The founders of Joshin, a local tech company that provides on-demand disability care, have sold their first company, Josh's Place to REM Minnesota, an organization serving adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Josh's Place was founded by twin sisters, Melissa Danielson and Melanie Fountain, in 2011 after the death of their brother Josh, who had a developmental disability. The company provided group home accommodations and other services to adults across Minnesota.
REM Minnesota has been providing service options for people with disabilities for more than a half-century. The organization aims to empower those it serves to live, work and participate in community life utilizing all of their abilities in the least restrictive setting possible.
Terms of the deal between Joshin and REM were not disclosed.
In 2017, the Josh's Place founders began working on their second disability care company, Joshin, an app that allows families to book caregivers for those with special needs.
Joshin customers use an app to create a “care plan” that introduces their child or loved one, including their needs, goals, likes, dislikes, diet, and any other pertinent details to a trained caregiver. The care plan helps them ensure continuity when a family schedules a care date with someone new. Caregivers and families are vetted carefully, the founders said. And they’re matched based on the caregiver’s experience and the needs or disabilities the family lists in their plan.
Joshin is currently available in the Twin Cities, Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester and Chicago. It will launch in New York City next month.
