People are getting older faster than they ever have before. By 2033 the number of people over the age of 65 will overtake the number of people under the age of 18.
It’s difficult to stay independent as you get older. In the next ten years over 11 million adults will stop driving due to age related impairments. Over 8 million have no smartphone and no experience with new technology. Many of them will be forced to rely on a patchwork of friends, family, community members and caregivers to get around.
I experienced this reality first hand when my grandmother lost her ability to drive. She lives far from relatives and doesn’t have access to public transportation. She had always imagined she would stay in her home forever. She didn’t want to leave.
We believed we could use technology to help her find transportation. The first version of GoGoGrandparent let her easily request a Lyft or Uber ride by dialing a phone number. Using her old school flip phone, grandma ordered herself a ride to her favorite diner. It was the first time she was able to take herself out after dark in a year.
That was 2016 and since then we’ve realized that transportation for seniors is a lot more than just ‘dumbing down’ technology. Getting a ride has tons of moving parts that get harder to handle as people age. What makes GoGoGrandparent successful today is we combine requesting rides via multiple platforms with actively managing and monitoring those requested trips. Actively managing the complexity has been key to making our product work for seniors. Today about 40% of our clients are using us with smartphones because “it’s just easier”.
Because we’ve witnessed this fundamental ‘things-get-harder-as-you-age’ problem we firmly believe that GoGoGrandparent is positioned to solve more than just the transportation problems of today’s seniors. We believe we can meaningfully solve the caregiving problems all of us will eventually face and give people the choice to live in their homes for as long as they want.
At GoGoGrandparent we’re building the future of senior care for all of us, including you. We believe aging in place on our own terms is not only possible but can be affordable and available to anyone. We’re growing quickly nationwide and we’re looking to bring on the best talent who want to work on hard problems that directly impact everyone’s future wellbeing. Visit https://gogograndparent.com/careers to see our open positions.
