Nine years after founding Papa, founder Andrew Parker is taking his startup back to its roots.
The Miami‑based startup, inspired by Parker’s own experience helping his grandfather, is returning the business model it launched with back in 2017: a simple, flexible, direct‑to‑consumer service that connects older adults with trained companions – known as Papa Pals – for rides, light household help, tech support and social connection.
To be sure, Papa has been expanding rapidly across all 50 states, building a nationwide network of pals for its enterprise partnerships with Medicare Advantage and commercial health plans that offer Papa as a fully covered insurance benefit. Still, Parker points out that the vast majority of older Americans remained unserved.
“Today, about a million people get Papa for free, and there’s 61 million seniors. We’re barely scratching the surface,” said Parker, in an interview with Refresh Miami. ” I had been trying to bring back consumer, but it always got pushed down because of focus on the [enterprise] channel. However, finally, nine years after starting Papa, we are back to our roots.”
Traditional home care agencies often require steep weekly hourly minimums, while Papa’s flexible, easy-to-use consumer offering allows families to book assistance for as little as an hour, as frequently or infrequently as needed. Users can sign up online at get.papa.com or by phone, where a “care concierge” guides them through setup.
The direct-to-consumer service, at $30 per hour, initially soft-launched in South Florida and Phoenix before expanding across more metropolitan markets in 10 states, including Oregon, Nevada, New York, and New Jersey. There’s much more expansion to come.
“What’s great about it is we have Pals across the country, so opening new markets is almost trivial for us,” Parker noted, pointing out that because of the network they built for enterprise expansion across the country, Papa maintains a network of around 100,000 onboarded Pals, with roughly 10,000 active at any given time. “People absolutely love their Pals. We have the best network of Pals… and they want more jobs.”
That built-in infrastructure is already paying dividends. While venture benchmark standard growth for early-stage efforts typically sits around 5% week over week according to Y-Combinator, Parker shared that Papa’s consumer arm is currently growing at roughly 30% weekly, Parker said.
Despite the renewed direct-to-consumer push, Parker emphasized that Papa’s outcome-driven programs for enterprise clients continue to evolve and remain the core pillar of Papa’s business. Indeed, 80% of health plan clients added programs for 2027.
Rather than competing, the two sides of the business reinforce one another through a unified platform. Members of health plans who exhaust their covered insurance hours can pay out of pocket for additional visits. What’s more, direct-consumer demand provides Papa’s active Pals with more flexible job opportunities, strengthening the labor network across all markets.
“I’m happy to be able to offer this to as many older people and their families as possible,” said Parker, noting that there are 50 million family caregivers “and the need is growing faster than ever.” The consumer business also brings immediate feedback so valuable to a founder. He’s also proud of their 4.82 (out of 5) star rating so far.
Papa, one of Miami’s earliest YC-backed, venture-funded startups, is also hiring, including for a general manager for the new consumer division.
“It’s honestly been my dream,” Parker continued. “I feel so invigorated. I feel like today is day one, and I’m really excited about being able to get this out to more people.”
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Nancy Dahlberg
I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at ndahlbergbiz@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!
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