Eight years after embarking on a mission to transform the home care industry, Honor Technology has a new mission: to provide one-stop shopping for senior services.
Last week, the San Francisco-based home care technology solutions company launched Honor Expert, an online and mobile service platform that will connect seniors and their families with everything from mental health counseling to handyman services. Honor Technology CEO Seth Sternberg told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse the new service was inspired by his own frustration finding help for his aging parents and those of his friends.
“This is a thing that I have wanted to solve since day one,” Sternberg said. “The number one thing that people tell me is ‘hey, this is happening with Mom or Dad and I don’t know who to call.’ People don’t know where to turn.”
Honor Expert staffs a call center with social workers who can direct seniors and their families to services, which could be provided by senior service agencies and more than a dozen national partners such as Best Buy, Amazon Business, Freshly and Select RX. Sternberg said those partnerships are likely to expand over time.
“The goal right now is to figure out what people truly need,” Sternberg explained. “You can only make your best guess when you initially launch and then you can fine tune the product once you see what customers truly need.”
Health Advisory firm Summit Health named Honor Technology one of the top four disruptive health platforms of 2021. The company launched in 2014 with an app that connects caregivers to clients. It rocked the home care industry last year when it acquired Omaha-based home care firm Home Instead for $2.1 billion.
In a McKnight’s Newsmakers podcast earlier this year, Sternberg said technology will become a critical tool in empowering caregivers. Honor Expert is an effort to empower consumers as well. But despite Sternberg’s grand ambitions, he admitted he needs to find a way to better monetize the platform over the long haul.
“At the very least, should a person end up needing home care, then it goes into our home care network and we make some money on that,” Sternberg said. “Will that cover the full cost of launching the service? No.”
Still, Sternberg is confident Honor Expert will make money once it begins connecting seniors to referral partners who will share a portion of their sales with Honor.
