Using AI to deal with 'carenting' in the Sandwich years

The term Sandwich Generation was coined in the early 80s to describe people, aged in their 30s to 60s, who found themselves not only raising a family, but also caring for their parents - "carenting" - at the same time. In the middle of all those competing demands, they're also trying to build their careers and the pressures can make it all feel overwhelming. The numbers are stark - caregiving is a second job taking an average 31 hours weekly, in a journey that typically lasts 5+ years. The cost to the caregiver is estimated at around $567,000. The burden falls overwhelmingly to women, who are 70% of caregivers. That challenge is the problem Melissa Reader set out to solve with her AI startup, Vera. Episode 54 of Startup 360 focuses on trying to be everything, for everyone, all at once in a heartfelt conversation between Melissa and host Simon Thomsen, spanning work culture, maintaining focus, grief, dementia, family conflict and even voluntary assisted dying - something in the news this week with the loss of broadcaster and musician James Valentine, aged just 64. Melissa faced tragedy early in her career after losing her beloved husband Mauro, aged 40, to cancer, just after the birth of their third child. She cofounded Vera with Yaniv Bernstein. It's an agentic AI platform that listens to your specific situation and helps turn those pressures into action to help you navigate a range of situations, from your parents to your family dynamics and other constraints. It's all about tracking what matters, connecting the dots between decisions and most importantly, using AI that never advises, but rather interprets and builds context for human experts to guide you. Melissa also produces the excellent Club Sandwich podcast with Sarah Macdonald, talking to people on the frontline of caring. Make sure you have a listen after Startup 360. Startup 360 is all about staying human and finding out what makes people tick. This show is a SmartCo Media production, produced by Mikey Marren and edited by Matt Jackson. This episode is supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!