When a loved one gets seriously ill, your life spins out of control no matter what. The most basic lifestyle tasks like doing the laundry, getting groceries, and taking care of the house all take a back seat to the patient’s needs, and you need the help of friends and family more than ever.
Unfortunately, asking for that help can be awkward, and responding to these requests can be difficult, too. Luckily, a service called StandWith is looking to make these incredibly stressful life situations much easier.
The idea is that the patient or caregiver can set up the app, connect with friends, family and loved ones, and simply make requests for things they need help with. The community, then, can choose which tasks are most convenient or easiest for them to help out with.
The premise all comes back to the situation of asking for or offering help. Many times, patients and their caregivers end up with rooms full of flowers when all they really need is lunch for the day. This is because your community wants to help, but they don’t know how.
With StandWith, you can make all your needs perfectly clear and have a better chance of getting the help you need based on the self-selection system. When a friend or family members take on a task, a simple stoplight system notes which tasks are up for grabs, which have been claimed, and which have been completed.
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Users can also communicate on tasks in case picking up the kids is more convenient for a neighbor than it is for the patient’s mom.
And for those who can’t actually physically contribute, StandWith deep links into a number of apps such as Uber, AmazonFresh, etc. to let you purchase something and have it sent to the family in need.
StandWith currently makes money from affiliate fees, but is considering using a preferred vendor model in the future. Brand loyalties are up for grabs during life crises, and the brands that are there for you in your toughest times end up grabbing a small piece of your heart.
By offering access to vendors during this time, StandWith is offering a huge value add to potential vendors and retailers.
StandWith is available now in the App Store as part of a closed beta.
Question: Who are your competitors?
Answer: The issue for most of our competitors is that they need to be HIPPA compliant because they ask for pathologies. We are disease agnostic.
Our competitors also aren’t clean and simple. We’ve spent five years in the space, and after my mom got sick, I started a charity called Fuck Cancer. Every day for the last six years, I’ve investigated this pain point.
Q: What about your team? Who are your engineers?
A: We have a team of designers and product people, and have outsourced development to a firm in the Ukraine. It’s cheap, and was the quickest and easiest way to get v1 out of the door. After we fundraise, we’ll bring engineering in house.
Q: How do you scale and get new users?
A: We’re going straight to the source, which is charities. Each charity has a huge base of people that are going through these problems and need this app right now. And then one patient leads to as many as 30 caregivers.