Keeping Parents Safe at Home: Why Aging Needs Better Tech, and Why Hardware Is Hard | Ken Deering

What we talked about.

In this episode of The Sunny Ray Show, Sunny Ray talks with Ken Deering of iGuard Home about keeping aging parents safe and independent at home. Ken explains that forgotten cooking is the number one cause of residential fires, and that the risk of injury or death rises from age 60. His interest began when his mother's memory declined and an iGuard stove gave her two more years in the home she shared with his father since 1959. Ken describes joining Bill Ferguson to restart the company and build a second generation smart device that uses a millimeter radar sensor to detect when someone leaves the kitchen and shuts off the stove. He also discusses why hardware is hard, including funding, manufacturing and shipping, and the way prescription drugs can affect memory. He closes with plans for the Consumer Electronics Show in January and retail channel partnerships in Q1.

Forgotten cooking causes more house fires than anything else, and Ken Deering's iGuard Home is built to stop it before it starts.

The questions, and the answers.

What did your experience at Home Grocer teach you about scaling a company?

It confirmed that the quality of your people is the biggest differentiator. Technology is good, but mission driven, high quality people make the difference. Our IT team won an Oracle award for best worldwide implementation, competing against departments 10 to 100 times our size, because we hired A players and gave them responsibility, budget and direction.

When did you first realize a forgotten pot on the stove was a problem big enough to build a company on?

It came through my mom, who had some modest memory decline. I learned forgotten cooking is the number one cause of all residential fires, and risk of injury or death climbs from age 60. We installed an iGuard stove, and she stayed in her home two years longer. Then I joined Bill Ferguson to restart and improve the product.

What is the hardest thing about hardware that software founders never see?

Funding is first. Choosing hardware wiped out about 90% of available investors, since funding models are built around SaaS and biotech. Second is manufacturing and supply chain. Our first unit was made in China, with four to five weeks of shipping to Long Beach. The upside is that hardware is much stickier once it is in the home.

Can you give me iGuard in one minute? Who does it protect and why now?

There are 18 million seniors living alone in the US and Canada, and 84% want to stay in their homes. Parents are often unaware of small declines, and multitasking falls off with age. Many commonly prescribed drugs can also affect memory. Senior living is near 97% capacity, so keeping parents safe at home matters more than ever.

What is one thing families can do today to make cooking safer for a parent living alone?

Forgotten cooking is caused by absence from the kitchen. Our new unit uses a millimeter radar sensor to watch the kitchen. When current goes up we know the stove is on, and when they leave the kitchen we turn it off. We do not wait for smoke or heat. Induction only helps prevent burns, not forgotten cooking.

If we talk again in a year, what would you hope has changed for families aging at home?

Our biggest competitor has been lack of awareness. I hope more people understand the risk. People know about taping down carpets or preventing falls, and this should be part of that thinking. If there has ever been a burnt pot, it is likely to happen again, and families need to think about how best to solve it.

What does the next 90 days look like for iGuard?

We are selling through our first production run of the second generation product. In January we will likely be at the Consumer Electronics Show, where we won an award at last year's preview. In Q1 we will run awareness campaigns, and several large, well known companies will carry our product so adult children can find it locally.