Introducing, the Shared Aide. The Sharing Economy Answer to Home Care

Last month, there was a nice article about Room2Care in the Miami Herald.  In that they discussed a product line that we hadn't started offering yet called the RoomAide.  A RoomAide is an individual who will move into a senior's home and provide some support.  They live there rent free and can provide services on an a la carte basis.  The feedback on the plan has been terrific and I'm working on the software.  Somehow, after the article, I received an email from Stan who wrote "Room2Care seems to have been written especially for us. I am 81 and my wife is 76...We have no one to help with the little chores around the house which we share with a friendly, thirty pound Cocker Spaniel who loves everyone, but can't take out the garbage. Jolie (her name) goes out to the fenced in yard and runs around the pool. I can no longer take her for long walks because I have two bad rotator cuffs and a bad back. My wife (Jennifer) also has severe back problems that limit her movements..."
I thanked him for his email and promised to get back to him as soon as the software was complete.  Unfortunately, unless you're Google, software always takes a bit longer than planned and I'm clearly not Google.  But it bothered me.  His story was frustrating because I knew we could help.
A few days later, at a tech conference, I met Alex.  Alex is a bright young programmer who had moved to Miami a few days before and was sleeping on somebody's floor in Hialeah.  He was an enthusiastic person who when I showed him Stan's letter he exclaimed "Free rent to take out the trash!  Where do I sign up!"
Well, I would like to introduce to you our first RoomAide relationship. Alex will start running with the dog.  He's going to help Stan with some computer issues.  I'm hoping Stan will teach Alex about archeology (he's a retired Middle East archeologist).  Maybe Alex can write an app that helps field archeologists.  Who knows?  What's important is an entirely new type of relationship is arriving in the sharing economy. I hope both of them will post to our Facebook page and we can see thing evolve.