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Tune in to learn how Prisidio founder Glenn Shimkus was inspired to make the world a better place. Prisidio’s virtual vault allows people the comfort of knowing their most important informational assets are safe, ensuring their loved ones are prepared for post-life planning. In this interview, hosted by Tanya Perkins, COO of Tembo Health, Glenn reveals what motivated him to tackle the challenge of not knowing where loved ones kept their informational assets after they passed away. He delves into the significance of trust in the eyes of consumers and shares how he managed to solidify that trust within Prisidio’s customer base. Finally, Glenn emphasizes that starting a business is a “team sport” and offers valuable advice to aspiring startup founders.
Tanya Perkins, Host:
Welcome the AgeTech Talks, conversations about AgeTech powered by AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, leading a global mission to drive innovation at the nexus of longevity and technology. You’re tuning into a series of discussions recorded live at CES 2024 that highlight the dynamic startup founders who are making aging easier for everyone by pioneering innovative AgeTech solutions. In conversation with fellow startup founders Kyle Rand and Tanya Perkins, each episode invites an AgeTech Collaborative startup founder to discuss their journey and share the invaluable lessons they’ve learned along the way. Today, we’re thrilled to have Glenn Shimkus, co-founder and CEO of Prisidio, to share their story.
Hello all of you out there in CES land. And this is Tanya Perkins, and we are doing podcasting live from CES on the behalf of the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP. And we are doing startup stories. So Glenn, first of all, thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us: Who are you? What do you do? What’s your company?
Glenn Shimkus:
So I’m Glenn, co-founder and CEO of Prisidio. And we have built a digital vault to help families and individuals pull together their most important information, keep it safe, securely share it with loved ones, and make sure it’s not lost if and when something happens to you.
Tanya Perkins:
Awesome. Well, first of all, your product sounds amazing. And we are going to get a lot more into what you do and why. But before we do, something that we’re asking everybody is: What makes you tick? What is something that we should know about Glenn and how they operate in the world?
Glenn Shimkus:
Well, I’m a passionate person. I am really intent and our team is intent on helping people. As a team, we know several people that lost their lives last year. We know several people impacted by natural disasters. You’re dealing with people at their most vulnerable. And if we can be one small piece of helping them move forward and make that process a little bit easier, that’s what we get up for every day.
Tanya Perkins:
I’d love to know a little bit more about that wanting to serve others. What makes you want to help other people?
Glenn Shimkus:
It really starts that I’ve been blessed in my life. I’ve been fortunate because so many people have been there to help me on that journey, and I just feel like it’s my obligation, it’s business stuff like this. I spent many year on the board of trustees for one of the largest food banks in Chicago area. My wife and I volunteer at a homeless shelter outside of Chicago for many years. It’s one thing to live a life, and sometimes everything is like, “Well, that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” but I think the more that you invest in making the world a better place and doing your little small part, I get so much more out of that every single time than I put into it. But just the returns are just so intense and they’re inspiring.
Tanya Perkins:
Let me recap for y’all what I just heard. First and foremost, recognizing that you’re blessed and wanting to share those blessings. But then also, recognizing that you can use ROI, use this word, invest. And you also talked about return on investment, that idea that you can invest in your community and others get a benefit out of that, but then also, personally getting a benefit, and then also recognizing that for you to be blessed, someone else had to invest back there.
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah. None of this is ourselves by ourselves. There’s always people involved. Honestly, I believe this. My job every day is to make the world a better place. And I think we lose sight of one another in today’s world and I think that’s kind of a root of a lot of challenges is where it’s all about me. But it’s also about: How do we help others? And the funny thing is, no matter how much you try to do that, you always get more back than you put in, in terms of effort and energy. And it’s just funny how that happens.
Tanya Perkins:
You are the perfect podcast guest because you almost just gave me my segue to my next section. One of the beautiful things here about the AgeTech Collaborative is how many of these companies are focused in on making what I like to call the second half of your century, just wonderful. Literally, guys, I’m sitting in the CES looking at the AgeTech Collaborative pavilion, and we can all use a lot of these technologies. And speaking of the segue, let’s talk about your origin story of the business. What made you start Prisidio?
Glenn Shimkus:
This is actually my fourth startup. And my last one was something I created because of my wife. She was an accountant, stayed at home raising our children, went back to work as a realtor. What I saw really quickly is my wife printing a lot of documents, running around to get signatures. I’m what I refer to as a document management nerd. This is what I’ve done my entire career. And then I applied it to my wife, and long story short, I created this product called Cartavi. It was a transaction room to help real estate professionals. Sold that to Docusign, but fast forward is, I was using that product not because I’m a realtor. I was using it because I had a room set up for all of my power of attorneys and my will because it’s one thing to have them, but if no one knows about them or how to access them, they’re useless. Right?
I had room set up every time I did my taxes every year. And I was like, “Huh? As an individual, I have the same problems that I’ve been trying to help companies address.” And so I started kind of peeling back and doing some research, and I realized that we as individuals have the same challenges that I’ve been trying to address as businesses. And then as that was happening, my attorney from startup through selling the last company lost his dad. And he knew I was kind of thinking about this process and he said, “You have no idea the pain points of how much is lost. How do I find what my dad had? How do I know where everything is? How do I know who his insurance agent was, or his financial advisor, or where he banked?” And he’s like, “Glenn, this is a real idea.” That was the origin. It was actually rooted from my last company.
Tanya Perkins:
What did you do to go ahead and vet that this wasn’t just something that was for your friends, wasn’t just something that was for your wife’s business? How did you figure out that, “Mmm you know what, this has some legs, let’s go ahead and walk?”
Glenn Shimkus:
So what I started doing is: What do I think the need is? The first version, the point one version of Prisidio was a spreadsheet. And it had four tabs. Documents, people, places, and things is our four components. I don’t remember what I called them, but it wasn’t that on these tabs. I said, “Okay. What do I want to know about my life?” If something happened to me, what do I want my wife to know? What do I want my children to know that we had or who we worked with? And so I started just with that. And at the same time, I started looking into marketplace. Who’s doing anything that you could say related to this? What are others doing to address this? And if people go, “Yeah, that’s cool,” that’s one thing.
But if you get people go, “Oh, my God. That’s brilliant. There’s got to be something like that, that exists today.” Then you know. You’re like, “Okay, this is interesting,” because there isn’t. Every single company that had tried some component had failed. So where’s that disconnect? Why? If we all have the need, but no one’s having success, why is that? So that’s where we spent most of our time in the research and digging into it. Not: Is this an interesting idea? Is there a market demand for it? It’s why there is, and others have spotted that. But why has no one had success?
Tanya Perkins:
Why didn’t other people have success in this area?
Glenn Shimkus:
If I came to you as your realtor 15 years ago and I said, “Okay, Tanya. You want to put an offer in,” I’m going to go home. You’re going to get an email from Docusign. You’re going to type your name in. You’re like, “Hold up, hold up. Is this legal? Is my bank going to accept it? Who are these people? Can I do it?” And so much about it was trust, and that’s the same with us. What’s a digital vault and who are you, if you’re saying this is my most important stuff? So ultimately, it came down to we realized you can’t just go directly to the consumer because there’s so much challenge and ache getting to the consumer and standing out. But it’s also this big trust. How do people know?
And so for me, I was incredibly deliberate about trying to work with AARP. Being associated with AARP and having them get to know us and say, “Hey, this is a good company. We believe in them. They should be part of the AgeTech Collaborative,” that helps us get the story out and it helps us with trust. And that’s such a big component of our solution, is trust.
Tanya Perkins:
Speaking of your success, you were telling us some amazing things about just your churn rates. How do you operate as a founder, as a CEO and the product you build, and the experience that your customers have?
Glenn Shimkus:
For us, I think the greatest skill we have as a company is listening to understand. What do we got to do better? What’s missing? How are you using it? How can we benefit you more? Listening, listening, listening. And listening to understand, not to tell you why you’re wrong, or why you should think differently.
Tanya Perkins:
What is a thing that has allowed you to get such passionate customers that are going to actually call your support line, give you that feedback? Is there something that you need to do in terms of just setting up that conversation?
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah. I think part of it has been our social media strategy. And we’re still learning, we’re still growing, but it’s getting out there and telling people we want feedback. And it’s those little things, it’s being out there, being available, being vulnerable, and telling people about it. We have how-to videos, 60 second, 90 second videos right in front of you. I don’t want you to have to go, “Oh, how do I share something with someone in Prisidio? How do I know? I shared this with Tanya. Did Tanya look at it?” You’re my customer. You shouldn’t have to work to find out how to use our product. Get caught up, or if something doesn’t make sense, you’re like, “Guys, this is great, but you got to do this too.” Tell us.
Tanya Perkins:
Let them know how to use the product. Then you need to let them know how to get in contact with your team. And you should probably have various forms, so that some people prefer to call, other people prefer to write or I guess tweet. And then you’ve got to follow up.
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah. Yeah. Because by the way, when you’re doing this in social land, if you don’t, people are going to be like, “Oh, I see that person sent a message. That person sent a message,” and no one responds, so guess what, they don’t care. When something goes wrong, that’s when you build loyalty. That’s when people really see who you are, what your character is, and that you really are out there to help them.
Tanya Perkins:
For so many out there, that actually is very counterintuitive, especially when you are thinking about things involving healthcare or cybersecurity. What would you say is the reason why people are willing to work with a startup? What do you think it is that allows people or consumers, particularly your early adopters, to be willing to do that?
Glenn Shimkus:
I was very fortunate many years ago. One of the books I read was by Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm. And it hit on this thing called early adopters. You’re always going to have early adopters, and they’re going to understand. Now some people are going to want it to be the perfect solution and that’s okay. But you’re going to have a lot of people out there that will invest in you if you invest in them. People want to see action and rightly so. And so I think it’s just this notion of, there’s always people that are looking for that early solution for fall detection, or helping someone with dementia or Alzheimer’s. There’s always people that have the need and it’s a pain. They’re looking for a pain killer, not a vitamin, not a like, “I know I should do that.”
With us, if someone lost someone in their life, a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister, a spouse, a partner, they know this is a pain point and they know the real challenge. And they’re looking because they don’t want to put their children in the same position they were in, or the spouse in the same position they were in. Right? You listen, you’re responsive to your customers. You show them you’re really intent on solving the problem, they’ll join you on the journey. And they’ll invest in you just as you’re investing in them.
Tanya Perkins:
So as you were speaking, you mentioned books and you mentioned that you’re an avid reader. You’ve got a very busy life. How do you fit books in?
Glenn Shimkus:
Well, travel is a great time to fit them in. Exercise, I try and go out for a walk first thing in the morning for about 45 minutes right when the sun comes up. That’s a great time for an audiobook. When I’m taking a break and trying to unwind, I bring a physical book with me so I can read. And that is refreshing and quenching my brain.
Tanya Perkins:
Are you also a fan of any of those short form ones like Blinkist or anything like that?
Glenn Shimkus:
I’m not. It’s the funniest thing. I’m technology through and through. I won’t read a book on my iPad because I’ll get distracted by something else. There’s so many of these things that you think, “Okay, tech forward, early adopter,” and I’m just like, “Nope, can’t do that.”
Tanya Perkins:
I have a full vision of Glenn working, tons of Slack messages coming in, and it hitting a certain hour and you just closing your laptop and snuggling up with a book.
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah, I do. I mean, I literally try and put my phone down every night at 9:00. We are just bombarded with communications.
Tanya Perkins:
Okay, so you decompress listening to or reading business books, very big insight into how your brain works.
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah, and things you wouldn’t expect. I mean, my guilty pleasure, I listen to one podcast, one, that’s it.
Tanya Perkins:
Which is?
Glenn Shimkus:
SmartLess.
Tanya Perkins:
Is there either a book out there that you love or just even a list of books that you regularly look to, to find your next one that you’re going to read?
Glenn Shimkus:
Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is a great one. It’s one that it’s probably the book I’ve read the most multiple times. But Finding Your Why, Simon Sinek, is such a great message. Find your why. Start with your why. It all starts with: Why are you doing this? And by the way, then if you get a bunch of people on your team that have that same belief and passion and vision in the why, and you build that community, this is what we’re here for with AgeTech Collaborative. It’s community.
Tanya Perkins:
You talked to us about your story about how you were helping your wife think about document management and things like that for her real estate business. There’s a moment in there for everybody when they’re doing something that looks like it’s a project, or a hobby, and then they turn around and go, “This is a business and we’re doing it, and I’m a founder.” What did that look like for you?
Glenn Shimkus:
It’s very clear. For me, I started working on the idea, and then as I mentioned, my attorney, who has been a friend, lost his father. And then a friend of mine lost his father. It was starting to crystallize that there’s a need. As soon as COVID hit, this went from, I think I got something and there’s a need, to this is go time, this is now where we do it, form the company, started hiring my team. And it went from a passion project between myself and my co-founder, Paul, who had been working on it for years with Jim, this attorney, to, all right, we’re doing it. We’re in. That was our moment.
Tanya Perkins:
What do you know now that you wish you knew before, either before starting your business, or as you were doing your business? What do you wish you knew?
Glenn Shimkus:
I think it’s a lesson I’ve learned. Entrepreneurship is a team sport. It really is. You’ve got to have so many people around, and I’m not just talking about people that are your employees and kind of on the same ship. It’s your investors. It’s your advisors. For me, it’s my wife. She is my biggest fan, my biggest supporter. It’s my children, who sent me a text this morning and say, “Go Dad. We’re thinking of you.” It’s my sister-in-law sent me a text this morning because every bit of that adds up.
I think it’s a lesson I’ve already learned is you can have a good idea. You can come up with a good product. None of this, very rarely I should say, very rarely is it, it’s just one person, one idea. It’s a team sport and you need the right people around you in so many different areas. But if you find that, man, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.
Tanya Perkins:
Is there some magic formula in terms of going out there and finding a team? And by the way, you spoke about a team not only in the, this is a team working on this startup or this project, but you talked about a team also with respect to your personal life and how that also impacts your ability to conduct your business.
Glenn Shimkus:
I was very lucky early in my career. I joined this tech company out of Chicago named Platinum Technology. And this was one of the fastest growing companies. They were the highest return on the NASDAQ the year I joined them when they went public. And I saw, I paid attention, I learned. I was a part of this really high-flying startup in the internet boom and then bust. It was an incredible ride up and an incredible ride down. And I say it was like, by the way, being part of a startup before payroll is a lot better than being a part of a startup post-payroll.
Tanya Perkins:
Can you tell folks out here who may be thinking about either starting a business, focused in on helping those with the second half of their century, or even just getting in some sort of relationship with AgeTech Collaborative, what would you tell them that they should be considering as they’re going about planning their next steps?
Glenn Shimkus:
You just got to be self-aware. You’ve got to be honest with yourself. You’ve got to want input. You’ve got to listen to it. If you say, “Hey, give me feedback,” and then when someone gives you the feedback you don’t want it. I think it just starts with that self-awareness because I know so many people that have created businesses from scratch and they’re in so many different areas that you’re like, “I had no idea that was a business.” You’ve got to pay attention and start with the right intention because if you’re like, “I’m going to go start a company because I want to become famous, or I want to become rich, or I want to whatever,” that doesn’t work.
Tanya Perkins:
It’s so true. And I think that really hearkens back to what we were talking about before about wanting to serve your community and being a part of this bigger picture, which is we’re all on this globe together. Right? There are things that you can start creating, and if you’re listening to your audience, you may be helping folks 50 plus, you may be helping the entire population. You just really don’t know. But if you’re listening, there is a product somewhere in there, or a service somewhere in there, and it may be something that is perfect for the AgeTech Collaborative or may not be. But coming into this conversation asking questions of other companies, asking questions of the experts on the team will give you a lot of information about what you need to do next.
Glenn Shimkus:
Yeah. These classic moments in time, we’re going through the AARP accelerator and we’re going through and learning all the different components. And how do you message to, and how to you make sure the product, the buttons are right and all this stuff? And we were talking about getting your message out there. And the AARP folks are like, “Are you guys on TikTok? You should be on TikTok.” And I’m sitting there going, “TikTok, gosh, didn’t even think about that.” And there’s AARP and everyone’s thinking, “Oh, okay.” Again, AARP, older people don’t use technology, don’t use social media. And AARP is telling me, “You guys need to be on TikTok,” and I was just like, “Oh, yeah. Didn’t think of that.”
Tanya Perkins:
So much fun. Thank you so much, Glenn, for taking the time today to speak with me. Again, this is Tanya Perkins with the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP. And we’re doing startup stories, and we just had Glenn Shimkus doing Shimkus effort from Prisidio.
Glenn Shimkus:
Thank you so much for having me.
Tanya Perkins:
Thanks for listening to AgeTech Talks from AgeTech Collaborative from AARP. You can learn more about today’s guest and all the innovative startups in the AgeTech Collaborative by visiting the startup directory on agetechcollaborative.org.
