A Place for Mom

Market position

Described as the largest senior care referral marketplace in North America and the category leader in senior living referrals, serving more than 300,000 families annually, with over 2 million families having used the service. Some operators have pushed back on referral economics: Five Star Senior Living reduced move-ins originating from the company to cut referral fees.

Scale of its provider network across the U.S. and Canada, a nationwide team of local advisors combined with an online platform, a no-cost model for families, and ownership of the SeniorAdvisor.com reviews site with a large base of consumer reviews.

Technology

An online platform combining provider data, consumer reviews and matching tools used by local advisors to pair families with communities; investors describe an insight-driven, data-driven platform, and post-2017 plans included further investment in advanced data collection, analytics and cloud-based initiatives. Provider-facing technology includes a partner portal for managing referrals, performance, billing and account activity.

Go-to-market

The company acquires families through its consumer website and content resources and converts them via local senior living advisors who deliver personalized recommendations at no cost. On the supply side it recruits communities and home care agencies into its network through sign-up funnels, dedicated account support, coaching and training, local market benchmarking and ROI reporting. It has used consumer advertising featuring former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden, and previously entered a strategic relationship with Move, Inc. under which its senior housing listings also appeared on SeniorHousingNet.com.

Older adults and their family caregivers searching for senior care, and the supply side of senior living communities, care homes and private-pay home care agencies seeking move-ins and client referrals.

Geography

Serves the United States and Canada, with a Canadian subsidiary, city-level coverage across major U.S. metropolitan areas and a nationwide network of local advisors; headquarters at 530 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, having previously been based in Seattle.

History

Founded in 1999-2000 by Pamala Temple, John Temple and Brian Trisler in Washington state, the company raised $9.5 million from Battery Ventures in 2006. Warburg Pincus acquired a majority stake in July 2010. In November 2016 the company acquired competing referral service OurParents, adding about 2,500 facilities. In August 2017 Warburg Pincus sold its majority stake to General Atlantic and Silver Lake, which took equal stakes and each added two directors. In January 2022 the company raised $175 million led by Insight Partners at a valuation above $1 billion. Leadership passed from CEO Sean Kell, who led the company through the 2017 sale, to CEO Larry Kutscher.

Risks & controversies

A December 2017 class-action lawsuit alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, claiming the company did not adequately disclose or obtain written consent for robocalling; a $6 million settlement reached in September 2019 was rejected by a Washington district court for not being based on clearly defined objective criteria. Senior living providers have expressed mixed views on the referral model, with Five Star Senior Living cutting move-ins sourced from the company to reduce referral fees.