Helpers is the Uber of home care with a technology platform that helps seniors and families request home care services on demand from a trusted network of caregivers. Helpers is focused on improving the convenience and flexibility of services by allowing customers to only pay for what they need, when they need it. Today's care can be rigid, unreliable and expensive. Helpers is setting out to change that with a passionate group of professionals on a mission to provide fast, personalized and reliable home care.
Watch Helpers' elevator pitch and poster over at www.synapselifescience.com/competition
Click on the Helpers Poster to see a larger view!
Ask the team from Helpers a question, or make a connection by posting a comment!
We are looking forward to hearing your questions and discussing our business in more detail with you.
For general questions please leave a comment and we will respond directly
To engage in a live call from 4-6pm on March 25th please click here: Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
To schedule a follow up meeting with us please click here: https://calendly.com/michael-helpers
Hi, why do you charge per service, and not by the hour?
Hi Richard - we do this for 3 reasons: 1) caregivers/requesters more easily understand the things they want than the time those tasks take. This ensures they receive the care/support tasks that they need without placing unrealistic time constraints on a worker (example: I want my house cleaned, help bathing, getting clothed and a meal prepared in 1hr when in reality this is takes 2hrs+) 2) we have a common language that allows us to confirm work expected is complete between caregivers/requesters and our Helpers (care aid) 3) from a business perspective this also allows us to manage efficiencies and intelligence on the data we gather. The more service visits complete, the more service combinations the smarter our data models and matching.
@Michael Great, thanks for the explanation
Congratulations Helpers on making it through the Synapse Competition! We're all impressed by the commitment and effort that you've put in over the last few months to get to this stage. We hope that participating in the Competition was a valuable experience for you - and remember, there are still lots of ways that Innovation Factory, the Synapse Consortium and the rest of the Hamilton ecosystem can provide support!
Thank you @Alex Muggah we are extremely thankful for the experience, support and learning the Synapse community have helped us with!
How does charging by the service work? (i.e. are all services charged equally)
Hi Katrina - Each service has an associated price - customers choose what they need (one or multiple services) and checkout. Customers can either be pay as you go ($12 delivery fee + services selected) or on a monthly subscription ($30/m + $6 delivery fee + services selected). Monthly subscriptions are for high-frequency customers.
I am wondering if you can request the same caregiver if there is some time flexibility? I know someone like my mom would like some consistency.
Hi @Greta Black - In our initial launch on-demand service is the priority. Later we will be enabling a "choose your caregiver" as a premium service once we add pre-scheduled visits
@Michael Perfect! Keeping the 2 separate makes sense but I know i would like the option at some point thanks Michael!
Hi @Michael, it's been a pleasure working with you. You and your team are incredibly driven and I know that this service will go on to help many people. Can you explain how you intend to scale Helpers outside of Hamilton and, eventually throughout Canada? I know this is answer could be long, but I'm just looking for a high level explanation. Also, can you provide a timeline? Thank you!
Hi @Riley Moynes - Thank you for all of your help, guidance, support and useful coaching throughout Synapse - our team appreciates it! On expansion plans, we intent to scale through market swarming - drive registration of caregivers and care aids > activate service > scale up Acquisition will leverage our mix of digital (search, display, social, organic, word-of-mouth) with a heavy up investment to get the ball rolling. We have been working on aligning our partnership strategy to create more efficient market adoption (OPSWA, Health Networks, Venngo, etc) of both groups. The timeline for expansion can be found in the image below.
I can't remember.. is the app available now? Need beta testers? I am living this issue now with my inlaws. Great idea.
Hi David, as CTO and technical lead on the app I'm happy to answer your question. We're expecting the beta version of the app to be released in late April. We'd be thrilled to have beta testers to make sure we're building the app that Canadians want! Please email me at mark@gethelpers.ca if interested in beta testing, or to be kept informed on updates.