How a HealthTech COO Is Rebuilding In-Home Care

0:00Not only are families themselves wanting care, but there's a lot of organizations that want to also give outside care in home care to families and doctors and medical providers. There's a huge gap in what they can see that happens in the home. And so we're trying to do our best to bridge that gap between the provider and the home care setting both with data and then obviously a portal that the provider can look into. So we recently launched our B2B and have been piloting that and it's been successful. Veronica Baez is a health care executive, operator and advocate known for transforming complex organizations and challenging the status quo. She is the chief operating officer of herewith a national health tech company leading teams across product care delivery and operations. Our moms, our dads, our uncles and aunts, they're at home, they can't just pop out of bed anymore. They need someone to maybe help them get out of bed and and you're busy. You don't have the time to do that because you're also in the middle of your life. These people can go into the home and the beauty is they can set the hours. The you set the hours as the consumer that you want.

1:03You and I are going to age too, right? And it's like the things you enjoy now don't go away. You're just physically less able to do them. We quite often forget our seniors. We think, oh, well, they're just going to go sit in a house down, read a book, right? I think we need to really remember that they're just trying to live their lives just like we lived our lives and if it wasn't for them, there would be no us. The Living Your Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Open. She come up with the way you say. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again,

2:04Jay Slangen and we have the privilege to talk to some of the greatest entrepreneurs from around the country from your disruptors to your tech entrepreneurs and experts and industries all over. And so yes, we got a beautiful guest today with us today and introduce yourself. What's the name? What's your business and where you from? Thank you very much for having me. My name is Veronica and our office is actually in San Francisco and the financial district and I am the chief operating officer of Hear With Inc. Hear With Inc. And what's that all about? So Hear With is... Sounds like a tattoo studio, but I don't think so. I don't see any tattoos. No, no, no, no, no, I don't have any. So no, we're good there. No, it's actually it's a it's a health tech platform and it is made for families to be able to find their care basically like a dating app in the exact same way. Helpers, which is our branded term for the caregivers go on and they get to you know post what they would like to do for their work and then families likewise can go on and look for people that they want

3:08to care for the loved ones you and I can look for you know care for our family members all at the touch of a few buttons on our phone and it's nationwide. So Hear With Inc. I and C not I and K. Yeah, I was like ink gin printers ink tattoos, you know, like here with you. You know for home care. Perfect, perfect. So like a dating app so it's like swiping? They're yes and they're scrolling I will say not not necessarily swiping although that feature is set to come. Okay. We are a technology platform. Yes. And so yeah they just scroll through people post their photos. They can also have video intros really fun things you know much like when you're choosing someone to care for your loved one you want to know as much about them as possible. So health practitioners right not how practitioners but just in home caregivers in home caregivers. Yeah. So when you're inviting someone to your house right the local area you kind of match them up. Okay, who's within you know five minutes ten minutes you know whatever mileage radius right

4:09correct. Yes. And then you're kind of yeah that makes perfect sense now. Okay. So it's all getting clear now. Okay. Good. Good. Yeah. So yeah that sounds absolutely incredible right. And so they're listing their skills of like maybe I've taken care of people with Alzheimer's or people in wheelchairs and kind of their past experiences right. Yes absolutely. Yeah and that's exactly what you know they're posting not only what their experiences it experience is but if they have anything specialized we recently about a year ago dived into the world of dialysis. In home dialysis is quickly growing especially in those rural communities where families just simply can't get the care that they need because there's no one around them. Yeah. And so this is a way for families to connect with people within the next five miles or ten miles you know and that has the experience that they're looking for. Gotcha. And so how do people find you you know I'm let's say my mom or dad is getting old and we're looking for a health you know someone to come in to take care of them right. How how would I find you. Yeah so you can find us I mean virtually anywhere where

5:14where you know you can type in www.herewith.com and you'll go to our website we're on Instagram I mean meta itself Instagram Facebook all the social medias we're on Google but again it and then obviously always download it on your on your web. But but I guess more what I was kind of trying to get to was what what is like the usual way that people will find caregivers right and then you have like this kind of new way right. Yeah. And like you're solving it sounds like you're solving the problem of you wouldn't really get like a bunch of people to choose from right. Maybe you would just I'm thinking there would be a company that has a few people right. So how are you what's what's the problem that you're solving. Yeah so the problem we're solving right now is that the matching the matching itself is different. Right now if you call an agency for instance and you say you know my mother needs care if in you're in New York or you're in Miami and your mom is in New York

6:15you're not going to be able to truly find out you know like you're not interviewing the person you're not seeing them you're hiring the organization to then hire someone. It also happens that there's the delusion of wages. The overhead of the agency has to come first and then the wages for the helpers which are brand of term for caregivers the caregiver then comes so maybe there's someone who's making you know not very much minimum wage. Yeah. You're not paying minimum wage you're paying a lot more. An armed platform the budget primarily goes to the helpers themselves so the families are getting a higher budget for the person and which would then equal obviously more quality care and the way that it's happening is now you're on an app and it's people in the local community people that you might not have thought of like your grocery store attendant who needs extra money or we have a lot of RNs who actually use our platform because and again they're not performing RN duties but they need extra money because who can survive on one income right now right and so we have those people and so you just get a lot of people who are able and willing and they're

7:19right there in the same community because again it's all geographically based. But do these people need special certifications to be able to be a caregiver in the home? No, no there is no special certification it is all non medical so we're not you know they might have licensure that they're using on on their regular jobs but when they come to us it's really those those things that truly need to be cared for dialysis itself is a specialty however they come on as care partners who can then help that person be at home and that is usually done by a family member but as you know burnout is really high for family members providing care. So maybe this person is just helping them out with I mean they're getting old they're maybe cooking cleaning or just stay keeping the family updated on how they are right? Yeah exactly and the things I mean think about when you get out of bed in the morning everything that you need to do and then you run out to work right? Yeah. Well our elderly population and our loved ones our moms our dads are uncles and aunts they're at home they can't just pop out of bed anymore they need someone to maybe help

8:20them get out of bed and and you're busy you don't have the time to do that because you're also in the middle of your life. Yeah. And so yeah these these people can go into the home and the beauty is they can set the hours you set the hours as the consumer that you want if you want someone there in the morning to help with breakfast and and help get them out to the library or whatever they'd like to do you can. The library. Yes. Bingo. Yeah. Yeah. All those things and so yeah they're you know that's just helping them and then helping our seniors. No. Well you never know. Defends we do have some of our seniors that they use the service to go out to the casino. Yeah. Right and and and need someone to help take them there. Yeah. So then they're looking for a caregiver who smokes and likes to gamble. Oh right there you go. Yeah. Greeners of the hard rock cafe here the seminoles. Okay. There you go. Or it's like I don't know I was I was just getting in my head you know some of these like Instagram reels that pop up in your algorithm right of these older women or guys that are like dancing to these like younger kind of like song right. Oh my god this is so

9:22funny right. Yeah. Like half of them now are are AI but there are still you know some of the people. To talk trends. Exactly. Exactly right. So I was just again you know I'm going through your app. I help people with tick tock trends you know let's start a page right. There you go. Yeah and I mean it's just have to remember that you and I are gonna age to right. Yeah. And it's like the things you enjoy now don't go away. You're just physically less able to do them. Yeah. So if somebody can help you live your life still because I think that we quite often forget our seniors we think oh well that they're just gonna go sit in a house down read a book right. Yeah. That's not the case they they still want to live life and they want to they just maybe we can't drive themselves there or and you're not gonna put your grandmother in a newbie. Yeah. Yeah. I would hope. Right. And so yeah they just they need a driverless waymo or something. Yeah. Yeah. So she gets logged in. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think I think we need to really remember that they're just trying to live their lives just like we lived our lives and if it wasn't for them there would be no us right. And and to give them back the

10:24quality of life and and that's what really I think having someone in your local community who can help you do that and then that relationship becomes their relationship. It's not a third party who then they have to call an office and say hey is so and so available and they say oh sorry they're with other customers. Yeah. We'll get you someone else. And I will say that turnover itself is much lower because this is a collaboration between the family member and the helper. Yeah. And therefore they're they're just happy. They're this is something they both wanted. Yeah. And it works for them. So a bunch of questions come to mind right. What was the most difficult like app development and software development is can be difficult right. Create you got creating the app but then you have getting the users and keeping the users and having people like educating the users. I'm both sides of it. You've got the caregivers and you got the people looking for caregivers right. What was the hardest part of your journey. I would say the most difficult and it's still ongoing is getting people accumated to the change right. Some some people are still oh well how does that

11:29even work. What do you mean? What's an app like just getting over that first hump of you're dealing with users who've not had technology. Yeah. They haven't downloaded an app. Yes. And they haven't downloaded an app. And so I think learning who are you marketing to the young their kids and then trying to and that was the biggest learning curve because it was really built around marketing it to the grandmothers and the grandfathers when really we should be marketing to us because we're the ones deciding who's going to go in and care. Yeah. Who's going to help. You know initially it's the kids that are like I can't go home anymore. I need someone to go there and they're probably also paying for it as well. Right. Exactly. Or you're in the middle of work doing a podcast and you can't leave to go take grandma to bingo right. And so yeah. So that is that's a part of it. And and so people are age and I would say you know 50 and down they're downloading apps are doing that on a regular basis. So it's not foreign. And I do believe that it is it was early in its stage here with was for where we are technologically speaking. But I would say in the next 10 years that here with is the go to and the norm. And agencies are going by the by the

12:35way said because they can't perform as quickly or as geographically sound as technology can. Yeah. So you're moving quick air you've given them more options right. You're giving them photos. What they're into and everything and then they get to so that brings me to another thing right. What's what's the revenue model in this and then how do you keep people like are you taking is there like a monthly subscription or you're taking a cut of that relationship you know and then if that's the case how do you get them from not kind of forming a relationship off the app. Yeah. So one of the biggest things sort of of course that question is a little too fold but one of them is helpers are paid weekly. Okay. So they're you know if they're like man I've got to bank extra money this I'm not making ends meet they're paid weekly that's a benefit to them. For us we only take 20% out of whatever wage it is that the family sets because again it's it's contingent on them. So if they say I you know I'm going to pay I'm going to pay $20 an hour

13:37let's go 25 I'm going to pay $25 an hour and that's my budget. Yeah. Well that's great. We don't then say $25 an hour plus 20% a fee. Yeah. We say okay we're going to take the 20% out of that $25. So the helper is going to get $20 an hour and we're going to keep five. What the five helps with is that we also hold the liability insurance which most people don't know is a huge risk for families when you're allowing someone to come in and help. So we have liability and we also have workers comp that families can opt into which was actually a really big deal because most places don't. So if somebody gets hurt at your parents home they're not going after their homeowners insurance and their retirement if there's a you know some form of lawsuit having for bid but they're able to still go get the care that they need to make sure they're well and the families are protected and their assets. Gotcha. And then the caregiver also gets to put their profile up get the testimonials and all the other things that you get to offer them from the app right. Correct. So I think that's

14:38a great deal. That's a great deal. That's a good system. Yeah. Right. So what am I missing from this right what what what have been the highs? What have been the lows and where are you guys at now? Yeah I think there's you know there's been there's been change in leadership over the last two years and the development of the application we use tech focus who's our engineering side of the team. They're great. They're out of San Francisco also. Yeah. Andy Singh is is their CEO and and I will say that they've been exponential in our growth and being able to really develop what that business vision is because of course we have a vision on the business side but sometimes it just doesn't translate over to the engineers and and that team has been very successful in helping the app grow getting it going and it is it's web iOS Android and mobile web and so you know there's a lot that goes into that. Yeah there is. Yeah and so I think that that has been one of the biggest growth things that we've had aside from the business side. What we rolled out this year is a B2B

15:39side. We realized that not only our families themselves wanting care but there's a lot of organizations that want to also give outside care in home care to families and doctors and medical providers. There's a huge gap in what they can see that happens in the home and when they see that patient wants a month or once every 90 days. Yeah. And so we're trying to do our best to bridge that gap between the provider and the home care setting both with data and then obviously a portal that the the provider can look into. So we recently launched our B2B and have been piloting that and it's been successful. Nice. What's the biggest market? Our biggest market. So we're nationwide. But our biggest markets are California and Texas. Okay. Wow. Yeah. I'm sure our agencies even going on there and saying, Hey, we got to get on this. We got to list our caregivers. So not necessarily listing their caregivers because they you know, they wouldn't make funds out of that. But we do have B2B partners that use us for their for their staffing. So and then again, they like it because they

16:44can already look and see, is this person even have a skills instead of you know, looking through a ton of resumes or taking a ton of interviews. They can do a video interview right from the application. It just sets up a zoom for you. And then we also have, you know, our customer service team that takes any escalation. So it's not just, Oh, I'm stuck in this app. You can actually pick up the phone and you can call on someone to help you. Amazing. So you've really made it so easy. I'm going to have to try and use this. My mom is aging right now. And yeah, maybe I'm going to swipe through. I'll send you two hours for free too. Yeah. We've got some promo codes. Yeah. Oh, perfect, perfect. Well, what's also, I asked everyone what they're most excited about. You say you just launch your B2B, right? And it could be like, what's at the forefront of your industry or what you got cooking in the background, right? What's next for you and what are you excited about? We're really excited. I'm obviously on the B2B side on the dialysis side. I do believe that this is, it is life changing for dialysis providers. We're having discussions now about policy changes. So

17:45the way in which home, hemo dialysis is reimbursed from the providers that are, you know, for the pay hours. Excuse me for for inferences so that these are things that can be reimbursed back instead of corporations or the doctors or the medical providers taking the bread at that financial burden. Yeah. I think that's what I'm most excited about is that here with is actually making a cultural change in the way that we receive care. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, if you can get, you know, corporations to say, hey, we'll sponsor X amount of hours for your loved ones, right? That'd be a good benefit for working for that corporation, right? Right. And that's actually a really big deal too because that does happen is attendance based on somebody being a caregiver, whether you think about someone in their middle age, they're caregiving for their children and for their parents and themselves. And so there's a lot of attendance issues and companies that do offer that in some form of respite or caregiving, they see less attendance issues, which we know is, you know, if you've got to show up to work and that helps the corporation thrive. But if you're not able to be there in work,

18:49or if you've, you've just stretched thin, that's short lived and it costs a lot every year for corporations. I just got a funny picture in my head when I'm older and I'm listening, I'm swiping and I'm going through your app and I'm going to have like five people following me and have like a whole crew of helpers. I can be like, hey, grab my camera. Bobby, roll up that driver this car, they got to go out. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it's for, right? Bring me on for adventure and then I'm going to have the cook. I'm going to have the adventure is I'm going to look for all types of people. Yeah, and the people on the app are truly amazing. Like I've just, you know, I've gotten to meet or had the had the opportunity to meet some of our helpers. I've met the families. I'm obviously very involved on the B2B set as we're developing that that they're just the lives and stories that we touch are amazing. Yeah, you got to have helper stock. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Big concert. All the helpers, right? All their amazing stories. Okay. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. We'll bring them in. All right. Yeah. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you once again, what's the website? The website is www.herewith.com. Okay. Herewith.com.

19:58And yeah, you can find them on iOS, Android. You got the web app. You got it everywhere, right? Everywhere. We are everywhere. We're on all the social media is where again, just download it from your app store. It's super simple. Go through there and you know, there's no, there's nothing involved and no contracts for anyone. So that's really good. And then how do they follow you if they want to connect on LinkedIn? Yeah, LinkedIn is just Veronica Baez at linksand.com. I believe. And that's all. Yeah, just it's Veronica Baez. I see me on there. And yeah, thunder herewith and it's out in San Francisco. Perfect. Perfect. So yeah, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. I finally got on your app. And then I was like, yeah, this is amazing idea. And I'm happy to hear that you guys are nationwide. Yes. Helping a lot of people. Not just helping the elder people, but helping the families out there too. Absolutely. But it sounds incredible. So congratulations on that. Thank you. And thank you guys for joining us here too. If you want to hear all about her story from of growth, of you know, the ups and downs of

21:03this crazy thing we call life and entrepreneurship, then yeah, tune in with her episode launch. That's software development, but also being a girl boss and doing it as a woman in power. Then yeah, tune in. But thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone. Bye.