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Founder lived in a nursing home for 3 months to get his start-up off the ground
- leetrout 9y agoIt's a neat story but for those that don't read: 1. He's a doctor with a Harvard degree. 2. The nursing home he stayed in was close to his parents... "When he needed a shower, Peck — who was 35 at the time — would drive to his parents' home, which happened to be nearby." I'm not knocking the significance of things- it's a cool read and a reminder how painful it is to work in and around healthcare with all the bureaucracy and how sad it is he contacted 2000 institutions and only three got back to him. Worth the read- just a tiny bit sensationalized IMO. Edit: added quote
- tomcam 9y ago1. The Harvard part of the degree is completely irrelevant 2. His parents’ home happen to be nearby, but note that was a semi-lucky coincidence. He was living in Silicon Valley when he cold-called all of those institutions. One of the few that actually answered was near his parents’ house. Here is the relevant passage: “So he cold-emailed and called more than 2,000 facilities across the country.“ This guy will succeed because he was willing to cold call 2,000 places despite having a Harvard degree. He was willing to live in a conference room despite having a Harvard degree. He will succeed at whatever he does and it wouldn’t matter if he went to Cal State Fullerton. In my opinion this story is intrinsically sensational because he is such a stud. A guy willing to go this far is a guy YC is lucky to have.
- leetrout 9y agoSo I will never know the answer to this question- but I would love to know if his parents knew the admin staff or two degrees away (or if he, himself, did). I don't find is coincidental that it ended up being close to his folks. I would imagine a backstory something along the lines of "I've got this solid idea for fixing a big problem, let me reach out and find some partners" and of course he tells his parents. As things progress on (and perhaps tend to fizzle) he or his parents push a little harder on "coming back home" and working local. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong, bad, etc etc here, I just bet something like this is how we got here. As for sleeping in the conference room... well he's building tech to be used onsite- and I would expect a not insignificant amount of the types of medical issues he's working on providing this service for happen through the midnight hours and whether he chose to be on-site it shows real dedication to what he's trying to do, for sure. As for the degree- you're not entirely wrong- it's pure conjecture without knowing more- but I don't think we can assume having a top name education doesn't help with funding, YC or not. Edit: fixed complete miswording on my intention
- j7ake 9y agoYou’re saying nobody has ever cold called 2000 institutions and failed to succeed ? What evidence do you have for this ?
- tomcam 9y agoWhat evidence do you have that I made any such assertion?
- mlevental 9y agoAt 100 calls a week (super doable) that's only 20 weeks. This is not some Herculean task
- chaoky 9y agoThat sort of misses the point. It is pretty soul destroying to cold call that many people.
- IntronExon 9y ago...And yet articles about call center grunts probably don’t garner front page interest in the same way that “founder” does.
- tomcam 9y agoMost call center grunts aren’t also tireless, gutsy, visionary, MD/businesspeople. Also they get a guaranteed salary; he didn’t. Source: am former call center grunt.
- MisterBastahrd 9y agoThere are plenty of people who have inside sales jobs that are commission only. Most sales reps at recruiting firms with split desks would laugh at the notion that 100 calls a week is soul crushing. Most of them are placing 120+ cold calls a day.
- JetSpiegel 9y ago5 months of your life calling nursing homes? Not Herculean, Sisyphean.
- tomcooks 9y agoBut this worked, Sisyphus never won.
- cup 9y ago>1. The Harvard part of the degree is completely irrelevant Except It's a pretty good indicator of his socioeconomic background and the numerous opportunities that were made available to him in his life that others didn't have. Apart from that yeah.. Oh and also the copious networking opportunities it gave him and access to circles that others don't have. yeah.....
- appleiigs 9y agoInstead of past opportunities, his Harvard degree gives him future opportunities. As in, something to fall back on when the startup fails. That gives him the advantage (risk tolerance) that other people don’t have (eg. single mom). So, agreeing with you but for different reasons. Harvard degree matters. Not knocking his persistence and really like that his company helps people instead of doing facial recognition emojis.
- manigandham 9y agoAnyone can apply to Harvard, and they all have to be good enough to create the opportunity to be accepted in the first place.
- cm2012 9y agoExcept realistically, 80% of harvard grads come from high income households.
- manigandham 9y agoSo at least 20% don't? Given the high standard of qualifications which are obviously easier to meet when you have more resources, that's pretty good. We're talking about the #1 school here, which is also free for any low-income families.
- cm2012 9y agoYeah, 20% come from families under 65k family income.
- justonepost 9y agoYeah, well, exactly 0 would probably have contacted him if he didn't have the degree. He's not that much of a stud, most founders would die for an opportunity like that. Also, mass emailing a list of 2000 isn't exactly cold calling. Odds are good he actually called this one and did the full press because his parents DID live nearby. That all being said, the moral of the story is still very sound.
- bojackstorkman 9y agoHow is it only "semi lucky" that he was able to establish support for considerably lower or near zero cost for otherwise troublesome and expensive, possibly unattainable facilities? Also if Harvard doesn't matter, why bring it up twice when discussing his value? Does it matter in your estimation, or not?
- kriro 9y agoI think the Harvard part matters at least a tiny bit. A Harvard medical degree means your opportunity cost to do the startup thing is (marginally imo) higher than if you had a Cal State Fullerton medical degree. And obviously the storyline "ZOMG he has an elite degree and still does thus" is more interesting for the random reader.
- heedlessly2 9y ago>The Harvard part of the degree is completely irrelevant When Venture capitalists and angel investors decide to invest, brand name helps decide who they invest in. Is not everything, but its not nothing either.
- ggg9990 9y agoThe Harvard doctor part actually makes it much more impressive because it means that he had in his back pocket the option to just go be a doctor and make $300k+. I would have quit a lot earlier.
- nvr219 9y agoWhy did he live in the nursing home and not with his parents who lived nearby to the nursing home
- DoreenMichele 9y agoBecause the nursing home would only agree to work with him at all if he stayed on site. Also: This seems to be a YC company. He was flying back weekly for YC events.
- austenallred 9y agoYes, Call9 is S15
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- linkmotif 9y agoThis must be sponsored content?
- tomcam 9y agoWhy?
- linkmotif 9y agoIt reads like an advertisement.
- justonepost 9y agoYeah, it's astroturfing for sure. But it's very well done astroturfing, which makes for entertaining reading. Anyone who doesn't realize this doesn't read very critically.
- jwilk 9y agoFrom the HN guidelines: Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data.
- linkmotif 9y agoThanks I hadn’t seen that.
- jessaustin 9y agoThat guideline refers to commenting on comments on HN. Some of them may be astroturf, but it's of no benefit to discuss that possibility, because usually that means a fellow HN person will be upset. The possibility that TFA is astroturf, or perhaps a more apt term may be "submarine", is entirely appropriate for discussion. If it weren't, we'd be really handicapped in evaluating anything that gets posted to HN.
- 9y ago
- ggm 9y agoHe had direct benefit to the nursing home, and used them for use-case validation to better work product. So the general model is, if you have a smart idea for e.g. fender-bender companies, and want to workshop it... cold call repair shops and be prepared to proffer something they value in context, to justify the engagement. His particular use-case had residential qualities. Many ones won't have that. I guess you could ask to put a hammock in the spray booth, but if you've seen "blue collar" you wouldn't want to do that (somebody dies in there)
- Spooky23 9y ago“Direct benefit to the nursing home” That’s the problem with this in my mind. I saw the process that kicked into motion when my father had a stroke. Acute rehab is what patients need, but hospitals work hard to funnel patients into their in-network nursing facilities that offer half the therapy at higher margin. Having doctors video into a patient home doesn’t sound like a recipie for success. Nursing homes are all about cheap CNAs and LPNs providing minimal services for minimal dollars. The doctor doesn’t really deliver care, that’s done by nurses, who don’t really exist in nursing facilities. Frankly, this sounds like the kind of bullshit that prison medical providers do. Not patient focused at all.
- libertine 9y agoAs a grandson who's witnessing the complications of the old age of my grandparents I agree with 100% of what you've said. There's an increase of dehumanization of ER services, and most of the times they don't need a diagnostic of a doctor - they need care and attention, plus to be worked on (rehab, nutrition, etc). They need support on their daily routines. They need human interaction. The problem seems to be that sometimes nurses and caretakers work in the field for so long they create a callous surface that makes them sometimes inhuman (which is understandable) - and we, family members, don't have that neither should we have that emotional barrier towards our loved ones. If elders with family support still have a hard time, imagine the massive group of elders who are alone and left to die.
- empath75 9y agoYeah my dad was in a long term care facility for a bit after he had a severe case of acute pancreatitis and they almost killed him. We had to fight with the insurance company to get him readmitted to a real hospital and he was days from dying when he came in. They did a second surgery and put him on another round of antibiotics and he’s at home and healthy for years now.
- bsimpson 9y agoThat was surprisingly worth reading. I didn't have high expectations for startup content on MSN.com.
- dannyw 9y agoPieces like these are generally significantly written by the company, and less so by the journalist.
- lerie82 9y agoDoes this service only apply to people with smart phones or computers with cameras? Do people have to pay to have some huge cart with equipment next to them all the time in their home or near there bed? Is this service only available to people in nursing homes? There are so many unanswered questions in my opinion after looking at the website. also, on the website it says, "at 15, she was working on an ambulance", umm what?
- sk5t 9y agoPretty shrewd "put up or shut up" offer by the nursing home owner. The healthcare industry is infested with rent-seekers and schemers angling to secure for themselves a thin slice of CMS or health system spending on the flimsiest of claims. A founder--with a strong background, even--who will live in a nursing home's conference room for weeks or months to prove his product's value is a world apart from 99.9% of the field.
- justonepost 9y ago"And that's when he saw a note from Peck via his website's contact form, offering to solve his problem." .. sounds like he could have used amazon turk. Still, this is all good, if probably sensationalized a bit. The part where he like, saved a persons life is pretty cool. Shows the value of having very deep expertise in your startup is important. Plus this is the future, which is great. My guess is that this write-up happened because of his investors trying to tell a story. I've been a part of startups, a huge part of the value add of the VC is their ability to plant these stories in MSM / Techcrunch / etc because they have cred with reporters.. Certain aspects will naturally get exaggerated to make the creation story sounds good.
- provost 9y ago> sounds like he could have used amazon turk. Could you clarify how mechanical turk could have helped?
- justonepost 9y agoWhat's super clever about this is going after nursing homes rather than generaly avoidable ER admissions. Trying to aim at insurers would have been probably next to impossible, even though that's where the big market is. If you're interested in the opportunity, good read here: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/29/16906558/anthem-emergency-room-coverage-denials-inappropriate https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/29/16906558/a...
- eecc 9y agoI’m fed up of these “dog learns to speak” miracle stories when it comes to startups. No wonder it’s a dysfunctional society if it selects for the most lunatics when it comes to change-makers. Another rich weirdo on Twitter is complaining about people not “compelled enough” to quit their day job to work on their startup (in USA, which means no more health insurance for you and your family, if you have one.) What kind of crazy, self harming culture is this? It’s not even Darwinian when it suggests to take huge disastrous gambles to chase rare unicorns! I tell you, it’s this shit that’s holding back humanity. How many are just locked back into uncomfortable routines because of this barrier? Is it perhaps the signature of a conservative society, when change requires grotesque sacrifice stories and is controlled by a small elite of gatekeepers?
- jlebrech 9y agothe most successful startups (in term of numbers that don't fail) are those where you sack your boss and do a better job, not where you create a new industry or disrupt markets.
- cheriot 9y agoThe guy is a doctor enrolled in YC. I doubt he'll end up on the street if his startup fails. A large part of other founders are engineers that can walk into a six figure job on relatively little notice. For all the talk of risking everything, most founders risk time and foregone salary, but not their future. If microsoft had failed, Bill Gates would have re-enrolled at Harvard and graduated a little late. Your average Joe or Jane that dreams of owning a coffee shop and has to put up their own capital is another story.
- waytogo 9y ago> When he needed a shower, Peck — who was 35 at the time — would drive to his parents' home, which happened to be nearby. Why didn't he then just live with his parents for the 3 months? He still could have go there to get that 'invaluable knowledge'. Nice outcome but the story feels a bit like click-bait...
- pandler 9y agoThat was explained: the agreement Peck had with the nursing home way that he stayed there to assuage the owner of the nursing home who thought it was risky adopting their solution. I about the title being a bit click-baity, but maybe it’s just because I’ve heard too many romanticized stories of founders doing something like this out of financial necessity instead of essentially dogfooding.
- lima 9y agoIt's in the article, the nursing home owner wanted him to be on-site.
- RobertRoberts 9y agoI love stories like this. I learned to bust my butt when I was younger. And eventually I made a business work. I had plenty of support and help from people in my life, but no one was going to do it for me. There may be minor issues with details of the story and missing plot holes, but the foundation is useful as a lesson in life and in business. Go for it, put everything you have into something, don't get caught up in appearances or require unrealistic responses or results, the universe owes you nothing. If you don't make it, you still get a great story to tell the grandkids and/or learn a lesson to help you succeed the next time.
- dr_ 9y agoHaving spent years working in such facilities, I see some potential here, primarily because they are supplementing telemedicine with the use of local care specialists, and not just relying on the facility’s nursing staff. The issue becomes, who pays for it? Regulations require the facility have a medical director to help them set procedure and policy and to be able to provide overall care if the pcp is not available. So they are already paying for the medical director who they expect to be able to perform this task - even though the commitment of the director varies greatly from facility to facility. Many facilities also hire nurse practicioners now to help manage patients acute medical issues that arise within the facility. And finally there are times the patients really need to go back to the ER - if as a hospital you are trying to push them out in the shortest amount of time possible, you shouldn’t be surprised by this. Personally I think , in the era of value based care, the entire concept of skilled nursing and how it is paid for and regulated, needs to be completely reworked.
- FireBeyond 9y ago> even though the commitment of the director varies greatly from facility to facility Right, in many places the regulations require laughably little oversight. "Offline review of patient care records at least monthly" (even quarterly) suffices as "medical direction" in some states.