Brief Introduction Leads to Successful Business Partnership
Christian Elliott (left) and Matthew Zuraw (right)
Our Social Enterprise Accelerator introduced Alzheimer’s advocate Christian Elliot to Matthew Zuraw, who would later become his business partner.
When Christian Elliott joined our social enterprise accelerator back in 2019, he was trying to gain traction for an idea he had to create a tool for caregivers of people experiencing Alzheimer’s and other dementias. At that point, he was still coding a solution and brainstorming ideas.
While Christian was in our program, he was introduced to another entrepreneur, Matthew Zuraw, who was also passionate about Alzheimer’s advocacy. A few years later, that brief introduction turned into a fruitful business partnership, and led to the development of CareVirtue, an app that helps families share important care information from one account.
Here at Mission Edge, one of our values is to leverage our circle. We know we aren’t experts at everything, so we foster relationships in our network, and CareVirtue’s story is proof!
In our program, Christian learned how to think about a sustainable business model that could generate revenue while also prioritizing a quality, usable solution for his target demographic.
After 18 months of user-centered development, the CareVirtue app launched in the beginning of July. Care partners can start an account on the platform for free, and the app also has partnership plans available for community-based organizations around the country. And the app is already gaining traction.
JMIR Aging, the leading digital health research publisher, recently featured the CareVirtue app in a feasibility study. The findings showed that CareVirtue's care platform is both usable and useful for care partners. In particular, care partners noted useful connections, awareness, reduced burden and improved coordination by using the platform!
Supported by research grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, CareVirtue takes an evidence-based approach to product development, backed by peer-reviewed research.
CareVirtue is now building a Legal and Financial Planner to support care partners of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
“CareVirtue is making progress at becoming the leading provider of technology tools to support family care partners and continues to build on our strong evidence base,” Christian Elliott said in an email. “Our mission to create Better Lives for Family Care Partners keeps us motivated.”
We are so proud of the strong connections made through Mission Edge and can't wait to see what Christian and Matthew do next!
To learn more about how to work with us, go here. Maybe you could meet your future business partner too!
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