My Journey to Professional Home Care

My name is Scott Holmes and I am owner CEO of Visiting Angels of Eastern Idaho.

So, my background, professionally, I am pretty much a serial entrepreneur. This is my fifth business. I come out of high tech.

I worked for Xerox and for Apple Computer for over 10 years and my career at Apple started off in a regional training capacity. I was recruited from Xerox, which had invented graphic mouse technology. I was approached by Steve, one day, Steve Jobs, and ended up moving over into supporting the development of the Macintosh.

The Attraction to Constant Companion

Under Steve's incredible vision, he taught me some very, very valuable lessons about technology. The elegance of how you interface with technology is paramount.

That's what attracted me to Constant Companion. It had many of those elegant interface components to it that just seemed natural, even though they were different and new. The Macintosh feels natural, even though it was wildly different when it rolled out the door.

I took that with me in my career, and when I learned of Constant Companion, it was one of those aha moments because finally there was some technology in the marketplace that was really going to help seniors.

Changing the World

Constant Companion is definitely a market disruptor, just like the Macintosh was with my days at Apple. The reason it will continue to evolve is that it provides great usability. It provides great benefit in terms of being able to perform tasks or ease the performance of tasks through that technology. It's going to evolve. It's going to do things we never thought of. There are going to be moments of brilliance about how AI and voice technology are going to change our world.

I think how voice technology is going to benefit people's lives - and this is beyond seniors, this is the US as a community at large - it's going to allow us to be free of so many of the tasks that require additional engagement. It's going to make us more efficient.

Simple, Easy and Fun to Use

What we have found when we provide this solution in the home is it doesn't take very long for that individual to start to understand the benefit of having that technology in their home. It is extremely easy to install. We go into the home. We plug the devices in. We introduce Alexa to the care recipient. And that first impression is, well, this is not intimidating. There's these little devices. He set it up with no worries at all. So that kind of breaks the ice.

The beauty behind the development of Constant Companion is the simplicity of the interaction. But what Constant Companion did is really understood ‘what are the needs of these care recipients?’ Alongside that, the mission is ‘how do we make that engagement enjoyable, non-intimidating, those types of things.’

Comparing Companion 24/7 to Off-the-Shelf Smart Speakers

The fundamental difference between an off the shelf Alexa unit and the Constant Companion solution is that it is a totally secure environment. A lot of seniors will have some resistance to the device thinking that Alexa hears everything. And that's not the case with the Constant Companion solution. The technology behind this - being a tech guy, you know, I vetted it - it's robust. It's the best out there. And they're so confident of it that Constant Companion has put up a million dollar guarantee against breach of any data.

What we have discovered with Constant Companion is while its original development was focusing on those in the largest need, which is the senior community, we have found intrinsic value for this solution for all ages. And it is maturing to the point that this product is going to want to be in millions of homes. Voice technology absolutely is the future.

I would say to anybody who lives alone - I don't care how old you are - this is the best thing since sliced bread.

https://vimeo.com/412863258