Jonathan Magolnick (left) Bianca Padilla (right) of Carewell and Padilla mother and grandmother ... [+] (center)
Nearly one in five (19%) Americans provide unpaid care to an elderly adult, according to Caregiving in the U.S. 2020. The U.S. elderly population is projected to nearly double to 90 million by 2050 as more eldercare shifts from institutions to the home where the family can take care of them.
Bianca Padilla and her mother became unexpected caregivers when her grandmother had major surgery, leaving her pretty much immobile. "My mom and I had to act as nurses," she sighed. "We had no medical training or experience, and we had no idea what products she needed or where to start to look."
There had to be a better way. But there wasn't. So she and her future husband developed an e-commerce site with educational content and support to help others in the same situation.
Padilla had a full-time job and her career as a software engineer at a Miami startup was just taking off. "I just wanted to go to someone for advice and guidance," she emphasized. She isn't alone: Most of the 53 million caregivers are ill-prepared for their responsibilities.
Perhaps it was kismet: Padilla met her cofounder on a date. Both are children of Latin American immigrants, and family is everything to them. Her grandmother had helped to take care of Padilla when she was young.
Padilla had always wanted to be an entrepreneur and, as a child, had started several businesses. She studied business and economics at New York University and service at the Disney Institute. As an intern, she worked as an analyst in several private equity firms.
On their first date, her future husband, Jonathan Magolnick, and she hatched the idea for Carewell. He had recently won a hackathon while completing his MBA, with an idea for an adult diaper.
There was little in the way of vetted products, product knowledge, guidance, and service to informal caregivers, to help them care for loved ones. The two pooled their resources to launch Carewell in 2017. She became CEO and cofounder and he COO and cofounder.
The couple bootstrapped the business for the first three years—only using their resources. As a lean company, they were careful with spending their funds. In the beginning, they did everything themselves—not just coding the site but answering the phones. Not having staff may have slowed the company's growth, but it meant that they knew everything about the company inside and out. It wasn't just Padilla's experience guiding the need to deliver an emphatic customer service experience; it was customers.
The duo started with just one product line—incontinence. "That was a big issue for us. We needed to find products that were absorbent, high quality, at a good price, and delivered discreetly and quickly to customers' doors," said Padilla. They ended up expanding to provide both breadth and depth in healthcare products for the elderly.
COVID-19 dramatically accelerated the shift to in-home care. Within the first month of the pandemic, Carewell's revenue doubled and nearly 40,000 unique customers have made purchases since February 2020.
Black and Latinx female founders received less than 1% of venture capital funding, according to ProjectDiane 2020: The State of Black and Latinx Women Founders. The couple is from Miami, which doesn't yet have a strong network of venture capitalists. A friend in San Francisco opened doors there, and those contacts introduced them to others in New York City. The company moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and angels there also made introductions. Investors who were looking at this space also reached out directly to them.
The recognition that the care economy is an important and growing sector—in which Carewell already had market traction and the metrics—made it easier for angel investors and venture capitalists to say "yes." They raised $30 million in two rounds in just two years. The pair closed a $5 million seed round in September 2020, which included e.ventures, NextView Ventures, and Primetime Partners, among others.
In May of 2021, Carewell announced it had raised nearly $25 million from Sageview Capital, Nextview Ventures, Headline, and Sagewell.
Finding people, especially when your company is growing fast, is difficult. "Last year at this time, we were at 20 people and we've grown to over 115 employees," said Padilla. Employees don't need a medical background; the company provides 100 hours of training, and they do need to be mission-aligned.
If you are a successful, high-growth female founder who wants to increase your visibility as a leader, your company's visibility as a supplier of products or services, and inspire others, being named to an impressive list is a canny business move.
Padilla made theForbes 30 Under 30 Retail & Ecommerce 2022 and Carewell is No. 74 on the 2021 Inc 5000 list. Three-year growth was 5,162%. Modern Retail awarded the company "Best Customer Service Experience," it ranked #8 on Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Retail for 2021, and it took the top spot on InHerSight's 2021 20 Best Health, Wellness, and Fitness Companies to Work For.
What market opportunities do you see and how will you leverage them?