Our Story
Necessity is the mother of invention
Like several of us with a family and high pressure jobs, I realized my mother needs help. I helped my mom remotely as best I could, coordinating her care from afar and visiting as often as possible. This situation was difficult, as many of us in the 50+ age group know. I felt an abundance of anxiety, guilt and exhaustion that frequently accompanies the role of the family caregiver. For many years after my mother passed, the challenges of my experience stayed with me. I became passionate about finding a way to help others who care for elderly family members.
Let’s make old age better
During this time, I read the New York Times bestselling book, BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande. The personal stories detailed on the pages give a dignified voice to older people losing their independence. The book, completely changed my perspective on aging, I started focusing on the need to find a way to “make old age better” and more effectively support caregivers.
Armed with a new attitude I set out on a mission to create an innovative product to help make life better for both older adults and those that care for them.
Technology for family caregivers and elderly living alone
A few years went by, I became fascinated with voice technology. More accurately, I was obsessed. I decided to create an easy to use app that works with any Amazon Echo device using voice AI (artificial intelligence) to engage elderly loved ones. The voice AI calls the user by name and learns their preferences, expanding knowledge over time for a truly customized experience. You can personalize the experience with proactive nudges and reminders for your loved one when you can’t be there in person. Not everyone needs or wants every feature; you pick and choose which ones work best for your individual situation. Getting started is simple – all you need to do is to download the BrioCare app and follow the steps.
- Shaun Mitra, Founder, BrioCare
Mission
To enable older adults live engaged, independent lives using personalized voice care, while offering care partners peace of mind & connection.
Vision
To revolutionize caregiving and aging in place through a proactive voice care solution, creating a new level of connection and independence.
Leadership team
“We are a passionate and diverse team of professionals with backgrounds in Neuroscience, Public Health, Technology and Senior Care industry with a singular focus on improving the quality of life for caregivers and seniors. We understand today’s challenges of caring for our loved ones and the needs of the aging community”.
Shaun Mitra,
CEO
Shaun Mitra leads BrioCare’s strategy, sales and operations with a clear focus on creating a customer-centric business focused on using personalized voice care to empower families and their loved ones. Shaun believes voice technology is very easy to use as there is no learning curve. We are in the early stages of it’s adoption and it will be a great tool to help reduce caregiver stress and loneliness for older adults.
He actively works with aging associations and regional chapters to promote use of technology for elder care & aging in place. He previously spent 20+ years with multiple technology companies in business management roles in the healthcare and manufacturing industry. Shaun is an Engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology, India and a magna cum laude MBA graduate from Scott School of Business, Indiana.
David Shantz,
CMO
David leads marketing and partnership initiatives at BrioCare. Has worked with both entrepreneurs and Fortune 1000 companies to realize market opportunities for innovative new products and services. Experience spans financial services and life sciences, with specific interests in process automation and machine learning. David has had a role from the earliest stages of numerous venture-backed start-ups, with five $50M + exits in the last ten years. Based in San Francisco Bay Area and London.
Brittany Estok PA-C,
Leader, Homecare & Insurance Solutions
Brittany leads the Homecare and Insurance Solutions business using her past experience in healthcare and public health. Brittany is an experienced physician assistant in Family Medicine and Urgent Care as well as a medication case-manager to help at-risk patients. She worked for a nonprofit that provided medical and public health access in Honduras for two years before completing her Masters in Medical Science degree in Physician Assistant Studies and Masters in Public Health from Arcadia University.
Dr. Rohit Kumar,
CTO
Dr. Kumar leads the technology strategy and product architecture as the CTO. For over 18 years, Dr. Kumar has been enabling human-machine interaction through the use of speech and language technologies. His works include building conversational interfaces for Spotify, creating real-time speech translations systems for DARPA, and studying the effects of social interaction capable conversational agents.
He received his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University. His dissertation studied conversational systems for computer-supported collaborative learning. Dr. Kumar was a guest editor of the international journal of AI in education and serves on the program committee of several conferences.
Advisors
Nancy Hayes,
Angel Investor & Executive Coach
Nancy Hayes has been an active angel investor for almost 7 years and serves as mentor to entrepreneurs. She has invested in 25 women-led companies. She is an active angel investor and advisor/mentor to women entrepreneurs and founders of color. In 2005 Nancy was named Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University and in 2011 she became CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of that university. She was a Managing Director of Golden Seeds angel group for 3 years and on the leadership team of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds. Nancy has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Brian Holzer,
Healthcare Industry Advisor
Brian is the CEO of Lacuna Health that provides turnkey solutions to improve patient engagement and outcomes, enable operational efficiencies, and add incremental revenue to the bottom line. He is a senior physician executive with diverse experiences including strategy, operations, marketing and sales in large and small public and private healthcare companies. He is a business-builder with vision to spot evolving market opportunities and leadership skills to lead lean teams to achieve rapid revenue growth and profitability. He has a track record of joint venture models and implementing forward-thinking solutions in multiple customer segments including health plans, health systems, ACOs, and physician groups.
Earlier, Brian has led the innovations division for Kindred Healthcare that functions as an incubator of innovative post-acute care services and solutions. He is a graduate of Penn State University with an MD degree from Drexel University and an MBA from Wharton Business school.
Anthony Cirillo,
Business Advisor
Anthony is a caregiving expert and is a provider of Caregiver Solutions to millions of individuals. He is the President of The Aging Experience that provides effective solutions for caregivers of seniors, anyone with oncology, head trauma, pulmonary vascular disease, congestive heart failure, substance abuse dependent adults and assist with family-stress. He holds a Bachelors from Drexel University and a Masters in Organizational Dynamics from University of Pennsylvania.
Carol Marak,
Gerontologist & Advisor
Carol is a solo aging expert and is a top advisor for the aging alone market. She helps senior living and the 55+ housing communities, tech companies and service providers to understand the extensive needs of solo agers and to grasp which solutions will have most success. Her focus is on resolving issues such as how to remain safe and independent, to create better lifestyles, to avoid isolation and loneliness, etc. She holds a Bachelors in social work & behavioral science from Sam Houston State Univ. She also has a certificate on Fundamentals of Gerontology from Univ. of Southern California.
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