GetSetUp India

A challenge affecting communities in India and globally is the health education and support needs of women aged 60 and above. This demographic grew up without access to nutrition, health interventions, and financial support.

Women tend to live longer than men in India, leading to more elderly women. This demographic shift raises concerns regarding older women's social and healthcare needs. Despite these challenges, older women often have less access to the necessary health resources and educational support needed to manage their conditions effectively. This demographic faces unique health challenges, including higher rates of chronic diseases, mental health issues, and greater susceptibility to social isolation, which significantly impact their quality of life. Generally, this demographic hasn’t participated in the formal economy, and they don’t have access to pension funds or health benefits throughout their life or after 60.

According to the 2011 Census, India is home to 104 million remarkable individuals over 60, making up 8.6% of the total population, with a notable number of women in this age group. As per the UNFPA India Ageing report 2023, at 60 years, a person in India may expect to live another 18.3 years, which is higher in the case of females at 19 years compared to males at 17.5 years. This makes women more vulnerable as traditional societies and structures in India have not allowed them to work, have a source of income, and own no assets. 

Also, as per the India Ageing Report 2023 by the UNFPA, the percentage of the elderly population in India is projected to increase significantly, with women constituting a substantial portion of this demographic. The older adult population (60 years and above) is expected to reach 319 million by 2050, with a considerable percentage being women. Globally, the number of persons aged 60 years or over is projected to double to 2.1 billion by 2050. 

At GetSetUp India, we address this challenge for women aged 60+ by providing them with learning and socializing opportunities that enhance their digital literacy and health education. This approach empowers them to manage their health, connect with peers, and reduce social isolation, significantly improving their quality of life and independence.

Recognizing the shifting demographics and the increasing need for services that cater specifically to older adults, GetSetUp India aims to empower older women with access to health and wellness resources, empowering women to lead healthier and more informed lives. With over a third of our team members being over 50, they, too, play an important role in shaping our services to ensure they meet the needs of this demographic. GetSetUp’s India approach also includes hosting local events, conducting Whatsapp support groups, hosting peer-led community hours, and organizing meetups that promote socializing and active engagement among our community members, enhancing their mental health and combating isolation. By continuously evolving and expanding our course offerings to include the latest technology and health practices, we want to be relevant and responsive to the needs of our active aging community.

Our offerings are peer-to-peer and delivered via audio, video, recordings, and screenings in public places. These include:

Access to Medical Information and Professionals

Through our online classes, GetSetUp India offers direct access to information necessary for early diagnosis and medical solutions. We facilitate connections with healthcare professionals, allowing older women to consult with doctors and specialists from the comfort of their homes, thus overcoming traditional barriers to medical access.

Financial and Healthcare Navigation

We recognize the importance of financial health in overall well-being, especially for older women who may have yet to have prior exposure to managing finances. Our classes cover topics such as managing health insurance, understanding sources of income, and navigating government schemes. This education empowers women to make informed decisions about their financial and healthcare needs. Learning about inheritance laws and their financial rights empowers them to navigate and seek help.

Social Connections and Mental Health

GetSetUp India actively combats social isolation through group community classes that foster social connections. These classes provide a platform for older women to engage in discussions on often taboo topics such as incontinence, urinary tract infections, and experiences with treatments like chemotherapy in a supportive and safe environment. By facilitating these conversations, we help break down stigmas and promote mental health among our community members.

Culturally Sensitive Fitness Classes

Understanding the cultural context in India, where it might be rare for older women to engage in physical workouts publicly, GetSetUp India offers fitness classes from home. These classes are led by women for women, providing a safe and encouraging environment where our community can exercise without fear of judgment. 

Our range of resources enables active agers, especially women aged 60+, to learn new skills, stay healthy, connect with others, and feel empowered—all through a simple click of a button. This accessibility is particularly vital for those in rural areas with internet access and individuals with limited mobility, allowing them to join a vibrant community of peers for learning, sharing, and interaction.

Our target population consists of older adults, with a particular focus on women aged 60 and above, who are often underserved in digital literacy, health education, and social engagement. This demographic typically faces challenges such as social isolation, limited access to healthcare information, and reduced mobility, which can exacerbate health issues and diminish quality of life. Older women are especially vulnerable due to cultural and societal norms that may restrict their participation in physical activities and limit their access to technology and health resources.

GetSetUp India’s approach is not just about providing services but creating a dynamic, supportive community that empowers older adults to lead healthier, more connected lives. We address the underserved demographic's specific challenges, enhancing their ability to live independently. Through our customized solutions, we are committed to providing an empowering and personalized learning experience specifically designed for women 55+. 

We’ve empowered thousands of women to understand key health issues as they age and launched free resources created by doctors in multiple languages for the same. There are community support groups around fitness and health where they can participate in challenges and feel accomplished through those levels. We also teach them about their financial rights and information about land disputes, asset ownership, and inheritance. We’ve launched a free portal for this information called FinWise, which has this information in multiple languages. 

Our mission is key to building community and combating social isolation. We achieve this by offering a safe and supportive environment where our community can connect with peers through live, interactive classes and social events, fostering a strong sense of belonging. Designed for scalability and customization, GetSetUp India is adept at swiftly adapting and expanding its offerings based on our users' changing needs and feedback, ensuring our content remains relevant and responsive to active agers' specific challenges and interests.

Our team is a global team from around the world.

GetSetUp India is a subsidiary of GetSetUp US that focuses on developing markets. The product, tech, and content are all designed specifically for India and currently serve the Indian population. Two of our co-founders, Neil Dsouza and Deval Delivala, were born in India and know that market, and one of our co-founders, Lawrence Kosick, is 50+ as well, so part of the demographic we are looking to serve. 

Deval has experience building and scaling businesses globally, including Uber, where she led global expansion. Neil has built education startups and tech platforms that cater to audiences ranging from underprivileged schools in India to tech customers in Silicon Valley. Lawrence has experience working with governments and partnering with private and public institutions to enable distribution.

Over a third of our team members are over 50, embodying the demographic GetSetUp India aims to empower. This ensures our offerings are genuinely peer-led and enhances our courses' authenticity and empathy. Our guides, who deliver our content in multiple Indian languages and are also over 50, teach skills directly relevant to their peers, fostering an environment of mutual understanding and support. We maintain a dynamic feedback loop with our community, consistently engaging them through surveys, interviews, and other interactions to refine and evolve our offerings based on their direct input and needs. This ongoing dialogue ensures that our product development and service enhancements are deeply informed by the individuals who benefit from them.

This approach ensures that our team doesn’t just deliver solutions but does so with a deep, empathetic understanding of the challenges and needs of the communities we serve. This grounding in real-world experience and continuous community feedback positions us ideally to create impactful, meaningful solutions that resonate with and truly benefit older adults.

GetSetUp India is at a growth stage. We’ve raised some money from our parent entity. We are trying to grow the operation by giving Indian women in any part of the world access to the platform with our multiple language options. We have built and tested multiple community modes, with WhatsApp being the biggest, followed by a new Android app launch in India. India is a mobile-first market, and while most have access to a phone, we need to make access to the content easy.

We’ve focused on building free resources in digital safety, health, financial wellness, and in-person camps to address these issues. We’ve partnered with large banking institutions, senior care homes, and non-profit organizations that do grassroots work to acquire this customer base and distribute our content. We have served a purely online audience of 2M so far, with another 75K registering on our site with their details and through the partner networks mentioned above.

At GetSetUp India, we are passionate about transforming how older adults engage with technology, learn new skills, and connect with their communities. We want to empower them to live their best, healthiest, active lives. Whether it's healthcare, government, or nonprofit sectors, we believe in the value of the potential partnerships that being a Solver team could bring. These collaborations can integrate our platform into broader initiatives aimed at improving the lives of active agers, thereby amplifying our impact.

Public-Private Partnerships: By collaborating, we can develop specialized programs that address the unique health and wellness needs of older adults from diverse backgrounds, including ethnic minorities and those with disabilities. We can also contribute to shaping policies that promote technology's role in improving health access. Engaging in policy discussions and forums through Solve can help advocate for adopting tech solutions like GetSetUp India on a broader scale. 

Government and Research: While ageing is a big problem globally, and India is slowly starting to put up some good research and government resources behind the same - we could do much more. With the help of MIT Solve, we can access certain relationships with think tanks and shape policy so that there is an advocate for older women at the table. It's not enough to live longer; we want to be able to provide a model to live an active life to reduce the burden on the state and government on a large and rapidly ageing population.

Media and Press: Another area in which we need help is PR. We need to write more about how active ageing and improving the social determinants of health can improve health outcomes for seniors and reduce healthcare costs. By focusing on stories empowering older women, we wish to change the narrative from "they need help" to "let's empower them." A platform like MIT Solve can help us shape that strategy.

Further, through Solve, we hope to connect with partners with similar visions and leverage their technical expertise to advance our platform's offerings. We recognize the cultural nuances in how older adults perceive and utilize technology across different regions. Solve's global community would allow us to gain insights into creating culturally relevant content, thus enhancing user engagement and breaking down adoption barriers. 

What sets GetSetUp India’s platform apart is its peer-to-peer learning model, comprehensive integration of interactive learning technologies, community-building tools, and tailored content that directly addresses the specific challenges older women face. Our content directly addresses older women's health needs, incorporating topics often overlooked, such as chronic disease management, mental health, and women-specific health issues like menopause and incontinence by Guides, who are their contemporaries, enhancing relatability and easing communication barriers.

By normalizing these discussions in a safe and supportive environment, GetSetUp helps reduce the stigma associated with certain health conditions and treatments, empowering women to seek help and share their experiences more openly. This open dialogue is crucial for improving health outcomes and ensuring that older women feel supported by medical professionals and their peers. 

Additionally, we reach out to those in rural and remote areas, where access to health resources can be scarce, making our platform a tool for health empowerment across diverse geographic locations. Through these efforts, GetSetUp delivers health education and fosters a supportive network, empowering older women in India to lead healthier and more informed lives.

At GetSetUp, we are dedicated to addressing the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) by empowering older women through education and community engagement. We are looking to improve three main areas: physical health, mental health, and combating loneliness. These three factors can significantly improve health outcomes.

In our tech-driven world, we mustn't leave our aging population behind. Technology allows us to scale quickly, and with AI, we can support more older adults, especially by connecting with them through different languages. Platforms like GetSetUp can help women excel in the digital world and emphasize the importance of lifelong learning as a critical social determinant of health, equipping them with the necessary tools for empowerment. 

GetSetUp's initiatives extend into creating resource-specific hubs for cyber safety, finance, and health, aiming to empower women to manage their finances, lead healthier lives, and build vibrant communities. These pillars—finance, health, and community—are fundamental social determinants of health that significantly impact our aging population's well-being and quality of life. 

Our impact goals at GetSetUp are centered around significantly improving the lives of older adults, particularly women over 60, by enhancing their access to health education, reducing social isolation, and promoting independence and lifelong learning. These goals align with:

1. Improve Health and Well-being (SDG 3):

• Goal: Increase the health literacy and management of chronic diseases among women as they age.
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • 1000+ hours of health programming
  • Self-reported improvements in managing health conditions or adopting healthier behaviors.

• Goal: Provide accessible, relevant, and engaging educational content to women over 60.
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • 1000+ hours of technology training in multiple languages through long-form and short-form videos
  • 2 Million audience reach online in India 

• Goal: Empower older women by providing equal access to all educational and health resources.
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • 95% of our audience is women
  • The intergenerational effects of healthier women who pass it on to their children and grandchildren reduce the burden of care that falls on women. Support this with data through surveys and interviews of their experience on the platform. 

• Goal: Equip women with skills necessary for economic independence. 
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • Employ women Guides on the platform who generate hourly wages and are finding financial independence post-60
  • Study the number of older adults starting new businesses or generating revenue post-attending sessions.
  • 1000+ hours watched in courses related to economic skills and financial literacy in India.

• Goal: To ensure women, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, have equal access to our platform.
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • Content in regional languages 
  • Showcase content in regional and underserved areas. 
  • Access rates of participants from rural versus urban areas.

• Goal: Collaborate with organizations, healthcare providers, and educational institutions to expand the reach and impact of our solution to women.
• GetSetUp Metrics:
  • Partner with the top 5 banking institutions in Indiab with reach and access to over 10 Million Customers. 

At GetSetUp, we use different modern technologies to empower and engage our community of older adults. We incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor the learning experience to users’ preferences and learning habits. This personalization ensures our users feel supported and engaged, making their learning process effective and enjoyable. Additionally, AI aids in building community by identifying common interests among users, prompting them to connect in specialized groups or classes, thereby fostering a supportive network. We also use Zoom's Software Development Kit (SDK) to run our platform. This lets us offer live, interactive classes and social events with high-quality video and audio, making it easy for participants to connect and communicate in real-time. 

Additionally, we use WhatsApp to enhance our community-building efforts, considering we are working in a developing community. WhatsApp helps us reach our user base, which uses this software daily. It helps our support keep in touch with our users by sending updates about upcoming classes, sharing learning materials, and encouraging discussions outside class. By combining AI, Zoom, and WhatsApp, we create an accessible and friendly environment that meets the needs of older adults. This approach makes learning enjoyable and helps build a supportive community, ensuring that our solutions are adaptable and effective in improving the lives of our users worldwide.

In the GetSetUp India Team, we have 3 full-time staff, 6 people as full-time contractors and 30 Guides as part-time staff. 

3 years

At GetSetUp, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, aligning with MIT Solve’s core values on these critical issues. Our approach to diversity starts with our leadership and extends throughout our entire organization. Our leadership team includes individuals from varied cultural backgrounds and life experiences, including co-founders from India and a co-founder of the demographic we serve over 55. This diversity enhances our understanding and responsiveness to the needs of the communities we engage with. Additionally, we have made a conscious effort to hire women and older adults over 55, ensuring that our team reflects the diversity of our user base. 

We have a flexible onboarding program for empowerment. This approach not only supports their participation in the workforce but also enriches our team with their invaluable experience and maturity. We have internal policies that promote open communication and respect for all voices and create a safe environment where everyone can express themselves and contribute fully.

Our business model operates on a subscription basis where organizations, such as for-profit and non-profits, pay a minimal monthly fee to provide their older adult community free access to our platform. This model is designed to be financially sustainable while offering substantial value to the organizations and their members. Partnerships allow us to keep our services free to end users. Our services include various courses and community-building activities focused on health management, digital literacy, financial competency, and social engagement, all tailored to enhance the independence and well-being of older adults. This approach not only supports the financial goals of GetSetUp but also significantly enriches the lives of older women. 

Our strategy for achieving financial sustainability is anchored in monetizing through Business-to-Business (B2B) partnerships and securing strategic investments. We have established partnerships with banks, non-profits, and various organizations that wish to offer our educational and community-building services to their communities of active agers. These partnerships are structured on a subscription basis, providing a steady revenue stream that supports our operational costs and growth initiatives. We are also monetizing through government initiatives on health equity for older women.

In addition to these B2B partnerships, we are actively engaging with strategic investors to raise capital that will enable us to expand our offerings and reach. The investment funds are primarily used for technological enhancements, expanding our course catalog, and scaling our marketing efforts to reach a broader audience.