At 25, Denver entrepreneur Amanda Cavaleri is used to being the youngest person in the room, often by multiple decades — especially when she travels to conferences about aging, where she talks about Capable Living, the successful elder concierge service she founded.
“I never thought I’d be talking about this, ever,” Cavaleri says.
“I remember sitting next to someone on an Amtrak train, talking about my interest in elders and aging, and the problem of what’s going to happen in 2025 when 75 percent of the workforce will be millennials, and the baby boomers are all over age 65. Of all the people who’ve reached age 65 in human history, half of them are alive right now. And he said, ‘Sounds like you’re the one to do this.’ “
His words landed like lead on her heart. But as she thought about their conversation, Cavaleri decided he was right. That decision led her first to attend national conferences on aging, and in short order to become a speaker at those conferences.
“Amanda is a special person,” says Randy Eager, associate director of the corporate and institutional partnership at Carnegie Mellon University.
“I remember meeting her at a Leading Age conference, at a breakout group. I don’t remember the topic, but I remember thinking, ‘Well, she’s awfully young to be here.’ And it’s rare to find a startup that focuses on the elder-care industry from a service perspective, impressive to find someone so young who was able to compete against very well-established companies.”
Capable Living, which provides companionship, errand-running and other services, is thriving with 10 full- and part-time employees. It’s doing so well that Cavaleri, who is finishing up her bachelor’s degree in business at Regis University, had to hire a manager to run the company.
Between brainstorming sessions with other entrepreneurs, speaking at conferences and researching ways to connect millennials and elders, Cavaleri barely has time to make it to her classes.
It all started about six years ago, when she was a University of California-San Diego student torn between majoring in classics or in business. She decided to take some time off from her studies to work as a server for The Academy, a Boulder retirement community. As she got to know the residents and their individual needs, Cavaleri began refining an idea for an elder concierge service.
She envisioned a business that connected millennials with elders who needed companionship, help with chores and errands, and caregivers who conferred with their clients to tailor solutions to challenges. Observing the habits of the residents she served refined her vision.
“When I was taking dining room orders at The Academy, there was one woman who couldn’t speak or move much, but she could make you understand ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ ” Cavaleri said.
“I was serving coffee and tea one day, and I noticed that she always had the same kind of tea. I wondered if she might be bored with it, and might want to try a new kind. So I brought over all the tea choices, so she could pick the tea she preferred. It made such a difference to her. Who knows how long she’d had to drink that same tea? And I knew I’d found my passion.”
At an age when many of her peers focus on themselves and one another, Cavaleri’s gaze is fixed into the future — a future that isn’t as far away as some might think.
“When you listen to her talk about her business, and her ideas about the long-term-care industry, it’s clear that she has a lot of intellectual horsepower,” Eager says .
“She’s a deep thinker, and her concierge business is truly impressive. It’s what put her in our thought leader category. We could see she’d been thinking hard about the industry, and understood how it worked, and had a vision of where it could go, and started Capable Living to play out her vision.”
Cavaleri, who visits Carnegie Mellon twice a year to plan, guide and speak at symposiums, refers to the detour her life has taken as her “accidental career.” Her interests include designing residential housing, retrofitting existing facilities for people who want to age in place in their longtime homes, connecting communities with the aging, education and reimagining the role of elders in today’s society.
“One of the problems we’re trying to solve is how to get high school and college grads to work with elders, at least for a couple of years, so the younger people can get the benefit of the elders’ experience,” she said.
To help solve that problem, Cavaleri meets with entrepreneurs of all ages, including Tom Higley of 10.10.10 and Vault Alliance; Micro Decisionware Inc. and Sequel Venture Partners founder Rick Patch; millennial consultant Gretchen Clancey of the Young Professionals Alzheimer’s Association of Colorado; and author and former AARP academic affairs director Harry Rick Moody.
“There’s such talent out there, and so much potential. How do we shift our attitude toward aging so that we, as a society, value elders’ experiences? We need a cultural paradigm shift,” she said.
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
Amanda cavaleri
At age 25, Cavaleri already is an expert on issues affecting aging and millenials, devoting her career to improving life for elders.
