Ep. 28: Crystal Morrison Integrated Village/Meerkat Village

Transcription:

It is definitely without a doubt the dog days of summer here on our Summer of Pittsburgh Tech Stories with Comcast. And I say Dog Days in a good way because it's just like I want this summer to last forever. You reach that point. Some are like, Oh, it's been so hot for so long. I don't care. Because I think we're more than halfway through our storytelling and I don't want it to end because I'm talking to great people like Crystal Morrison. I mean, every day when I do this, I just get so excited because I'm talking to somebody new that just has an incredible story that I'm excited to get out there and crystals cut an incredible story. She's I think she's incredible stories or focus on one girl. Definitely exactly because she's one of the busiest people I know. First and foremost, your data is ever eyes. You do some great work. They're raising a family and now you have a startup that you're that you're you're building called called the meercat village, which is part of the integrated village, which you've done it. So I'm just so excited to talk about what you're doing with your cat village because you're on tech vibe radio a few weeks ago, and I was like crystal, we got to talk more in depth. So welcome to the show crystal thanks for being here.

Oh, you're welcome. Thanks, Jonathan.

Nothing like my convoluted intro to kind of wind it around.

We got there we got there. So first and foremost, if anyone doesn't know who you are, give us your quick background and what you do especially like everise because that's a great company. And then we're gonna jump into this whole thing like you got enough on your plate. So let's let's start up while we're at it.

You know, Jonathan, you were you were spot on when you said Crystal's got some stories? Yeah, my my journey is pretty, pretty crazy one. The quick background is that I am a scientist by training. I originally from Arkansas, which is a great story too. But no, I'm a scientist by training. My bad backgrounds in chemistry. I did my research work at the University of Michigan and then did a postdoc out at Los Alamos National Lab was there for a long time, military and defense crazy stuff and then moved here to Pittsburgh to work in industry. And in my position before I started ever rise, I was the global r&d leader at PPG for industrial coatings. So I've had this great career as a scientist and r&d leader and in global roles. And I started ever rise to focus on developing leaders and strategy and technical companies. And so I've done all of this. And at the same time, I I'm a mom of three kids. I'm a wife, I'm an athlete. I'm like, all of these things. So crystal has so many stories.

Yeah, and now I've worked With some other folks to get integrated village off the ground, of course, absolutely. And so let's get into this because it's just such a cool concept what you're doing the meercat village, part of integrated village. Yeah, and how it helps new children that have some some, I guess, disabilities, I have a bit of all types and kinds of being able, they all have this support group around them, whether it's counselors, or doctors and people that are in the family and an idea to how you can put them all into one platform so they can be connected, all at the same time, I thought was just so cool. And obviously, something it's a passion of yours based on your experience with your children.

And but you're like thinking, well, let's start a company or give us a story about how this all kind of came together. Because I love startup stories. I think they're so good. Now things kind of fall into place. And you just know you're meant to do at some point. So tell us about that.

Yeah, it's it's so true. So My good friend and business partner, Dan participant, Dan and I met a couple years ago, you know, as I mentioned before, and a prize competition information session. And he has spent his entire career working with children and families and educators on how to more effectively help children that have social, emotional and behavioral challenges and help them not only, you know, survive, but thrive, of course, in a school setting and a home setting. And he's done some really amazing work. And as we got to talking, some of the things that were talking, we were talking about immediately resonated with me, as a mother as a mother of three kids, three kids that have come into my life and completely different ways, and three kids that have, you know, really unique needs, and so that that Dan had the concept from your cat knowledge, he had the concept in his mind. And and we were talking about how we could bring it to life and make it a reality. And so that's what we've been doing for the past two years. And there's lots of side stories that go along with that, for sure. I'm sure has gone by super fast.

But yeah,  I'll get time just to get from this. We think this is a cool idea. We're passionate about it, too. We actually got to put a business plan to this. I mean, it's a passion to create something but it doesn't mean anything if someone's not gonna buy it, or use it or deploy it, or whatever that is, you got to make sure that it's something that hits all the requirements, which like I said, there's no easy task. You just mentioned all these things that you do during the course day. How do you say to yourself, I'm gonna do this and he can happen and fit that into your 24 hours, but you have to get stuff done in the course day. Are you sleeping, Liz?

Yeah.

So um, a couple of things. And and this will get into the more more personal side of it. I know we that's part of what we kind of want to talk about. But you know, when you're when you're with Dan and you you hear about these stories and you know about my story as a parent. And you know what, what Dan makes it so clear is that the ability for us to empower families to give them tools to help their children to give teachers and therapists real tools to help these kids that is within our power, like it is totally within our power and his excitement about what's possible. His you know, commitment after a 30 year career in this area is contagious. So that in combination with my own experience as a parent, you know, for us, it was obvious Is that we were going to drive this thing forward come hell or high water so it's kind of that that combination of his his energy and drive and excitement Ashley for what he's doing and my own you know experienced as a mother and and how much I know that meercat goal which would have changed my life if I only had 14 years ago. Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. Very very cool and that's why I can see the passion in you for this thing and I get the extra sauce where you find that time in the day because some of you just know you're impelled, you got to do it. So tell me about the name so it was funny after after audition I wanted to ask you this when you're on tech five radio It was like we ran out of time, but I'm glad we have your time here just like a mere cat you might see all the way around right is is that the idea of like mere cat diligent, what's behind me your cat. Your cats are cool.

Yeah, so this this is a cool story. And it's actually something that that I learned. So what what people don't know, you know, I'm a big nerd I like Nat-geo. So yeah, so turns out that meerkats exist in these highly collaborative communities, where every single adult has a role in making that community thrive, including every single adult has a role in rearing and taking care of the children in a community. Right. Very cool. Yeah. And meerkats really fiercely protect each other. They look out for the community. And they also have some pretty highly effective communication methods. It's crazy, like meerkats. Cool, yeah, you know, the way they chirping each other and all this stuff. So it's very collaborative. community where everybody's on board, everybody, every meercat every meercat is on board with the survival of the community and the, you know, the upbringing of the little, you know, meercat children what your platform does exactly.

So that's exactly the story behind near cat village and why Dan came up with that that name originally is because of this great example we have in nature right of how to actually take care of kids and collaborate in their upbringing.

Very cool. See, that's a great story. It's got some magic to it is extra cool, makes it extra cool. So maybe walk us through like how the platform works. Like Like if I were a parent and say I have a child that that's on the autism spectrum, and they got their doctors and their counselors and in some cases like that, like like, how would I use this until end One thing I love about this is that this is HIPAA compliant so everything is secure. So anyone who's part of this group like it's no rules are being broken, all ethics are being upheld to a higher standard, which is just so important. Because privacy and security is literally on things like this with your children. They can't walk us through.

Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you how your Casper village works, but if you don't mind, Jonathan, I'm gonna expand just a little bit more on the why through connect that to me, yeah, so um, you know, before we talk about how it works, um, you know, Jonathan here we're talking about like my story and, you know, I met I mentioned that that that there's some personal aspects to it. So I am a mother of three awesome kids and they are currently 1114 and 16. One of my children has special needs and as always The autism spectrum. Okay, um, two of my children, I adopted one of my children I adopted as a baby and one of my children I adopted when he was five and a half years old. Wow. So

I don't know about you, man. Yes, Um, but so my family is incredibly neat. You know, I'm a mother and a transracial family. My kids, like I said, have come to me in lots of different ways. And what that means is that there have been so many people engaged in the lives of my children, as they've come to me and as I've parented them, and as I'm raising them, and so not only and, you know, In the case of my son who has special needs, but also in the case of my children who I adopted, there been countless teachers and therapists and physicians and psychiatrists and different professionals, absolutely engaged and not only for for my, my son with Asperger's, but for all three of my children, okay. And me being the communicator between all of these professionals is extremely important that it's also extremely exhausting and not always effective when you're doing it manually. So, that will give you some more perspective, Jonathan on why when I talked to Dan richeson, I was like, holy cow, yeah, I need you. You're in my life. Because I have lived this I have lived in such a real world. So to get back to your question of how it works meercat village is absolutely HIPAA and FERPA compliant. So once a parent receives an invitation to start a village for their child, and that parent could receive an invitation from, you know, the school district or their insurance provider, or perhaps the organization, they're receiving services and therapy through, you know, there's there's a lot of different ways that parents can get access to receiving a village, right, but once that parent receives the invitation to start the village, they create the village for their child, and then they can immediately invite different villagers or adults, right? Yeah, yeah. or adults that work with their children, they can immediately invite them into To the online platform. Now, when they do that invitation, the consent authorization forms and privacy forms and all of that have to be approved and signed off on and all of that is done through the invitation process. Well, you make it pretty seamless for that to happen that is already seamless. you're chasing down random pieces of paperwork from all over wherever in order to get the authorizations.

That's exactly right. And a specific example of that the very first village that a parents set up, they set up the village created it invited, I think, maybe five to seven different villagers. All of the villagers that were invited, had received the email, responded to the consent forms and all of that, and we're in the platform in less than an hour. What are you saying? Wow, less than an hour and cool. You know, as a parent, when I've tried to arrange a phone call with that many professionals, it can take weeks just to get everybody to agree on a time and then weeks before you could even have the call. So this is a game changer and the ability for people to communicate like this and, and the platform once people are in, it's almost like a slack type app platform or an instant messaging platform. You can literally exchange messages back and forth, about, you know, the status of your child's how things are going.

But what keeps everybody in the loop? And so we can be on the same page so much easier than having to make another call and say, Oh, yeah, like talk to them. And, yeah, I'm just seeing how it all comes together. I'm thinking yeah, it's gonna be something that works and you just just you're just your children in general say, I mean, he needs this as a family to keep everybody sharing.

Yeah, it's it's true. And I mean, so you're right, you know, we see it as an opportunity with with children with special needs, you know, social, emotional behavioral needs. But you can imagine if you have a child with, you know, medical needs, and you have all these professionals engaged, or if there's a child in the foster care system that has a lot of people engaged in their life, you know, it makes a lot of obvious sense for keeping all of these adults on the same page and truly providing the support for these kids and families that's really needed to create positive outcomes, right?

Definitely. And so I mean, it also works in the level that now your child's getting better care as well to not only saving time coordinated care, but now they're actually getting better care because everybody's in the loop is works on every level. I'm not thought about this earlier.

Well, you know, the Let's let's be honest, you know, the the system relies still heavily on paperwork and fax machines and physical sign offs. And a lot of people believe that that doing that increases their, you know, security and protects them in different ways. And what, you know, unfortunately, that's not the case. But not only can folks that are in the village, just communicate back and forth with people. You talked about a better care but higher quality of care right now, we can actually on the platform propose different strategies to help the child so let's say a therapist suggests that you know, a visual calendar or a schedule prior to bedtime or different things like that would help improve the transition to bed. Time, you know that therapists can make that proposal and agree, you know, parents or whomever caregivers can agree to carry that out. And then not only can we propose those strategies and, you know, select whether we did them or not, we can also track the child's improvement. Okay, right. That's interesting. Yeah. Okay. Very cool.

Yeah. So we can actually, we do it, it's, it's pretty straightforward. Actually, you know, we just we define the desired outcomes for the children that desire behavior, and the undesirable behavior and simply, you know, every day The, the, the adults, the villagers, whether it's in a school setting or a home setting, can literally go on and say, you know, today there were 10 different opportunities for little business. To have a meltdown, and maybe two of those opportunities, he had undesired behavior. And eight, he had the desired behavior, he handled it, he was able to navigate it. And so that's what we mean by tracking is not only can we communicate, not only can we propose ideas and agree to do them as adults, we can track whether or not the things that we're doing are actually helping and promote the outcome. You can course correct a lot faster, not good six months and then realize something's not working b2b to begin with and realize this is not going to work. Should we try something different?

Heck, yeah, not, you know, just for that child. And so think about the opportunity there. You know, you are starting to understand what's actually working to improve the outcomes for this child. We've really never done that before. And and not only could that be impactful for Little Billy Right, that could be impactful in understanding completely new approaches to providing care for children that needed more effective approaches. So it's a complete game changer.

I love it. Man. That's just so cool. So what's it been like rolling this out and getting it into the marketplace. That's always a scary point where you've been working on this for so long. Now. It's like it all works, we think and I want to get it out and start testing it and get some customers. Yeah.

Oh, man. So much to say here. Um, so Dan and I partnered in the fall of last year, we had worked with some software developers. The fall of last year, we partnered with three new developers, again to create integrated village and golden product out. And we have the product is amazing. We started our beta launch our beta releas in March there's this pandemic right now pandemic going on. Yeah.

So the pandemic has definitely impacted our ability to get it in the hands of people we initially targeted. So childcare facilities, early childhood for now. All right, right. Right. So early childhood programs, early intervention programs. So the pandemic definitely impacted our ability to get the beta version in the hands of some of these these folks. At the same time. If you think about it, the pandemic creates a scenario where the need for meercat village is heightened.

Yeah, the idea that this platform is up and running when this happens and you're still connected, whether you can make an office visit or not So right,

you're still, you're still connected with your support system. Right? Um, and you know, maybe maybe your children aren't in school. But if your support system includes a couple of different therapists and providers and their baseball coach, and maybe you know, there and that, you know, is really close, maybe your support system is not just those professionals, it's it's even further than that. Right. And so, you know, the real challenge with a pandemic right now. Well, there's so many. But, you know, again, these kids with special needs are not in school, they're not in daycare, and we're not seeing a lot of these things. Mm hmm. That is a concern for a lot of reasons. It means that there's there's families that are struggling in a big way and we're just not seeing it right now. But your cat village to answer your question, our beta release was slowed a little bit because The pandemic, the pandemic, of course, heightens the need for something like meercat village. But even though we've been faced with those challenges, we continue to roll it out. In fact, we have our first customer, you know, we're a startup less than a year old, we have revenue, right there. Yeah. Good product, when you got a good product that solves a problem, people are gonna buy it, right?

That's right. So we are working with our first customers, getting them on boarded into the system, getting them, you know, up and running and working with them very closely, to figure out how we can provide them our customers with everything possible to get themselves on boarded, as well as the the parents, the guardians and the villagers that are being invited.

Right. What a cool story like all the way around. I mean, like I said, this is one of the things where I'm just I just inspires me because I feel like I'm not doing it. Look, I can't ask you all you're doing at the end of the day. I mean, this is what's making Pittsburgh boss right. It's having men like you that are laying out a line like this, putting their skin in the game and just giving it all you got. And you're making Pittsburgh proud symbols that.

Thanks, thanks.

Yeah, on doing it, keep on doing it. And I encourage everyone in our notes here to go check out the website and learn more about it because it seems like a powerful solution that just helps on so many levels. Crystal, thanks for hanging out with me today. I appreciate it so much.

Anytime, anytime.

Very great. Once again, this has been Jonathan Kersting with the Pittsburgh tech Council, our friends at Comcast. We tell these awesome stories like Crystal's doing here. We got so many more to come this summer. It's gonna be so much fun.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai