Scott Moody of K4Connect: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Began Leading My Company

K4Connect CEO & Co-Founder, Scott Moody, talks about starting a mission-driven technology that integrates the best in technology to serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities, along with the people, communities, and organizations that serve them.

 

An Interview With Jerome Knyszewski

April 21, 2021

Headshot of K4Connect CEO Scott MoodyA startup is like an ultra-marathon, but you have to go at a sprinter pace, the only variation being how steep the hill is in front of you on any given day. It’s crazy hard and from the start, you have to understand your why — why in fact you are doing this. It is the “why” that gets you through those tough days, weeks, quarters, or even years. In the end, the reality of the idea of an “overnight success” is that it often takes a really, really long time.

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5 Things To Consider When Reopening Your Senior Living Community

“Utilize the technology you have at your fingertips to help resume vibrant resident life in your community.”

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

April 14, 2021

Spring is here! As flowers emerge and trees bud, we see the beginnings of a fresh start all around us. And thankfully, senior living communities are also seeing the opportunity for new beginnings as our society transitions back to a sense of normalcy post-COVID. There have been, without a doubt, many learnings over the past 12 months and some key takeaways.  As you look to reopen your communities here are five things to keep in mind: 

  1. Keep communication high with your residents. There are still changes happening in your community as you roll out new processes and provide ongoing guidance as various restrictions are lifted. Your residents all absorb information differently so be sure to find multiple ways to provide updates. For the most important updates, remember the “Rule of 7” — communicate the information multiple times and across various platforms to ensure the message is heard and remembered. Our community partners are leveraging K4Community Digital Signage and Direct Broadcast (in-house TV Channel) to quickly and easily share written or video updates. Community staff are also creating posts in our staff tool, Team Hub, to share information via K4Community Plus (resident app) and through Alexa. 


  2. Continue to ensure your resident’s loved ones and community visitors stay informed. Share updates with friends & family through the K4Community Plus app. If you still have community visitor limits in place, give them opportunities to sign-up for a spot to visit their loved one through simple tools like Google Forms or JotForm.

  3. Give your residents a voice. Before you simply shift back to some of the old ways of doing things in your community, find out from residents if there are things you started during the pandemic that they would like to see stick around. Create an online survey and share the survey link with residents in the K4Community Plus App.
    Ask questions like: 
    • Do they want to continue to have meal delivery as an option and what would they be willing to pay for it?
    • What new events introduced during quarantine did they enjoy most?
    • Did you roll out new content and programs through a third party provider such as Spiro100, CuriosityStream or Coro Health?  If so, what programs do your residents want to continue to be able to access? 

  4. Remember all residents may not feel safe being out and about the community or being in group settings quite yet.  Ensure they have opportunities to be engaged in community events and happenings, as well. Use Direct Broadcast to live stream community meetings and various activities. Continue to create virtual events that residents can attend and participate in by simply clicking a link in the K4Community Plus app. Many of our community partners have found great success in creating virtual clubs that residents attend via Zoom. Using YouTube streaming for community meetings, religious services, concerts and fitness programs is another popular way to provide engagement opportunities to all residents, especially those that prefer to remain socially-distant as your community reopens.



    Limiting the number of residents for certain events and requesting residents sign-up to attend can create an environment where residents feel safer. Encourage residents to use the K4Community Plus app to sign-up for events in an effort to save staff the time required to manage paper sign-ups. 

  5. As you work to maintain and increase your occupancy, know that the technology you have deployed in your community and the many benefits it offers differentiates you from other senior living providers, and what is often your biggest competitor: a senior’s current home. Be intentional in finding ways to highlight how technology — such as K4Community Smart Home, a resident app, Alexa and Direct Broadcast — enhance your residents’ lives. Create a demo apartment to compliment prospective resident tours that showcases the innovative things that are part of your community’s different and better story.  And don’t forget that many of your leads originate from the internet so be sure that your website and social media platforms highlight the use of technology in your community as well.

Learn more about how K4Community can partner with you as your senior living community reopens.

The Senior Living Shift is About Transformation, Not Just Technology

“If we rethink our approach to how both community staff and residents engage with one another, then 2021  can be a truly transformative year.” 

By: Cindy Phillips | Managing Partner, K4Advisors & Jack York | Co-Founder, iN2L

April 6, 2021

In 2020, we knew change was coming, it is always coming. But as it was happening it seemed to be ushering in so much faster.  Not just because of COVID, but also the acceleration of technology, the increasing volumes of those reaching age 65, along with the growing diversity of expectations, interests and goals of this new generation of the senior living resident.

Most of the narrative surrounding technology through COVID centered around staff.  How did they implement it? How did they juggle their time and their residents through so much tragedy?  These are all valid conversations, but it’s also critical to include the resident voice in the discussion. They are, of course, why we’re all here. Our experience has been that throughout the last decade there has been an undeniable uptick in residents’ personal technology use, many bringing their own devices and experience into a community.  

Yet there were still many older adults, particularly some dealing with cognitive decline, that were resistant to the use of technology. COVID turned everything upside down and when technology became the only way for any meaningful interaction with their grandkids, the naysayers quickly changed their view on the value of learning something new. An absolute silver lining to the pandemic.

Looking back a decade from now, 2020 will be remembered for many things, but let’s look past the ups and downs of COVID and focus on how we take our new tools, abilities, and attitudes, and assemble them into a new roadmap for daily life and engagement in senior living.  

“If we rethink  our approach to how both community staff and residents engage with one another, then 2021  can be a truly transformative year.” – Cindy Phillips

Late last year, we co-authored an eBook titled, “Success in Senior Living’s New Frontier Strategies to Optimize Activities and Engagement.” In it, we offered some predictions of how resident engagement would look in 2025, and how the role of a lifestyle/life enrichment professional should change along with it. What we were really describing was transformation.  

Reinforced by several industry thought leaders in a recent blog, they are “not fans of senior living as it looks today.” We’re all talking about more than a slight improvement or new piece of technology; instead a fundamental significant change in mindset and approach.

Transformation, as defined by William Bridges, is different from change as it speaks to the emotional experiences and changes that occur in parallel and far beyond the physical ones. For example: getting married happens in one day (change), but learning to be married, accepting your new role as a spouse, joining a new family, giving up some of your independence – that is a much longer transformation.

Helping us further understand, Bridges explains transformation in three phases: 

Phase One: Endings – about letting go, grieving of something old, seeing it go away, and often it generates sadness, anxiety, and even anger. 

Phase Two: The Middle – the in between space where you are feeling disoriented, chaotic, uncertain and often off-balance. We tend to see people looking back to the old way, wishing for it to be the same again. This is actually the turning point for transformation and while messy, it is the foundation for discovering the future. 

Phase Three: The New Beginning – moving forward with the new way, the new mindset, or the new approach to something. This can be exciting but also scary, and can take months to fully go through it and feel grounded again.

A graphic showing the three stages of transformation by Wiilliam Bridges

“Once you learn something (no matter how old  you are), and you benefit from it you don’t go back. It becomes part of your reality.”  – Jack York

This is where we are right now. At the beginning of an exciting – and true – industry-wide transformation. And why not start with resident engagement – we believe the majority of community residents and staff are ready. 

We explore this topic of transformation further in part two – read it here!

Technology Keeps Senior Center Residents Connected During the Pandemic

As vaccinations pick up, tech leaders look to broaden use without discouraging real-world interaction. Acts announced a partnership with software firm K4Connect to automate health and safety check-ins with voice activated controls in rooms among other digital capabilities. 

 

By: Angus Loten

March 29, 2021

To cope with Covid-19 restrictions, senior-living condo and apartment operators expanded digital services for residents over the past year, from video-chat apps to virtual assistants, live-stream fitness classes and virtual-reality day trips.

Now, as the pace of coronavirus vaccinations picks up, technology leaders at many of these facilities are hoping to broaden the use of software tools that helped stave off social isolation amid lockdowns, social-distancing and quarantines—without discouraging real-world interaction.

“You can live life by app, but do I really want to be that lonely,” said Peter Kress, senior vice president and chief information officer at Acts Retirement-Life Communities Inc., a Fort Washington, Penn.-based company that runs more than two dozen senior-living facilities across nine states. “We always want our environments to be social environments,” Mr. Kress said.

Unlike nursing homes, which provide full-time medical care in a clinical setting, and where Covid-19 took an especially heavy toll, residents in senior-living facilities live in their own apartments or rooms, while sharing common areas. Typical amenities include housekeeping and laundry services, recreational activities, personal care, and 24-hour supervision and security.

 

Members of a retirement community take part in a virtual birthday party celebration.

In the past year, Mr. Kress said, most of the company’s residents became avid users of videoconferencing platforms, like Microsoft Corp.’s  Teams, to stay in touch with friends and family. They participated in virtual book clubs, bible studies and other live-streamed events hosted by the facility, and used apps to order meals and from on-site restaurants, among other things.

 

That heightened comfort level with tech has prompted his team to roll out physical robot assistants, which can act as mobile devices for visual and audio communications, or perform tasks like delivering meals to residents’ rooms. He said the plan is to introduce robots gradually by putting them on the “night shift,” vacuuming floors and painting vacant rooms after most residents have gone to bed.

Acts last week announced a deal with software firm K4Connect to automate health and safety check-ins with motion-detection sensors, which let staff know when residents are up and about. Previously residents had to manually press a button to signal that they were out of bed. The firm plans to install voice-activated controls in rooms and apartments, such as lights, thermostats and televisions, among other digital capabilities.

Scott Moody, K4Connect’s co-founder and chief executive officer, says the pandemic “obliterated the chasm” between the thousands of devices and apps on the market, and what senior-living residents are willing to try.

The company, which works with roughly 1,000 senior-living facilities across the U.S., brings different platforms, apps and devices together under a single operating system. The aim is to provide residents with a consistent interface for an ever wider range of digital tools.

Its platform gathers data from users to create a personal profile, which can then be used to help connect them with different communities within a facility, such as chess players or veterans.

“What we really want to do is foster that physical engagement,” he said.

Mr. Kress says the goal of these and other tools is to maintain the health and well-being of residents, enabling and motivating them to stay engaged with friends and neighbors outside their rooms—rather than isolated in an automated, self-sufficient environment, he said. As of this week, about 97% of the facilities’ 10,000 residents have been vaccinated, the company said.

Read the full story on The Wall Street Journal, here!

K4Connect Lands Tech Partnership with Large Not-For-Profit Senior Living Organization

Learn more about Acts’ K4Community rollout and how the organization is leveraging K4Connect’s patented operating system, FusionOS, to serve senior living community needs today, with the flexibility to expand as resident, staff and operational needs evolve over time. 

 

by Special — March 26, 2021

RALEIGH – K4Connect, a mission-driven technology company that integrates the best in technology to serve and empower older adults and those living with disabilities, announced this week a strategic technology partnership with Acts Retirement-Life Communities (Acts), one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit senior living organizations. Acts launched K4Connect’s premier senior living solution, K4Community, across several of its communities in 2020 with plans to continue the roll out to additional Acts campuses potentially reaching over 8,500 residents and staff throughout 2021. Key to the partnership is K4Connect’s underlying FusionOS technology–the Company’s patented operating system that will unlock a truly integrated, company-wide technology experience for Acts.

Acts is the owner, operator and developer of 26 resort-style senior living continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) with campuses across nine states. The organization elected K4Connect to help lead its resident and staff-focused innovation strategy through the implementation of K4Community, an ecosystem of value-driven technology modules and experiences designed for senior living community residents, staff and operators. K4Community is powered by FusionOS, the operating system that enables the seamless integration of tools and systems communities need today, with the flexibility to expand as resident, staff and operational needs evolve over time.

“We are committed to bringing our residents and staff the latest in innovation-driven experiences that provide both utility and amenity value. We are a tech-forward organization and partnering with K4Connect means we are investing in a relationship that establishes an open, scalable foundation for continued smart innovation across all of our campuses,” said Acts Retirement-Life Communities Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Peter Kress.

In 2021, Acts’ K4Community deployment will include several modules:

  • K4Community Resident Check-In (RCI): Acts first deployed RCI across several communities in 2020; a reinvention of the traditionally manual morning check-in process leveraging motion-enabled smart home devices to trigger automated staff alerts that confirm a resident is up and active for the day. This noninvasive, passive monitoring is a complete departure from the traditional method of administering this critical daily task, often relying on in-room resident pull cords or meal check-ins.
  • K4Community Smart Home: Building on RCI, is the industry’s leading enterprise smart home solution for older adults. Residents can utilize smart home devices through a variety of controls (touch, voice, remote control, automation) to create a more responsive at-home environment, including automated lighting, fan controls and smart thermostats.
  • K4Community Plus: A resident-facing app that keeps residents effortlessly connected to family and friends, as well as their living community, by bringing everything they need to their fingertips in an older adult-friendly mobile application (communication, engagement content, work orders, meal information). A free Friends & Family companion app is also available to all K4Community Plus users.
  • K4Community Voice: Voice-first experiences with K4Connect’s enterprise Amazon Alexa integration delivers endless experiences for residents of all ages and acuity to keep them constantly informed, engaged and connected. Residents can ask Alexa for important daily news such as events or meal information, control their smart home environments, call the front desk, set reminders, access entertainment features and much more.

The venture aligns two mission-oriented and innovation-driven organizations committed to making technology for older adults a reality for the entire senior living industry. “Acts is an ideal community partner for us as an organization dedicated to a resident-focused mission and advancing innovation in senior living. When it comes to technology, there is no doubt that Acts is a leader and we are excited about the opportunity to work with them and learn from them. We are committed to leveraging this partnership as an avenue to pioneer groundbreaking innovation in senior living for years to come,” said K4Connect Co-Founder and CEO, Scott Moody.

More from WRAL TechWire, here!

How to Create a Resident-Centric Experience

“Simple ways to use technology to deliver a personalized resident experience at your senior living community.” 

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

March 19, 2021

According to industry leaders, the best community is the one that is designed and committed to enhancing the lives of seniors. Thriving senior living communities are passionate about the resident experience and uncompromising when it comes to putting resident needs and desires first. The past year has required staff to re-imagine how to keep residents engaged, informed and connected to their community, as well as family and friends living outside of the community. At the same time, maximizing staff efficiency became critical as additional challenges of staffing shortages and increased responsibilities became a reality. As life slowly moves towards our new normal and residents are able to safely be out and about in the community many of the things that were implemented due to pandemic life are here to stay. And that’s a good thing!

Here are three essentials for being a community who keeps the resident at the center of all that you do:

KEEPING RESIDENTS ENGAGED

Enabling residents to stay engaged in things they enjoy keeps them happy and can even lower their risk for some health problems.

  • Virtual events: From hosting a book club via Zoom or Google Meet, to sharing tours of national parks and zoos there are endless opportunities to captivate your residents.
  • Live streaming events like cooking demos, music series’, education lectures, exercise classes and community meetings is another simple way to engage residents.
  • Videos: There are several well-established content providers that offer excellent video content for residents to enjoy. CuriosityStream brings award-winning documentary streaming and on-demand entertainment with over 3,000 features and series covering topics from space exploration and adventure to nature and lifestyle. Spiro100 provides the industry’s largest library of exercise and wellness video streaming programs. Residents will enjoy courses that focus on mind, body and spirit activities and that are safe, appropriate and outcome-based. 
  • Virtual games: AARP features a collection of senior online games such as chess, puzzle games, brain games, word games, card games. Many other great options to explore as well!
Virtual events accessible to your residents via K4Community Plus.

KEEPING RESIDENTS INFORMED

Knowledge can be one of your residents’ greatest interests and with the help of a technology partner, you harness the power to deliver information in a simple and timely manner. 

  • Announcements and Updates: 
    • Video Messages: Executive Director’s weekly fireside chats and other important information can be easily shared and in a format that is simple for all residents to access any time, from anywhere. 
    • K4Community Plus offers a first of its kind Community Social Feed that keeps residents constantly updated on the latest community news in the style of today’s most popular social media platform feeds like Facebook.
  • Dining Updates: Whether it’s a question about what is for dinner tonight or this week’s specials, residents want to know what’s on the menu. In fact, menus are the second most frequently visited feature by residents using our K4Community Plus App.  
  • Self service updates for dining balances and maintenance/service requests.

“I really didn’t think I’d like it, but I’ve actually come to depend on it. I check it at least once a day and when our plumbing went out I went right onto the Services and submitted a request. It was really fast and efficient….” – Resident, Masonic Villages Elizabethtown 

 

KEEPING RESIDENTS CONNECTED

The ability to connect and communicate with friends and family helps residents maintain relationships and develop new friendships. 

  • Video Chats: Regardless of if residents are utilizing the video chat functionality in K4Community Plus or a platform like FaceTime, video chat usage saw a significant increase over the past 12 months. We saw this with our resident users – a nearly 55% increase in K4Community Plus video chat usage between Oct 2020 and January 2021. 
  • Messaging/Chat:

“I just wanted to let you know that myself, my mom, and [my partner] really appreciate using K4Community. There have been times before COVID where we would be in another country and use it to send messages…to her. It has been a great lifeline between us and it is great for staying in touch…We have found it to be a really valuable resource.” – Family member, Eskaton Monroe Lodge

  • Photo Sharing: There are many creative ways to help residents and the important people in their lives share photos with one another. It is true that often a picture is worth a thousand words!
A mobile and desktop view of the k4community communications hub.
Messaging made easy via K4Community Plus chat feature.



Your community is vibrant and the resident’s experience is at the heart of all you do. Learn more about how K4Community and our K4Community Plus app and web experience can help keep your residents engaged, informed and connected.

Quarterly Product Update: 5 Benefits of the Latest Updates to K4Community

“Commitment to innovation and continual improvement are key when it comes to your senior living community’s technology partner.”

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

February 16, 2021

At K4Connect we are relentless when it comes to constant innovation. Every quarter we’re delivering exciting new technologies and features to senior living communities through our K4Community solution. 

This quarter, our team focused on improvements to features that benefit residents, their family members and community staff in the areas of:

  • Expanding communication tools
  • Increased accessibility of voice features via Amazon Alexa 
  • Smart home alerting to improve efficiency

Here are five ways your senior living community will benefit from our latest updates:

1. Increased communication for residents with each other and family/friends who live outside of the community with the introduction of the brand NEW Communications Hub. It’s easier than ever for residents to share photos, URLs, and audio files in a secure messaging interface that mirrors standard text messaging. We’ve even included message reactions and emoji support!

2. Voice interactions (via Alexa) are now more conversational, further reducing the learning curve for residents. Residents can simply ask questions the way they would naturally speak, like, “What is for dinner tonight?”, “What are today’s specials?” or “What is for breakfast tomorrow?”

3. Many residents are using voice devices like Alexa at home and want that same experience in their living community. Now, in addition to our enterprise voice offering, residents with  personal devices – whether an Echo Dot, Echo or other Alexa-enabled device – can now access all that K4Community has to offer with our public skill.

  • Residents have the ability to install the K4Community Alexa Skill from the Alexa app
  • Residents can access all of your community’s content from their personal Alexa device
  • Residents can control their K4Community Smart Home devices from their personal Alexa device

4. The debut of in-app guides improves the K4Connect team’s ability to inform, communicate and educate residents on important product updates available to them, as well as seamlessly request feedback in the K4Community Plus web and mobile apps. We love hearing from our Members (our term for residents) and value their feedback to continuously improve K4Community!

5. High/Low temperature alerts embedded in the staff Team Hub increases the benefit of smart home-enabled apartments. This new feature helps communities save money, improve energy efficiency, recognize possible HVAC malfunctions, meet regulatory guidelines (where applicable) and increase resident comfort. Generated alerts are immediately sent to designated staff members’ mobile phones via SMS. This enables staff to assist residents quickly and ensures timely resolution of the alert.
Check out Winter 2021 Release to get more information about all of this quarters updates. Ready to learn more about K4Community? Book a demo today!  

Reimagining Retirement in a Post-COVID World

Nassau Re/Imagine hosted a forum, “Delivering Products of the Future for the Next Generation of Retirees, Reimagining Retirement”, where our CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Moody, and other industry thought leaders discussed the rapid advances in technology and the impact on those looking at retirement.

 

Our Virtual Discussion Forum

In a virtual forum on December 15, 2020, we discussed how we could rewrite the code for managing a successful retirement. We discussed a range of potential outcomes. This included radically redesigning annuities as we know them. It extended as far as thinking about life in retirement as a giant app connecting the retiree to a range of services where insurance is really just the battery keeping the system working. We will synthesize our discussion and provide a roadmap for future product developers to potentially follow in the coming years.

Context

The definition of retirement products may entirely change as we emerge from the pandemic. Structural changes in our economy may result in very slow growth. Interest rates may remain at record low levels over the next five years. As a result, traditional retirement savings products may not deliver the growth and income potential needed by consumers in later years. However, rapid advances in technology offer a new range of potential services that could change the math for a happy and secure life in retirement.

Current Industry Landscape

Prior to COVID-19, the traditional retirement industry invested significant resources attempting to encourage more people to save for retirement. In a recent study, entitled Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018, the Federal Reserve found that that 17% of those aged 45- 59 reported having no retirement savings.1 Of that same group, only 42% felt they were on track to save for retirement. Studies have continuously demonstrated that general savings rates among the U.S. population continues to remain at very low levels.

Redesign the UX of Retirement

“There’s no such thing as a visionary and a pragmatist. Everybody’s a pragmatist. They need technology and now they recognize it.” — Scott Moody, K4Connect

The future retirement product could be an app that connects all services required for a happy life beyond work. Scott Moody, Co- founder and CEO of K4Connect, offers an app for digital life in assisted living centers across the country, as well as to individuals. COVID-19 opened new doors to this possibility. “Everybody’s familiar with the idea of crossing the chasm, the technology adoption curve. Senior living, that chasm, was actually relatively wide, so people were asking, ‘Do I need technology now? Can I wait until next quarter?’ Well, that chasm slammed shut, that’s over. There’s no such thing as a visionary and a pragmatist. Everybody’s a pragmatist. They need technology and now they recognize it.” Will traditional retirement products just be buttons on the interface of the future app or the battery that powers the entire device?

 

Visit Nassau Re/Imagine to read the entire Whitepaper, listen to the audio version, download the Whitepaper, watch the forum discussion as a video, or to learn more, by clicking here.

About Re/Imagine

Nassau Re/Imagine serves as incubator for companies intending to build a presence in Hartford. We actively support individuals and team committed to building a vibrant insurtech ecosystem in the heart of our insurance community.

The Key to Thriving Residents? Easy Access to Engaging Content

“Do your residents enjoy documentaries? How about faith-based music and meditation? Or maybe they want to watch exercise videos on demand.” 

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

February 4, 2021

Now more than ever, senior living communities are utilizing technology to minimize social isolation and enhance their resident’s lives. At K4Connect, our belief is that technology is only meaningful when it improves the quality of everyday life—we like to say, making life Simpler, Healthier and Happier. 

Employing technology created for seniors provides a myriad of opportunities for communities to deliver engaging content and programming directly to residents in their homes. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

GIVE YOUR RESIDENTS OPTIONS

Dynamic content options allow you to better connect, entertain and inspire your residents through a variety of interests. Check out these highly recommended content creators, all available to K4Connect communities and residents.

  • CuriosityStream brings award-winning documentary streaming and on-demand entertainment with over 3,000 features and series covering topics from space exploration and adventure to nature and lifestyle. Residents can explore their passions and find new ones like diving into aviation, revisiting medieval history or traveling somewhere new around the globe. 
  • Spiro100 provides the industry’s largest library of exercise and wellness video streaming programs. Residents will enjoy courses that focus on mind, body and spirit activities and that are safe, appropriate and outcome-based.
  • Coro Health (MusicFirst™ and CoroFaith™) is the leading provider of therapeutic music and spiritual support within the healthcare industry. Their solutions are clinically proven to improve mood, reduce agitation and depression. MusicFirst™ is a therapeutic audio platform with more than 1,500 music programs and CoroFaith™ has the largest database of spiritual, religious, and wellness content in the industry.

 

Spiro100, Coro Health and CuriosityStream content view on K4Community Plus mobile app

MAKE IT EASY

Providing residents with easy ways to access content ensures you’re reaching residents where they are, whether at home or out and about in the community.

  • Make holistic wellness options available to all of your residents whether they desire to attend live classes or participate from the comfort of their homes.
  • Worried about your residents not being tech-savvy? It turns out that technology use is increasing among the Silent Generation, or adults aged 74 to 91. In fact, roughly one-third of adults in this age group now own smartphones or computers and are frequent social media users! 
  • Residents can access endless content anytime, anywhere from the mobile and web applications that are available through K4Connect’s K4Community Plus solution. It’s easy for staff to share and even easier for residents to experience.

Technology has the ability to truly transform senior living in a positive way. Digital tools will save staff time and become essential as communities work to evolve their wellness models and battle social isolation during the ongoing pandemic and beyond.

Learn more about how K4Community and our content partnerships can increase staff efficiency and keep your residents thriving!

The Download: Scott Moody, CEO, K4Connect

At K4Connect, we’re focused on serving and empowering older adults and those living with disabilities. We do that by integrating the best in technology to help them live more independent, healthier, and more connected lives. 

 

January 26, 2021

By: Brooks Malone

Scott Moody is Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Raleigh-based K4Connect. K4 is a mission-centered company that integrates the latest advances in technology to serve and empower older adults and those living with disabilities. The company has raised more than $25 million in venture funding. Moody previously co-founded and was Chairman/CEO of AuthenTec, a leading provider of fingerprint sensor and security solutions, acquired by Apple. He is known in the Triangle area for a willingness to help other entrepreneurs and startups.

1. What is in your pockets?

The answer is: not a single thing. Nothing in my front pockets, nothing in my back pockets. I really don’t need my wallet walking around my house. I don’t need hand sanitizer walking around my house because we have a bunch of sinks with soap.

You’ve caught me on a unique day because I’m actually wearing pants. It could be pajama bottoms. I’ve often been wearing compression tights for just the soreness in my legs because I’ve been running more. Half the time we get in the car and realize I have to go back in and get my wallet.

2. What exciting thing has happened recently for you or your organization?

I don’t know if I would use the word “exciting.” What I would use is “important.” The foundation is to serve others, and there is no more important time than now to serve those that we serve. Our average member is an 85-year-old woman living in a senior living community. To keep them safe, to keep them fed, to keep them engaged, to keep them connected—particularly when we’re all managing through this COVID crisis—is particularly important.

At K4Connect, we’re focused on serving and empowering older adults and those living with disabilities. We do that by integrating the best in technology to help them live more independent, healthier, and more connected lives.

In today’s world, there are just so many various technologies that we all live with on a day-to-day basis. Everything from home automation devices to wellness devices and apps, to engagement tools like video chat and texts. We integrate them into a single system, then a single app specific for older adults and people living with disabilities.

That’s what we do in senior living communities. At the resident level, in their apartments, in their cottages, in their homes—we integrate all of these devices. All kinds of health and wellness apps from exercising to drug-fill reminders. Then we integrate a number of engagement apps, everything from video chat to ordering foods, to staying engaged at the community level. We integrate that into a single app.

Whether it’s at the resident level, at the community level or the staff level, we integrate everything that’s used technologically in that building into a single system. That makes it much easier for the residents to live there and for the operators to run their community. We all hear about video chats, staying engaged, and knowing that somebody is safe in their apartment, and our application K4Community actually does all of that. It’s particularly important at this time.

3. What is your favorite coffee spot?

I would love to speak of a local place, but I am a Starbucks fan, or at least I used to be a Starbucks fan. That usually doesn’t involve sitting in any coffee shop anymore, but it does usually involve grabbing a cup of coffee and then going out meeting with somebody outside in a park on a bench. Or a couple of times more recently as it’s gotten cold, in my backyard around the fire pit.

4. What keeps you up at night?

I’m not a good sleeper, unfortunately, like many CEOs. I have this habit of being up from 1 AM to 2 AM, or from 1 AM to 4 AM. As I get older, I’m trying to manage through it but once I wake up, my mind starts running. That’s through good or challenging times. It’s always, “What’s the next step,” and that could be in the good times.

Early in the COVID pandemic, it was, How do we manage through this? Our big thing now is, How do we meet the demand going forward?

Everybody recognizes the importance of technology and keeping people engaged and safe. Most of the time, it’s just a matter of speed. How fast can we go? Whether it’s our product roadmaps, whether it’s our overall growth. At the end of the day our mission is to serve others, and we want to do that for as many people as possible, as fast as possible. That’s why I felt I was originally called and why we founded the company. So, that’s probably the thing that keeps me up at night the most.

5. What is your favorite restaurant or happy hour?

So, I’m not a happy hour guy, but by far my favorite restaurant is Rey’s in Cary.  I am a creature of habit. I only go to one restaurant. Whether it’s a business or a personal dinner, people will ask, “Well, you’ve been here so many times, what’s your favorite meal?” I’m kind of a bad person to ask because I’ve only ever ordered one thing and that’s the New York Strip.

6. What is next for you or your organization?

I believe that we are all put here to serve others and that a corporation’s purpose is to form a group of people that can serve others better than we could have done individually. Our big focus is growing our business. Hopefully, we will eventually move that into the home. I don’t know if it’s the next thing we do, but certainly, it’s our intent.

[Editor’s Note: Scott was also a guest on the Pete Meets… podcast.]

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