As our near and dear ones start aging, we try to ensure their physical wellness, however their emotional wellness needs are often overlooked. Thus, Sunita came up with her unique initiative  Happy60plusHolistic Eldercare Platform, which Enables Empowers Elderly for an independent living and a happy and healthy ageing experience within the comforts of their homes. Born and brought up in a joint family, Sunita belongs to a generation which has witnessed transition of society from the joint family to thenuclear family system and understands the importance of family members as a support for elderly.This support system for the elderly which existed in earlier times came crumbling with the nuclearization of families and the fast-paced lives across the bigger cities. Starting her career in state civil services as well as having an HR background professionally, Sunita has always been a peoples person. She has the unique ability to connect with both the generations, which further motivated her to plunge into the elder care segment as an entrepreneur. Equipped with a sturdy educational background, Sunita loves to interact with people, understand their problems, and provide unique solutions, which is anintegral part of her work as the Founder and CEO of Happy60plus.

Sunita engages in an exclusive interaction with Women Entrepreneur magazine.

Highlight the distinctivenessof Happy60plus. What is the unique proposition that your organization offers to its clients?

Happy60plus is building a conducive eldercare ecosystem for ageing in place which is  powered by technology for human touch and empathy. Our AI Enabled Tech Platform is one stop solution for all eldercare needs at fingertips. Focused on providing day-to-day assistance and overall wellness of elderly individuals, Happy60plusprovides on demandHelp Buddies or helpers for elderly people. We are bringing in youth, students and housewives as providers of our Help Buddy Services.Happy60plus is a movement to Empower the elderly through holistic eldercare solution. The unique 5-step verification and training process of Happy60plus Help Buddies makes our helper servicesreliable and trusted. We ensure the right fit of Help Buddies who have the kind of empathy needed for eldercare. By providing on demand, on hourly basis we are bringing in convenience and affordability in eldercare solutions.Our easy to use, fun and intuitive tech platform with its conversational AI which has been integrated with WhatsApp is a scalable solution. So now all services can be booked through WhatsApp and mobile app. We are the only Eldercare service provider which focuses on day-to-day assistance of elderly and their holistic wellness needs. Most eldercare companies in India focus on physical healthcare and home healthcare of seniors.

Reflect on the challenging aspects of your role and responsibilities at Happy60plus? How do you tackle them successfully?

From on ground market research, being Help Buddy myself, doing sales & marketing using my network, entering into partnerships with service providers, handling Happy60plus social media, managing cash flows, my Co-founder and myself have done almost everything by ourselves.

Coming from anon-technicalbackground and having nodegree or expertise in geriatric care, my understanding pertaining to the nuances of this domain basically comes from my life experiences and experience on the ground. Therefore, challenges are abundant specially when go to investors for fundraising as a non-technical female founder without a degree of domain in which I am operating. Building eldercare services for day-to-day assistance and companionship is a novel concept in India for which the need is there but which will take time for customers to understand as the concept. Elderly being vulnerable section of the society, building trust and reliability is foremost and this is one of the challenges we face as the seniors nor their older adult children are initially very open to sending older people with strangers. Tech adoption is very low among elderly and needs heavy on ground operations which will need proper execution with right workforce.

Despite these challenges, in last two years we have successfully built Happy60plus as a reliable and trusted eldercare brand with thousands of senior citizens using its services in Bangalore only. For this I believe, my passion for helping elderly along with having a strong backing of a team of IIT & IIM alumni sharing the same vison has been a strong force for taking us so far.

“Challenges are there but the journey becomes beautiful if you are pursuing your passion and something you believe in!”

Share some of the significant milestones that you have achieved so far, in your professional journey? What has been your guiding leadership philosophy?

At a personal and professional level, joining thestate civil serviceswasone of my first milestones. But I couldn’t continue for long due to some personal reasons. But I have always believed in myself and wanted to do something impactful for society.After that, I pursued my MBA in finance and ventured into a completely different dimension but as I was heading the HR this gave me chance to engage, understand and solve people problems which I enjoyed. Going ahead, as Co-Founder of my two earlier start-ups,I was part of their growth journey from the scratch, and both of them are on their successful voyage. After these two milestones, I started Happy60plus with a vision to address the everyday struggles of old age and emotional wellness necessities of elderly citizens. Starting Happy60plus has been the best thing till now since I am able to positively contribute to the community specially the elders here with whom I have always felt connected and bringing happiness and smile on their faces is the biggest achievement in my journeytill now. This is the driving force which motivates me every day to start my work every morning with same vigour and enthusiasm.

I believe in team work and trusting my team for the decisions they take. Sharing the same vision and having similar passion helps the team to move ahead in the same direction. I am always on a lookout for people who are better than me.

Transitioning from state civil services to HR and then to entrepreneurship, how do you keep yourself updated with the changes happening acrossthe various industry verticals?

Transitioning from one career to another was something that happened as the situation demanded and was not a planned move. I kept evolving and learning as per the need of my career goals at that particular time.

The start-up eco system always attracted me as it gives immense opportunity to give back to the larger society and grow in the process. Therefore I love to follow various start-up news portals to keep myself updated on the latest start-upactivities around, market trends and latest industry news. It’s a great way to learn from other entrepreneurs and start-up mentors.

Rigidness in start-ups leads to stagnation and hampers growth. I will give you a small example. When we started Happy60plusin 2019 as a holistic eldercare platform, we were providing solutions pertaining to help buddy service, home health care, social clubs for senior citizens, hobby classes for seniors, events and outings and so on. After five months when the pandemic hit, it was like an eye-opener for us and we realized thatwe need to shift to a different way of working.

So, we pivoted ourselves to a lot of online activities, webinars, and online fun activities for the seniors.Since the senior citizens were most vulnerable, we focused on providingHelpBuddyServices. We conducted many zoom sessions on Tech Enablement for seniors to empower them to have easy access to available resources through online shopping, digital payments etc.Happy60plus provided solutions as per the need of the hour.

Sunita Dube, Founder & CEO, Happy60plus

A kind and compassionate persona, Sunita is eager to address the difficulties faced by the elderly in old agethrough her unique initiative Happy60plus. It fulfils the gap that exists in the current eldercare market. Happy60plus is successfully moving ahead in its vision to Enable & Empower Elderly!