- Founded by Audrey Lo, Jenny Wen, and Kai Leviyang, to address eldercare challenges with emotionally intelligent robotics.
- Sam, designed to as both practical and compassionate for seniors living at home.
- The achievements signal a promising future where technology enhances elderly care without losing humanity
Every great startup begins with a deeply felt problem, so as Quo Labs. This company is founded by 3 teenagers—Audrey Lo, Jenny Wen, and Kai Leviyang—who watched their own grandparents struggle with the realities of aging, where care was either unaffordable, inaccessible or simply insufficient. Seeing this gap in support, the trio decided to skip the conventional path, move to San Francisco, and embark on a mission to radically change the status quo of eldercare.
The Objective: Making Care Human-Centered and Intelligent
Quo Labs’ central objective is to merge the emotional intelligence of human interaction with the power of advanced robotics. Their goal is not merely to build a machine, but an "emotionally intelligent home robot" that can offer genuine help, companionship, and peace of mind to aging family members.
They are explicitly tackling the looming crisis of an aging global population facing a severe shortage of human caregivers. They envision a future where high-quality care is no longer a luxury, but a basic right, facilitated by a helpful robot in every senior’s home.
The Process: Building a Companion Named Sam
The team’s answer to this challenge is their first product: Sam, the robot caretaker.
- The Technology: The founders recognized that the intersection of AI/Machine Learning and Consumer Robotics was at an inflection point. Their process involves building a foundational layer of agentic AI—a system capable of not just following commands, but reasoning and interacting naturally.
- Safety and Companionship: Sam's design is focused on core needs. It utilizes advanced systems for 24/7 active monitoring and fall detection, ensuring that family members are alerted immediately in an emergency. Crucially, Sam goes beyond safety. It engages in smart conversations, remembers personal details, and provides custom reminders for medication and appointments, effectively serving as a true companion and concierge.
Validation and Demand
Though a very new venture, Quo Labs has quickly seen significant validation:
- Early Product Success: Upon launch, the eldercare robot Sam was met with overwhelming demand. Pre-orders caused the company’s website to crash, and they received urgent requests from nursing homes looking to acquire multiple units immediately.
- Market Impact: Sam has been deployed in over 50 families already, providing real-world support.
- Industry Recognition: The trio secured a place in the portfolio of Founders, Inc., a powerful endorsement that their vision for embedding "superintelligent, emotionally aware agents" into the real world is not just a dream, but a viable, high-impact business.
Audrey, Jenny, and Kai are not just building robots; they are building the infrastructure for a future where technology allows us to better care for the people we love most. Their journey is a testament to the fact that the most transformative ideas often come from those who simply refuse to accept the status quo.
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