Startups

Launching with the Haven Collection, a modular seating collection constructed from sustainably harvested teak, Neighbor’s main channel of distribution is its own website. It recently began distribution with Crate & Barrel and Huckberry.

Driven by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) now requires healthcare providers to provide healthcare information in a standardized electronic format, and also requires patients to have access to their health information electronically. In addition, CMS developed new care management physician billing codes such as chronic care management and remote patient monitoring, which help the patient cover the cost of these vital services. These services drive down the overall cost of care by, among other things, helping patients adhere to their physician care plan — which helps unnecessary hospitalizations — and eliminating duplication of medical services.

Relax, Escape on Neighbor's Outdoor Furniture

“We’re on a mission to help our customers include their outdoor spaces in livable square footage,” says Nick Arambula, co-founder and CEO of Neighbor. The company, founded this past October, designs and distributes outdoor furniture and goods built for a long life outside.

“The idea to launch an outdoor furniture brand had been swirling around in our minds for quite some time,” Arambula relates. “Then, when COVID was thrust upon the world, it hit us like a ton of bricks. Most of our homes were turned into a 24/7 restaurant, school, office, gym, and the list goes on. Our spaces that were historically used to recharge, relax and refresh became a space of stress and constant demand. We all talked how we found ourselves escaping outside to find some relief.”

Arambula had spent the previous four years working at Tuft & Needle, which is where he met the other co-founders, Chris Lee and Mike Fretto. “Our time at Tuft & Needle provided a great training ground to build a profitable business that focused on the home. At T&N, we were very comfortable with designing and shipping big, bulky items to customers’ front doors; we knew that experience would be invaluable in launching Neighbor.”

Demand almost immediately surpassed their expectations, which, Arambula says, forced them to make some big bets on purchasing a lot of inventory. “In order to support that, we’ve raised a little bit of money. In making our decision around capital, we built a pretty exhaustive model to determine what our capital needs would be, without taking on too much capital.”

As he started the business, Arambula says he took to heart advice he’d been given to make sure to take the time to align on goals with his co-founders. “At face value, it seems like a very elementary piece of advice, but I think most founders rarely spend the time to explore those difficult questions prior to jumping headfirst into a business,” he says. “Mike, Chris and I spent a lot of time — and still do — discussing our collective perspective on the future of Neighbor, what we each hope to extract from the experience and how to make sure we’re consistently checking in to see how we’re staying true to our original vision.”

Neighbor hineighbor.com

Alanté’s Coordinated Healthcare Solution

Virtual healthcare continues to evolve, and Alanté has entered that space as an integrated healthcare solution that aims to create both better quality of life for the patient and peace of mind for the family. Providing coordinated and integrated care services for a patient and the patient’s family under the direction of the patient’s physician, the Scottsdalebased company is built around the premise that state-of-theart healthcare can be done virtually.

The goal for founder and CEO Mark Hansen — son of a small-town doctor who focused a large portion of his practice on geriatric care — was to elevate care for seniors by taking away the pain, fear and uncertainty patients and their families experience when they enter our complex healthcare system. “We want people to spend their time getting better and achieving a better quality of life versus trying to manage an overwhelming fractured healthcare system,” Hansen says.

Among the wide range of questions patients and their families must manage are “What should I expect next, and when?”; “Who can I trust to give me accurate information?”; What services are available and how do I access them?”; and “How will I pay for it?”

“The best advice I received was from my father,” Hansen says. “He drove home to me that what is most important for seniors’ overall health and well-being is to keep them at home and in their community when providing healthcare solutions. Maintaining seniors’ independence is always the most important thing to their health and well-being. Never take away a senior’s existing support and social structure; instead, always try to enhance it.”

Hansen founded the company in 2020 and launched it this year. His biggest challenges, he says, have been the ability to integrate with various electronic healthcare platforms, which vary from provider to provider, and identifying how patients could pay for these services whereby it would be affordable and ultimately result in a reduction in the overall cost of their healthcare services.

Alanté alantehealth.com