From the Founders' Heart - GenWise Blog

If you don’t want a long read and want to install GenWise, click: https://genw.se/gk5YAU07 ? (android only) for instant access

iOS users can try mini GenWise on GenWise WhatsApp Bot (Phone - +91-7042339154)

Story behind the name ‘GenWise’

GenWise is short for ‘Generation Wise’ and for the 3 of us, Generation Wise signifies our elders and parents who have taught us through and through. While all of us could be clubbed as GenY/GenZ etc, our elders are ‘Generation Wise’ and hence the name – GenWise.?

To reiterate, GenYs, Zs of today have been groomed and shaped by the wisdom extended by our elders. Hence, we believe elders are ‘Generation Wise’ and therefore, the name ‘GenWise’.

Why ‘Parents & Loved Elders’ as primary target segment?

We wanted to build a product and user segment which is an amalgamation of our passion, sentiments and commercial opportunity and after months of research and user feedback, our early answer is that we couldn’t have landed it better.

1. Sentiment - All 3 founders of GenWise deeply care for our parents but feel our busy lives leave us wanting to connect and care more for them. I guess that’s true for most of the readers reading this. If yes, GenWise is equally for you as it is for your parents.
2. Passion – We wanted to build in space where there is opportunity for innovation and real impact. Neither ’delivering a grocery in 10 minutes’ nor ‘another fintech lending or payments product’ would have given us this satisfaction.
3. Commercial opportunity – Today, 51-75 years users in India:

• Represent 25 Cr people and are the highest growing segment due to increasing life expectancy and reducing family coverage ratio. In-fact, India was youngest in 2021 and will get older from here
• Have 10X average networth as compared to those under 35
• Represent first generation of tech-savvy smartphone users who adopted them in their adulthood in 2005-10 and have reached 51+ bracket
• Are the fastest growing adopters of digital economy. 40% of new online shoppers post Covid are above 50+ years of age
• Are a complete whitespace with regards to tech businesses because no one builds for them. The total VC funding in India in the age-tech space is less than US$ 15 Mn

At GenWise, our eventual mission is to get both elders and their younger family members on the platform. In essence, we want GenWise to be the largest family app of India and are confident that once elders come, younger family members will follow through because we all want to be close to our elders, don’t we?

In today’s environment where there are 100s of community apps, communities are coming closer and families are moving away. At GenWise, we seek to reverse it.

Founders’ Guilt Trip

Let’s be honest about it. All 3 of us are on a guilt trip of not having done enough for our parents. It’s not that we haven’t tried. We have rejected multiple job offers to move abroad. Combined, we travel 130 Km everyday back and forth to office so that we stay with our parents. However, we still face numerous circumstances during the day where we just wish to be with our parents and are not available, e.g,

• Geetanshu’s father calls him regularly to pay his bills
• Nehul’s mother has a history of Anxiety and just wishes he could be with her during tough moments of the day
• Rajat’s mother constantly calls him to check what he has eaten etc. and most of the times, he is just not available to respond resulting in emotional distress at her Mom’s end

The list is long but we will stop here. We guess, most well to do 25-40 years old of today want to do more for their parents but just can’t due to lack of time and mental bandwidth. GenWise is an attempt to make the same easy.

Describing our MVP

When we started speaking to this age group, we ended up listing down 40 use cases with each having a potential to become a big business. In hindsight, it was natural because no one is building for them.

Since there were so many unaddressed needs for this segment, cracking an opportunity was lesser of an issue vs. adoption and digital discovery.

So, our MVP had to present a solution which is easier to reach and adopt, is intuitive, builds a trust and is highly engaging. After days of problem solving, we landed on four features to address four different needs

Personal Assistant - For Digital Need

With GenWise, everyone gets a personal assistant (PA) on call.?

GenWise PAs are thoroughly trained, passionate and empathetic individuals who care about the elders.?

With PA, our elders can learn to perform digital tasks like UPI Payments, Changing Phone Font Size, Booking a Taxi etc through 1-1 on demand sessions.?

To make the interaction easier, we allow screensharing on our app-to-app audio sessions.

Demo Video

Medicine Reminders - For Wellness Need

Medicine reminders is our first play to bring families to the fore-front again.?

With this, anyone can set medicine reminders for own or a family member.?

GenWise will alert (depending on config chosen) another family member if a user misses to take the medicine.

Demo Video

WhatsApp Greetings - For Social Need

We will not say anything about this product. The name is enough. Checkout the personalization options though, especially, awaaz waali photo.

Demo Video

Risk Free Passbook - For Financial Need

We all have seen our elders struggle to log into their bank accounts or being afraid of doing it due to perception of a possible fraud. Hence, they still have to go and stand in queues or wait for lunch breaks to get over to get their passbooks updated.?

Powered through RBI Approved Account Aggregator framework, our risk free passbook converts your phone to a passbook where you can check balances and transactions against all your bank accounts.

Our app only allows view of transactions, you cannot receive or send money and hence, is completely risk-free.

To add more power to our elders, we have given a feature to add voice or written comments on each transaction. Further, there is an in-build expense analyzer to monitor spends.

Demo Video

Summary

What is GenWise? - GenWise is India’s 1st Lifestyle App for parents & elders, the real Generation Wise and family

What does GenWise do? - We empower elders to become tech-savvy and independent in their golden years. We also help younger family members stay connected with their parents.

Who can use GenWise? - All elders who currently feel left out of India's digital revolution and all children who want to do more for their elders and parents

?Links

• Download android app and Get instant access: https://genw.se/gk5YAU07?

PS: GenWise is exclusive invite-only club and this link gives instant access to readers of this blog. Further, each approved user can invite infinite more users through own invite link and earn guaranteed cash (min Rs. 20 and max Rs. 500)

• We have a mini GenWise product live on Whatsapp – platform most loved by our elders. Click here to see for yourself : GenWise Whatsapp Bot (Phone - +91-7042339154)
• We host regular GenWise training sessions for our community. If you would like your parents & elders to be a part, please enrol them to this WA group: GenWise WA community
• iOS app – Launching soon

?Replies to few questions we got

Q: Why are you not building in Health Care?

A: Thinking that our elders only need “healthcare” is a view of younger community with regards to elders’ needs. If you ask your parents today on what they need, very few will say they need elder care. At 50,60,70 years of age, they have a long life ahead of them and what everyone needs is a better lifestyle instead of healthcare. Have an open conversation with your parents today and let us know.

Q: Why are we not building in religious segment?

A: We have not been able to think of a product better than “YouTube”. The day we get an answer, we will build it

Our request

If you have reached here and liked reading it, please re-share this to as many folks possible and help revolutionize the life of our elders.?

Of course, get GenWise installed to yourself, your parents & younger family members

For any feedback, please write to [email protected]

Regards

Team GNR (Geetanshu, Nehul and Rajat)?

Replicated from: blog.genwise.club