How Techstars Is Teaching Founders to Put People First

The Opportunity

Help ambitious founders build a foundation of customer-centricity that enables them to:

  1. Clearly articulate a primary customer need and story.

  2. Build an ongoing culture of human-centeredness. 

The Journey

After several years of working on caregiving design projects at Stoked, supporting those who support our aging adults has become a passion. According to AARP, care provided by millions of unpaid family caregivers across the U.S. was valued at $600 billion in 2021. That means many of us are not only working our full-time jobs and parenting, we are also caring for our ill or aging loved ones with very little help. 

The Future of Longevity (FOL) accelerator is focused on supporting entrepreneurs determined to make a dent in the aging & caregiving space. However, due to complex regulatory and financial constraints, it’s easy to lose focus on the people.

2-Day Experience + Follow Up

The Techstars FOL program team recognized this need and asked us to support them at their kickoff. Ten companies and their founders participated in a 2-day experience focused on learning the fundamentals of Human-Centered Design (aka Design Thinking).

On the second day, we found experts and volunteer caregivers to come in and test their products and services. They also shared personal stories. With coaching from the Moonlight team, each company was able to practice listening to caregivers, naming their pain points, and iterating towards solutions that solve their most challenging needs.

After that, we worked with the founders virtually to practice messaging human-centered needs in investor pitches and team meetings.