BENGALURU: Several startups in Bengaluru cater to the majority population-the youth. In the process we've neglected a section of the society-the elderly. Beautiful Years is one start up that enables you to look after your parents as well as they looked after you.
Vladmir Ruppo, the founder quit his role as the vice president in Cisco to build the startup in 2014. He was inspired after watching his 83 year old aunt learn to use the computer and become a voice for the forgotten generation.
Pavithra Reddy, the co-founder of Beautiful Years joined six months later. “I worked with him at Cisco for 8 years previously and decided to join him after I faced difficulties in finding good services for my father who ailed with parkinsons. I wanted to help improve elder care.”
The planning and research for the self funded beautiful years began in July 2015 and they officially went online in January 2016.
The main goal of Beautiful Years is to improve the lives of the elderly and of those who take care of them. Their store has products such as alarm pendants and watches, which can be used to call for help, GPS trackers for patients suffering with alzheimers and mobility solutions such as wheelchairs that can be used in multiple locations like the shower, at home and even outside.The products that are not available in India are manufactured with European standards.
Their most requested service is 'home modification'- elder proofing the house.
Pavithra explained, “Homes are often not elder friendly. We visit the customer’s home and provide safety features that are required such as anti-skid coating in bathrooms, motion sensors, ramps and many more. Each house is unique and hence we do not have a standard design.”
Beautiful Years has partnered with HCG hospital in order to provide doctors, nurses, attenders and caretakers for their customers. “We have personally chosen them from the hospital to ensure the best service. We also continuously ask for feedback from the customers to ensure that we remain as the face of the people,” she added.
Beautiful Years is different from other startups focused on elderly care due to their experience store at Kormangala. “Many people do not know how to use the available services.At these stores not only can you buy products but demonstrations on how to correctly use them is also available. We will soon be expanding the store,” she said.
“Many people are not aware of the availability of these elder care products and our main focus now is to build awareness through social media and advertisements. We have conducted workshops in association with the Parkinson Society Of Karnataka which had a physiotherapist teach simple exercises and games that can be done anywhere. Simple games for memory improvement was also conducted,” she added.
These workshops also helped them build a community that supported and helped each other. “We also conducted a session teaching the elders on using smartphones and even writing sessions which had a very good response. They all requested for more workshops of these kind to be held. All workshops and seminars were held free of cost,” she added.
Beautiful Years is soon expanding to other cities. “It is easier to find products in metro cities like Bengaluru compared to smaller towns.Nagpur, Coimbatore and Chennai will soon have a franchise model of Beautiful Years,” she said.
The next step for Beautiful Years is to provide services for even the physically disabled.