Osvaldo Montelongo is a first generation Mexican that grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated in 2011 from Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights with a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing.
He worked full-time as a global marketing manager in the consumer-packaged goods space for over 9 years for various global companies. But working as a corporate employee and managing products long term was not in Osvaldo’s DNA.
His vision and dreams as an entrepreneur beat faster, especially making a difference in people’s lives.
ConnectCareHero origins started back from an early age for Osvaldo. His dad, Abraham, was a little older than most dads when he had him. From a young age, Osvaldo learned the senior aging journey when his dad started showing symptoms of dementia and quickly required a lot of assistance from him.
One day, the disease quickly progressed and Osvaldo & Abraham’s journey through senior living communities began in 2014.
For the following 4 years, Osvaldo experienced a lot of emotions, including anxiety from not being connected enough to what his dad was participating through activities at the nursing home he was living in.
This was the start of the creation of CCHero. His mission is simple, and that’s to help families stay connected to their loved one by sharing simple moments of them participating in nursing home activity programming through mini pictures and videos.
Osvaldo is a proud LatinX Incubator alumni.
¿What is ConnectCareHero?
CCHero is a Social Activities Management platform that enables senior living communities to create a unique and enhanced experience for seniors and families.
The CCHero platform helps staff complete their work a lot faster and allow them to share what their loved one is participating in through activities.
They help keep families connected through a simple to use Family app and give them a glimpse into their social wellbeing. Just because your loved one is now in a community doesn’t mean you can’t be easily connected to them and feel a part of their life.
The app includes an interactive component making it possible for family members to receive updates about their loved one’s activities—if they participated in a craft project or music session or went for a walk.
“This means family members can stay in touch with how their loved one’s day is going without taking valuable staff time with frequent phone calls,” Montelongo said.
The CCHero team is comprised of a great group of individuals that’s on a mission to help senior living staff & management teams be the HEROS of their communities.
CCHero mission is simple: they’re here to provide enhanced experiences & connect families, staff and seniors through technology.
ConnectCareHero is a HIPAA compliant Social Activities Management Platform.
In addition, we interviewed Osvaldo about the experience of having participated in Latinx.
Read Osvaldo’s full response below. The questions were formulated by the IHCC team and responded back to us by email.
How and where did you find the information to apply in LatinX Incubator?
I stumbled upon the IHCC LatinX Incubator through some of my tech friends who were part of the 1871 ecosystem back in early 2017. Later that year they mentioned that there was a new LatinX Incubator I should apply for but at that moment in time, I felt I was too early in my development so I decided to hold off until 2019 for Cohort #6 and once we had a working tech product with paying customers.
Why did you apply?
I applied because we’re a team that is always looking to grow both professional in our startup but also personally with all the networking opportunities that the LatinX Incubator would offer. We are strong believer that our growth path would be accelerated by having likeminded entrepreneurs and leadership around us.
How would you define your experience during the work and learning process?
The best words that would define our experience are: accelerated learning, network and scale.
What do you think was more useful during the 12 weeks of work?
I think the most useful part of the LatinX 12 week program would be the vast networking opportunities the leadership team put you in front of. From making personalized intros to potential customers or them hosting awesome events to get your name out there. All crucial for a early stage startup.
Would you recommend others to apply?
I would recommend any early stage startup to apply, especially if you’re looking to accelerate your growth through their network and as a great unveiling party with the LatinX Demo Day in front of hundreds of individuals.
What was the value of being in the LatinX Incubator at the later stage of business?
For us in particular, it was very beneficial because we could take time to review all the part of our business sometimes that gets overlooked. Taking 3 months to do a deep dive of best practices and see where we can optimize our startup & improve our positioning / messaging was key in where we’re at now.
What business decisions did you make after leaving the Incubator to improve the profitability of your company?
We improved our messaging & positioning to help resonate much better with our potential customers, which ultimately provided more & faster revenue for our startup.
How was the growth of your company after this process?
It’s continuing to grow. We are now in COVID-19 environment and having ability to pick up the phone and call the LatinX team for advise is priceless. As we navigate this new normal, we are consistently working with them to get their thoughts on new partnership and / or go-to marketing strategy advise.
The Latinx Incubator is a first-of-its-kind partnership between Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) and 1871. The mission of the incubator is to grow the pipeline of Latinx entrepreneurs participating in and contributing to the Chicago tech and innovation economy. Interested startups will be required to complete an application through 1871. To receive a link to this application, please click here.