Dr. Arthur L. Jue serves as Co-founder & CEO of LiveFreely, Inc. He has an extensive background as a serial entrepreneur, corporate executive, educator, and author. Daniel Jue serves as Co-founder & CTO of LiveFreely, Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in emerging technology and professional software development. Visit www.buddylife.com.
Arthur: LiveFreely, provides digital health technology solutions that empower seniors and their caregivers to live safer, more connected, and independent lives. We’re creating an ecosystem where they can have greater peace of mind as they live their lives through an AI-driven personal health assistant app called BUDDY.
Daniel: BUDDY, monitors, tracks, and alerts caregivers, first responders, and emergency services of critical health issues in real-time. End users, loved ones, and home care providers download the mobile app on their cellphones, which pairs with their smart device (e.g. a Fitbit or Apple Watch). Users can then enable direct alerts to family members or designated first responders as desired. A secondary system alerts 911 and emergency medical services.
BUDDY has a suite of health monitoring solutions, including:
● Automatic fall detection and alerts
● Medication adherence and schedule reminders
● Location detection and alerts for individuals with dementia and Alzheimers
● “Code blue” cardiac detection and alerts, and
● Irregular health pattern detection and alerts
Arthur: The inspiration behind this entrepreneurial journey derives from our experiences in taking care of our father over a seven-year period during his final stages of life. Dealing with the huge amounts of data and tasks required to manage his care was overwhelming at times, Dad suffered an ischemic stroke, which left him partially paralyzed. He also developed vascular dementia, had a fall which resulted in a hip replacement, endured suspected abuse from a professional caregiver, had diabetes, heart arrhythmia, hyperthyroidism, hypertension, and a number of other age-related health issues that necessitated numerous medications. Mom and I took care of Dad initially. Then, when she suddenly passed away, I took care of him for another couple of years until my brother joined me in caring for him together.
Daniel: At the time, solutions to stay connected, monitor Dad, and ensure his well-being at home were very limited, marginally effective, and based on very old technology. Because of our professional backgrounds in technology as well as in biotech and life sciences companies, we began working on a solution to help others address many of the issues that we had faced during the various stages of aging and caregiving.
Daniel: I remember the day well. It was shortly after our father had passed away. We were still in grieving mode. I went over to Arthur’s place to reminisce, and we started talking about ways that better technology could have helped in the caregiving process. That’s when the ideation kicked-in, and all of a sudden we were both literally filling sticky post-it notes with ideas, matching technologies with needs. I think we still have those post-it notes. They became the basis of our development roadmap and our eventual LiveFreely business strategy. We discussed what would work, who it would help, implementation aspects, and risks. We organized the stickies as we brainstormed.
Arthur: I remember playing devil’s advocate and peppering Daniel with questions from every angle. He did the same. When we realized how impactful this could be, we began to get very serious. We went at it for hours. At the end of the day, when we had narrowed down our app to five initial functions, that’s when we decided to move forward with it. It’s been a wild ride ever since. By the way, if you Google “grieving” and “creativity’, it appears that there’s a big correlation between loss and creativity. Although it didn’t feel that way to us back then, periods of grieving can often become some of the most creatively productive times in our lives. I think our grieving actually helped us get into the right mindset and gain greater clarity of purpose. It helped us to prepare for this journey.
Arthur: I am tempted to recite the Scout Oath and Law. Seriously, I think mine would be faith, courage, and integrity. You need faith in yourself, a higher power, your product, and your team. You will need courage to persist in pursuing your dreams in spite of any resistance, and we all need integrity to stay true to our values and vision. If I could add a fourth, I’d probably add compassion as well, which is often lacking in our dog-eat-dog business world.
Daniel: I might add service, leadership, and excellence because along time ago, when my mother was still alive, we created a family coat-of-arms with an eagle inscribed on it, embodying everything Arthur just mentioned and also the words service, leadership, and excellence. The Rotary motto is “service above
self.” Serving the greater good should always be at the forefront. We have to have leadership and excellence to survive and thrive in the startup journey as well.
Dr. Arthur L. Jue serves as Co-founder & CEO of LiveFreely, Inc. He has an extensive background as a serial entrepreneur, corporate executive, educator, and author. Daniel Jue serves as Co-founder & CTO of LiveFreely, Inc. He has over 20 years of experience in emerging technology and professional software development. Visit www.buddylife.com.
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