014 has raised<\/a> $30 million to date in venture capital and ranked No. 74 on Inc.\u2019s 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the pandemic has shined a spotlight on the cracks in virtually all areas of the U.S. health care system, it has especially highlighted the importance \u2014 and scarcity \u2014 of quality, accessible care for the aging and elderly. Younger generations are also finding themselves moonlighting as caregivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One reason is the traditionally high divorce rate, said Padilla: \u201cTypically a spouse will help care for their spouse in their later years, but if they are divorced \u2026 it ends up landing on the adult children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People are also deciding to have children later in life, which accounts for younger generations shouldering the responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Kipp said she thinks the \u201chidden problem\u201d of caregiving is becoming more visible \u2014 and this might ultimately be a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom even before Covid, it was already clear we were hitting a nerve,\u201d Kipp said. \u201cAnd with Covid \u2014 psychologically, what people went through working in their own homes with their families \u2014 it just became much more visceral and urgent and apparent that we were underserving this hidden population.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the pandemic continues, many Americans have taken on caregiving as another full-time job. Startups like Carewell and Grayce are making it a little easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":55013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[20005,19683,22163],"class_list":["post-55012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-caregiving","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-health-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFounders of Caregiving Startups Carewell and Grayce Have Some Advice to Share<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the pandemic continues, many Americans have taken on caregiving as another full-time job. 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