Idea to Help Seniors Video Chat Wins Evanston Start-Up $2,500

New business owners and best friends Allie Payne and Silveria Steele have turned a simple, yet smart idea into cold hard cash.

Last week they won $2,500 for their idea to have home health care workers use Skype and Face Time to help their clients talk to family and friends who live far away.

The two, who met on their first day of freshman year at Evanston Township High School about 30 years ago, founded Silver Care Home Services a couple months ago. Just as they were getting started, Payne saw a post on a friend’s Facebook Page about the Entrepreneurial Idol Competition at Chicago State University.

They decided to enter, which meant scrambling to finish their business plan and other documentation needed to enter the contest.

It paid off — they were picked as 10 finalists to give a five-minute presentation of their idea before judges and a 350-person audience, according to a university press release.

Payne and Silveria were awarded fourth place, which was particularly thrilling since there wasn’t supposed to be a fourth place prize, Payne said. But one of the judges had a family member who suffered from Alzheimer’s and was so taken with the women’s idea that he created an additional prize, Payne said.

Payne said she doesn’t know of any other home health care companies who use video chatting software in this way.

“It’s all so simple to do,” she said. “We have the technology, we should use it.”

A long-term idea suddenly comes to fruition

Silveria has worked in the home health care field for 20 years. When Payne’s grandmother moved in with her about seven years ago after developing dementia, her family hired Silveria to help with her care. The women decided then that they wanted to start this business together someday.

The timing was finally right late last year. Payne, who worked in real estate, was much less busy than she used to be. They figured that her business skills and Silveria’s experience and existing network would be a great combination.

They already have a few clients. Their plan is to establish themselves on the North Shore and then spread to the western suburbs.

Harnessing technology

The company’s staff will use Skype or similar software in two ways — they can check in with technologically savvy clients themselves and they can help clients talk to family who are too far away to visit.

“You can tell a lot from that,” Payne says of a video chat, including whether your loved one looks the same as the last time you talked and how healthy they appear.

The women are using their $2,500 to finish their website and do other branding and advertising.  Payne said they were up against people with MBAs from Harvard and the University of Chicago.

“We’re both proud of ourselves,” she said.