Portland entrepreneur Polly Bangs has a deep understanding of the elder caregiving industry. First, when she became the primary caregiver for her father who was diagnosed with dementia. Then with her company Urban Excursions, which grew out of her own care giving experience.
Now she has started Thrive Guides, a company that is developing an artificial intelligence tool that can be used by caregivers for education and support.
It’s a natural evolution after Urban Excursions, which linked seniors with trained staff to go on social outings to keep people engaged and prevent social isolation. When the Covid-19 pandemic essentially shut down her 10-year-old business she started evaluating new ways to address these existing and growing needs.
“With this whole AI thing, how can we harness it to help? How can we innovate and just support caregivers and (address) caregiver fatigue?" she said.
Based on her research, she landed on Thrive Guides, which has developed what Bangs calls the five domains of healthy aging: physical wellness, mental wellness, social outings, cognitive activities and home management.
To start, Thrive Guides is person-to-person and will match seniors with a longevity coach, who is trained and can help address each of these domains. They do not offer any medical-related help. This matching part of the business launched in January and has 15 Longevity Coaches working with clients, said Bangs.
However, the larger aspect of the of the business is an AI-driven platform that the team hopes will better scale the service to reach more seniors and caregivers. This tool is in development and Thrive Guides is working with Vancouver-based software development firm Formos to build it.
The company has a prototype but is fundraising to build out a first version of the product.
The technology/product: Thrive Guides is developing an artificial intelligence tool for family and professional caregivers to transform elderly care by creating personalized care plans across five key domains of healthy aging. It is designed to save time and money by creating tools to help seniors stay active and engaged. It is also meant to better prepare caregivers, who are frequently unprepared family, members with the education and tools they need.
How it makes money: The company operates a subscription-based business. Subscriptions can go business-to-consumer for individual caregivers or business-to-business with subscriptions for home health agencies that want to enhance their offerings.
Size of market: The total addressable market for the aging-in-place industry in the U.S. is estimated at $152.9 billion as of 2023. This includes all home health care services for individuals of all ages and health conditions. Thrive Guides targets three primary segments within this market: people aged 75 and older, individuals with Alzheimer's and home health care agencies. Those together represent a substantial portions of the market.
Competition: Care managers, home health care agencies and websites that provide activity ideas.
Competitive advantage: Thrive Guides intends to offer a more scalable and efficient manner for people to gather information and plan activities. Care managers offer personalized service but can be time constrained and costly. Home health agencies can also be costly and often have unskilled caregivers. Websites have information but can be time-consuming to gather or offer generic answers.
Business/technology it could disrupt: Thrive Guides disrupts the elderly care industry by leveraging AI to create personalized care plans that address the unique needs of seniors. Thrive Guides shifts the thinking about caregiving by offering a holistic approach that equips untrained caregivers with the skills to provide enhanced enrichment activities.
Managers and their backgrounds: Polly Bangs, CEO, has been an entrepreneur since 2004 and has a decade of senior care experience with her previous company Urban Excursions; Nikki Hasandras, co-founder, has 15 years in nonprofit development; Angie Collins, co-founder, has a background in community outreach and user experience.
Advisers: Charles Swatzell, CEO of Formos; Dave Barcos, director of business development at Formos; and Stan Hanks with Columbia Ventures.
Investors: angels, friends and family so far.
Capital raised: $80,000
Capital sought: $800,000 in open convertible note
Ideal exit: Acquisition by a larger player in the health care, tech or elder care industries.
Closer look
Company: Thrive Guides
Headquarters: Portland
Year founded: 2023
CEO: Polly Bangs
Employees: 3 founders
Web: thriveguidesinc.com
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