As Chief Growth Officer, Stewart will use his 20 years of experience in the technology industry helping to successfully grow companies and sales organizations to fuel K4Connect’s progress and expansion.

March 1, 2019

RALEIGH, N.C. — K4Connect, a software company serving the seniors housing sector, has appointed Keith Stewart as the company’s chief growth officer. The company also expanded the duties of Derek Holt, the company’s president, to include the role of chief operating officer.

Stewart will draw on 20 years of experience in the technology industry helping to grow companies and sales organizations. Prior to joining K4Connect, Stewart was the chief revenue officer for Site 1001, a California-based startup focused on smart buildings, real estate technology and construction technology. Prior to that, he served as a global sales leader and executive staff member in the Watson Internet of Things Division at IBM. Steward served multiple positions during a decade at IBM.

In his expanded role, Holt will continue to focus on all aspects of K4Connect’s business. He will oversee internal and field operations, marketing, communications and program management, including K4Connect’s expansion into the home market.

Prior to joining K4Connect, Holt was a founding member of Startup America Partnership, a public-private partnership focused on the acceleration of entrepreneurship in the United States. He was also a founding member and the head of growth at Main Street Genome, a venture-backed startup focused on improving success rates of businesses through data and technology. 

Holt began his career at IBM and served as the worldwide program director for business partners and general business in the company’s Rational Software Division. Throughout his 10-year career at IBM, he held various technical and business leadership roles.

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Learn more from Seniors Housing Business, here!

 

Valeo Groupe Americas has announced it will have senior living software, K4Community from K4Connect, in its future Valeo Senior Communities in Henderson, NV, and Bluffton, SC.

By: Elizabeth Newman

January 23, 2019

Valeo Groupe Americas has announced it will have K4Community from K4Connect in its future Valeo Senior Communities.

The platform will be incorporated into Valeo Senior’s new Vineyard communities in Henderson, NV, and Bluffton, SC. By using their smartphone, tablet or voice, residents can access services via K4Community’s integration with Amazon Alexa technology. This includes automatic lights and temperature control, and access to activity trackers.

“At Valeo, we’re focused on developing purpose-built communities that cater to, and are inspired by, those we serve,” said Kevin M. Suite, founding partner, president and COO of Valeo Senior. “Since launching Valeo Senior, we have been looking for partners who share that same focus, especially those who are dedicated to enhancing the lives of older adults. It was only natural for us to partner with K4Connect, a company that is solely devoted to providing older adults with the ability to live healthier, happier and more independent lives through smart technology.”

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Read it here on McKnight’s Senior Living!

 

Integrated devices using Amazon Alexa with K4Connect’s flagship product, K4Community, will provide voice-first smart home experiences for senior living residents. 

By: Lois A. Bowers

January 7, 2019

Santa unpacked a bag full of smart technology at The Cardinal at North Hills’ recent holiday party.

K4Connect CEO Scott Moody, dressed as the legendary figure, passed out Echo Dot devices Dec. 19 to residents of the Raleigh, NC, Kisco Senior Living life plan community as part of its expanded partnership with the operator.

The devices use Amazon Alexa, with K4Connect’s flagship product, K4Community, to provide voice-first smart home experiences for residents. Residents can access community content; manage their smart home and wellness devices; communicate with loved ones, community members and the front desk; and sign up for events and outings.

With the visit from Santa, The Cardinal is now fully voice-enabled. And with that visit, The Cardinal became one of the most recent communities to harness Alexa for its residents and staff. But it certainly won’t be the last.

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Read the full story on McKnight’s Senior Living, here!

The executive director of The Cardinal, said one of its goals has been to make it as technology-forward as possible. To do that, he said, meant partnering with a startup like K4Connect and continuing to change what is offered to residents.

By: Zachery Eanes

December 24, 2018

Every apartment at the Cardinal at North Hills, a two-year-old retirement and assisted-living community in Raleigh, comes equipped with a pull cord.

It’s a feature that is meant to alert staff in case of accidents, like a medical emergency or a dangerous fall.

But resident Libby Powell has always worried that if she were to fall in her own apartment she wouldn’t be able to reach the cord.

“If you fall in the middle of your apartment you are not going to want to drag yourself to the cord,” Powell, 76, said.

Now, thanks to a partnership between the operators of the community and a Raleigh-based startup, that fear is no longer in the back of her mind. If she were to fall now, she says, she wouldn’t have to move at all. Instead, she would simply have to shout, “Hey, Alexa…”

Since 2017, startup K4Connect has worked with Cardinal owner Kisco Senior Living to make the community more digitally connected by using the startup’s software to seamlessly connect multiple devices regardless of the manufacturer. That lets residents remotely manage tasks such as managing their room temperature, monitoring their health and medication as well as keeping up to date on community events. Families of residents can also use an app to keep track of their family member.

As part of that partnership, the company, just in time for Christmas, provided an Amazon Alexa voice device for every apartment — something the Cardinal says makes it one of the first senior-living communities to incorporate voice technology to such a degree.

In some ways, the Cardinal, with 270 residences, has become a testing ground for new services from K4Connect, which works with 13 senior-living providers and more than 60 communities across the United States. The startup — founded in 2013 by Scott Moody, who previously ran the company that created the fingerprint sensor technology used in Apple iPhones — has raised more than $22 million in capital and now employs 55 people.

“The Cardinal has become a really great area for us to test ideas and to work with residents on feedback,” said Derrick Minor, manager of people operations for K4Connect.

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Continue Reading the Story from The News & Observer, here!

Leaders will be tested over the next few years, and they’ll need to know how to adapt when the times are not in their favor, says Scott Moody, CEO of K4Connect, a technology solutions provider for older adults and individuals living with disabilities.

By: Stephanie Vozza

December 21, 2018

LEADERSHIP SKILLS WILL BE TESTED

Leaders will be tested over the next few years, and they’ll need to know how to adapt when the times are not in their favor, says F. Scott Moody, CEO of K4Connect, a technology solutions provider for older adults and individuals living with disabilities.

“Fact is, we have been in a strong economic upturn for the last 10 years and I believe we are in for more challenging economic conditions in the not-too-distant future,” he says. “Many leaders today have not really been tested in a downturn, whether the 2007 downturn, 9/11, the dotcom implosion, or many of the others that preceded those times. It’s never easy to be a leader, but it is darn harder when the tide is not in your favor.”

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Read the full story on Fast Company, here!

Why they’re one to watch: The senior living smart home software company’s cofounder and CEO is Scott Moody, who helped develop Apple’s touch ID system.

By: Anna Hensel

December 19, 2018

K4Connect

Headquarters: Raleigh, North Carolina
VC money raised: $22 million
Employees: 55 
What they do: Developed a software platform that can integrate a number of smart home devices in senior living facilities. 
Why they’re one to watch: The company’s cofounder and CEO is Scott Moody, who helped develop Apple’s touch ID system. With one in five U.S. residents expected to be in retirement age by 2030, K4Connect is serving a big market that has so far largely been ignored by technology companies. In 2019, K4Connect plans to introduce a home-based solution, as well, according to a spokesperson.

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Read the full story on Venture Beat, here

 

Smart technology adoption will unlock the ability for senior living caregivers and families to provide better care and resources for loved ones, says K4Connect’s Senior VP of Engineering, Kuldip Pabla.

By: Robin Seaton Jefferson

December 17, 2018

Kuldip Pabla says it’s a misconception that senior adults “do not like or want technology,” and that error alone has caused the development of technology for older adults to lag behind that of younger people. Pabla is the senior vice president of engineering for K4Connect, a technology company that creates smart solutions for older adults and individuals living with disabilities. As such he has come up with five predictions that he says we should expect to see in the tech space for older adults in 2019.

As the world’s fastest growing demographic (by 2050 the number of older persons is expected reach 2.1 billion), “older adults both need and want technology that’s built specifically for them,” Pabla said.

He’s not wrong, at least about the aging demographic and how it is expected to change the world. According to the United Nations, “population ageing is poised to become one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century, with implications for nearly all sectors of society, including labor and financial markets, the demand for goods and services, such as housing, transportation and social protection, as well as family structures and intergenerational ties.”

The following are five ways Pabla believes technology will change the lives of seniors and perhaps everyone else in 2019:

1. Consolidation of the senior-care vendor market:

“It’s a fact that the technology industry has lagged in engaging and serving the older adult market,” Pabla said. “This gave way, in the interim, to several niche vendors selling point products or single feature apps addressing older adult and senior living markets.” But this approach has put an unreasonable burden on senior living executives and older adults to play the role of system integrator and support specialist when it comes to attempting to create enterprise solutions—a huge barrier and cost for seniors as well as caregivers, assisted living and independent living community operators and loved ones, he said.

“Imagine a CxO [corporate executive] with a very small team dealing with 40 plus vendors to handle the digital transformation of their community or a senior dealing with 10 apps or more along with the various disparate smart devices to manage different aspects of their lives, Pabla said. “Not only is this an expensive approach, but one that is also time consuming and chaotic.”

Instead, with true enterprise platforms and through associated vendor consolidation, in 2019 CxOs will need to deal with fewer vendors, drive more and more value, and ultimately will see, in Pabla’s view, an acceleration of technology adoption in the space. “The value creation does not stop at the community, as these new integrated enterprise approaches will also dramatically improve user experience and value creation for older adults and residents as well. During 2019, we will see a beginning of consolidation in this market, where players with 360-degree services around the residents will start gaining traction,” he said.

An enterprise platform integrates multiple services from one or more vendors into a wholistic solution that provides a single and consistent user experience across services. It enables customers to interface with a single vendor, eliminates many older systems, and ultimately can eliminate the need to deal with multiple vendors.

It’s important to note that while there are various apps (or products) seemingly coming out every day, very few are designed specifically for older adults, Pabla said. “Most of these apps might be complete in themselves and can be used independently. However, they can provide a much better and holistic user experience when integrated together. To achieve this broadly integrated solution, a well architected platform plays a critical role.”

Pabla offers a few examples of the type of solutions which are often disparate, but have the capacity to be pulled together in senior living communities:

a. Community Calendars: Each community publishes daily, weekly and monthly calendars often across various service areas including wellness, trips and entertainment. Today, communities are using various tools to create, print and publish these calendars including design tools, word processors, slide creation or other online services. To make things more challenging, due to the limited nature and age of many of the tools in the space, the communities often have to re-enter data in various programs to get the information to print, the web, digital signage or even a resident app or portal.

b. Dining Management: Executives are ultimately managing 1 to as many as 10 different restaurants and cafes in their communities. Keeping menus, daily specials, reservations and special events up to date is a challenge. Much like community calendar management, we see various tools and templates used to solve pieces of the work flow. However, most communities are forced to do a lot of manual rework due to tooling limitations.

c. Digital Signage: Like hotels, older adult communities have multiple televisions to publish various content (announcements, calendars, events, daily specials, etc.). Digital signage enables communities to manage and publish contents to multiple screens simultaneously.

d. Others including surveys, family/staff/resident communications, resident directories and service requests (maintenance, housekeeping, etc.).

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Read the remainder of Kuldip’s tech changes on the horizon for older adults on Forbes, here!

 

Our K4Community technology is specifically designed for the residents of senior living communities, as well as the staff that supports them. We’ve also complied several ways in which you can give an older adult something to look forward to by helping them get involved, staying connected, and live a happier, healthier, simpler life.

 

By: Kimberly Hartmere

Product Manager, K4Connect

December 4, 2018

Every day, all over the world, social isolation and loneliness happen more than most of us truly realize. Social isolation occurs when people distance themselves from friends/family psychologically, physically, or both. Sometimes this can happen selectively, but most often social isolation occurs as a result of circumstances older adults cannot control or fix on their own. Much has been published via medical journals and case studies proving just how harmful social isolation can be over prolonged periods.

According to data published through AARP, isolation in adults 50 and older happens as a result of a series of circumstances and factors at different levels. The main causes driving isolation include:

• Living alone
• Death of a significant other
• Mobility or sensory impairment
• Major life transitions
• Low income
• Limited resources
• Being a caregiver for someone with a severe impairment
• Psychological or cognitive vulnerabilities
• Rural areas
• Unsafe areas
• Inaccessible neighborhood or community
• Language barriers

“I still think that the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, just having no one… That is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.” – Mother Teresa

The impacts of social isolation may surprise you.  The health risks associated with prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day! In addition, a study published by BMJ Journals noted that the risks are comparable to obesity, lack of exercise and high blood pressure. Several case studies point to prolonged isolation’s association with cognitive decline and mental health conditions such as depression and dementia.

Connect2Affect.org, a website created by AARP Foundation, provides us with some interesting facts on the size and scope of social isolation:

• 51% of people 75 and older live alone
• Research shows a 26% increased risk of death due to subjective feeling of loneliness
• 6 million adults 65 and older have a disability that prevents them from leaving their homes without help
• Research from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 43% of older adults report feelings of loneliness.

Joseph Lindoe recently shared his experience with social isolation, following a personal experiment in which he spent seven days inside a small UK apartment with no phone, no internet, no friends.  Joseph also elected not to leave his apartment for the entire week. This project was an attempt to bring awareness to older adults and isolation. By the third day, he noted overwhelming feelings of entrapment and despair.  You can read about his experience here, but imagine what it must be like for those who have no other options.

“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

So, how can we help?

First, start by increasing our awareness of social isolation. Can you imagine someone coming to you tomorrow and taking your keys away from you? Or taking your medication away and telling you they’ll hand it to you when it’s time for you to take it. Think about trying to enjoy a great book, but your poor vision makes reading nearly impossible. Or picture being in your home alone, with nobody to talk to or touch for more than a week. You might not even be able to get outside to take a walk and connect with neighbors.

There are many different ways to help aging adults combat their loneliness and feelings of isolation. Many older adults have lost so much of their independence they are left with memories of the life they once knew. Things that were once so important to them are taken away, such as the ability to drive, go to church, read a book, or even managing their own finances. Here are a few ways in which you can be sure you’re giving an older adult something to look forward to by helping them get involved:

• Volunteering in senior centers and church
• Writing letters
• In-home visits
• Planning an outing to go to a local museum or a movie.
• Including them in decisions involving their own care and well-being can make them feel like they have some control over part of their life

Among the ways to combat loneliness, technology is starting to play a major role in helping to bridge the gap of interactions that older adults need. Here’s a list of ideas that seniors all over the world are beginning to adopt more and more:

• Phone Calls – This is probably the most common one. Whether it’s just a voice call or video call, hearing from someone you love can instantly brighten their day. Many seniors still have landlines but their grandchildren are much more likely to have cell phones to call and check in.

• Photo sharing – Everyone loves to see photos of their friends and families. Older adults are no exception! Looking at photos on a device can bring a smile to someone’s face and help them feel like they’re included in their families lives just by knowing what they’ve been up to.

• Tablets – Equipped with apps and programs geared toward seniors, tablets can increase communication with friends and family by using voice or video calls, be a device to share and receive photos, challenge their brains and pass the time by playing games, and help them find local events and things to do within their communities. Tablets are a great way to help seniors engage with their community and their loved ones. Many senior housing communities across the country are adopting technology and solutions to help older adults be more involved in their community and with their friends and families on the outside. Staff can also have more time to focus on the residents, giving them more social interaction, because some of their daily tasks and processes can be streamlined with technology and onto the tablet.

• Social Media – Connecting with children and grandchildren on facebook, skype or instagram can be a great way for a grandmother to passively see photos and posts their grandchildren make and feel like a part of their lives by knowing what their hobbies and interests are.

• The Internet – Logging on to send emails to friends and family, playing games online, and finding community resources through senior center websites are easy ways to help utilize all that is out there for seniors to do.

• Music on a device – Listening to their favorite songs or radio station can take them down a walk on memory lane and help them to remember good times. Music has been proven over and over again to help in many different areas of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and depression.

• Call Support Lines – Companies like The Silver Line, a UK based charity, and the Friendship Line, a US based company, are helping older individuals by giving them a place to call and have a chat with someone when they’re feeling lonely. The Friendship Line says they specialize in lonely, depressed, isolated, frail and/or suicidal older adults. These helplines are wonderful for older adults who may live in rural areas or have trouble getting out of their house to participate in community events.

• Transportation – Many cities offer rides for seniors through the community, allowing them to get out and engage with others. Whether it be for doctor appointments, church, social events, or just getting out to go shopping, it is a great resource for seniors to gain some of their independence back when they may have lost the ability to drive. By not having to rely on friends and family to always drive them places, they can take back control of arranging a ride when they need it, rather than feel they are over asking for favors.

• Robotic Pets – Several companies offer robotic pets to help combat loneliness and give seniors who may be suffering from dementia a way to feel needed and comforted. Dogs, cats, and even seals are some of the pets that seniors are befriending across the country in senior living communities that specialize in dementia care. Just giving a senior a purpose can really go a long way in helping them to feel needed and less isolated.

While many of these things can be daunting to a senior who feels less than tech savvy, at K4Connect, we are creating solutions to serve and empower older adults with easy to use smart home solutions, health and wellness applications and ways to connect with family and friends all in one application. We’ve found across the board that many older adults don’t necessarily dislike technology, they just don’t identify with technology that has been designed for someone in their teens or twenties!

Our first product, K4Community, is specifically designed for the residents of senior living communities, as well as the staff that support them. With future plans to introduce K4Home for those we serve who live in their own homes, we’re determined to reach as many people in need, as quickly as possible. Of all the ways K4Community helps older adults stay connected and live simpler, healthier, and happier lives, some of my favorites are:

• By integrating all of the products and applications required to automate a home, socialize with family and friends, manage schedules, keep track of the weather, play fun games and even set and track goals for health and wellness into one single application that has been designed for and with seniors, we have found the majority of them actively use it – and love it!

• In addition to staying in touch with loved ones, seniors within a community can enjoy a community calendar and schedule of events, menus, community photos, notices and alerts, community wide news, and even a directory of residents where they can message or call one another from the comfort of their apartment.

• At K4Connect, we take seniors trust and safety seriously and have developed a secure invitation only for connection between residents, family and friends. No one has to worry about spam emails or robo calls that target and often take advantage of an older adult.

• A free Guest app which makes it simple for families who enjoy different platforms, like iOS and Android, to use our app to connect with their loved one in a community regardless of what platform they use.

“You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” – John Bunyan

 

 

Social isolation is a sad and frustrating event in an adult’s life. It can be unexpected and take older children who are caring for their parent by surprise. But the problem can be solved and even prevented. Reaching out to community leaders who specialize in aging adults can help you find the resources that are available to them and even for their caregivers. Finding a group or hobby they enjoy can really go along way into giving them a sense of purpose again. But it’s important not to underestimate the power of technology when thinking about ways to enhance a senior’s interactions with friends and family and supplement their social life.

There are challenges associated with technology and older adults, like vision problems, hearing loss, health conditions, being skeptical about the need for technology or about their ability to learn to use it.

However, with patience, support and the right technologies, older adults can learn to adopt technologies that have been designed with them in mind!

It’s all around making older adult’s lives simpler, healthier, and happier. Simpler is those home automation things; healthier is the wellness devices and services; and of course, happier is all around connectivity to the community around them.

By: Stephanie Condon

November 20, 2018

Amazon‘s Alexa and other voice-activated assistants are popping up everywhere these days. Alexa’s user base, however, is decidedly young: A plurality of Amazon Echo users (24 percent) are between 18 and 29 years old, Forbes recently reported, while 30- to 44-year-olds make up 20 percent of its user base.

Scott Moody’s five-year old company K4Connect focuses on bringing the latest technologies — including Alexa — to senior citizens. It’s a largely overlooked market with significant potential, he recently told ZDNet. On top of that, deploying technology for older Americans and observing the way they use it can shed light on what it takes to build a successful product.

“There are some unique challenges associated with older adults,” Moody recently said to ZDNet. When it comes to voice-activated assistants, that can include adjusting for “the cadence of [the user’s] voice, acuity levels, maybe, as you get much older… the voice tone, the voice frequencies.” That said, a well-designed product should create a smooth user experience for all audiences, Moody added — even those with physical challenges, disabilities, or a skeptical attitude.

“Technology’ is a euphemism for poor design,” Moody said. “When technology really works, you stop calling it technology… You call it a radio, or a TV, or a dishwasher.” Or maybe just Alexa.

Moody talked to ZDNet about the market opportunity that exists for bringing Alexa and other tech to seniors, how is company is reaching that market and the insights they’ve gained so far. Here are the highlights of that conversation:

OLDER ADULTS: AN OVERLOOKED AUDIENCE

“I think a lot of people, when they talk about seniors or older adults or people living with disability, they talk about monitoring,” Moody said. “But as I joke with people, at roughly the age of two years-old, you stop like being monitored, and it doesn’t change as you get older. Really, it’s how do you empower them to live a more independent life, live a healthier life, and a more connected life? It’s all around this first-order value to the people we serve versus simply ‘monitoring.'”

Technology for older adults often misses the mark, Moody said:

“Usually, somebody develops an app for, let’s say, a 25 year-old, and then they put bigger fonts on it and then they give it to some older adult. They’re saying, ‘Well, you know, they don’t like technology.’ Well, true, they don’t let technology that’s designed for a 25 year-old.

“The way I look at it is, my daughter’s grandmother does not wear the same clothes as they do — which honestly, we’re pretty thankful for, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like clothes. She just wants clothes that are tailored for her, that are comfortable, that fit some utility in her life. So what we find is if you design the technology so that they find it easy to use, but more importantly, adds value to their life… then they actually do use it.”

HOW K4CONNECT REACHES A GROWING POPULATION OF SENIORS

As many as 1.4 billion people in the world today are either over the age of 65 or are living with a disability, Moody said. There are already 23,000 senior living communities in the US, and they’re growing at a rate of around 5 percent to 10 percent a year because of the aging US population, Moody said.

K4Connect aims to bring older adults and people living with disabilities “the best technologies out there, whether they’re home automation or health and wellness-oriented devices — it could be applications, it could be services,” Moody said.

The company provides a multi-modal software platform that integrates it all into a system with a single UI, incorporating voice, touch and eventually capabilities like gesture, Moody said, “so that the older adult or the person living with that disability finds it easy to use.”

K4Connect’s first service, K4Community, delivers that platform to senior living communities. Community administrators can integrate whatever wellness, connectivity or automation products they want. The residents can use the platform for things like signing up for community activities, ordering food or requesting transportation. In addition to enabling tech for senior community residents, K4Community provides relevant data to caregivers and community staff.

“The focus of the company is serving and empowering that older adult or personal living with the disability,” Moody told ZDNet. “It’s all around making their lives… simpler, healthier, and happier. Simpler is those home automation things; healthier is the wellness devices and services; and of course, happier is all around connectivity to the community around them.”

Next year, K4Connect will be introducing a product called K4Home, which brings its platform into seniors’ homes.

BUILDING TECH THAT’S INTUITIVE AND EASY FOR EVERYONE

While older adults may have “unique challenges” when it comes to using certain technologies like voice-based UIs, Moody said a well-designed product will take those challenges into consideration.

“I often joke with our engineers, ‘If you use “train” in a sentence, it’s wrong,'” he said. “It should be intuitive and easy to use… ‘Technology’ is often a euphemism for poor design. So if somehow, if I call something ‘technology,’ there’s this expectation on the user that I’m going to have to do something different. I’m going to have to download this, I’m going to have to reboot that, I’m going to have to stand upside down and do it this way, I have to change the way I’m speaking. That’s crazy… When technology really works, you stop calling it technology. You call it a radio, or a TV or a dishwasher, or an ice box — refrigerator nowadays. All of which, when they were developed, were ‘technology.'”

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Continue reading the full story on ZDNet, here!

 

 

Fast-growing senior living tech startup K4Connect was among the companies recognized when the North Carolina Technology Association hosted its 2018 NC Tech Awards Gala.

 

By: WRAL TechWire

November 16, 2018

More than 800 attendees packed into the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham for the annual event, which recognizes those who have made significant contributions over the past year to the tech sector, community and state.

“Year after year we continue to see a high level of excellence and innovation from the technology community in North Carolina,” NC TECH’s president and CEO Brooks Raiford said in a statement.

“We’re pleased to highlight such a diverse mix of companies and leaders at this year’s Awards event.”

K4Connect, along with a host of other North Carolina-based technology companies, won an IoT Award at the annual NC Technology Association Awards. 

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See the full story and list of winners on WRAL TechWire, here