Andrew Parker is the Founder and CEO of Papa, the first and only curated platform of companionship and clinical care for older adults and families. Prior to Papa, Andrew worked as Vice President of Health Systems at MDLive. He was there from the time when there were only around 15 employees and was able to help grow the company to hundreds of employees. Founded in 2017 in Miami, FL, Papa is now available in all 50 states. Papa experienced significant growth in 2021, growing 600% year-over-year.
This Episode’s Heavy-hitters:
- Andrew and his cofounder personally vetted the first thousand “pals” (the employees assigned to older adults) to be sure that they were the right fit for the job, beyond just the background checks and standard screenings.
- Before he left his job at MDLive, Andrew had 10 families using Papa, which helped him build a proof of concept and feel confident when he started building Papa full time.
- Andrew credits a great deal of his success to his optimism and doesn’t believe he could’ve done it if he hadn’t fully believed in what he was creating.
- Papa actually has special grievance protocols in place for the situations where adults pass away, to aid in the mental health of the pals who have built deep relationships with those that they help.
- During the pandemic, most of Papa’s support had to be offline or socially distanced at best. Thankfully, they were able to get all the pals and the older adults that they provide support for on virtual calls, which helped with the challenges of isolation.
Be sure to check out Papa: https://www.papa.co/
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2:05 - Career Journey/Early Lessons Learned
4:20 - Cultural dislikes
6:25 - Seeds Plantation/ The Aha Moment
8:33 - All about Papa / Quality time
10:47 - White Space Opportunity
12:14 - Assess the EQ Level
14:03 - Training requirement
14:55 - Feedback from senior clients
17:14 - Demographic attributes
18:16 - Success Story/ Motivational story
19:50 - Grievance Training
21:00 - Technology Advancement in Papa Health
22:50 - Effect of Covid
25:14 - First Entrepreneurial Itch
27:27 - Advice on Financial Stability
28:51 - Core Reason
29:51 - Andrew's Super Power
30:55 - Andrew's North Star