Today, reliable home health care is out of reach for millions of Americans, with 38 million family caregivers stepping in to provide an estimated $590 billion in unpaid labor annually. Nearly 40% of these caregivers leave their jobs to care for loved ones, while HHAs face chronic workforce shortages, low retention, and shrinking margins.

RubyWell bridges this gap by helping HHAs identify patients in their community who are eligible for the Medicare home health benefit, particularly those with complex chronic conditions. And we help their family caregivers access the training and certification they need to be hired by one of our partner agencies as a paid member of their care team.

This solution creates value for home health providers, family caregivers, care recipients, and the country’s health system by aligning everyone on safely and compliantly managing Medicare-certified home health care, and significantly reducing Medicare spend on hospitalizations, skilled nursing facilities, and emergency room usage.

RubyWell’s original research, produced with a third-party actuarial firm (for publication this summer – 2025), demonstrates that when a Medicare beneficiary receives a properly timed home health intervention, costs on a per member, per month basis reduce significantly (these numbers are normalized across all beneficiaries). Usage of home health results in a  25%-59% cost saving for Medicare.

As healthcare shifts further toward home-based models, RubyWell is creating a scalable solution that is redefining how care is delivered, financed, and valued. Our novel approach positions family caregivers as the future of home health while giving HHAs the tools they need to serve our growing aging population.

More about RubyWell:

“Founders Everywhere: Julie Kennedy” – Everywhere VC 6/17/24

“Kerry and Sara not only both have deep care economy expertise, they are smart, engaged, technical investors who used the diligence process to both get to know RubyWell, and to provide valuable insights and learnings from their own portfolio.” – Julie Kennedy

Founder: Julie Kennedy
Headquarters: New York, NY

Meet Julie Kennedy:

Background: Julie is the CEO & Co-Founder of RubyWell, a scalable home-based care model for older adults that redefines how care is delivered, financed and valued. Prior to RubyWell, Julie was the founding COO at Trusty.care, a healthcare and insurance technology company. Before that, her work as the founder and CEO at AMERICA SCORES earned her local and national awards, including Washingtonian of the Year, in Washington, DC, a Daily Points of Light award from President Clinton, and a finalist mention for the Presidential National Service Award. Julie holds a BA from Georgetown University, and an MPA from Harvard University. Julie sits on the board of directors for the Alternative Insurance Company and Anseye Pou Ayiti.

Why Start RubyWell? Like many members of the RubyWell team, I’ve cared for aging and terminally ill loved ones. So I have a deep understanding of the emotional, financial, and logistical challenges that family caregivers face. I knew I could apply my experience in Medicare and insurance technology, and assemble a first class team of industry experts to tackle the care crisis that’s touching or will touch everyone in our country.

Why Seek Venture Capital? The venture community is filled with deep expertise in Medicare, healthcare more broadly, and the care economy. Investment by venture capitalists helps to assemble a deep bench of experts who will help RubyWell accelerate growth, and extend our ability to serve an increasing number of caregivers and care recipients across the country.

LaTimberly Johnson (left, UX Designer), Julie Kennedy (middle, CEO), Evelyn Johnson (right, Data Scientist) at RubyWell

Why True Wealth Ventures? Kerry and Sara not only both have deep care economy expertise, they are smart, engaged, technical investors who used the diligence process to both get to know RubyWell, and to provide valuable insights and learnings from their own portfolio. Kerry has joined the RubyWell board and while we have only had a couple of board meetings, her level of preparation, generosity of time, and warm, engaging personality helped to create a safe space that helped to set the tone of effective governance for the RubyWell board. I am excited to leverage their network and their experience as we grow the Company together.

Have you seen women General Partners bring a different perspective to the table? As a female CEO and co-founder, having the mentorship of women who have been down this path themselves is invaluable. As venture capital investment continues to favor male-led companies, True Wealth Ventures is the embodiment of the power of investing in women; every company in their portfolio of women-founded companies has been acquired or is still operating. It is so inspiring to be in the company of such tenacious, committed leaders.

Do you think a woman’s perspective is valuable to this market? Women continue to provide the lion’s share of care in the US economy, and women founders provide care not only in our personal lives for our loved ones, but also to our team members as we work together to develop solutions. A woman’s perspective on problems that most affect women will lead to better solution design. It does not exclude men from the design process, but empowers women to design for our needs and to solve problems that will lead to a better quality of life for all of us.

Words of Wisdom: Company building is a team sport. Make sure you surround yourself with team members, board members, and advisors who share your vision, have your back, and are willing to join you to get dirty in the trenches.