Our Love letter to Carlton Senior Living

Cliche alert: Startups dream of finding a customer they can call a partner. A customer that understands the vision and wants to be part of the team. 

At Speak2, we were lucky enough to meet Carlton Senior Living. During the difficult COVID lockdowns, Amazon donated Alexa devices to every resident at Carlton. The goal was to improve access to content and communication for isolated residents. Our early days were spent ideating, experimenting, and learning to use voice technology to change the resident experience. A few years later, Carlton won the McKnights Gold Award for Innovator of the Year. 😁👏🏆

While it sounds overly altruistic, our strategy never revolved around profit. We have no investors to answer to or financial targets to hit. So, the strategy was working with innovative clients with vision and creativity. Creating a set of tools for staff, residents, and their families that tied everything together and created one tool for everyone, regardless of their technical abilities, was (and is) the goal. 

Most people didn’t get it. We heard many “Are you a resident engagement platform?” or “Oh, you’re the Alexa guys.” But Carlton got it. Not everyone is an early adopter, and that’s a good thing. Deep pockets and great ideas often crash and burn when applied in the field. 

Together, we set realistic goals of solving real-world problems with simple solutions, all while consistently testing and refining with actual people. 

When you find the right partner, aka customer, you can impact the lives of the whole ecosystem. And sometimes you even get an award for it!

Thank you CSL, Amazon, McKnights, and Senior Living News, for your partnership and recognition. 

Read more from Dave Coluzzi, President of Carlton Senior Living, in his Senior Housing News Voice Series article.