HOMAGE TO A HAPPY HOME
Gillian Tee, founder and CEO of Homage Gillian Tee’s lifelong journey of self-discovery leads her back home on a caregiving crusade.
Motivation has never been in short supply for Gillian Tee, founder and CEO of Homage. While the business of caregiving is a potentially burgeoning one given the ticking time bomb of a global ageing population, Tee’s sense of purpose is far more personal. Having cofounded the award-winning behavioural change technology solution, Rocketrip, Tee realised that the next phase of her growth lay back home. It was a chance to reconcile with the personal struggles of her youth and use the experience to create meaningful change.
What set you on this path?
I want to be part of building something that can apply to people’s lives in a way that is meaningful to me. I get very motivated, particularly with vulnerable groups.
Sometimes things have to happen in your life to have a huge impact. I had a caregiver who took care of me and she was someone I loved deeply. She passed on when I was 11. There were certain childhood troubles that I went through as my family was going through a tough time.
Given your success overseas, what prompted you to come home?
A few things: my sister, who (had been living) with my mother, moved back to Perth; Rocketrip was stable and scaling well; I felt I had overcome a lot in the US and reached a stage where I felt ready. I realised something in my heart didn’t sit
right if I settled in New York. It will always be a second home but I knew it was not time yet.
It was a self-defining journey in the US and after all the lessons I picked up I was ready to come full circle. I realised you can have both roots and wings and I wanted to commit to family and a community. I had built a community in the US and I felt it was important to build a community with my mum and my family. I travelled the world for 15 years – now it was time for me to come full circle.
How did your struggles play a part in your personal growth?
It wasn’t even called mental health issues at the time. You just didn’t know what you were going through and you’re trying to figure it out. My sisters and I can talk about it now because we’re more mature and we understand what we went through, but growing up we lacked the self-awareness and the avenues to deal with all of these and it leads to an inability to trust people.
I defined myself through my time overseas and now I have recreated my relationship with my mother – it’s the best it’s ever been. I’m proud of how far my family has come now and it’s also the kind of world that I think you can build through intentionality. It’s been a really good journey.
Is Homage strongly tied to your identity?
Yes, Homage is so tied to my identity in some ways. I think, more importantly, it’s tied to my values. That’s why I feel I want to amplify, scale and mobilise caregivers to deliver care.
And out of the pool of 9,000 carers that we have, 70 per cent are women. So that motivates me further. We’ve delivered more than a million hours of caregiving using technology and we’ve empowered everyday people like you and me to deliver care to someone and support them in the small things.
What motivates you?
I think it’s important to look at personal care and enabling people to take care of someone; helping them in the small moments. I won’t impose my beliefs on anyone but I think that’s what drives genuine fulfilment.
One of our caregivers – his name is Ash – would spend 45 minutes brushing an older gentleman’s teeth just to help him start his day right.
Just hearing stories like that makes me want to do this for another 20 years or 30 years. This connection in supporting someone during their vulnerable times is a magical and meaningful display of the human condition.
What about the future?
Just faithfully building and scaling this impact – this part of the world needs long-term care solutions. Nothing too sophisticated and sexy. Governmental infrastructure, financial infrastructure, social infrastructure for long-term care needs to be improved. We’re part of the national conversation around how to best shape support systems.
We’re mobilising the largest trained and curated pool of caregivers operating across the Asia-Pacific region from a technology-driven care platform. We’re defining a category and a whole generation of carers empowered by technology and ensuring that we’re doing it across the various developed, middle income and developing markets.
What we need to do is scale ourselves; scale our solutions, scale our people. Inspire more people to join us. That’s what’s next, really.