Shawn Carpenter is the Founder and Chairman of the Board at Three Tree Ventures, an early-stage technology startup investment fund that backs exceptional entrepreneurs that are applying technology to market segments with high caps that have had a historically incorrect, ineffective and/or insufficient level of technology application. Three Tree Ventures prefers to invest in startups as early as possible, exclusively invests in product companies, and prefers to invest in organizations with one or more U.S. military veteran founder(s), and/or women and minority-founded startups.  Mr. Carpenter is a globally respected cyber security expert with a broad range of successful early-stage investments, including Compass (04/01/2021 IPO NYSE:COMP @ $8.22B valuation), GroupSense, White Ops (acquired by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking), Dark Cubed, uSTADIUM, PeerNova, MILLIE, Rumi Spice, Awake Security (acquired by Arista Networks), Privateer Holdings (acquired by TILRAY), ThreatGRID (acquired by Cisco Systems), RideScout (acquired by Daimler AG), InAuth (acquired by American Express) and Efflux Systems (acquired by NETSCOUT Systems). Mr. Carpenter is known for his acumen for advising early stage innovators. He has successfully helped raise capital, navigate rough waters, acquire key talent and customers, and help develop short and long-term strategies for portfolio companies and startups that he advises. He is currently an Advisor to CrossCut Ventures, Trinity Cyber, TruSTAR Technology (acquired by Splunk), GroupSense, uSTADIUM, MILLIE, Cannecht, and Netswitch Technology Management. He has also been a Limited Partner at CrossCut Ventures for 7+ years, and is also a CrossCut Scout. He has held key positions at startups where he was an early employee — Principal Forensics Analyst at NetWitness Corporation (acquired by EMC/RSA), Chief Technical Analyst at iSIGHT Partners (acquired by FireEye), Chief Strategy Officer at Invotas (aquired by FireEye), and Senior Vice President of Cyber at Cybraics. One of his greatest passions is being the Technical Advisor for a non-profit 501(c)3 founded by his wife, Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, and a close friend, Jessica Stern — Connect Our Kids (https://www.connectourkids.org). The non-profit is applying modern technologies like artificial intelligence and data science to the foster care system in the United States to improve placement outcomes -- finding forever families for thousands of children in the system.  His experience and successful entrepreneurial background are coupled with deep technical skills honed while pioneering cyber security protocols for the federal government and working at NetWitness and iSIGHT Partners over the past two decades. Shawn is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy, and qualified as a nuclear operator and chemist during his six years of service in the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Propulsion Program (NNPS Class 9203). Shawn also worked as a senior cyber security analyst for almost six years as a Member of the Technical Staff (MTS) at Sandia National Laboratories. He discovered one of the first documented penetrations of U.S. Government networks. After joining NetWitness as one of the first employees, he helped architect, implement and stand up the Justice Security Operations Center (JSOC) — at the time the largest deployment of NetWitness gear for a federal client. Mr. Carpenter also worked as a Principal Senior Analyst at the U.S. Department of State's Cyber Threat Analysis Team (CTAD) from 2004-2007. He was a key member of the 2005 CTAD team that was awarded the prestigious Frank B. Rowlett Trophy For Organizational Achievement by the National Security Agency (https://apps.nsa.gov/iaarchive/programs/rowlett-awards/recipients.cfm).  Mr. Carpenter has been tinkering with computers since his mother bought him his first computer, a TRS-80 Model I, in late 1978 at the age of 10 . He has been curious about almost everything since he was born, and enjoys playing slide guitar, harmonica, banjo and trumpet, metal detecting with his kids, building forts high in tall trees, lucid dreaming, experimenting with brain/machine interfaces, building robotics projects with his kids, and hacking all of the things. Mr. Carpenter has a particular affection for blues and jazz, and is an investor and Minor Partner in a John Coltrane biography — ''Chasing Trane'' (https://www.coltranefilm.com). His investments span everything from being the first money in at Rumi Spice (https://www.rumispice.com), a sustainable saffron growing enterprise founded by three West Point graduates, to PeerNova, a blockchain startup founded by his CS251 instructor from University of Nebraska. Five years after investing in Rumi Spice, it is now the largest private employer of Afghan women in the world, with over 2000 women employees. In May 2017, Mark Cuban became an investor in the saffron startup. In September of 2018, Rumi Spice's saffron became available nationwide in all Whole Food Markets.  Shawn is a native of Sioux Falls, SD, and credits his Mother, Jan, high school marching band instructor, David Haugen, South Dakota roots, and industry mentors and friends like Aaron Walters, Jaci Tomek, Amit Yoran, Dug Song, Gary Golomb, Chris Lukas, Sean Catlett, Richard Stiennon, Paul Garrett, Fraser Verrusio, and many others for his scrappiness and successes.

Three Tree Ventures

Clocr

Clocr is a world leader in providing digital legacy and emergency planning software for consumers and businesse offering many services under one roof at a fixed lifetime price.

Clocr provides a cloud platform that helps users plan ahead with regard to end-of-life affairs. It offers features such as a secure place to store confidential information that can only be accessed by designated individuals, a function to create and schedule video or audio messages for loved ones, a tool to organize and manage all online accounts and assign nominees who can take possession of them, and services to create digital wills and trusts with both self-service and attorney-assisted options available to designated individuals. The digital content that can be stored directly on the platform includes personal photos, financial records, and social media accounts.

A concentration of wealth and a willingness to adopt age-in-place technologies present new opportunities.

Age Tech

Clocr provides a cloud platform that helps users plan ahead with regard to end-of-life affairs. It offers features such as a secure place to store confidential information that can only be accessed by designated individuals, a function to create and schedule video or audio messages for loved ones, a tool to organize and manage all online accounts and assign nominees who can take possession of them, and services to create digital wills and trusts with both self-service and attorney-assisted options available to designated individuals. The digital content that can be stored directly on the platform includes personal photos, financial records, and social media accounts.

Honor provides a platform for elderly persons and their families to find home care providers, and is claimed to be one of the largest on-demand home care networks in the US. The company’s key offerings include Home Care, Family Caregiver Resources, and the Honor Family App and Honor Family Care Network for remote monitoring.In August 2021, Honor announced the acquisition of home care provider Home Instead at an undisclosed value. The merged entity was expected to combine for over USD 2.1 billion home care services revenue.&nbsp; Key customers and partnershipsAs of August 2021, Home Instead had around 90,000 caregivers serving at 1,200 locations across the US and global markets. Home Instead acquired UK-based online platform SuperCarers in June 2020. It connects professional caregivers to elderly people seeking at-home care. Prior to the acquisition, SuperCarers had raised a total of GBP 4.9 million (USD 6.6 million).It also partners with the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA) to provide quality assured apps for psychological wellbeing, physical activity, and mental stimulation.

Honor

Eargo specializes in developing hearing aid and related services. Eargo has four products in its lineup: Link by Eargo, Eargo SE, Eargo Neo HiFi, Eargo 6, and Eargo 7. The company’s products are unique due to its design meant to keep the device invisible when plugged in.The products are priced between USD 749 (Link by Eargo) and USD 2,490 (Eargo 7). The Eargo Neo HiFi comes alongside an app and offers connected smart features such as audio personalization and control. The app allows the user to control the audio to suit their surroundings, customize settings, and contact Eargo's licensed hearing professionals for consultation and support.In October 2020, Eargo was listed as a public company and then acquired by Patient Square Capital In October 2023. Via the acquisition, Patient Square Capital acquired all outstanding shares of Eargo—that were not owned by Patient Square—at USD 2.55 per share. Key customers and partnershipsThe company utilizes a business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail strategy compared to traditional business-to-business (B2B) model deployed by other manufacturers who sell their products through clinics. The strategy has proven beneficial through the Covid-19 pandemic as consumer footfall for brick-and-mortar clinics have declined.

Eargo

K4Connect provides technology solutions to residents and staff members in senior living communities through its K4Community platform. The company was co-founded by Scott Moody who sold his fingerprint sensor technology company AuthenTec to Apple for USD 356 million in 2012, which then became the basis for Touch ID.The platform's offerings include digital voice and video communication, and community updates for residents. It also provides smart home automation through the provisioning of plug and play Alexa devices for residents and supports smart thermostats, smart lights, motion sensors, and sleep tracking devices. In addition, community staff members have access to tools for resident surveys, resident and family management, and communications. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform also established an expanded video chat service to facilitate resident-to-resident communication, staff requests, yoga classes, and dining room bookings. Further, in March 2020, it partnered with software communications firm Bandwidth to introduce a hotline for staff and residents as a means of keeping all parties up to date with community information.The platform is built on the company’s patented operating system, FusionOS. The company claims that FusionOS is an advanced multi-modal edge-cloud architecture, the first of its kind in the senior living industry. Residents and staff can access the platform using a smartphone app or pre-provisioned tables in the living communities priced on a per-resident basis.As of July 2020, the platform served over 800 independent and assisted living senior living communities across the US. The platform serves over 29,000 users at more than 125 senior living communities across 27 customers as of February 2020, more than doubling its users from 2018, which it expects to repeat in 2020. The company has established channel partnerships with Allbridge (a data, video and voice solution provider for senior living) in July 2020, and Eskaton (a senior services provider) and White Horse Village (a continuing care retirement community) in May 2019. It collaborated with GlobalLogic (a digital product engineering company) in July 2020 to expedite the development schedule of its K4Community Plus app in response to Covid-19.

K4Connect

CarePredict was founded by Former IBM consultant and tech veteran, Satish Movva, and produces Tempo smart wearables for the elderly community. Using machine learning (ML), the company claims the app can reduce the chance of a fall, and predict urinary tract infections (UTIs) and depression ahead of a clinical diagnosis. The device aims to assist caregivers in taking preventive action by detecting activities and behaviors which are precursors to health declines. The data from the device can also be shared with family members.The company generates revenue from device sales and subscriptions. Independent research conducted in September 2020 indicated that facilities using CarePredict’s wearables reported 40% fewer hospitalizations 69%, lower fall rates, 67% increased length of stay, and a 37% improved staff response rate than facilities that did not use CarePredict.The company expanded its operations in 2018 through its acquisition of WiseWare, a company selling activity-tracking jewelry for older users. In April 2020, it launched the PinPoint contact-tracing tools to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.Key customers and partnershipsIn February 2021, the company announced its partnership with Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging (M4A). M4A is the agency behind the “Providing Alzheimer's N' Dementia Assistance” (PANDA) project. The company will be the first tech platform to be part of the project and will provide caregivers assistance in remote monitoring and preventive care using its smart wearables.

CarePredict

Eversound develops wireless headphone systems to enhance the level of engagement and social interaction for the elderly living in assisted living or memory care centres. The platform provides a library of programmed content on a variety of topics. The headphone system can be used to communicate with caregivers, during group events, family visits, and for music therapy. The headphones are equipped with a wireless transmitter and volume controls. It connects to external audio sources such as community A/V systems, televisions, and audio devices.The product was unveiled in May 2016. In a subsequent six month study conducted by LCB Senior Living community, group events leveraging the Eversound system resulted in an 18% reduction of residents falling asleep and a 28% increase in engagement during group events. In December 2016, the company expanded to 18 states across the US.In March 2020, as a part of its Covid-19 response, the company launched a live streamed, interactive content service to help seniors combat isolation. Further, as in-person visits at assisted living communities were interrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of Eversound’s visitation package proved to be crucial for socially distanced in-person visits. Key customers and partnershipsAs of December 2020, the company’s product is being used in more than 700 senior living communities across the US. Its clients include senior living communities such as Brightview, Commonwealth, and Oakmont. In addition, Eversound has established partnerships with senior living communities (such as The Arbor Company, Bridges by EPOCH, Christian Horizons, and Kisco) to roll out its devices for family visitations, and programmable and live streamed content.

Eversound

Tech-enabled equipment or companionship services that help elderly people function independently.

Platforms that match seniors with home care providers as well as app-based products to facilitate communication between senior families and caregivers

Tech-enabled products used to diagnose, prevent, and treat conditions common among seniors.

Remote monitoring, medical diagnosis, communication, and coordination between caregivers and families of the elderly.

Platforms that help seniors interact socially and communicate with others.

Platforms that help seniors and their families plan and make arrangements to settle the senior’s estates and affairs in the event of death.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for Age Tech

Offers digital platforms that support the wellness of the senior population

Age Tech providers incorporate GenAI to enhance both seniors’ and caregivers’ experiences

Many devices that help seniors operate independently and receive remote treatment use IoT

Some companies use VR to help treat seniors with conditions such as isolation and dementia

Clocr

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