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In January, Santa Monica-based HomeHero officially launched as a marketplace to helps families find, hire and manage quality in-home care for seniors. Just this week, the company was given the “Best Employment Site of 2014” title by the Webby Awards, which honors “excellence on the Internet.”
HomeHero’s quick rise to fame can attributed to its opportune timing in such a ripe market: the Baby Boomer generation, which consists of 76 million Americans, is aging. HomeHero plays right into these seniors’ needs by enabling their families to browse listed caregivers, which are already vetted via in-person interviews and background checks, and filter them by location, reviews and years of experience.
Founders Kyle Hill and Mike Townshend are backed by Santa Monica's Science and its $40 million fund, which also supports local tech startups Dollar Shave Club and DogVacay.
“The senior care market is not heavily impacted by technology, and with HomeHero, families can now have peace of mind and transparency with their family’s caregiver," Mike Jones, CEO of Science, said in a TechZulu interview. "Finding the right person to provide at-home care for seniors is a growing financial and emotional burden for millions of Americans, and HomeHero ensures they are paying the right rate for the right level of service. Mike and Kyle have dealt with the challenges of finding caregivers for their own families, and developed HomeHero to drastically decrease the time, cost and risk involved with finding in-home care for seniors.”
HomeHero was chosen by Webby's panel of International Academy of Digital Arts and Science judges over fellow "Best Employment Site" nominees Freelancer.com, The IdeaLists, Creativepool and Powershop.com. HomeHero will accept its Webby Award May 19 in New York City alongside other winners like Airbnb, Kickstarter and Medium.
