Business JournalMidlands

APRIL 10, 2015 THE WEEKLY BUSINESS PAPER OF GREATER OMAHA, LINCOLN AND COUNCIL BLUFFS VOL. 41 NO. 15

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LifeLoop software aims to improve care for senior living communitiesby Michelle Leach

From its Omaha headquarters, LifeLoop technology is aiming to revolutionize a more than 200-year-old industry, starting with a family of Midwest retirement communities.

“LifeLoop bridges the gap between

Co-founder Amy Johnson at Fountain View Senior Living … Application, resident of local business incubator secures contract with family of Omaha-based senior living communities.1 priority.

LifeLoop also helps residents hold on to the social circle outside the community by providing what she called “a window of communication.”

“And it makes their new social circle at the community they moved into more vibrant and engaging than before,” she said.

Johnson said the idea for LifeLoop came from personal experience with a grandmother who received great care, but family members never received updates. It was hard to connect even for a phone call because schedules were so different.

“This situation left us feeling pretty uncertain, and it struck us that we probably weren’t the only ones who felt this way,” she said.

As plans took shape, Johnson said every-one seemed to have their own family stories of strain and stress to share.

In late 2013, the founders attended Straight Shot accelerator and connected with

an old friend/employee at Aviture, and its incubator, The Garage.

“At that point, we felt like we had the business background and support from some groups within the senior living industry, but we were missing the vital component — software development skills,” Johnson said.

Aviture provided a core team with tech-nical skills who, Johnson said, became per-sonally vested in the product and company.

“We certainly would not be where we are today without their partnership,” she said.

LifeLoop arrived at a contract with Omaha-based Dial Retirement Communities, which boasts a footprint in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.

“They have been equally instrumental in bringing our concept to life,” Johnson said. “We’ve also received critically-important feedback from them and their tremendous staff that has helped shape LifeLoop into the unique problem solving software we have now.”

The product overcomes a logistical hur-dle; addressing issues across 100 people with various needs, abilities, health and personal-ities. She said both parties see the product’s benefits to improving quality of life, with the added bonus as a marketing tool to “show off” the care they provide.

Johnson said this year it’s focusing on user experience and seamless onboarding.

“We have found the senior care commu-nity industry to be pretty tightknit and, while we will pursue some traditional sales and marketing, we feel that LifeLoop should be enough of a game-changer in the industry that we’ll focus primarily on word-of-mouth, as well as initiating contacts with communities in the industry that we feel match the profile of our typical customer,” she said. “We’re a new company so we need to learn from our first customers how to make our product better, as useful as possible.

“It’s really an ongoing process and we know that we have to constantly improve and update by checking in with the users to see what snags there are, what’s missing, and frankly what should be tossed out.”

The focus won’t be growth in “X” number of customers per year.

“We really want to manage our growth at the beginning so that we don’t overextend ourselves, because we really want to provide top-notch service and support to our custom-ers, which wouldn’t be possible if we tried to get as many customers as possible as quickly as possible,” she said. “Their program has provided us with the flexibility we need to fill gaps as we grow, which is often in spurts, without sacrificing service or slowing our company momentum.”

family, residents, and staff that has been a hurdle for the industry ever since the first senior living community opened its doors,” said co-founder Amy Johnson. “Modern tech-nology provides an opportunity to make life better for the residents and at the same time reduce the burden on the community’s staff.”

LifeLoop’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant platform connects loved ones with residents and staff, allows for access to activity and meal calen-dars, transportation and maintenance requests and for sharing notes so residents don’t miss out on special family moments.

The software product also allows for eas-ier compilation and reporting of community data in a regulatory-intensive industry.

“Without fail, if you ask someone in this industry why they chose to do what they do, their answer is that they want to bring some happiness into the lives of the residents they care for,” Johnson said.

While the industry has had its bumps from time to time, and families may question if a particular community has residents’ best interests in mind, Johnson said the product allows communities to show family members that providing a high quality of life is the No.

LifeLoop

Address: 8802 S. 135th St., Omaha 68138 Services: lifestyle-focused application for senior living communitiesGoals: Assuring user experience. Strategic focus on marketing, customer acquisition.Industry outlook: Modern technology is changing the face of senior living, partly by bridging the gap between family, residents and staff.Website: www.ourlifeloop.com