Why these Sydney retirees became startup founders in their 70s

After facing a major health scare, Sydney grandparents Ken and Adelle Alexander could have focussed on their own physical and mental wellbeing through retirement.

Instead, that difficult experience inspired the couple to give back to their community — in the form of a new smartphone app.

“We couldn’t really do it financially, because we’re both retired now, and we don’t have the funds to do that,” Ken Alexander, 80, told SmartCompany.

“But we did have the capacity to give something back by way of an inexpensive app, which would provide help and support to families.”

The result is Watchful i, an app allowing users to share their location with family and friends, and request assistance if they find themselves at risk.

In a market full of personal safety apps, Watchful i emphasises peace of mind along with physical security.

The unlikely founder said that the point of difference emerged from a lifetime of experience, far outside the traditional startup sector.

Screenshots of Watchful i in action. Source: Supplied

Designed to “give something back”

The idea for Watchful i occurred in 2020, as Adelle, now 77, underwent treatment for lymphoma.

“We found we got an enormous amount of contribution from the health system, and the care and concern of people in those occupations left us with a desire to sort of give something back to the community,” said Ken.

At the same time, some of the couple’s seven grandchildren were graduating from school and venturing into the world on their own for the first time.

Ken, whose background is in psychology, and Adelle, a career-long teacher, imagined a system allowing their loved ones to broadcast their location and call for assistance if needed.

“We had this interest in looking after them,” he said.

The same solution could also help late-night workers, like the medical professionals returning home after gruelling night shifts, Ken added.

The couple is now considering how to get Watchful i into the hands of emergency responders, “giving something back for their support, which we received all the way through” Adelle’s treatment.

Watchful i is available on both the Apple and Google app stores on a free trial basis, with paid subscriptions starting at $7.99 a month.

Free memberships for healthcare and emergency services workers are one option being discussed, but no final decisions have been made.

Peace of mind

Watchful i uses a ‘traffic light’ system, allowing users to flag when they’re in need of help, and designated ‘protectors’ are notified if users don’t check in within set time frames.

If time runs out with a user checking in, the Watchful i app can begin an audio recording, broadcast to those linked ‘protectors’.

Similar concepts already exist.

Personal safety apps like Australia’s own Life360 are popular with families worldwide, and ‘share my location’ functions are now commonplace across messaging services like WhatsApp.

What differentiates Watchful i, Ken said, is its focus on those ‘protectors’ and gradually helping them become comfortable with the unknown.

“We realised that in most cases, the concern about safety was less important than the associated worry and anxiety that everyone went through over expectations that things would go wrong,” he said.

“Our app is designed to provide peace of mind through lowering people’s anxiety levels, worry levels and stress levels, and in that sense, it’s got a different objective than just location sharing and ‘I am safe’ messages,” the founder added.

Untapped expertise for startups

What the founders had in passion, they lacked in hardcore technical experience.

In keeping with their family focus, they shared the idea with their son, whose own background is in IT, and eventually their grandson, Thomas Alexander, “who is actually driving the app and pulling it all together”.

The team turned to third-party developers to build Watchful i, with the bootstrapped platform currently in the hands of a local app designer.

Building the app to this point was a challenge, Ken said, likening the process to building your own house: equally fulfilling and exhausting.

Even so, he encouraged others like him — unlikely founders with a wealth of experience — to consider a path like his own.

“There’s a lot of people out there in our community whose own experience could be built into an app,” he said.

“They could leave something behind of their skills and interests.

“In the Western environment, we don’t put enough respect into older people and their acquisition through experience and training and of skills, some of which are very relevant in the modern world.”

• This story first appeared on SmartCompany. You can read the original here.