joining us now is Bianca Perea co founder and ceo of Care Well. Dot com
Bianca you started this company as far as we understand it,
Out of your own kind of personal need.
What's the story behind care Well and your mission?
Sure. First of all, thanks for having me.
Uh the inspiration for care well really came when I found myself
amongst the 20% of Americans who act as these informal caregivers.
Um my grandmother who lives with us had a major surgery and it left her nearly
immobile and for the first time my mom and I had to act as her nurses.
We had No medical training or experience and
we were overwhelmed and stressed and I just wanted
to go to someone for advice and for guidance because we had no time to figure it
out and I thought there had to be a better way to serve this growing population of
53 million caregivers who are caring for 80
million Americans and that's when we launched care,
well which today is the fastest growing
and largest retailer for
having products, advice and guidance.
We know kind of women tend to be the main
caregivers of a household and if that wasn't apparent before,
this pandemic has made that very, very apparent.
Um so what are some of the biggest challenges that women are
facing kind of in this caregiving role and how are you,
you know, helping to ease the pressure when it comes to actually caregiving?
Sure.
So caregiving is incredibly stressful and overwhelming and
most people don't know that one in five Americans
are currently uh informal or untrained caregivers and unsurprisingly
upwards of 75% of all caregivers are female,
almost all caregivers are doing this also for the
the first time, so they have no experience,
is no expertise and caregiving doesn't come with the
manuals and the books that exist for for example,
first time parents and on top of this
major responsibility of caring for someone else,
many are caring for their own families for their own kids, helping save for college,
A safer retirement and they're busy,
overwhelmed and they are spread incredibly thin and so that's where care
will really steps in by demystifying and simplifying the caregiving experience.
And our key differentiator is our 24-7 award winning customer care team.
It's staffed with the caregiving specialists who are trained to take
questions and guide you
products you need to best care for your loved one at home and it gives really the
caregivers the confidence and the peace of mind to
know that they're doing the best job possible.
I love that you just said, you know,
caregiving really doesn't come with the same manuals or lack of
manuals that we talked about when we talk about parenting.
I found myself saying that not too long ago,
I kind of as I hit that stage in life where I become kind of the leader of our family and
have to take on that role and there is no
manual there and I can imagine when you're forced to caregiver
that comes to the forefront, you know even more so
we know your business,
you know care well Dot com is obviously female
lead but also Latina and family owned business.
How has this helped you build your business to what it is today.
We built this business primarily because of my experience being a latin woman,
living with family.
I grew up in a multigenerational,
multicultural home where I saw this particular need firsthand.
I,
I would have never experienced or
understood the challenges that caregivers faced.
If I wasn't latin,
I wasn't multi culture and I wasn't living in multigenerational home.
Uh,
and this really showed me that the caregiver population is an incredibly diverse
people's generation spanning cultures and we built care Well the court.
Yes.
Teen
mirror the populations urban and it's given us a really unique insight
and empathy to best serve our customers and their unique needs.
Yeah, with that insight and kind of that advantage.
Um, we know that you've raised $30 million dollars in funding in less than a year.
Pretty sizable and significant amount.
Would have been some of your biggest accomplishments, you know,
throughout your journey as an entrepreneur.
I think our biggest accomplishments have really been just the
thousands and thousands of outstanding five star reviews about care.
Well, I mean they rave around around pricing around the selection,
the super fast shipping, but most importantly,
they really love and care about the risks the support they received from our 24 7
customer care team and we've worked so hard to make
this experience just the absolute best and it's so motivating to
see that people really appreciate and have come to love
our company and our service as much as we love them
you know phenomenal to kind of see a business like yours grow
and a woman led business Latina that business grow to this extent.
Kind of with that context of the things that you have
learned over the last couple of years growing your business.
What advice do you have for other founders out there?
I think the best advice I can give you is to really spend time with your customers and
understand their unique needs that will allow you to
build a truly differentiated and uniquely valuable business.
The customers rave about when we first started the company,
my co founder and I spent thousands of hours as our
own customer care specialist and this allowed us to do exactly that
Really quickly. If I have to let you go here what's in store for care world. In 22
We're so excited for what's in store.
In 2022 we're gonna be offering more guidance advice,
community resources both on site and over the phone.
Our product selection and our categories are growing every
single day to offer a wider selection of these characters
think products
ah
and all
b
the country.
I think we might have lost the tail end of that.
But I was looking at pictures of what I'm assuming is your abuelita.
Tell her I said hello,
really appreciate the work that you're doing and congratulations to all
your success that you've been having so far Bianca padilla,
co founder and Ceo of Care Well dot com.