I’m a Founder Now (Apparently)

 

I’m 72 years old. I went to business school. I’ve started half a dozen successful companies in my lifetime. But nobody ever called me a “founder” until now.

That word—founder—it’s everywhere these days. There are founder rules, founder mindsets, founder frameworks. Indeed founder advice from young men that have just started their first SAAS business. Goodness. It’s like they invented a new species. But here’s the truth: people have been starting businesses since I was a kid selling lawn care services in high school. We just didn’t have a special name for it back then.

My first real company was International Converting Materials. I called it ICM. Then I bought HPT Plastics and merged ICM into it because HPT had better name recognition. After that came HPT Research, where I consulted on mergers and acquisitions and new product development. Then Market America Realty, Market America Development, Brixton Development, Dean Street Insurance. Each one filed, incorporated, taxed, operated. Each one a real business solving real problems for real customers.

But now? Now I’m a “founder.” Why? Because I started AtendaCare: a voice-first AI platform that supports family caregivers dealing with dementia.

And here’s what’s different this time: I’m doing it with AI. And I’m doing it because I need it myself.

The Weight That Changed Everything

Most of my mental work is done before 11 o’clock in the morning. Then I spend time giving care to my wife.

That’s not a footnote to this story. That’s the story.

I didn’t come out of retirement to chase another business success. I came out of retirement because I’m living something millions of other families are living, the weight of caring for someone you love who’s losing their memory. And I couldn’t find the help I needed.

So I built it.

Every day I learn. Every day I immerse myself in building both my life and my work. The shared commonality of my work and my life make both my work in my life easier. Every day I better understand the emotional rollercoaster  that caregivers go through. But the path becomes clearer.

But that path is also the driver. It’s why I work on AtendaCare with the kind of urgency most retirees don’t carry anymore. It’s why I can’t let this fail. Because if it works, it doesn’t just help me. It helps every family caregiver who’s sitting in the same Adirondack chair I’m sitting in, wondering how they’re going to make it through another day.

The Force Multiplier I Didn’t See Coming

I thought I was going to retire to our view cottage on the Nottley River and just, well, enjoy myself. Maybe move my real estate license up to North Carolina, sell some houses, develop a strip center. I did that for about a year. Then I let my license lapse.

Now I am enjoying myself, the best way I can, by embracing the challenges AND retirement .

Because I discovered something I wasn’t expecting: AI isn’t just a tool. It’s a force multiplier.

I learned this when I took a consulting job, remotely, helping  a real estate developer put their lead platform together. I got immersed in learning how to use AI; not just the chatbots everyone talks about, but voice-first AI, proactive AI that makes phone calls and captures leads. I learned how to leverage my decades of experience in ways I never could have before.

And then I started building AtendaCare. Not as a business exercise. As a lifeline.

 What AI Actually Changed

I just read an article about a politician criticizing AI, wanting to stop it, regulate it, slow it down. I won’t name names. But I will say this: I have done more in less time starting this company than I ever could have done before. And I’ve done it because AI has let me circumvent the places I used to have to go for help.

Market research studies? I can run my own analysis now, faster and deeper than I could by hiring a firm.

Organizing files and systems? I have a virtual personal assistant, a real human, but offshore, who helps me stay on top of everything.

Finding customers and employees? My Chief Technical Officer found me! My prospective Chief Revenue Officer found me! Our first event investor in AtendaCare asked me if he could invest: I didn’t ask him. I built a network that works because AI helped me reach the right people.  All this because of the first multiplier that AI is.

There’s a new study from Vanguard that David Sacks talked about on the All-In podcast. Industries where AI is being utilized? Employment is up. Not down. Up. Yes, some people will be replaced by AI. But many more people will be empowered by it. Indeed production will increase.

I’m living proof. And I’m building tools to empower others who are carrying what I’m carrying.

The Three Kinds of Capital (When One Is Running Out)

I’ve often said there are three kinds of capital: money, time, and brainpower.

When you’re a caregiver, time becomes the scarcest resource you have. I can’t amplify time. None of us can. But I can shorten the amount of time it takes me to do tasks. I can augment my brainpower with tools that didn’t exist five years ago.

And here’s the advantage I have as a retiree: I’m singularly laser focused, workwise anyway, on building this platform. So even when I’m not actively sitting at a desk; maybe I’m in an Adirondack chair on the side of the river, smoking a cigar, drinking a scotch;I’m analyzing what’s going on with AtendaCare. I’m coming up with ideas. I’m never far from my phone or my iPad.

But I’m also never far from Gail. And that pairing between building something and caring for someone, is  where AI has made the biggest difference in my life.

Because AI doesn’t just help me work faster. It helps me be present when it matters most.

What This Means for the Future

The world is full of jargon right now. Founder. Seed round. Disruption. Vertical integration. Thought leader. It’s exhausting. But underneath all that noise, something real is happening.

AI is introducing entirely new products; like our voice-first caregiving support that actually listens and responds in real time. Products that didn’t exist because the people who needed them most didn’t have time to build them.

AI is bringing networks together and making it easier for people to communicate, collaborate, and connect. Networks of caregivers who used to be isolated are finding each other now.

AI is changing lives. It’s certainly changed mine.

And I think the future is bright. Not because AI will solve everything; it won’t. But because it will empower people who are carrying impossible burdens to build solutions for themselves and others.

Yes, there will be an adjustment. There always is when something big shifts. But the people who embrace this, who learn how to use AI as a force multiplier instead of fighting it or fearing it. These are the people who will thrive.

I came up here to North Carolina thinking I’d slow down. Instead, I let my real estate license lapse and re- embraced the tech world (I was always an early adapter of technology).  A world so full of jargon I sometimes want to throw my iPad in the river.

But also a world that’s let me build something I never could have built before. Something that matters. Something that helps people who are doing the hardest work there is: taking care of someone they love who’s losing their memory.

That’s not abstract for me. That’s my life. Every single day.

 A Thought for Founders (And Everyone Else)

If you’re starting something new, whether you call it founding or just call it work, don’t let the jargon intimidate you. Don’t let the rules people make up for “how founders are supposed to act” slow you down.

Just start. Solve a problem. Build something useful. Use the tools you have.

And if one of those tools happens to be AI? Use it. Learn it. Let it multiply what you’re capable of.

Because here’s what I’ve learned at 72: retirement doesn’t have to mean stepping back. It can mean stepping into something new, something that keeps your mind sharp, your purpose clear, and your days full of meaning.

AI didn’t just help me build a company. It gave me a way to carry the weight I was already carrying. It made retirement not just pleasant, but purposeful.

 

And if that’s not a force multiplier, I don’t know what is.

– Gregg​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​