Julian: Hey everyone. Thank you so much for joining the Behind Company Lines podcast. Today we have Dave Jacobs, co-founder and co CEO of Homethrive, a fast growing tech-enabled healthcare service company that's disrupting and revolutionizing how organizations support unpaid family caregivers and their loved ones.

Dave, thank you so much for joining the show. I, I'm really excited. Yeah. I mentioned before the show to dive into your background, your experience, but. You know, working within a tech, working technology within a space that has a lot of legacy technologies and, and you know, maybe have some slower red tape that you have to go through.

So always fascinated within startups who have to kind of, you know, work on other people's timelines, so to say and, and kind of have experience building kind of a a, a really a product that's gonna affect people in their day to day lives rather than, you know, nice to have. I feel like, Companies in your space are, need to have products that, that solve a very particular and important problem.

But before we get into all that, where were you doing before you started Homethrive?  

Dave: Well, I'm thrilled to be here, Julian. Thank you very much for having me. I've listened to the podcast and it's really interesting to hear entrepreneurs talk about kind of the challenges and experiences they have in kind of getting business started.

So I'm happy to be a part of it. And before, yeah. My partner and I started Homethrive. We were both senior executives at a large healthcare company called Med. About a $20 billion manufacturer, distributor, medical products to all segments of healthcare, from acute care to skilled nursing, home care, retail, you name it.

Julian: Yeah. What, what was like that experience, you know, founders who come from a large organization, what are some things that they do well or maybe some things that they might not do well that you've taken in the lessons you've taken onto building your own company? Anything in particular kind of stand out?

Dave: Yeah, it's interesting and it's a combination of both. I, I think the things that we've learned to do well in terms of managing larger organizations, yeah. Hiring to people has kind of certainly been a part of it, creating the right incentives and working on the culture. Although there's a lot of differences between a large company and a small company.

You know, the speed at which even med lab, which is a very entrepre. Privately held, large company, the speed is very different and the agility than an early stage business. So I think that's very different. Even the way you hire and the kind of skills that are needed. There's not only the functional skills, but there's also the the kind of the ability to live with more ambiguity than you'd find in a large organization.

And the need and comfort kind of pivoting very quickly. Yeah. Then you'd find in a large organization,  

Julian: Yeah. What were some things that you've seen in your experience in, in healthcare? I think the healthcare is always such a hot topic. You know, we have, we have, you know, politics running for office and it's always kind of part of their, their, their message and what they're trying to do.

And it's always around access. And, and where do you think the biggest gaps in access are in healthcare? That we see on, on different levels and, and different people in, in different healthcare circumstances. I feel like, you know, someone's physical health and mental health is on such a big spectrum.

It's hard to cover all bases. Mm-hmm. , where is the access difficult and, and what are the biggest gaps in, in giving everyone, you know, a, a standard or maybe a, a unique sense of access to, to their needs?  

Dave: Yeah. It's really, it's, it's interesting and it's a real challenge because unfortunately our healthcare system is so complicated. That sometimes there is just kind of pure availability of services which people are kind of challenged with, but probably more often than not, it's really understanding where the, the services are available and how to access them and how to get them paid for. Even if many times they are, is that kind of, even for me in my own personal life, navigating kind of the system of which doctors and specialists to go for which different things, how to get certain tests done and covered by insurance is really challenging.

I've had some tests done that certainly were not for my pleasure, but we felt like were good to be able to identify and maybe prevent kind of a bigger health issue down the line. And it was a challenge to get those things covered by insurance in the process and people. Really, I mean, I'm fortunate to be very healthy, but people who really have health challenges right now, Really struggle to get access, not only to kind of medical procedures and things, but a lot of the social determinant related things that are critical to health, which is access to good nutrition.

It could be access to engagement, things that, to reduce isolation and loneliness is a real big challenge. Yeah. In the world we're in, in terms of caregiving support, being able to give people access to the kind of services and products that people need to be able to live at home kind of healthy and happy for as long as possible is a real challenge to be able to figure that out  

Julian: Yeah. What are some main causes to that complex?  

Dave: It's a great que It's a good question. I think there's a variety of things. I think some is things are very siloed within healthcare and so, you know, you have certain medical care that is separate from other kind of social determinant related things and community based organizations, they're not usually part of the same overall organization.

I think the way in which these things are paid for is very siloed and, and complex and hard to kind of unfurl as. Who qualifies and who doesn't qualify kind of in the process. Yeah. And, and you know, there is also the reimbursement function. Yeah. Whereas, you know, physicians aren't necessarily reimbursed to kind of help their patients get access to community based organizations that will reduce isolation and loneliness and things which are real contributors to people's overall wellbeing and health.

But because there's not a reimbursement code for a physician, it's not necessarily prescribed or kind of focused on very much.  

Julian: Yeah. What are some ways, you know, that I guess things can kind of adapt or evolve into realigning the incentives? Cuz it seems like you, you mentioned there's not a, a particular code a physician can have to, you know, benefit from giving someone.

A, a, a referral or access to a community based service that's actually beneficial in a lot of different ways. What are ways, I guess, is it, is it governmentally? Is it, is it locally? Is it within private organizations, non-profits? Working who, who's working on realigning the incentives to helping people you know, give, I guess take the extra step in, in, in helping someone realign and get access to the care that they need.

Dave: I think there's a lot of organizations that are working on it from my perspective. The, one of the most valuable initiatives overall is where you have kind of organizations that are taking full risk for individuals, and then they're given kind of a whole sum of money, depending on the condition and risk adjustment of those individuals.

And then they can invest the money wherever they see fit for those people. It certainly can be in medical care, which is critical, but you have organizations that are also providing housing for people. They're providing meals, they're providing services like Homethrive, where we kind of support the family caregivers who are forced multiplier for these individuals.

Yeah. Even though there may not be a billing code associated with it, they know it's not only right for. Kind of the person insuring, but it's also gonna lead to better outcomes and greater health over time.  

Julian: Yeah. I was looking at your background and, and it, it wasn't necessarily healthcare focused coming into the gate, but what, what, I guess pique your interest or, or inspired you to, to work within healthcare and then now start a company that is very much supporting and underrepresented you know, component of people's healthcare at the end of their life.

Not, not. Kinda the main cycles as, as most of the, you know, monies made. But now it's, it's mainly on the, the latter end of, of someone's experience. What, what got you into this whole healthcare industry?  

Dave: I started in healthcare now almost 20 years ago more because I was interested in the company and I thought that the combination.

A really well resourced, well established company like Medline with the entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities that would create, would be really interesting. And healthcare's a very dynamic field that has a lot of growth potential. So that's why I joined. It was probably more fortunate than you know, kind of strategic on my part.

But what really kind of got me in and my partner to start Homethrive was our own personal experience. We were the healthcare executives. Frankly, we had pretty cushy. Doing really well, but then I had a personal experience with my dad, got really sick really quickly. He wanted to be at home with my mom in Connecticut where I grew up.

I was in Chicago, my brother's in Chicago. And despite knowing a lot about healthcare, having a close family, having the means to support our parents. It was incredibly difficult when my dad got really sick. Yeah. And you know, I, all the stressors that you hear about, I kind of went through, I gained 20 pounds in about six weeks.

I was flying between Chicago and Connecticut. It put a strain on my nuclear family. I even thought about taking a leave of absence to try to kind of get a handle on all of these things, family issues. Kind of live beneath the surface start to percolate up. And when we got through this, I thought to myself, this shouldn't be so hard and I'm fortunate to have a lot of resources.

What does everybody else do? And you come to find out that regardless of your education, experience, family situation, it's incredibly difficult and complicated for people. And my co-founder, David Greenberg, had a similar experience and we decided to leave those cushy jobs to really solve this issue with in partnership with Seven Wire Venture.

To reduce that work, worry and stress for family members so they can, they can be there for their family and they can be there for their career and they can be there for the long term. Because we don't think it has to be a choice between your, your supporting your parents or family members special needs or being there for your career.

You should be able to do both and bring your whole self to work. And that's really what we've been committed to for the last three and a half years.  

Julian: Yeah. Were you working on this product while working at, you know, Medline or did you just kind of, what was the catalyst for taking the leap and, and fully investing the time and attention into building Homethrive?

Dave: You know, the, the catalyst, the catalyst was my own experience. But you, you raise a good question, which is, it's one thing to have that, it's experience, it's another thing to take the leap And for me it was combination of this experience and wanting to do something that was more mission driven, but I'll be honest too.

I thought to myself, I was turning 50 I was taking a walk with my wife and we had talked about this and she said, well, if you stayed at Medline, which I like very much, you know, how would you feel in 10? Versus going to do this. And I felt like if I had stayed at Medline, I would've been taking the safer way out and not challenging myself as much and not really reaching for something that was less certain, but something that I could be really passionate about and would be incredibly challenging and fulfilling.

And I decided I didn't wanna get to be 60 and feel like I took the easy way out. I wanted to challenge myself. And, and I decided even if it meant, you know, there's no guarantee of. Certainly in an early stage business, but it was worth the risk and the opportunity to make an impact on people was certainly worth it to take that chance.

And, you know, my daughter, who's 19 now asked probably the toughest questions at the time, and she said, well, what happens if it doesn't work? And I said, I, I'll get another job. And, you know, I felt like there's always kind of another opportunity, but, you know, fortunately this has worked well and we're very committed to, to making a real big.

Julian: Yeah. Had you always kind of had this entrepreneurial spirit, you mentioned that a few times with why you joined Medline. And you kind of, it seems like it was definitely much a, a almost like a value or belief system that that really kind of guided you there and now in Homethrive. But were you always, do you always think you had that in you and, and it was just kind of timing?

Dave: Yeah, I've done, when I was a kid, my, I would ask my mom for extra twinki and hohos and I would sell them to the kids whose parents wouldn't give them that stuff. And then in college I started a couple of different businesses. I outta college, I worked at Quaker, and then I started. My own business and, and did that for a while, and then started another business with a partner.

So I've done entrepreneurial things and I love the, the creativity and the challenge and the feeling of impact. And then I was at Medline probably for longer than I even thought I would be because I did enjoy it. But I always kind of had a desire to get back to that kind of more, yeah, even more entrepreneurial kind of situation.

So I've kind of had it, I've had it for worse in my blood for a.  

Julian: I love that. I love that. How many years did it take you to kind of get traction and, and kind of define your product and define the product market fit? I think a lot of founders, you know, either they hit it right off the bat cuz they see exactly what's needed, but others, you know, it takes time to develop the right technology and right solutions based on the particular experience we talked about before the episode.

A lot of rape tape, especially within healthcare in particular, and there's a lot of you know, regulations and things that you have to abide. But how many years did it take you to get traction and what was like the biggest, significant milestone that that launched you into where you are now? Or, or, you know, it continues to move you forward?

Dave: Yeah, yeah. No, it's, it's, it's a question that kind of founders think about and talk about a lot to each other, but, and, and then to other founders for those who can get it right outta the bat, God bless 'em. It's fantastic, but it's really challenging. It probably took us, you know, we were in this general.

When we started, but it probably took us a year and a half, two years to get more clarity on really what the value proposition was, what the differentiation would be, mm-hmm and, and it was progress over, it's not kind of a lightning bolt moment, but it was progress over time. And being in front of customers and getting told no or learning kind of the hard way quite a bit.

I think the thing though that. There's a couple things that kind of catalyzed for us probably a year and a half ago. One was, you know, we saw that we were serving both older adults and family caregivers, and we really saw the gap and the need was around the family caregivers in particular, that there was, the healthcare system didn't do a lot to support them.

They recognized the importance, but they weren't doing a lot because in some cases they weren't the one that somebody was insuring. And on the employer side, where we do a lot of work as. Employers recognized that they had family caregivers, but most people suffer in silence and they didn't have a program, and so they weren't spending money against.

So we recognized that we really saw an opportunity to go kind of much more focused on the family caregiver, but our challenge was how do you do this in a way that scales and can be cost effective? We started off with our own team of social workers who are absolutely fantastic. They're all experienced at working with families, older adults in families of special needs, but that doesn't scale and it's expensive over time.

And then the other thing we started to realize is not everybody wants to talk to a social worker, even if they're great and they're trusted all. You know, they only really wanna talk to them when they're in kind of the most intense situation. So we said, how do we take that empathy, personalization, and expertise that our care guides, that's what we call our social workers have, and put it in the palm of somebody's hands.

And that process, when we kind of really focused on that challenge, we came together as a team, and about 15 months ago, we launched. After about six months of work, we launched our digital caregiving assistant that really goes in, in companion and tandem with kind of the high touch service that gave us the opportunity to really reach a lot more people to do it at a lower cost and give ourselves the opportunity to reach really large healthcare organizations like Medicare Advantage Plans and Medicare supplement plans at, with a much lower.

Offering that's really effective that we couldn't have done only with kind of our live kind of social workers.  

Julian: Yeah. How many, how many family caregivers are there? Do you have a specific number in the world? Just for, to share kind of the, the, the brevity of the necessity to, to serve this, this community.

Dave: There's, in the US there's about 53 million unpaid family caregivers, and that number's growing by 10 to 15% a year as people, not only they get older and they turn 65, but less and less they wanna be in senior living communities, so they're gonna be home, they're living longer, and it creates a lot of challenges.

For family members. And, and, and family members aren't, are most often, I should say often, they're not living in the same community with their parents and they have their own careers and they have their own nuclear families. And so it's an increasingly big challenge for everybody.  

Julian: Yeah. Yeah. What are, what are the most common resources that are, are offered to these caregivers that, that ease the, I don't wanna say burden, but, but ease the responsibility that they internally feel towards, you know, assisting their, their loved one kind of go in this later transition of their life.

Dave: Well, that's the challenge is that there aren't a lot of readily available resources for family caregivers. The two things that people do the most is they go to Google, which is great, but it doesn't really, you have to know what you're looking for and you have to sift through so much stuff and people don't know what they're looking at and what they're looking for, or they go to friends and, but the, and the two things we hear the most is.

I don't know what I don't know and I don't know what I'm looking for. And I need somebody to be a guide for me to help me understand, you know, what are the questions I should be asking? What comes next? Yeah. And how do I think about these really challenging decisions that I have to make? All the different considerations.

What are some of the experiences of others? And that's really kind of the, the resources and the assistance that we provide is guiding them in that journey about kind of what comes next, how to think about these different issues, what are their different options so that they can make the best decisions for them and their families.

Julian: Yeah. What are some of the, the, the challenges you face building in a technology? I, I'm assuming it's, it's, you sent the technology's in the palm of your hands. It's, I'm assuming a mobile application is probably, you know, access. For both app stores what are some of the challenges? Building an application.

So, you know, it, it, it, the access to data and resources is still extremely vast. How do you simplify that and offer in a way that's easily digestible? And what were some challenges that you faced as, as a founder that, you know, came from not necessarily a software and and application background? But, you know, kind of seeing it from a different focal point of perspective to utilize technology to give this access.

Dave: Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's been a big challenge. It's something we think about a lot. You're absolutely right in terms of that being a, a critical issue. So there are a few things. One is how do we take the experience that people like so much with a person and give them 80 to 85% of that value in that experience in a digital app, it's not gonna be a hundred percent it.

But we still wanted to make sure it had personalization, it had empathy and it was, it had the right balance. You hit the nail on the head. People, you know, one of the problems with Google is you get overwhelming amount of information. Some of it is too short, most of it is just too long. You don't need a New England Journal of Medicine article or study to be able to help you.

So how do you get people the right information and also give them kind of the guidance, be able to personalize the experience for every individual, but also take advantage of, you know, what is going on over the years and there's a lot of commonalities. So we're able to find that right balance is really challenging.

How do you also integrate the. Kind of high touch component for the right moments. Because it does play a role. When there's a new diagnosis, there's a fall, there's a decision around where can somebody live? Can they live at home? You do need the right, alive person. And how do you find that right balance between things for them, for people, yeah.

Was a big challenge. And then how do you make it easy for people to navigate and use and understand that, that those are the things that have been a challenge and we continue to think about how do we make this thing easier? Yeah. And more helpful. And then even from a resource standpoint, you know, how do you customize?

Some people have access to resources that are paid for other people don't. How do you. Find ways to get people the best local resources and do that kind of on a national scale, which is what we do.  

Julian: Yeah. I recently read that you, you had a big successful fundraising round earlier this year and, and I'm sure that kind of.

Propelled you to, to not only reinvest in technology, but also kind of scale on on, on multiple sides of your business. What was the fundraising process like in, in regards to fundraising in a healthcare space, in a technology that's new and as a founder that, you know, for, for Better works doesn't have the, the previous pedigree that a lot of founders have and, and pretty much starting from scratch, right?

And in a lot of ways and communicating that value pop, it's not. You, you don't know business in and out, but in this particular space, it's gaining that trust to know your product, know your market, and build that forward. What was that evolution like for. .  

Dave: Well, it's interesting. One of the things that's exciting and great and a challenge for the, what we're doing is we're, we're really kind of in a leadership position to create a market.

Yeah, people understand the needs of family caregivers, especially if they've gone through it, but it's not in the employer space. An increasing number of employers are offering family givers, caregiver support as part of. Strategy around physical health and mental health and whole person kind of health, but many companies don't.

So you have to edu they, you have to help them find budget. You have to educate them about the need for this and the priority of this. So that's, that's a challenge on the health plan side. You have the similar kind of challenge where people recognize it. But it, it feels like a little bit of a leap for them because the family caregivers are not the ones that they're insuring.

They're insuring their parents. Yeah. And so how do you show them that actually investing something in the family Caregivers will pay dividends for the people that they insure and whose satisfaction and retention they really want. And whose costs and healthcare outcomes cost. They want to go down in outcomes.

They want to go up. So that's also part of the conversation. Investors, which is, you know, it's great that you're creating this market, but how long will it take and how do we build, get confidence that it will develop the way that you guys believe it will. So you know, we've had to work overtime.

It's working with investors is like other kind of organizations. You have to get to know them. You have to build trust both ways. And also you have to find the ones that ha share a similar vision. Just like not every prospect is the right one out of the gate. What we found is there are some investment firms, and fortunately there's more than a few who really see aging in place as one of the big strategies that's coming up.

And they also recognize that family caregivers are gonna be a big part of that, but also have a lot of needs themselves and that there's a market there, but they, they have to recognize that it will take a little while to develop that market. So yeah, we're working very hard to be able to do that, to evangelize the need for that mm-hmm.

Over time, and then be able to kind of capitalize kind of on those opportunities. So,  

Julian: yeah. Yeah. What's you know, if you were talking to either your former self before you started Homethrive and took the leap, or anyone who's looking to start their own company, and kind of, you know, navigate the startup.

It's like a lifestyle, I would say. What advice did you give them? What kind of, what, what kind of knowledge do you wish you would've had earlier than that you would instill in someone now?  

Dave: You know, I, I was given the amount of experience I've had, I was aware of this, but I remind myself every day that we're on a mission that's really important and it's going to be hard.

And within the scope of any given day, there are some really wonderful highs. And there's some big challenges, and that's what I've signed up for. And it's not kind of in the, a middle of the road kind of experience. And that going through these challenges is what founders kind of experience building teams is, is at a rapid pace and kind of with changing needs is something that founders experience and that the highs and lows.

But are part of the journey. And it's important also to take care of yourself along the way because, you know, we've been at this actually almost four years and we intend to be at it for quite a while to come to build this business. And you've gotta be in it for the long haul and you can't, you know, you gotta make sure that the highs aren't too high and you don't get too low.

And you really keep your energy and outlook at a very even keel so that you have the energy all day long, kind of week in and week out, which is challeng. Kind of in an early stage business where you wanna, you can always do more and you wanna throw yourself into it in a tremendous way. And the other thing I I focus on a lot is kind of the idea of, you know, I focus on what can I control?

Now, and that's, and it's, you realize when you do that, There's a lot of things you can control. You can't control necessarily how quickly customers adopt the program. You can control kind of the different ways that you evangelize and the way different ways you think about things. Control the energy you put into bringing on a great team and colleagues and doing things like that.

Making sure they're well equipped and trained and, and things of that nature. But there's a lot of things that are outta your. And trying not to get too worked up about them and just focus what you can't control, I find to be very helpful. Yeah.  

Julian: Yeah. What's the most gratifying thing that you get out of running Homethrive?

Dave: I think, I think two things. I, we work with some fantastic people who are incredibly passionate and curious and smart and you know, just today I was on with our head of product and he was just talking about some of the data that he was looking at cuz he was curious about patterns where people hadn't engage with us in two months and they come back and what are the common characteristics?

And that kind of curiosity and energy is just incredibly refresh. But honestly the most thing, and this is a little, was a little surprising to me. I knew this would be something that would be very gratifying to do, but to see and hear about the people that we impact and touch on a daily basis really makes an impact.

It, it doesn't matter what their education is, of what their experience is. I mean, people go through this in a very profound way and to know we're making an impact is really gratifying. And it sounds trite to say that, and I know you probably for good reason, get a lot of people to do that. It's more than I thought it would be.

And so every two weeks we have an all hands meeting and our care guides will share some of these stories and you realize we're, we're meeting people at usually times a very significant need and challenging their life. And the fact that we can be a source of support. And guidance and help is very gratifying.

And our goal is to be able to do that for a lot more people over time to make a bigger impact.  

Julian: Yeah, I love that. Tell us a little bit about the traction. You know, how, how many people are using your product, how many family caregivers are using your product. Where is, you know, are you building partnerships with other companies or groups and organizations?

Tell us about all that good stuff that gets you excited and the growth that you're having not only this year, but your projected growth as well.  

Dave: Yep. Yeah. So, you know, we think about traction in a few different ways. We've got about over a hundred national companies that are using Homethrive, that have adopted it.

Some of the ones that are kind of more progressive as they think about health and wellbeing and retention and productivity. Everybody from kinda in professional services from Latham and Watkins, one of leading law firms. In the world in Perkins Goy but also large employers who are very progressive, like in Ecolab that's using it.

Yeah, so we've got a lot of employers that are using it. And then we also have a good number of health plans that are kind of using our program and having success with it. So everybody from Cigna and Blue Cross of Kansas on the Medicare Advantage side to thrive and Prudential will be using it on the long term care insurance side.

We work with some of the big players in the Medicare supplement area, so we're getting good traction on that area. Yeah, we don't talk specifically about the number, but we're in the tens of thousands of kind of caregivers that we're supporting kind of on a regular basis. And that number is growing.

And the other part is the digital component has allowed us to reach a lot more people. Not only within an organization, and we're very proud of the fact that we're getting in any employer, we're getting seven to 8% of all employees who are using Homethrive. Which, so we're able to help a lot of people, and that's two to three times their normal utilization.

We're doing something very similar on the health plan side. But it's also given us access to large groups of people that a high service component by itself wouldn't necessarily would make very difficult and very expensive. And so we're able to bring a lot of support to people in a meaningful way beyond what they could get through Google or some of the other kind of services that are available to them.

So, so we're really trying to work to expand that as much as possible in a meaningful way.  

Julian: Amazing. What are some of the biggest challenges the company faces?  

Dave: You know, certainly no shortage of challenges. I think one is to educate the market about the need for family caregiver support. We think we do a really good job with it, but I would encourage any employer or health plan who's thinking about this, that if they're not gonna use homestead, they should use somebody because family caregivers, they're spending people spend.

On average 20 hours a week doing stuff for their age group, and it takes a tremendous toll on them. The level of stress that, you know, the 50% more likely to have substance abuse issue or to be obese, they're not following a lot more chronic conditions as a result, and so their own health and wellbeing deteriorates.

As well as productivity. And as you may know, one in three caregivers will leave their job for a period of time to take care of kind of their parents. They just gotta figure things out. Yeah. And we really don't think that this should be contributing to the great resignation at all. We think people can be there for their parents and kind of be there for their career.

So we're, but that takes time to make sure people are aware of this and come to understand it. So we're doing a lot. That's one of the biggest challenge. That we face kind of in the process and the other, there's a lot of noise and a lot of clutter with a lot of digital health solutions. A lot of point solutions.

Yeah. And being able to find ways through that or work with people. We're doing some things on mental health. We're actually starting to do some things on fertility so that we can bring, and we're doing more on childcare to be able to bring a more holistic solution to employees so that more people are aware and have access to a lot of the great benefits that their employers offering them or their parents' health plan.

Julian: Incredible. If everything goes well, what's the long term vision for Homethrive?  

Dave: You know, we really wanna be able to serve over a million people in this caregiver world, if not more. And really be able to cover the full gamut of family caregiving support. And, you know, whether that's continuing as an independent company or as a partner with somebody else.

I guess that'll remain to be seen and others will be involved in that decision. But we really, my hope is that family caregiver support in five years looks a lot like mental health looks today, where seven, eight years ago it was a, a niche kind of benefit that wasn't widely offered. In with employers or health plans.

And now it's a very mainstream pro program, which it should be 85% plus of all employers offer something. Most health plans offer something and my goal is that family caregiver support has that kind of adoption and hopefully Homethrive. We wanna leaders, but at the very least, we want this to be a, a program and a service that's available to a lot of people and we want to be a big part of providing it.

Julian: I love that. I always like, Question one for selfish research, but also for my audience as well. What, what, you know, whether it was early in your career or even currently now, what books or people have influenced you the most?  

Dave: There's a couple things. I think one thing I I read a lot I've gotten kind of to be a fan of is the stoic philosophy.

So somebody like Ryan Ho who's popularized it and you know, whether his book kind of discipline his destiny and, and or courage is calling. Some of those things I find very helpful because, It, it's a very empowering kind of approach. And so I find it kind of interesting and it, the historical kind of significance I find interesting.

A book that I enjoyed, I read pretty recently. Kinda along these lines is it's called 30 Days with a Navy Seal, and it was written by Jesse Itzler and he had a, a Navy Seal who was with him. But he said, I'll live with you only if you do everything I say. And it was a lot around pushing boundaries, more mental than physical.

And it's really, it turns out that that Navy Seal was a guy named David Goggins, who since then has become very popular in his own right, but they never mentioned his name throughout the book. But that idea. Being able to kind of push yourself and recognizing what boundaries somewhat artificial you put up yourself, and being able to push through those things, I find very interesting and empowering.

Julian: Incredible. Well, Dave, I, I, I hope you enjoyed yourself on the show. I'm always excited to chat with founders from different backgrounds and experiences and, and dive into not only their industry expertise, but also their, their newfound expertise in building companies. What it's taken to, to really grow something and scale something to a degree that they feel an impact.

And I love your story. I, I love you know, what you're building and, and I'm excited to see it. It comes to fruition with the different products and offerings you have. But last little bit. I always, always give time for my guests to give us your plugs. Let us know where we can find you, where we can, where we can visit and support the mission.

Or if I'm a family caregiver, where I can use the product to give us your LinkedIns, your, your Twitters, your websites where you app in the app store. Give us.  

Dave: Yeah, I mean, the best place would be kind of Homethrive.com and to talk about kind of the family caregiving challenge that's out there and the need, but also the ways in which we can support them if somebody we sell kind of through employers and through health plans.

We also, well, we don't do a kind of a direct to consumer. People can sign up individually and they can, we, we, we'd be happy to be able to support them in whatever they need, whether it's a digital format, and then usually a few times a year when people have a more intense situ. They can, and then we're on LinkedIn and whatnot and we just are really passionate about that family caregiver support area and want to do more to be able to have more individuals with access to a service like ours.

Julian: Incredible. Again, I hope you enjoyed yourself, Dave, and thank you so much for being on the podcast.  

Dave: Yeah, no, thank you Julian. This is great, and you obviously understand the, the founder's challenge and kind of some of the dynamics through, through the question, so it's really interesting to talk to you about it.

Julian: Amazing. Well, we'll chat again sometimes to take care. Right. Thank.

Dave, I hope you enjoyed yourself man.  

Dave: Thank you so much. Yeah. Oh yeah, very much. These are, you know, it's funny.

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