From Hasbro to AgeTech: Ageless Innovation’s Ted Fischer on Building Robotic Pets for Older Adults | The AgeTech Podcast S5E10
What happens when a toy company known for fun and play decides to take on one of society’s most serious challenges – loneliness among older adults? In this episode, I sat down with Ted Fischer, co-founder and CEO of Ageless Innovation, to talk about how a Hasbro side project evolved into Ageless Innovation – an AgeTech company that’s redefining companionship through robotic cats and dogs. We chatted about designing with older adults (not just for them), navigating the early hurdles, and what other founders can learn from building a product that brings genuine joy into people’s lives.
Catch the full conversation on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or scroll down for the transcript (auto-generated, so pardon any oddities – the bots are still learning!)
Ted Fischer: The critical element that I will tell you that I think is the single key to. if you call it the acceptance or the love of our product has been that we’ve created every single thing that we’ve done with older adults.
What happens when a Hasbro Toy project spins off and turns into an AgeTech startup? In this episode of the Age Tech podcast, I talk to Ted Fisher, co-founder and CEO of Ageless Innovation about building and scaling pet robots for older adults.
Keren Etkin: Ted, welcome to the show.
Ted Fischer: Thanks so much.
Keren Etkin: Thanks so much.
Ted Fischer: a while since we chatted, but always enjoy your podcast and our conversations.
Keren Etkin: Thank you. Thank you very much. So could you give us a little, a little background story, some of the origin story behind why you started Hs. Innovation?
Ted Fischer: Sure.
Keren Etkin: Sure.
Ted Fischer: The Joy for All Brand actually was a, a project that I worked on as an executive at Hasbro. The world’s, one of the world’s largest toy companies and. You know, our, our mandate was to leverage Hasbro’s assets in new markets and new channels. And so what we focused on was the broader, you know, sort of health and wellness.
So that was sort of the big bucket that we chose and as we did our research. We found a few things. One, you know, we, we saw this unmet need with older adults to bring more fun, joy in play. But then we also, as we talked to, to folks, realized that there was this incredible need for interactive companionship and this epidemic of loneliness and isolation well before the pandemic.
And so that was the origin,
That.
Story. So we launched. Joy for all Hasbro’s first ever brand for older adults back in 2015. And we launched with our, our first companion Pet Cat. And then followed quickly with the dog because the dog lovers of the world demanded it. And and so we ran it inside of Hasbro for about four years. And then really both Hasbro and, and our, the management team felt that. The opportunity to really focus a hundred percent on older adults and their families was big enough that we should spin this thing out and make its own company. So myself and a, a couple co co-founders, we founded Ageless Innovation and then we acquired the Joy for All brand from Hasbro.
So since 2018, we’ve been running it as our, our own company and our own brand. So that’s the that’s the quick version of the origin story.
Keren Etkin: And it’s a quite unique origin story. I can’t think off the top of my head of any age tecAgeTech startup that started out this way. And certainly like spinning out of a, of a toy company that is quite, quite unique. So what has been sort of. Your journey as an entrepreneur since you started, what would you say are like the, the big milestones that Joy for All has had throughout the years, and if you had any things that you would’ve done differently to maybe reach some of these milestones faster as an entrepreneur.
Ted Fischer: so this, this has been my first entrepreneurial. Venture. I’ve, I’ve been part of a, a, a few early stage and, and startup companies in my past. But this was really the first in the consumer products space trying to bring, you know, really unique and, and different products to market. But also,
But also
of created
you.
You know, we. For the companion pets at, at scale, it really didn’t exist. These, this idea of robotic companions for older adults. So I, I sadly have been saying this a lot lately, but if you wanna be really challenged as an entrepreneur, start a business in 2018 because you know, the milestones that stick out are, you know, a pandemic global supply chain crisis inflation.
And no tariffs. So you know, every
Every year
a year and a
or
we’ve
a year and a half, we’ve been missing something
challenge that you know,
that
you don’t really anticipate. You, you
You sort of get, once you get over these, these big hurdles you, you
You know,
hoping, you know.
little more clear.
And we faced a couple challenges since then, but I, I think from. You know, from a business standpoint, the growth has been, and the adoption of our products has been, you know, really something that keeps us moving forward every day. You know, in terms of the pets we have now over
We have now over 700,000 of the
and adopted around the
adopted around the world.
or so countries. And so the
Has been part of those milestones. You know, continuing to grow and scale our footprint in, in both the direct to consumer channels, but also the health channel has been, you know, a, another really significant milestone and we’ve really been focused on that health and wellness space you know, for the last number of years as the impact has been validated by numerous studies.
And so, you know, all these, these little foundational steps I think has, has led to you know, us. Really understanding that that older adults have tremendous needs, obviously as do all consumers. They’re a category and a demographic that’s not focused on nearly as much, and certainly as it relates to sort of the fun, joyful, playful side. You know, we, we saw the void early on, and now there’s more, thankfully more companies coming into this space. But a couple years ago we, we signed an exclusive agreement with Hasbro, who had some insights that older adults, they were seeing a spike in the use of their games and their iconic board games by older adults.
But were getting some feedback that they weren’t as easy to play or as inclusive or respond as they could be. And so you know, they reached out to us and said, Hey, we we’re seeing this trend. We think there’s an opportunity to reimagine these games. And so. We signed an exclusive agreement with them to take all of their iconic games.
They think of Scrabble and, you know, Yi and a bunch of other things and, and sort of reimagine them for older adults and their families. And so we launched that business about two and a half years ago and now have over a half dozen games in the portfolio. So those are a couple, a couple milestones, but you know, working with a great team and continually to.
Surround myself with people who are passionate about this is, is, you know, probably the number one thing. And then serving this community is at the very top.
Keren Etkin: You mentioned that you ran some studies throughout the past few years, and that is something that many AgeTech startups decide to do at some point in order to prove, basically, not just that the product does what it’s supposed to do, but also that it is effective in in improving health outcomes, reducing loneliness, and so on and so forth.
So could you. Maybe take us through your thought process or maybe the internal discussion you had at the company, uh, and what made you go do some of these studies? Because I know it requires significant resources from a startup.
Ted Fischer: Yeah, that’s, it’s a, it, so we, we had a few fortunate things happen, so, when we were at Hasbro, we, you know, we really were focused on the health and wellness impact. ’cause immediately we started seeing the anecdotal evidence. And the two need states were really loneliness and isolation or depression and then dementia and Alzheimer or cognitive decline.
And so as, as we started to see that impact, honestly, and, you know, I’m not speaking out of school, has road say the same thing. We, none of us had any sort of expertise whatsoever in any of those areas. And so, you know, it felt early on that it was critical that, you know, we validated this anecdotal evidence that we saw and we had a really fortuitous meeting with United Healthcare. In like the first nine months after we start started the brand, I, I had a friend who had sold his company to to UnitedHealthcare. called him up, I said, listen, we’re really looking to be in this space and I’d love if you connect me with a couple people who could help me. So we flew out to Minnesota.
We met with this team of people and it was one of the folks who focused on community and state, which is their Medicaid side of their business, was really interested in cleanliness and isolation, and thought that we had a great solution. And so. Fast forward. A A RP and UnitedHealthcare for the first studies to be done, the really significant studies.
We now have about 12 to 15 peer reviewed, published, you know, studies that really validate, you know, the positive impact and, and since have been covered by Medicare and Medicaid through through CMS. So you know, the, that. That critical study, that first one they funded and they did it because they saw, you know, what was happening in, in the space and the, the outcomes.
And then, you know, all of a sudden we’re facing a pandemic where loneliness and isolation become the biggest issue. And you know, it’s huge spotlight on the topic that hadn’t been there before. And so and then we started working with the state of New York as our first state partner. They had done a pilot program and a year’s worth of research on our product.
So all these things sort of happened. So to, you know, concurrently. And all of a sudden now we had this body of, of research that really validated the impact. So, you know, we were kind of right place, right time, but we were. Maybe even unintentionally meeting a need. You know, ’cause our, our whole thing was fun and joy and companionship. And, and so not at that time when we launched, we didn’t really understand the loneliness and isolation epidemic as we do today. But we quit, you know, within the first year we were sort of, we saw it everywhere and we. You know, started to see people talk about, Hey, you know, my mom hadn’t talked to anybody and blah, blah, blah, and she’d been using your pet and it makes her happy and brings her joy.
And now people come to her and, you know, so we started hearing all these great evidence-based, you know, sort of stories and so we really leaned into that.
Keren Etkin: That is amazing. So you Randy, these studies and that’s sort of what got you the stamp of approval to get covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Is that what happened?
Ted Fischer: so we had probably at that time New York had done a big study. We had the a a RP United Healthcare Study, and then we had probably. Six smaller studies that had been done here and in the UK and a couple other places, and there was a, believe it or not, there was a, a, a plan in Minnesota that had seen our products and thought that this was, you know, they just said, this has to be, we have to be able to cover this.
So they, you know, again. Going through that process of getting CMS approved can take, you know, years. And we fortunately did it with a partner who really sort of knew the ropes, advocated for it because they had seen the impact. And so it took a couple years and, and we ended up getting, you know, approved.
And Medicare is an S-S-B-C-I and in Medicaid is an assistive technology.
Keren Etkin: That is amazing. I think that is sort of the holy grail that so many startups who are just starting out. Aspire to because that sort of unlocks a whole new, uh, revenue stream, potential revenue stream, even if you have to go and convince plans to, to use you.
Ted Fischer: Yeah.
Keren Etkin: Um, you have that stamp of approval. So what type of advice can you give to startups who are just starting out and have this product that they know works and they know that it, it improves health outcomes but they just don’t know where to get started?
Where to find a suitable partnership to run a study, and then how to get it in front of the right people to show that it works.
Ted Fischer: that I, in every business that I’ve had in sort of every, you know, sort of entrepreneurial part of my journey, I’ve believed in this idea of finding your champions. And so if you can find your champion in the right places, right, and it’s really, it. I, I try not to, you know, and I won’t say waste time because that’s a, that’s a poor terminology, but I’ll just use it for succinctness it. If, if people don’t get what we’re trying to do it, there’s a mountain of time required to convince them and show them. Right? And then we, and we have tons of converts who thought, oh my goodness is this is, you know, my goodness, this is really infantilization. And we’re, you know, we’re trying to replace human interaction with robots and the whole. and what we found in every case is that, that our products actually enhance human con, you know, human connection, which is fantastic. And we’re not trying to replace human interaction. What we’re trying to do is fill a void where we know there’s not. But if I have to convince people of that, it takes a lot of time. If I can find. The person in the organization or in an organization that, you know, in a group of organizations that really gets what we do and becomes passionate about what we do those champions can drive a long way. So, for example, You know, and a lot of, a lot of folks know, because I speak all over the country with Greg Olson, who’s the direct, you know, the state director of the Office of Aging New York. And Greg and I have been, you know, not only colleagues, but become close friends with a very shared mission, right? And he did a pilot with our products in 2019 for a year and found some great results, 70% reduction in. You know, loneliness, isolation, depression, and then pain. They did a pain scale test and those who had received pets there, you know, they were at a nine and they went to a two in terms of pain, which you know, is a great indicator for who’s gonna end up in the emergency room and who’s not. he was super enthusiastic and then fast forward again. know, it’s, it’s a moment in time, but all of a sudden New York’s the epicenter in the US for COVID when it first started. And, and so he called me in, I think February of 2020 and said, listen you know that pilot that we did? And he said, we gotta deepen this partnership fast.
’cause we’re, he saw it coming. He said, we’re about to face the worst epidemic of loneliness and isolation this country’s ever seen. ’cause we’re about to close people in their, you know, in their homes. And so, you know. Usually public-private partnerships take years and years to do. We had a contract signed in two weeks and two more weeks.
We had a thousand pets out in the state of New York to those most in need. And you know that champion. You know, in Greg, who continues to be an unbelievable partner and champion today, but during COVID, he would get on a call weekly with his counterparts around the country who weren’t quite facing the, you know, the epidemic yet, right?
In, in certain states that really hadn’t even gotten there. And he was saying, here’s what’s coming, here’s what’s happening, here’s what we’re doing. And he talked about our program and then, you know, in the next six to 12 months, I probably had 25 plus partnerships with states and aaas around the country because they saw the success of the program.
So, you know, I, I really believe for entrepreneurs that finding your champions is critical and being able to discern who’s not gonna be your champion fast is a time saver and super helpful. So.
Keren Etkin: That is such valuable advice. And you also touched on a really important point regarding social robots in general. I and, uh. I love robots and I am a firm believer that we will all have robot caretakers someday. Not just social robots and not just vacuum robots. And I, and, and people, some people like feel that that is like a dystopian future to have social robots in our homes, but they, it’s, they forget that the reason why we have a loneliness epidemic is because so many people just don’t have anyone to, to talk to.
So many people, especially older adults, just. Don’t have anyone coming into their home. So it’s not to replace humans, not at all, but it’s to fill a void that currently exists. So it sounds to me that, first of all, obviously the partnership with the New York State Office on Aging was super, super helpful to get you again, another stamp of approval and get you partnerships with other states throughout America.
And also obviously getting into Medicare and Medicare is hugely important. And also another thing that I think sort of sets you apart is that compared to a lot of hardware products in our space your robotic pets are quite affordable, aren’t they? And they’re easy to get. So it’s one of those few products that people could just.
Go online and get it for themselves. They don’t necessarily have to go,
Ted Fischer: Right,
Keren Etkin: uh, through the reimbursement route to figure out who’s gonna cover it.
Ted Fischer: Right.
Keren Etkin: And I guess that leads me sort of to my, to my next question.
Ted Fischer: Yep.
Keren Etkin: What, how did you, what made you decide that you were going to do both direct to consumer and go through.
Uh, Medicare and Medicaid and the New York States. ’cause you could have decided that direct to consumer was too required, too many resources and that you didn’t necessarily want to provide customer support and technical support
Ted Fischer: Yeah.
Keren Etkin: And everything else that direct to consumer entails. So what, what made you decide after you have, uh, reached significant adoption with the.
B2B or B two G to to do direct to consumer still,
Ted Fischer: Yeah, so, so think about where we started, right? We started
Keren Etkin: I.
Ted Fischer: and by the way, to, to your point about affordability, just to put a, a bow on that, I mean, I think one of the great. know, luck, good fortune. Call it What You Will, is that we actually started this brand inside of high quality organization that makes great products, but because of the consumer that they serve, they make ’em a very low prices so people can afford it.
And there’s so much innovation and so much technology that happens within the walls of Hasbro that ends up in toys, you know, that kids have. But there’s also an expectation that toys cost X. And so that. That was a huge advantage to us because what we see in the social robotics space is that, you know, a lot of people are choosing the one to many model where you know you have one because it’s really expensive and it serves a whole lot of communities.
We’ve always felt like the one-to-one relationship. So it’s your pet, you own it, you name it. There’s a magic to that that’s really hard to replicate, right? So then when you feel like it’s yours and you’re caring and feeding for it, and, and so again, I would love it if everybody had somebody to talk to a human.
I would love it if everybody had their own pet that they could take care of. But the absolute reality is that’s not the reality, right? That there is a need, there is a void.
So we started at Hasbro and, and honestly, the only channel available to you at Hasbro is the, you know, toy aisle, a big box retail, right. Because that’s, that’s where they sell almost a hundred percent of their goods. They do some online direct but at the time, you know, pretty much that was it.
So we. We were gonna launch as Hasbro, one of Hasbro’s first ever products that was on our own website only. So Joy for all.com, which we, you know, we, you had, and about a week or two before we were about to launch, I had this dream that no one would ever go to a place called Joy for All and buy anything. So I, I called the, the, the buyer at Hasbro and I said, Hey listen, can we just. Can I get a meeting with the Amazon people and just say, Hey, we’ve got this product and I don’t care if they just buy five, but if, as long as I can say, also available on Amazon, you know, and so we, we ended up with, in that meeting, we talked to the Amazon buyer and he actually, he had a situation.
He had a parent who had, you know, dementia and he just totally got it. And he is like, I love this idea we’re in. So they, they didn’t buy a ton, but they bought enough. And so I could put on our website also available on Amazon. Well, we launched and 48 hours Amazon sold out. And so we had another order.
So, so the direct consumer was actually how we started what we saw. Was that there were going to be people who could go there and buy it and self-pay, who could afford to do that. But we also saw there was a huge population who potentially could not. That needed a sponsor or a payer. And our intention as we launched this, you know, larger part of Hasbro was this idea of Hasbro Health was to get into that space.
And so we, we really thought of the direct to consumer as sort of our runway, runway revenue to get to the place where we could launch this, you know, this healthcare brand. And, you know, I, I would argue that. There’s very few companies in AgeTech that have successfully. Managed both. And so I have a team that manages our, what we call our payer sponsor side, which is, you know, all of the healthcare state offices on aging VAs, you know, Medicare, Medicaid, et cetera.
And then I have a team that manages the direct consumer retail partners that we have around the world. And so we have, you know, we have distributors in other, in you know, 20 something countries. And so you know. We try to manage it the same way in every country, that there’s a direct consumer path and that there’s a, you know, payer sponsor path.
Keren Etkin: That, like I said, it, it sounds like it requires a lot of heavy lifting on your part.
Ted Fischer: It
Keren Etkin: but, but I, I, I, I get it. And I, I assume that even for, for your team that, having your own users and not necessarily going through a a proxy is super, super helpful when it comes to developing the existing products and when, when it comes to developing future products.
Um, and also when it comes to sort of figuring out what your marketing messaging should be. And that sort of leads me to my next question. You mentioned that you sold out in 48 hours. I can’t recall off the top of my head any a startup that had like a physical product that did that.
Ted Fischer: Yeah.
Keren Etkin: What did your marketing campaign look like?
Ted Fischer: You know, it was, it was really interesting and, and I forget. I’ll forget now. What happened? They, first of all, they didn’t buy a ton, so it wasn’t like we sold, you know, a hundred thousand units or anything like that. It might have been 500 or, you know, I’m not even sure how many it was. But it was very small order. But somebody, somebody posted something online. We had, we had done a, a, you know, a marketing campaign and, you know, back in Hasbro, you know, it was a lot different, right? We had marketing teams, you had us marketing, you had global marketing, you had brand marketing, and so we had people. On my direct team that were, you know, sort of product marketers.
And then we had people, you know, in the US marketing team that worked with all the retailers, you know, putting these programs. And so we did a, you know, we did, they, they were expert. And so I wasn’t expert at this, and so. We successfully, you know, put, put out this sort of big emphasis and, and had some great great older adult models, you know, that, that work with us.
And there was, we had preceded the, you know, sort of, we had. Gone out and, you know, given ’em to some people in assisted living and memory care and just gathered some great stories for people who really it had impacted and the, the, the caregivers to those that, you know, were recipients. And, and so that, you know, I, back, back in the H days, I had a little bigger marketing budget than I do now, but you know, that’s a whole nother story.
Keren Etkin: Yeah, that was, that was my next question. ’cause I bet that you had to spend a lot of dollars on, on acquiring those, those early customers when you didn’t, you were basically unknown. I mean, people had never heard of the company and have, have never heard of the concept of a pet robot before. So yeah, that definitely sounds expensive.
Ted Fischer: We, we did a great activation, like right from the beginning with Meals on Wheels. And so, you know, we were looking for a cause-based partner that we could, you know, be sort of on the, on the front end of the launch with and. on Wheels was just sort of, they were addressing so many of the same sort of constituent constituents that we are.
Right? ’cause their motto is, it’s more than just a meal. So they go in and I, I, we, my team does a, every Tuesday we do a Meals on Wheels delivery. So we’re still, I’m on the board here in Rhode Island. Lake Meals on Wheels become a huge part of our world. But when you go and you, you know, you physically deliver. A meal. It’s really not just a meal, it’s a wellness check. It’s, you know, you’re, it’s a social interaction. You know, during COVID, my daughter and I picked up a route here. My daughter’s, you know, got sort of, you know, extracted from her junior year in college and everybody shut in. And so I knew the head of Meals on Wheel locally and I said, listen. We, we, we’d love to do something that, you know, turns us to a positive situation for my daughter who’s home now and not with her friends. And we ended up doing this for, for just about a year together. And we had the same 20 people who became part of our family, and they, they saved my life during COVID, right?
Because I was never shut in. I had to go deliver these meals. I, every day I get out for a few hours to do this. And it became, you know, and we were the communication between the people because it turns out that these were these folks, so. When, when we were looking for a partner to sort of, you know, say who is serving the same demographic that we are, we looked at Meals on Wheels and we went, and I think we did about a dozen activations around the country where we, you know, donated a pet with a meal. And we went out on a route and, you know, we did it in, on the east coast and the West coast and the south and the Midwest. We did it all over the country and it was spectacular, like really wonderful. But in Rhode Island, when we did the first one. Governor of Vert Island, you know, was with us, the CEO of Hasbro was with us, the CEO of Meals on Wheels.
Like it was a big, it was a big deal that generated a ton of press. And so one of the things that, you know, I’ll say about the marketing effort is because we were so unique and different, we got a ton of media, like a billion media impressions the first year, like a billion, like, you know, crazy like articles.
We, in our fourth week we were, we had an article in the New York Times magazine. About this guy who had, you know, walked in and saw his grandmother with this cat and she hadn’t remembered him in months and she walked in and he’s interacting with this cat, and he said it was as if we were five or 10 years ago. She remembered me, she laughed and he, and he was given props. And so, so that, you know, when that hit, you know, another, you know, huge sort of boom. And so we continue to this day to to get great, great press and great media. And then most of that’s free, right? So you know, there’s, there’s a lot of great stories we try to do, continue to do good work which, you know, generates good stories.
Keren Etkin: Wow. Uh, a billion views or impressions. That is unheard of. So that was
Ted Fischer: got over 10 billion since we started the since we started the brand, like, you know, so it’s, it
Keren Etkin: wow.
Ted Fischer: a billion years. It’s crazy. Yeah.
Keren Etkin: Wow. Well, I think that’s like the, one of the advantages of having a physical product. The press loves to cover these things. And I mean, if you compare it to software, which is sometimes like, there’s nothing to actually visual to show. Then yeah, it’s very, it’s easier perhaps to get press coverage.
Ted Fischer: Yeah.
Keren Etkin: So that was actually my last question. Is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you’d like to add? Any call to action to entrepreneurs in the audience?
Ted Fischer: Yeah. I think, you know, to your point about expensive
marketing.
You know. We did have a, you know, probably a, a healthier marketing budget than most startups have, but we really leaned into the idea of pr, right. And, and trying to create, I, I don’t think it’s a verb, but I made it a verb. Create pr able events.
And so, you know, we, we’ve done annually, we do you. have partners that we work with and we go to VAs, which is the Veteran administration hospitals here serving, you know, our military veterans. And, and you know, we do, we do hundreds and hundreds of pets a year. there, and, you know, we, we partner with great organizations that are trying to serve older adults and, you know, are working on loneliness and isolation.
And so, you know, as we do these things you know, we typically try and we do an event, um, that’s typically not run by us, but someone else. And, and so, you know, what I would say is if you can figure out how to, you know, do some good that gets coverage. That’s really inexpensive press with, you know, with limited marketing budgets.
So that’s been part of our strategy, I guess. And, and the other thing I’d say is, you know, recognize since I’ve done other startups, how fortunate we were to, you know, to, to launch this brand inside of a, you know, a five, $6 billion company. Right. That that’s, you know, not everybody has that luxury. But since we’ve spun out, we have every single issue that all small businesses have. You know, cash flow is always an issue. You know, product development, you know, is always sort of a, you know, like where are we going and how are we developing? And we’ve, we got a small team. I mean, we’re, you know, we, I think we’re, we’re 12, 12 or 13 full-time people. And then, you know, when we’re developing product, we swell up with contractors and most of ’em are people we work with back in Hasbro are really creative in innovators who have gone out on their own. And so, you know, at any one day there could be 25 people in the office if we’re, if we’re in creation mode. But the critical element that I will tell you that I think is the single key to. if you call it the acceptance or the love of our product has been that we’ve created every single thing that we’ve done with older adults. We don’t assume anything. We don’t as it, we, we do extensive testing. We do, we have, we have a whole room.
You can’t see our office. I’m pointing over there. But we have, you know, a 6,000 square foot office in an old mill building. Lots of, you know, we have a big open space that has tables, game tables, and you know, and we bring older adults in. We bring people and we play and we, you know, we test and we iterate and we all the features of our pets. They’re all things that were told to us by older adults that we heard that, you know, when cats, you know, per, they physically vibrate, like there’s a tactile sensation that people love. And so we created a technology called Vibra Purr, and that was something that older adults wanted. That affordability piece by the way, is something we heard from every older adult. They wanna be able to afford these things. And so, you know, you know, tariffs are sadly, you know, causing us to raise some pricing, but we’ve. I think in 10 years, we’ve only raised prices once before, before tarrifs. And and, and so, you know, that’s a really important component to us. But the single most important component is that we design every product we have.
Not just, or older adults, but they’re by older adults. They’re part of our team. And we feel so lucky that we get to serve the space.
Keren Etkin: Thank you so much for this wonderful advice that I think that is a critical component to any successful age tech company to really build, not just for older adults, but we. With older adults. ’cause otherwise, like you, you can, you could never guess what people actually want unless you talk to them and having the space in your office to invite people over to come and, and, and play, uh, with whatever it is that you’re, you’re making.
It must be so, so valuable for your team to be able to have these interactions. And to basically build, build what people want.
Ted Fischer: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Keren Etkin: Awesome. And so thank you so much, Ted, for joining me on the show today. As always, it was an absolute pleasure chatting with you.
Ted Fischer: Thanks so much. I, I enjoy all of your work and it’s I’m really, really excited that I got the invite to to join you today. I’ve been listening your
podcast for a long time
Keren Etkin: thank you