Coverage
The Stories That Make Us: Why Being Known Matters as We Age
“What happens when we stop seeing an older adult simply as a resident or patient and begin by asking, ‘Who is this person?’”Watch the episode & read the highlights →
Startup Spotlight: Porchlight uses AI to help foster human connection in senior care
“Seattle-area software engineer Patrick Donahue wants to bridge that gap.”Read the story on GeekWire →
Press contact: Patrick Donahue, founder — patrick@porchlight.ing · (786) 471-4419 (Pacific time)
Happy to do interviews, live demos on a video call, and background conversations on person-centered care, activity programming and family engagement in senior living. No PR firm; you get the person who built it.
The one-paragraph version
Porchlight is a life-story tool for assisted-living and memory-care communities. A resident taps one large button on a tablet, hears a question about their life read aloud, and talks. Porchlight transcribes what they say, moves to the next question in a curated life-story sequence, and turns the conversation into three things the building could never afford to produce by hand: a Know Your Resident briefing so a new aide can connect on their first shift, a weekly digest of story highlights for the activity director, and a private page where the resident's family can listen and record a reply. The stories are the mechanism; a resident who feels known is the point.
Why it exists
Person-centered care is the documented standard in senior living, and it rests on one thing nobody has time for: knowing sixty residents as people. An activity director cannot sit with each of them for an hour. A caregiver on their first shift knows a room number and a care plan. Adult children four states away get a monthly phone call that runs out of things to say. Porchlight was built so that the resident does the talking, on their own time, and everyone else gets the benefit.
Facts you can print
How it works, in four steps
- Staff add a resident by first name and print a QR card. That is the whole setup.
- The resident (or an aide with them) scans the card, taps Tell your story, and answers a question read aloud. Sessions can be any length and can happen any day; the question track never repeats.
- Each answer is transcribed. The next question comes from a curated bank of 800+ life-story questions; a resident can skip any question with one tap, and family can add their own.
- Staff get the briefing and the digest; family get the private page. Nothing is shared with a family member the community hasn't invited.
Story angles we can support with specifics
- The first-shift problem. Staff turnover in assisted living runs high; every new aide starts from zero with every resident. What a two-paragraph briefing in the resident's own words changes.
- What AI is actually good for in eldercare. Not diagnosis, not companionship bots: doing the transcription and the write-up nobody has time for, so staff can spend their time listening. The questions themselves are written by people.
- The daughter four states away. Family engagement as the thing families actually judge a community on, and why the artifact that leaves the building matters.
- Reminiscence, honestly. What the research does and does not show about life review and mood in older adults, and why we do not make clinical claims. Background: our source-cited reminiscence therapy library.
- Building for people who will not come to bingo. Designing a product for a 90-year-old: one button, no passwords, a voice that reads.
Screenshots
These are from the sample community (Cedar Grove, fictional residents) and may be reproduced with credit to Porchlight. Full-resolution files on request. You can also walk the same sample community yourself, no login needed: app.porchlight.ing/demo.
Boilerplate
Porchlight is a life-story tool built for the care team in assisted living and memory care. Residents tap one button and tell the stories of their lives; Porchlight turns them into a prep packet for anyone who walks in to work with that resident, from new aides and agency nurses to therapists and volunteers, so residents feel at home with every new face. The same stories feed a weekly digest for the activity director, a community newsletter the community can send to families, and a private page where families listen and reply in their own voices. It is free for communities during its pilot period. Its goal is to strengthen every relationship a resident has: with their family and grandchildren, their spouse, their fellow residents and their care team. Unlike life-story products sold to a family alone, Porchlight is set up with the care community, which is the one place where all of those relationships meet. Porchlight was founded by Patrick Donahue, a Seattle-area software engineer, and is a Levelbrook product. Learn more at porchlight.ing.
Name and pronunciation: "Porchlight", one word. Tagline: Every story deserves a light left on.