Stella Care was on the 28th of March able to celebrate its fifth birthday. Like any other child at the age of five, Stella Care has learned to walk and run, enabling us to constantly seek new possibilities, to develop and grow.
We recently decided to arrange a brainstorming meeting, to commence our development, a meeting which led to many interesting considerations. But before we reveal the outcome of the meeting, we would like to take you back in time. Back to before it all started.
Rasmus’ living situation was at this time completely different. He worked with antennas, a job which he was reasonably satisfied with. Primarily, as it involved helping other people.
One warm and sunny summer day, Rasmus was as multiple times before, on his way to a customer visit. As usual, the job took place in the attic. Alone and trapped between itchy isolation material and twisted cables, Rasmus realised something was missing. As the sweat started to drip from his forehead, Rasmus decided that he wanted to become an engineer.
Søren likewise had a wish of becoming an engineer, and it was during their studies the two friends met each other. Søren and Ramus worked well together, but it took some time before they decided to chase their mutual dream and future together.
Søren had since his childhood chased every opportunity to expand his technical knowledge. Throughout the years, many of Søren’s parents’ belonging received a technical upgrade. This was everything from the lawnmower to the house’s intruder alarms. The Projects were always educational and exciting, but one day one of the projects became a little too exciting.
As Søren’s family lived out in the country, one thing, in particular, gave the family freedom, namely their car. Søren, therefore, decided to build an alarm for the car, to prevent the car from being stolen, thereby maintain the parent’s freedom.
Safety was though not provided this time. One day when the family went for a drive, a sudden cloud of dark smoke started to fill up the car. Søren had accidentally short-circuited a panel. The smoke and smell of burned plastic quickly killed the atmosphere in the car. For a period of time, Søren promised to keep his technical ambitions to himself.
Since spring 2009, Søren has once again started to develop technical projects. Søren and Rasmus began discussing GPS tracking, and the associated improvements they were able to discover from the existing systems. It was back then, their creative thoughts started to develop.
They wanted to provide “freedom to forget” for people with dementia. This freedom should be provided through a GPS device, enabling the person with dementia to move around freely. The GPS tracker should secure that the person could be found, in a situation where the person had gone missing.
They wanted to establish a company. The company should be named Stella Care, and their GPS tracker should be called Care Tracker. Søren and Rasmus noted that the future Care Tracker should have three purposes: It was to provide freedom for the person with dementia, create safety for the relatives and give an extra surplus to the nursing staff. A simple and clear vision.
But good ideas seldom arise without any challenges. For Søren and Ramus, the challenge was to find a quality product, which was able to deliver the safety they required.
Because of this, they needed to develop a product from scratch. This entailed additionally 24 months of developing. An innumerable amount of hours were spent on designing and developing new systems in Søren’s one bedroom apartment.
Almost three years went past before the first Care Tracker was ready. Stella Care was officially founded in 2012.
It was now time for the Care Tracker to be introduced to the market. Søren and Rasmus believed- with true entrepreneurial spirit, to have developed a brilliant product. An assumption which was to be confirmed.
At the dementia coordinators yearly fair in 2012, Søren and Rasmus were ready to demonstrate their product. They were nerves but excited to receive their judgement. How were the professional experts, the dementia coordinators, going to accept the product …? The first person started to approach their stand, and they were eager to tell about Stella Care. Shortly after another interested listener approached, and suddenly a whole bunch of people had gathered together around Stella Care’s stand.
The launch was a success. Nothing was disposed at the fair, but the product had potential. Rasmus and Søren were though the new kid in town. They had only existed for a short period of time, and being the preferred supplier for municipalities requires a solid reputation and trust. A few months after the fair, a meeting with Syddjurs municipality made Søren and Ramus rediscover their belief in the company.
This first contact was established through building relationships. And it is the investment in relationship building which has resulted in Stella Care today, being the supplier for more than 50 municipalities. Because of this, the purpose of last Tuesday’s meeting was to find new ways of establishing more successful relationships and partnerships with the employees in the Danish municipalities.
Every idea was closely assessed before they were either discarded or chosen. At the end of the day, five ideas had remained on the table, but it was impossible to select between them. They, therefore, need your help. They need your help to answer five questions. It only requires a few minutes of your time, and you can find the questions by clicking here.
They genuinely hope for you to answer the questions. It is almost fair to say that they are waiting with the same excitement; as when they went to the dementia coordinators yearly fair in 2012. But that is presumably just how the mentality of entrepreneurs and technological geeks are.
You are always more than welcome to contact Mie on +45 42 90 90 51 if you have anything you would like to share with us.
Kind regards,
Mie, Stella Care