When existing solutions didn't feel right, we built something that did.
After my step-father passed away, my mom was suddenly alone—3,000 miles away on the other side of the country. She was active, loved her location and had her routines. Moving wasn't something she wanted, and honestly, it wasn't something she needed. She was healthy, active, and fiercely independent.
But I worried. Not because she was frail, but because she was alone. What if she slipped getting out of the shower? What if something happened in the middle of the night?
So I started looking at options.
That's what she said when I brought up medical alert necklaces.
I understood. The necklaces and bracelets we'd all seen advertised—they work, but they also send a message. They say "I'm old" or "I'm at risk." For someone like my mom, who was still gardening, meeting friends for lunch, and driving herself to the grocery store, that just didn't fit.
She wasn't interested in wearing something that would remind her every day that she was vulnerable. And honestly, the research backed up her hesitation—a lot of people who have these devices end up taking them off, leaving them on the nightstand, or never wearing them in the first place.
Motion sensors in every room. Cameras. Door sensors. Sleep monitors. Systems that cost hundreds of dollars upfront, required professional installation, and came with monthly fees that rivaled cable bills.
These felt like overkill. My mom didn't have dementia. She wasn't wandering. She didn't need someone tracking her every move throughout the house. She just needed... a backup plan. A way for us to know if something was wrong when she couldn't tell us herself.
What if it could be simpler?
I started thinking about what we actually needed. Not comprehensive monitoring—just a way to know she was up and moving. If her morning routine happened like clockwork, great. If one day it didn't, we'd want to know.
It didn't need to track which room she was in. It didn't need to record video or audio. It didn't need fall detection or emergency dispatch. It just needed to notice when her daily pattern broke and let us know.
A single motion sensor in the kitchen—where she went every morning for coffee—would tell us what we needed to know. Movement by 8am? Everything's probably fine. No movement by 10am? Time to check in.
We saw a path for a company with a lighter touch.
You shouldn't need to schedule a technician visit or wait for someone to come to your house. If you connect an blue tooth speaker, you can set up Nanavia.
Not everyone wants to download an app for every device they own. Nanavia connects to WiFi and alerts you via text—simple and accessible.
Any standard home wireless network will do. No special hub, no cellular plan, no complicated networking. Just the internet connection they already have.
Alerts go to family and friends—the people who actually know them—not a call center of strangers. You decide who gets notified and how.
We believe in a light touch.
Not every problem needs a comprehensive solution. Sometimes the best technology is the kind that stays out of the way—that does one thing well and doesn't try to do everything else.
Nanavia isn't trying to replace medical alert systems for people who need them. It's not competing with comprehensive monitoring for those dealing with dementia. It's filling a gap that we discovered firsthand: the gap between "totally fine" and "needs constant monitoring."
It's for the millions of families who just want to know that if something goes wrong, someone will notice. That's it. That's the whole point.
Great things take time, and we're committed to getting this right.
Nanavia is currently in a private beta testing phase. We're working closely with a select group of families to refine our technology, improve our algorithms, and ensure our platform provides the best possible experience while maintaining our unwavering commitment to privacy.
During this phase, we're learning, iterating, and building something we're genuinely proud of—a solution that respects both independence and peace of mind.
We'd love to hear from you. Reach out to learn more about what we're building and why.