Get to know: Lumify Care

What inspired you to found Lumify Care?

As nurses and frontline healthcare workers who care for patients we directly experience a lot of very frustrating pain points. Every shift there is something new that feels inefficient when you are trying to provide care for your patient and not burnout along the way.

When thinking about improving care at night, there was a very clear problem of sleep disruption for patients with invasive lighting when nurses are making their rounds. Both of us felt the challenge of not being able to optimize patient care with the patient experience -there was a disconnect between how patients were healing and their comfort while healing. It got us excited to find solutions to support frontline healthcare workers and a better patient experience.

How did you decide to work together?

We met in 2019 at the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Hackathon. Our personalities are really complementary and in a hackathon you can get connected with a bunch of different people, but it is hard to connect with someone you want to move forward with and start a business with but we were fortunate enough to find a partner. After working on the idea together for 6 months, we decided to launch Lumify Care together.

We went through a lot of challenges and growing pains to get Lumify Care off the ground and you really bond through that process. We’re like coparents of this baby. Anthony manages the team, leads fundraising efforts, and oversees marketing, branding, partnerships, business strategy, and finance while Jennifferre oversees product development, partnerships, sales, accounting, and legal.

Nitin with the University of Miami Herbert Business School Assistant Dean of Programs in 2006 - Nitin was the first student from Nepal to enroll at the university

What do you hope to get out of Lighthouse and acceleration?

We did the Wharton accelerator and it was great in helping us structure the very beginnings of the launch, formulating our values, and giving direction of who we wanted to be as a company. But now that we have solidified the foundation and are ready to truly put product into market - we needed the extra resources that Lighthouse Labs could pour into us as founders to move Lumify Care forward.

We had done a lot of manifestation and really summoned Lighthouse Labs! We were nervous to apply but were exceptionally thrilled to get the acceptance and the cohort has been amazing - everyone is so great to work with and it has been such a great experience.

As we’ve connected with the other founders, we have gotten a community and support network beyond an accelerator. Entrepreneurship is hard and we’ve gone through a lot of bumps along the way but having the community of Lighthouse to support us as people, not just a company, is so valuable to us.

“Both of us felt the challenge of not being able to optimize patient care with the patient experience.”

— Lumify Care

What are the most exciting moments of your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

So many come to mind! We were featured in the New York Times in Feburary and we’ve had some smaller grants and wins along the way - so much happens and we celebrate then we say “on to the next” because it is so fast paced!

The first product got shipped from China to Anthony and was so surreal to have it in hand after all the went into getting it made.

We were so excited when someone actually purchased a product after we launched. And then having officially sold products to nurses in all 50 states. The shipping company we use sends us a quarterly report and we were shook to see that officially happened. We had been trying to keep track ourselves and we were missing Alaska - we literally asked friends if they knew any nurses there!

And the first time someone recognized the product! Anthony was working one day and a nurse came up to him, someone he didn’t know, and they were wearing the uNight Light and asked if he had invented it. To see people wearing it in the real world is always a really cool moment.

Kimberly in Cape Town, South Africa - she’s traveled to more than 40 countries

What have been the most challenging moments of your entrepreneurial journey thus far?

We had some initial issues with positioning - originally we were positioning ourselves as focused on patient sleep but we wanted to do something bigger. Going through that pivot to broaden our scope and mission and impact to patient experience and healthcare workers more broadly was an exciting moment to realize that our potential impact was much bigger.

We’ve also had our share of manufacturing challenges. COVID-19 impacted our pilot and brought its own challenges and shipping delays. Every day there is something but we’ve kept the growth mindset that entrepreneurship is not a perfect linear path to success - it’s a rollercoaster! Learning form our mistakes and using resources to get to the next place is what makes us stronger along the way,.

What founders or companies do you admire?

Sara Blakely of Spanx, the fact that her company is all her, not diluted and is able to continue on that path. She also seems like a lovely person.

We look at all sorts of founders and see the impact that they have been able to make - we feel grateful to hopefully follow in their footsteps one day and make a similar impact.

From Sara Blakely of Spanx who kept 100% of her company to companies that give back like Warby Parker and Bombas - we definitely look up to some big names.

But we also learn a ton from our peers. We really look up to the founding team at Clove, a company that also went through Wharton and is in the healthcare space. They’ve been scaling and are impact-focused.

Plus all the Lighthouse Labs founders - hearing their stories and journeys and seeing them be full-time on their ventures is very inspiring. We love our friends at Kamana (LL19), at Lumastic (LL20), and everyone in our cohort. Community is super important to Lumify Care and to us as individuals so the ability to connect with other founders and grow together is huge.

What is your big vision for Lumify Care?

Illuminating healthcare worldwide and having an international impact. We want to have a new standard of care around the world that prioritizes patient experience and supporting frontline healthcare workers not just in our home country but also in areas of the world that lack electricity with facilities that need the same level of support around the world that we have here in the United States. The sky is the limit and we are excited for the growth that we will get to experience over the next few years!