Adam Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Solera Senior Living

Episode Transcript

00:00:00:03 – 00:00:04:19
Adam Kaplan
I don’t know if you know this, but the name Solera. It’s actually a Spanish word.

00:00:04:21 – 00:00:06:16
David Pardo
Español. Claro que si.

00:00:06:18 – 00:00:21:10
Adam Kaplan
And it means blending of wines of different ages. And it was. That was the reason why I picked that name is I wanted something with a positive association with aging, wine and cheese, didn’t want to name the company after a cheese. Didn’t think that was a great idea.

00:00:21:12 – 00:00:23:22
David Pardo
Yeah. No, that was I think that was thoughtful. That was very,

00:00:24:00 – 00:00:25:20
Adam Kaplan
So wine with wine.

00:00:25:22 – 00:00:26:14
David Pardo
Classy.

00:00:26:16 – 00:00:27:13
Adam Kaplan
And,

00:00:27:15 – 00:00:38:18
David Pardo
That’s so cool. I’m just curious if you like. You knew a lot about wine. Okay, so this was a word. Wow. That’s. That’s very fancy..

00:00:38:20 – 00:01:04:20
David Pardo
Welcome back to The Long Game, the podcast where we explore the strategies, stories and innovations shaping the future of long term care and senior living. I’m your host, David, and today we have an incredible guest who’s redefining what it means to age with dignity, purpose and aspiration. Adam Kaplan is the founder and CEO of Solara Senior Living, a company that’s challenging conventional thinking in senior care by blending contemporary design, hospitality driven services,

00:01:04:22 – 00:01:05:23
David Pardo
and innovative

00:01:06:01 – 00:01:20:10
David Pardo
operational models. With years of experience from his roots at Senior Lifestyle Corporation to building a portfolio of active communities for Solara. Adam has unique perspective on where the industry has been and where it’s headed. We’ll be diving into everything from the challenges of navigating

00:01:20:10 – 00:01:20:23
David Pardo

00:01:20:23 – 00:01:42:09
David Pardo
a labor strapped industry to the role of technology and transforming how we care for our aging population. And of course, we’ll hear his vision for creating environments where residents want to live, not just where they have to. So whether you’re in senior living, health care, or just curious about how to build sustainable, forward thinking solutions in a rapidly aging world, this conversation is for you.

00:01:42:11 – 00:01:48:00
David Pardo
Without further ado, meet my friend Adam Kaplan. Welcome to the Long Game.

00:01:48:02 – 00:01:49:18
Adam Kaplan
Thanks for having me.

00:01:49:19 – 00:01:54:21
David Pardo
So could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up here?

00:01:54:23 – 00:02:26:13
Adam Kaplan
Yeah. So I, actually grew up in the senior living industry. My father started a senior living company in 83. So shortly after I was born, and, my dad, he came from nothing. And, he, started in hospitality, then went into commercial real estate and decided that, he saw a big opportunity to, create, luxury independent living communities.

00:02:26:13 – 00:02:52:13
Adam Kaplan
And he started with a pretty ambitious project, about 476 units, in, in Chicago and Edgewater Beach. A second, community was, also pretty ambitious, about 275 units, on the North Shore of Chicago. And, I would go with my dad on the weekends, to, to visit the communities and, the first thing we do is walk into kitchens.

00:02:52:15 – 00:02:58:13
Adam Kaplan
Each building actually had a little mini donut hole maker and,

00:02:58:15 – 00:02:59:14
David Pardo
Specifically donut holes? All of them?

00:02:59:14 – 00:03:02:13
Adam Kaplan
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Little mini donut holes.

00:03:02:15 – 00:03:05:07
David Pardo
Were those huge in Chicago at in the 90s?

00:03:05:13 – 00:03:10:15
Adam Kaplan
My dad came out of hospitality. So he likes, you know, to.

00:03:10:17 – 00:03:13:14
David Pardo
Oh, that was like a him, like that was his signature move.

00:03:13:16 – 00:03:35:13
Adam Kaplan
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So it was like something just like to surprise and delight people. So I’d make it with the chefs, and then I walk around the dining rooms, talk to the residents, pass out the donut holes, and, and then when, when I was in high school, in college, I interned in, restaurants, hotels.

00:03:35:13 – 00:04:01:03
Adam Kaplan
I went to, undergrad for hotel and restaurant management at Cornell. And, I decided to, to pivot, when I graduated and go to actually work on the finance desks, and I, I joined Merrill Lynch Capital in the healthcare real estate finance division. So incredible experience. I spent three plus years there as an underwriter. And then, in 2007, I decided to go into my family business.

00:04:01:05 – 00:04:29:10
Adam Kaplan
I spent nine years there, and, I pivoted back to operations. So, I worked in every capacity as an executive director. I moved into various corporate roles, and then ultimately, in early 16, I decided that, I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. I grew up with, you know, as I mentioned, a very entrepreneurial dad and, you know, had ambitions to, to do something, on my own.

00:04:29:12 – 00:04:54:20
Adam Kaplan
It was kind of something I just needed to. To be my own person. Step out of his shadow. So I launched a senior living, which is, fully integrated, operator, developer, investor. And, we’ll finish the year, with, with 14 properties, about 2000 units. And that’s, that’s a combination of development projects. We built five, communities located in hybrid entry markets.

00:04:54:20 – 00:05:40:14
Adam Kaplan
That was, when we launched, that was where we focused. We’ve refocused our efforts more towards, acquisitions, select third party management for experienced institutional investors. And then we are actually in the process of acquiring a management company, that deal will close on, on February 1st. And so, that’s Solara. And then a couple of years ago, I, decided to partner with a couple of, individuals that, invest in, age tech, which is, early stage tech and tech enabled services companies in senior care and launch equity ventures, which, is a, early stage venture fund.

00:05:40:16 – 00:06:02:00
David Pardo
I totally want to talk to you about technology. And I also want to talk to you about, a luxury take on senior living. But first, I’m so curious about your dad. Was he was he excited for you to go out on your own and model him that way or that? He. Was he really looking forward to you coming in and taking over?

00:06:02:02 – 00:06:27:00
Adam Kaplan
Well, my dad essentially trained me to be a successor, from probably the age of 4 or 5 years old. And, and that started when I would go with him to visit buildings. I’d go with my dad to meetings in New York. I’d go to him, go with him to attend conferences. I went to the Asia Conference.

00:06:27:02 – 00:06:51:13
Adam Kaplan
And I played in the golf tournament. So I got to know a lot of people in the industry. When I was in high school, when I was in college, he was the really the influence for me to, to study hotel and restaurant management and he, he felt that having that, that background in hospitality was, was important to, to building and to operating senior living communities.

00:06:51:15 – 00:07:13:12
Adam Kaplan
I and as I mentioned, I interned, in restaurants and in hotels, you know, while I was in high school, and post, post college. So, he trained me to be his successor. I decided, it was a good decision to to go, post college and work for Merrill. It was great training ground.

00:07:13:12 – 00:07:34:21
Adam Kaplan
I had some amazing, early mentors. And I learned the financial side of the business. And it’s, it’s pretty rare, in senior living that you have, operators that actually have that foundation on the capital side of the business. And, and I’m really fortunate that I did it early in my career, then went into the family business.

00:07:35:03 – 00:07:58:02
Adam Kaplan
It was great. Nine years, candidly, would not be where I am today had it not been for that incredible experience to immerse myself in operations. And, you know, at the time, which was, you know, one of the the leading senior living operators, and, you know, honestly, it is a challenging decision for me. You know, but, you know, I really need it.

00:07:58:04 – 00:08:04:23
Adam Kaplan
My dad casts a big shadow. He’s a, you know, very successful entrepreneur team from nothing.

00:08:05:01 – 00:08:06:01
David Pardo
Hall of Famer. Right.

00:08:06:03 – 00:08:35:17
Adam Kaplan
Then. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Literally, and, you know, I, I it was very rewarding for me, to, to help to, you know, be responsible for taking the company to the next level. But honestly, I, I, I think my dad already has an incredible legacy, and I needed to build my own. And, so, you know, it it wasn’t the easiest decision.

00:08:35:18 – 00:08:56:04
Adam Kaplan
But it was the right one for me personally. And I think that, I think that, you know, it worked out for both parties because senior lifestyle is on and has a great leadership team. And, you know, for me, I can take all the amazing things that I learned, during my time at Senior Lifestyle. And candidly, the time being mentored by my father.

00:08:56:04 – 00:09:01:11
Adam Kaplan
And, you know, leverage that to go, you know, do something on my own.

00:09:01:13 – 00:09:12:02
David Pardo
That’s that’s awesome. And sorry for, like, jumping into, like very spicy questions where we’re like, we’re an aspirational Joe Rogan part here, you know, I mean, I love it.

00:09:12:02 – 00:09:16:21
Adam Kaplan
Yeah, I listen to a lot of podcasts. So, you know, like authenticity.

00:09:16:23 – 00:09:43:17
David Pardo
All right. I appreciate yours. And, so I want to jump back to senior living. And I think it’s so cool that your dad specifically pushed you to study hospitality restaurants. Was his background. You know, like, you’re you’re in tech now, so you can appreciate a lot of innovation. Is there just cross-fertilization like, oh, in sawmills we get rid of the sawdust like this.

00:09:43:17 – 00:10:08:14
David Pardo
And I was like, can we do that in houses like for consumer design? Now you have a vacuum. That’s how that was invented. So I’m curious what you what your thoughts are on senior living for a lot of, people it is and I, I thought of necessity. You got old and you have to live somewhere, but you’re you’re trying to trailblazer here and make it aspirational.

00:10:08:16 – 00:10:17:05
David Pardo
I cannot wait to, end up in sunrise. So what are your thoughts on how the industry as a whole needs to change?

00:10:17:07 – 00:10:45:15
Adam Kaplan
Yeah. So, you know, when I, when I started, which was April 1st of 16, you know, one of the things that was important to me was to build places where people aspire or want to live. And that could be for themselves or for a loved one. And I really struggled, because I talked to a lot of the, the industry pioneers and they, you know, I asked them, you know, which which community would you move into?

00:10:45:15 – 00:11:11:12
Adam Kaplan
And people would always say, well, it’s not for me. And, you know, I’m an agent home. Candidly, I felt like that was a lot. And, I think that it was important that that the next generation of leaders challenge that assumption and started to build communities, that, were much more aspirational. And you start, by by building them in the right locations.

00:11:11:14 – 00:11:32:05
Adam Kaplan
You know, we focus on what I would describe as like kind of more first ring suburbs. So they’re more urban locations. Thus people, you know, have lived in that area their whole life. They don’t have to, you know, go ten miles away, 15 miles away to move into a senior living community that that meets their needs. The other thing is design.

00:11:32:07 – 00:11:57:21
Adam Kaplan
And, you know, kind of as you mentioned, it was just taking, a playbook from other industries, from restaurants, hotels, from resorts, from spas, from country clubs and taking what worked in those environments and integrating then into senior living. One one clear example is open kitchens. Every single one of our communities that we built has an open kitchen.

00:11:57:23 – 00:12:11:14
Adam Kaplan
So you have a line of sight in into the kitchen. You can see, you know, the chefs working on the line. They are a pizza audience. So it’s playing off all those senses and it’s much more experiential. It’s kind of like theater and bringing that in.

00:12:11:14 – 00:12:13:02
David Pardo
Like a high end restaurant.

00:12:13:04 – 00:12:28:21
Adam Kaplan
Like a high end restaurant. Exactly. And a lot of what I try to do is to institutionalize the product. You know, people think of senior living. They still think of it as a nursing home. Not there’s anything wrong with the nursing home. But, you know, they think it’s a place I’m going to die. And, you know, I want it to be a place they’re going to live.

00:12:28:22 – 00:13:01:06
Adam Kaplan
They’re going to flourish in their in their final years. We owe it to this population. And we owe it to their to their loved ones. So, real estate location, the design and then thirdly is the operating program marrying the program with that design. And, you know, a good example would be recruiting. Our culinary directors are our chefs from outside of senior living and bringing that that fresh talent, and elevating the game, elevating the experience.

00:13:01:06 – 00:13:28:00
Adam Kaplan
And that could be the way that the place that we buy the dinner, where it could be the way that the the meals are finished. It could be the recipes. But creating that elevated culinary experience in senior living. So you’re not just in this beautiful setting, but that the actual culinary offering aligns with what you would expect when you visit and you see what the designs are like.

00:13:28:02 – 00:13:37:14
David Pardo
So you’re doing like a lot of hiring outside of the industry that. Does that make it easier or harder because the hiring in the industry, yeah, it’s hard to begin.

00:13:37:15 – 00:13:58:00
Adam Kaplan
To answer the answers. Both. So, you know, when you hire inside of the industry, you have, experts who they’re battle tested and, you know, a good example of something that’s quite different in senior living is just if you’re a great chef, you can’t go hide in your kitchen. You know, you got to you got to be visible.

00:13:58:01 – 00:13:58:20
David Pardo
You got to get.

00:13:58:22 – 00:14:22:12
Adam Kaplan
That dining room. You got to talk to the residents. You got to talk to the families. And honestly, you got to be pretty humble. And, we’ve hired people, and, you know, they can’t take that feedback, that negative feedback, their egos bruised, and they just that’s that’s just they’d rather go back to, you know, the restaurant industry.

00:14:22:14 – 00:14:48:00
Adam Kaplan
And then you find people that, they, they have enough self-confidence in themselves. It’s not about their ego. It’s about doing something more meaningful. And so you can bring that talent into senior living, elevate the experience. And, it’s a win win. So it’s a risk not everyone’s going to work out, but we have gotten better over time.

00:14:48:00 – 00:14:52:20
Adam Kaplan
It really assessing the type of profile person that’s going to thrive in our set.

00:14:52:22 – 00:15:12:13
David Pardo
That’s cool. What do you think about community. Because you’re thinking in terms of design and you’re designing space and you’re designing operations around the space. Are you also thinking about, I mean, you want to live in a place where you have a community very, hot topic in America 2024? Are you thinking about that in your senior living places as well?

00:15:12:15 – 00:15:19:19
Adam Kaplan
Yeah. So I don’t know if you know this, but the name Solera, it’s actually a Spanish word.

00:15:19:21 – 00:15:22:05
David Pardo
Espoanol. Claro ca, si.

00:15:22:06 – 00:15:35:00
Adam Kaplan
It means blending of wines of different ages. And it was. That was the reason why I picked that name is I wanted something with a positive, a socio. The aging wine and cheese. Didn’t want to name the company after a cheese.

00:15:35:02 – 00:15:38:22
David Pardo
Anything. That was a great idea. Yeah. No, that was I think that was thoughtful. That was very,

00:15:39:00 – 00:15:40:16
Adam Kaplan
So wine with wine.

00:15:40:18 – 00:15:41:12
David Pardo
Very classy.

00:15:41:17 – 00:15:42:18
Adam Kaplan
And, did.

00:15:42:18 – 00:15:46:05
David Pardo
You know the area before you were in the branding process?

00:15:46:07 – 00:15:51:19
Adam Kaplan
I launched the company in the first week I did was just brainstorm ideas for for names.

00:15:51:21 – 00:15:58:12
David Pardo
That’s so cool. I’m just curious if you, like, knew a lot about wine. I it. Okay, so this is a word. Wow. That’s that’s very fancy.

00:15:58:12 – 00:16:03:23
Adam Kaplan
I did not know the word. I did not know to be to to be clear, I did not know the work you’re doing.

00:16:04:00 – 00:16:04:16
David Pardo
Authentic here.

00:16:04:16 – 00:16:11:18
Adam Kaplan
Yeah, I know I’m, I am I am willing to be very vulnerable. That’s not probably the most humble been.

00:16:11:19 – 00:16:15:06
David Pardo
Kaplan once told me you got to be humble,

00:16:15:07 – 00:16:21:18
Adam Kaplan
But, you know, the the. I did take, three wine courses in undergrad. I took wine tasting.

00:16:22:00 – 00:16:24:03
David Pardo
Because just because. Oh, man, it’s.

00:16:24:03 – 00:16:33:21
Adam Kaplan
The most failed course at Cornell, believe it or not. And then I took wine, culture and history one in Latin culture and history, too. So I. Oh, yes.

00:16:33:23 – 00:16:37:17
David Pardo
And so knew what it was. You just didn’t know the Spanish word for it.

00:16:37:17 – 00:16:41:23
Adam Kaplan
I did not, yeah. So I loved it. It just really spoke to me.

00:16:41:23 – 00:16:42:22
David Pardo
Yeah. Very specific.

00:16:43:02 – 00:17:04:18
Adam Kaplan
The reason why it spoke to me was partially because I, I wanted it to be a place that was welcoming for not just our residents and families team members, but for the community at large. One great example is our building in Kensington, Maryland. We took two historic buildings. We integrate them into the design. One of the buildings is a is a coffee shop cafe.

00:17:04:20 – 00:17:24:22
Adam Kaplan
We actually went with a designer that specialized was the top restaurant designer in DC. We hired them to give them its own look and feel. That place you walk in there and there’s people you know in their 20s, in their 30s, posted up with their laptops, you know, working remotely, you know, drinking an open air quality.

00:17:25:00 – 00:17:27:07
David Pardo
They’re doing that in your facility.

00:17:27:09 – 00:17:55:16
Adam Kaplan
It is it is a separate entrance and it is connected to, to the main building. So 30 it’s 135 apartments, independent assisted in memory care. And it’s it’s got two historic buildings that we, we we renovated those buildings and integrated them in. So, it’s a good example of, I think, how the buildings can be intergenerational and it can work successfully.

00:17:55:18 – 00:18:05:15
Adam Kaplan
So community, look, community means certain things to different people. I recently watched I don’t watch a lot of TV, but, you know, this.

00:18:05:17 – 00:18:06:18
David Pardo
Was a time.

00:18:06:20 – 00:18:31:12
Adam Kaplan
I, I don’t I you make the time for the things that matter. I tell people not all the time because people say, I don’t have time to work out. You do. You make the time for the things that matter for me, like fitness, really important because it helps me manage my stress and it makes me a better dad, and it makes me a better leader and have better clarity and better energy level.

00:18:31:12 – 00:18:45:23
Adam Kaplan
So I do that. I don’t always find time to watch TV, but I did watch. I think It’s The Inside Man might be misstating it on Netflix with Ted Danson. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a must. It’s a.

00:18:45:23 – 00:18:50:04
David Pardo
Must, and it’s the recommendation from a guy who has to make time.

00:18:50:06 – 00:19:15:13
Adam Kaplan
For the show. It’s it’s it’s it’s our industry should have paid for Netflix to produce this show. But I wasn’t ruining it without ruining it. At the end, one of the things that I found most touching, most relevant, was about the benefits of senior living. It’s about a.

00:19:15:13 – 00:19:20:23
David Pardo
Guy who, an American death row prisoner with a sideline in solving mysteries. Okay. Young British journalist.

00:19:20:23 – 00:19:42:14
Adam Kaplan
No, I, I definitely like. Yeah, I definitely off on the title. A man on the inside. A man on the inside. The name of it, Ted Danson. Netflix just came out. He is. He’s hired by a private detective to to solve a case about a woman whose jewelry is allegedly stolen. And so he moves into the assisted living in Mary Jo community.

00:19:42:14 – 00:19:44:07
Adam Kaplan
It’s really, really well done.

00:19:44:09 – 00:19:46:11
David Pardo
Oh, it’s the guy from The Good Place.

00:19:46:13 – 00:19:55:04
Adam Kaplan
There you go. Yeah, Ted, we must be a different. We must be, have a pretty wide age gap because Ted Danson is kind of a legend.

00:19:55:06 – 00:20:08:13
David Pardo
Yeah, I mean, I’m I’m actually, like, famously bad at names of celebrities. That’s a true. Okay. And my wife, I outsource to. No, I have no idea. But I did watch The Good Place with my wife, and that’s the same guy. I’m sorry, you were saying?

00:20:08:13 – 00:20:10:07
Adam Kaplan
Well, it’s it’s actually. And he’s got a.

00:20:10:07 – 00:20:12:00
David Pardo
New lease on life.

00:20:12:02 – 00:20:46:19
Adam Kaplan
It talks about how the how powerful senior living is for someone like him who had lost his wife, whose kids are busy. He has a daughter whose daughter is busy raising her own family, building her career and how to find meaning and how senior living actually is so valuable in providing meaning and purpose to someone and community.

00:20:46:21 – 00:21:07:00
Adam Kaplan
And, honestly, a lot of people really don’t. They undervalue how important senior living is in in providing community to someone and the importance of community and someone’s health and well-being. So just just excellent. And really, I think does speak to to the importance of that.

00:21:07:01 – 00:21:29:11
David Pardo
Okay. We got, we got to pull an excerpt for the, for the pod. That’s ambitious. I like that. So, so ways that you’re building community, you’re thinking about it really strategically. You’re even. You’re even bringing, like, people at a 20 is working at laptops into the same space. I think that’s really cool. Do you ever do you ever see, like, people talking to each other?

00:21:29:13 – 00:21:49:03
Adam Kaplan
That’s that’s a really good question. You know, I think, as, you know, like being somebody that probably does post up it up, you know, a coffee shop and, and, you know, get some work done. I mean, people are pretty heads down in that environment. Sure. But there’s just, there’s a feel that you get when you walk in there.

00:21:49:05 – 00:22:06:08
Adam Kaplan
And, I think that the fact that those two worlds are colliding, shows that they’re there is something there, and there’s something that we should be thinking more about. As we’re building for the future.

00:22:06:10 – 00:22:19:16
David Pardo
I love that. What do you think the. I don’t like saying the top, because that puts people, puts stress. But what are like the top three systemic issues in the senior living space?

00:22:19:18 – 00:22:48:03
Adam Kaplan
The top three. So what one one issue is affordability. You know, we we I think we are good at serving the barbell. You know, each side of the barbell, we, we, I think, do a really good job in the luxury segment where you have really good underlying demographics and people can pay, for a premium experience.

00:22:48:05 – 00:23:15:00
Adam Kaplan
I think we do a pretty good job, actually, societally. On the other end of the spectrum, where you have a lower income, higher needs population, whether that’s, you know, whether that’s long term care or whether that’s pace, I think there are some, some care and payment models, that have been developed that are working. Where we do struggle is that middle market.

00:23:15:02 – 00:23:28:13
Adam Kaplan
And, it’s, it’s, it’s it’s a societal issue. And I don’t think that we’ve done a great job of coming together to figure out how to solve it. And.

00:23:28:14 – 00:23:50:00
David Pardo
If you had a magic wand like if you just got appointed to, Doctor Oz’s position in the administration or. I don’t know what, what are ways the big thinking that could be used to solve them, like we were saving financial instruments or we think about work.

00:23:50:01 – 00:24:25:08
Adam Kaplan
I think that the the one that kind of like, jumps out at me would be that, let’s just say senior living in particular. That’s my expertise, my domain expertise. But if you believe that senior living is a, that you can deliver better health outcomes, then there are some type of shared savings mechanism that can be, captured and distributed back to senior living to help offset the cost of care.

00:24:25:10 – 00:24:49:17
Adam Kaplan
And so, that one kind of idea is that more of like a value based care model, where, you know, for that middle market, if you can help, you know, reduce your visits and hospitalizations and bring the spend down that that spend can be, used to offset the cost, senior living.

00:24:49:19 – 00:24:53:06
David Pardo
That’s way to think that’s like a long term play with insurance.

00:24:53:08 – 00:24:54:07
Adam Kaplan
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

00:24:54:08 – 00:24:58:23
David Pardo
Able to demonstrate to insurance companies. Like, if they come here, it’s going to cost you less.

00:24:59:00 – 00:25:31:10
Adam Kaplan
It could be it could be ACOs. It could, it could be Medicare Advantage plans. And then the other way is like a CME demonstration. That’d be kind of the, the one that would be most aspirational, as you do. Like, you work with CMS is Innovation Center, that CME, and you actually develop a care model and okay, to model specifically for senior living, I’ll tell you, like it was great to see last year, the release of the guide program, which is specifically for, you know, individuals suffering from a dementia diagnosis.

00:25:31:10 – 00:26:02:19
Adam Kaplan
It was very evident, though, that they didn’t think about senior living, a community based setting when building program. They were thinking about people. And, and so I’d love to see a program where the, policy makers are specifically working with senior living to build a model that, can succeed fully, deliver a, a service model and care model to the middle market.

00:26:02:21 – 00:26:28:01
Adam Kaplan
So I, I personally think that why senior living is so valuable is because the obvious to people is, you know, you have community setting so you can deliver services more efficiently. But the the other, the other I think more important or relevant reason is that you can influence both physical determinants of health and then social determinants of health.

00:26:28:01 – 00:26:29:10
David Pardo
Supercritical.

00:26:29:12 – 00:26:33:02
Adam Kaplan
In in the home. You know it’s obviously very very difficult to do that.

00:26:33:02 – 00:26:45:00
David Pardo
So people aging alone right. You see a lot of innovation now is like virtual reality and yes, for people from home. But if we could actually get them in a physical room, you can’t beat that.

00:26:45:02 – 00:27:02:18
Adam Kaplan
Absolutely. And there’s place for both, right? Like there’s not just one winner. You’re still going to you’re still going to have innovation in the home. But I do think that more innovation in the community setting to create a model that works for the middle market, I, I think that that would be extremely beneficial from a societal perspective.

00:27:02:20 – 00:27:16:04
Adam Kaplan
The the other the other thing that I think is critical is that, we really address the long term workforce crisis in America. You know.

00:27:16:06 – 00:27:18:19
David Pardo
Talking about like, labor crisis and shortages.

00:27:18:23 – 00:27:31:00
Adam Kaplan
Okay. You know, it’s pretty, pretty clear, that, you know, the backbone of, senior living, long term care is built on immigrants. And so.

00:27:31:04 – 00:27:34:10
David Pardo
20% currently is that set the live number.

00:27:34:12 – 00:27:38:15
Adam Kaplan
You, you would know employee would actually the exact number.

00:27:38:16 – 00:27:42:01
David Pardo
Putting myself on the spot. Yeah. Okay. For the I don’t I don’t number.

00:27:42:03 – 00:28:00:17
Adam Kaplan
But this this is what I would say is that putting politics aside here okay. What I hope happens is that the dust settles, that they say okay, we need a follow through on the mandate. This again, I’m not this is what I think will happen. Also, we need to follow through on the mandate. We need to secure the borders.

00:28:00:19 – 00:28:17:05
Adam Kaplan
What I hope happens then as a next step is they say, okay, we still need sensible immigration reform and we need to look at areas in this country that we’re not currently serving successfully through our,

00:28:17:07 – 00:28:19:11
David Pardo
Existing immigration. Right.

00:28:19:13 – 00:28:44:00
Adam Kaplan
And then we need to we need to think about how do we attract, from outside this kind of country to fill those voids. And I think one great example is, is caring for, the senior population where, you know, historically, immigrants, you know, they take pride in caring for, for seniors, it provides them a better life for themselves and their families.

00:28:44:06 – 00:29:03:00
Adam Kaplan
And so everybody benefits because the resident benefits the the immigrant population benefits. And then also, honestly, it’s not it’s not taking away anything from Americans because most Americans don’t want to work frontline health care jobs.

00:29:03:02 – 00:29:18:00
David Pardo
So you would you would love to see a shift where we’re split. How would that work? Bringing in already trained nurses or bringing in our unskilled labor with, I guess this is like getting into the nitty gritty of policy, but it would be.

00:29:18:00 – 00:29:45:03
Adam Kaplan
More it would be more unskilled labor. I mean, you know, it would be caregivers in mad tax, because that’s really where we have the most pressures in, in senior living specific, is filling those positions with people that, you know, candidly want, you know, to work on the frontlines and care for our residents.

00:29:45:05 – 00:30:09:14
David Pardo
Is there maybe this is a fun segue to the technology bit. But is there are there, barriers to sort of historically, whenever labor gets too expensive and capital gets cheaper in comparison? And then you see, you know, advances in technology. So there are technological options to replace labor. I don’t even mean robotics. I mean like remote patient monitoring, I don’t know.

00:30:09:15 – 00:30:35:01
David Pardo
So like, I don’t know if this political I have no idea. But remote monitoring and certainly robotics and, sensors and, you know, measuring people’s vitals and things like that, things where you are reducing your reliance on labor. Are there, systemic barriers to seeing that adopted? Is that just, such as a train that’s coming our way?

00:30:35:03 – 00:30:37:08
David Pardo
What are your thoughts on that? Are you adopting that and Solara.

00:30:37:11 – 00:31:11:23
Adam Kaplan
Yes. Yeah. So I think the answer is both. Okay. So I think you need both sensible immigration reform and you need to, to implement technology, that can help your workforce be more successful, more productive, more efficient. So, one of the areas that I’m most excited about is passive monitoring. There’s a there’s a number of companies out there, right now that really stand out to me.

00:31:12:01 – 00:31:48:03
Adam Kaplan
And we, we actually piloted passive monitoring solutions over the years. So, even in the early days, there was a company called G Quiet Care that was in, like 2009, 2010. They were using infrared technology. Then we tried wearable devices. We’re still using wearables. Now you have, whether it’s a video, whether it’s, radar or sound, where, you can capture what’s happening in the resident apartment.

00:31:48:05 – 00:32:13:02
Adam Kaplan
So, it can help to supplement a care plan, which is static. The reason why it’s it’s challenging to rely on strictly a care plan is because at time, it’s hard to understand the amount of time that it takes per resident to complete a task. And it’s hard to understand the amount of time it takes from care staff to care staff to complete a task.

00:32:13:04 – 00:32:39:00
Adam Kaplan
And so by utilizing passive monitoring, you can better understand time that it takes to deliver services by resident. The other thing that is, is the reality is there’s just a lot of noise. So you know, there’s there’s as needed tasks like toileting. So like, you know, how frequent is it is going to drive the amount of time required from your care staff.

00:32:39:05 – 00:33:13:06
Adam Kaplan
There’s, unscheduled tasks, there’s emergent tasks. And, by, you know, implementing, again, a technology that can help you better understand what’s happening in the apartment. You can really understand it. Then you can align your staffing models better to actually fulfill the demands in the community. And then you can better optimize your care fee revenues to align with the actual time that is required.

00:33:13:08 – 00:33:45:23
Adam Kaplan
And I think it helps as well in increasing trust, because you can be much more transparent with the residents. You can be transparent with the with the families about what care you’re actually providing. And I do believe that it will improve outcomes. It’ll drive process improvements. It should help, reduce regulatory risk and exposure. So, as a probably sound, I’m pretty bullish on passive monitoring y.

00:33:45:23 – 00:33:55:11
Adam Kaplan
Now, I think one of the questions is why now? And there’s there’s a couple of reasons. A, the models, you know, you have a lot of models.

00:33:55:11 – 00:33:56:18
David Pardo
Something like that. Alarms.

00:33:56:20 – 00:34:09:05
Adam Kaplan
Yes, yes. Lambs that have been trained. And so now you’re not building the technology and asking the operator to go in mine and figure out what to do with it.

00:34:09:05 – 00:34:13:20
David Pardo
You’re walking in with train data sets already, and that’s something that could sell to the operators.

00:34:13:22 – 00:34:23:01
Adam Kaplan
Exactly. And so the data is actionable for the operators. That’s a huge, massive shift from where we were historically.

00:34:23:03 – 00:34:30:05
David Pardo
Because you’re an early adopter. So they were coming to you and saying, we’re going to install this in six months later. Maybe we’ll have like actionable data for you.

00:34:30:07 – 00:34:55:11
Adam Kaplan
They never really like. We’re able to deliver on actionable data. It was more, you know, the promise. And we were early, but I think it was important to be early to be understanding what was possible. But now I think the potential is just so much greater. The other thing that’s exciting, in a place a great example of this is just the caliber of the entrepreneurs building and senior care.

00:34:55:13 – 00:34:57:16
Adam Kaplan
It’s mind blowing.

00:34:57:18 – 00:34:59:17
David Pardo
You. You’ve seen a shift.

00:34:59:18 – 00:35:32:21
Adam Kaplan
Oh, oh, like a shift is an understatement. I mean, the entrepreneurs today that I talked to that are building in senior care, they are so impressive. They have great pedigrees. They’re coming on a, you know, big tech, big health care. They they’re ambitious, they’re driven, they’re they’re smart. But you know what they do differently? This is this is something they do that that, that I didn’t see in the past of entrepreneurs building in senior living.

00:35:33:01 – 00:35:39:12
Adam Kaplan
They listened to the customer. They they actually want to hear.

00:35:39:14 – 00:35:45:00
David Pardo
It sounds like a lot. It sounds like a terribly low bar, but it’s a high bar. It’s a big deal in business.

00:35:45:04 – 00:36:10:23
Adam Kaplan
I bet you if any of those entrepreneurs that had built in the last cycle are tuning in, they deny what I’m saying. But I’m telling you, the entrepreneurs that I talked to today, I mean, I just look, this morning I sent Adam Lewis an email and, it was actually a whole email that I received for somebody from someone that was talking about how to optimize for hiring.

00:36:10:23 – 00:36:51:05
Adam Kaplan
I flipped it to him. He responded right away. He copied several people on his team, and they had sat me several times to talk through the things that you know are being done in a ploy, and to get my feedback on the product roadmap. So like that, that is that is not what I saw in the past. And what that tells me is that entrepreneurs today really appreciate how complex this business is and how much buy in and engagement they need from operators to be successful in actually executing on their business plans.

00:36:51:07 – 00:37:12:15
David Pardo
That’s really cool. We’ve already talked about some revolutionary technologies, but I never put it to you as the question, especially with their involvement in high tech investments. I’m sure a crazy amount of tax across your across your desk. What’s the one piece of technology that you think is poised to revolutionize the way we think about aging in the next decade?

00:37:12:17 – 00:37:33:04
Adam Kaplan
Well, I, I, I will say, I think the technology that I’m most excited about right now is passive monitoring. One thing I didn’t touch on that we think about, is also the, ability for passive monitoring to also track vitals, to do biometric monitoring for the.

00:37:33:06 – 00:37:36:01
David Pardo
Even remotely without wearables. Yeah, it’s crazy really.

00:37:36:02 – 00:38:08:04
Adam Kaplan
Without wearables. The reason why I think this is important is because now you’re converging the operating needs with the health care needs. So, you know, as an operator, what I want to see is process improvements and staffing efficiencies and care for optimization. And I want to see improvements in the consistency of our clinical, execution. I want to see us reduce regulatory risk.

00:38:08:06 – 00:38:42:13
Adam Kaplan
What’s interesting about the vitals monitoring is that now we’re able to proactively identify when a resident is deviating from their baseline, we’re able to identify that we’re able to share that with our third party health care providers that are part of our health care network. And we’re able to proactively put an intervention in place that can prevent that resident from having hospitalization.

00:38:42:15 – 00:39:01:20
Adam Kaplan
Now, we’re still early days here on this, but if you just look at like, you know, the aura ring, for example, you know, you wear an aura ring, it tracks your baseline and then you can detect, oh, you had a bad night’s sleep or, you know, you’re coming down with a cold or the flu and you can change your behaviors.

00:39:01:22 – 00:39:26:04
Adam Kaplan
And so I think that senior living right now, just like all health care, is way, way, way too reactive and ultimately need to be more proactive. And the shift from a fee for service model into one that is more value based and aligning with health care providers and becoming a a actual part of the health care solution is going to help with that shift.

00:39:26:04 – 00:39:47:14
Adam Kaplan
So I like the intersection of technology and services. And I do think that, you know, passive monitoring as a whole. And I talked a lot about it, but the, the ability to, to also passively take vitals and to monitor those vitals and detect when somebody deviates from a baseline, it’s put in an intervention place. That’s honestly pretty exciting.

00:39:47:16 – 00:39:54:06
Adam Kaplan
And moves us from that reactive model to one that is much more proactive and preventative.

00:39:54:08 – 00:40:13:00
David Pardo
Is are there are there opponents to that? I remember reading about Medicare, putting out a report and there’s there’s, I mean, listen, with new technology, there’s always going to be, bears and there’s going to be, opponents. But do you think that there is some systemic opposition to seeing more of this?

00:40:13:01 – 00:40:30:11
Adam Kaplan
And, you know, I think the opposition is that our system is a sick care system and that it’s a much, much bigger problem. It’s it’s very, very challenging to shift dollars from ones that are focused on,

00:40:30:13 – 00:40:31:15
David Pardo
Fee for service.

00:40:31:17 – 00:40:54:05
Adam Kaplan
Testing and and focused on, IT procedures to one that is focused much more on, preventative health. So you just look at like, you know, our spend in America, and you know, we wait till there’s a crisis.

00:40:54:07 – 00:40:55:17
David Pardo
Well, sure.

00:40:55:19 – 00:41:23:19
Adam Kaplan
We would be much better off societally if people started to think about their fitness. They started to think about their diet, and they started to think more about sleep. Just those those three, areas. If we could get our society to shift the mindset and to focus more on the things that you could do proactively to influence your, your health, and we would see a major shift.

00:41:23:19 – 00:41:46:18
Adam Kaplan
But it’s hard to do that when, the way the system is built is that it’s a system that provides you those resources if there is a problem. And then you look at senior living in particular, where let’s let’s call what it is, we take care of people at end of life. The average length of stay for assisted living is and memory care is two years less than two years.

00:41:46:20 – 00:42:23:12
Adam Kaplan
So really? Yeah. When somebody moves into senior living not independent living, assisted living, memory care, you know, they have multiple chronic conditions. They’re probably chronic. They’re on 12.5 meds on average per person. It’s a complex resident population. And so, you know, it’s much more designed, to, to provide resources for someone to address their needs, like, hey, this person has cancer or this person, you know, has depression, or, you know, this person has hypertension.

00:42:23:12 – 00:42:49:16
Adam Kaplan
Here’s here’s the medications, here’s the treatment plan. It’s it’s not meant to provide the dollars to go and to prevent somebody from declining further. But I, I do believe that we’re starting to see that shift with the, the care and the payment models moving from a fee for service model to a value based on you have to an optimism.

00:42:49:17 – 00:42:50:11
Adam Kaplan
I’m an entrepreneur.

00:42:50:11 – 00:43:12:03
David Pardo
You you are you’re a big optimist. I keep I keep looking for like what are the systemic like there’s no systemic. We’re good, we’re good. Ready to go? I, it’s actually like I’ve been thinking about for years. Like how crazy it is that how normal consumer health insurance doesn’t cover things like gyms or, I mean, not to get too crazy, but like wearables, like you’re saying that we’re wearing,

00:43:12:05 – 00:43:41:06
David Pardo
And I was just looking at my insurance benefits last week and saw that they cover gym now. So there is, shift. And plus, you know, which executive had to sign off on that or how that happened, but it’s it’s coming. Value based care is it’s a very hot topic now in the senior space used a good thing obviously I think it’s a good thing who’s driving it and and how can operators get out of it.

00:43:41:08 – 00:44:14:01
Adam Kaplan
It’s a really good thing. And you know, just like the adoption of technology with the shift from, you know, fee for service into value based care, you got to get in the game if you’re an operator and, you need to identify a, a payer provider, provider who is providing value based services in your market, and you need to work with them to set that up.

00:44:14:03 – 00:44:46:09
Adam Kaplan
Build the care model and start to track outcomes and see what works and see what doesn’t. So we partnered with Kirana, a year and a half ago. We set up, in Community Primary Care clinic. And, you know, what we found is that it was difficult to get attribution. And so we, you know, worked very closely with them to recalibrate and to figure out how do we build a stronger value proposition for new move ins so that they see the benefits of aligning with their provider?

00:44:46:11 – 00:45:07:16
Adam Kaplan
I think we’re still very much in the early days, right now, you know, you have a, yeah, let’s say nurse practitioner or a medical assistant on site. You know, seeing the residents, you know, you’ll see that evolve. It’s already it’s already in place, but you’ll see that evolve into a hybrid model where you’ll be in community as well as virtual.

00:45:07:18 – 00:45:29:20
Adam Kaplan
There are lots of companies out there that have built telehealth models, virtual care models, for primary care and for specialty care. Then you’ll ultimately see remote patient monitoring integrated into that model. So you can. Yeah. As we talked about, you can, proactively identify when someone’s off from their baseline. You’ll see the integration of specialty care.

00:45:29:22 – 00:46:13:05
Adam Kaplan
I think it’ll be much more common for, mental health services, which is very important to me in that mental health services are integrated into that care model. I think that the integration of mental health into primary care will actually lead to much better outcomes. And then I think you’ll see, wraparound services like, you know, principal care management, chronic care management guide, which are designed to supplement the services being provided by the primary care provider and the specialists so that there is a way of staying in front of the residence on a more routine basis, to make sure that they stay at their baseline.

00:46:13:06 – 00:46:37:12
Adam Kaplan
And you need those wraparound services because, you know, the the models today are not designed to have the same cadence. And that same frequency that the wraparound providers are. So I believe that ultimately you’ll build a care model for the community setting. Senior living will be an integral part of that. And the benefits will accrue to all the stakeholders.

00:46:37:12 – 00:46:57:18
Adam Kaplan
So you’ll see, you know, a better resident family experience. You know, be better for team member engagement. It, it’ll be better for the provider. It’ll be better for the operator of the real estate investor. So I just say get in the game, stick with it. Be patient. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not a silver bullet.

00:46:57:20 – 00:47:36:18
Adam Kaplan
But I do think it’s the right thing to do. And that’s what guides me. I mean, at the end of the day, like, do the right thing. It’s a very, very, very hard business. Operating, is not for the faint of heart. Yeah. You constantly feel like you’re you’re you’re failing, and, and, you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s heavy because, you know, you could be the best and you’re still going to have times where, you know, you disappoint, you disappoint a resident or family, you disappoint your team members, you disappoint the investors.

00:47:36:20 – 00:48:00:14
Adam Kaplan
And, you know, to me, at the end of the day, I want to put my head on the pillow, go to sleep at night knowing I’m doing the right things. I’m doing the very best I can by all the stakeholders. And I think that shifting from a fee for service to a value based model, where you’re looking more holistically at what’s right for the resident is the best long term, model.

00:48:00:16 – 00:48:01:21
Adam Kaplan
For everyone.

00:48:01:23 – 00:48:14:01
David Pardo
I love that. What’s a misconception about senior living that you wish more people understood? And how does that shape what you’re doing out of Solara?

00:48:14:03 – 00:48:54:16
Adam Kaplan
I think probably the, the, the biggest misconception is that senior living operators and the investors are reaping all these financial benefits. The reason why is because people don’t appreciate how much staff is required to deliver services and care across three shifts, morning shift and then the afternoon shift, overnight shift seven days a week. The staff burden is very, very high.

00:48:54:16 – 00:49:17:19
Adam Kaplan
And we all know we’ve had a lot of escalation in wages in the last few years. We’ve an escalation in insurance costs, real estate taxes, interest rates, you know, moved against us significantly. Lack of liquidity in the marketplace. There’s been a lot of financial pressures and the needs and the expectations of the residents at the same time have increased.

00:49:17:21 – 00:49:32:14
Adam Kaplan
So, as I mentioned before, we’re talking about a high needs population at end of life. Unfortunately, when people move into senior living, they’re going to decline.

00:49:32:16 – 00:49:34:05
David Pardo
The deck is stacked against them.

00:49:34:06 – 00:50:09:16
Adam Kaplan
They’re going to decline. So that doesn’t mean, though, that their quality of life won’t improve, their health will decline. But what should happen is their quality of life should improve because they’re no longer in the home. And they have a community that they’re now part of. And so they’re more engaged, they’re less isolated. And, we all know that isolation leads to a decline in your physical health, the worse.

00:50:09:18 – 00:50:45:22
Adam Kaplan
And so your quality of life is going to be better. But what I find is that, families often think that we are so profitable, and it’s challenging because it is very costly to operate. We’re all private pay. We don’t we don’t accept. We don’t have any Medicaid reimbursement. So we’re all private pay. Delivering housekeeping services, delivering culinary services, resident programing, transportation, concierge.

00:50:46:00 – 00:51:28:21
Adam Kaplan
And we’re delivering care, also assistance with daily living and medication ministration. It’s an expensive model and you have expensive real estate and you need it. You need to generate a attractive risk adjusted return in order to attract equity capital to invest in this business. So it’s one of the things that, honestly, is frustrating to me is that in a lot of other industries, you don’t have to apologize for delivering a good service, and for running a profitable business here.

00:51:28:22 – 00:51:30:05
David Pardo
Here you do.

00:51:30:07 – 00:52:04:18
Adam Kaplan
In senior living, you know, people falsely, perceive that you’re just making all this money. And you have to apologize for doing it. And, I think that’s that’s sad. And. Look, look, I mean, it’s it’s it’s not new, but it’s gotten to a point where it’s become more challenging because of all that inflation that we experienced since Covid and and because of the rise in rates.

00:52:04:20 – 00:52:33:02
Adam Kaplan
And so, I do wish that families had a better understanding. And I am hopeful, hopeful. That’s why I am a big fan of passive monitoring, that we can be more transparent with the families. And I think that transparency should help them better understand the amount of care that we’re actually providing. And, and so they’ll, they’ll have a more complete picture of why we charge the way we charge.

00:52:33:02 – 00:52:57:18
Adam Kaplan
And, and hopefully they’ll that will, lead to at least, a, at least, at least that’ll, that’ll mean that we can be, we can have a better understanding of each other. If if we have the data to support, the care side of the equation.

00:52:57:20 – 00:53:10:18
David Pardo
Another another point for value based care. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Time for fun questions. As we wrap up, what is your most life changing under $150 purchase?

00:53:10:19 – 00:53:15:07
Adam Kaplan
I don’t, you know, that’s a tough one. So I’m I’m, I’m.

00:53:15:09 – 00:53:16:19
David Pardo
We don’t do softballs here.

00:53:16:21 – 00:53:48:10
Adam Kaplan
I, I’m very into experiences, so, I love to travel. And, I love to not to eat at good restaurants. With, with, you know, with with good friends. I also, as I mentioned, begin to you know, in, health and wellness. And I also am, a learner. So I love podcasts, and I, and I really love to read.

00:53:48:10 – 00:53:52:18
Adam Kaplan
So, if I was going to pick the,

00:53:52:20 – 00:53:53:16
David Pardo
Single most.

00:53:53:21 – 00:53:58:15
Adam Kaplan
The single most, I’d say it would be a book, to be honest.

00:53:58:17 – 00:54:00:03
David Pardo
Can you recommend it for me?

00:54:00:05 – 00:54:06:16
Adam Kaplan
So I, I’m going to I’m going to it’s, it’s going to be split between either good to great.

00:54:06:18 – 00:54:07:09
David Pardo
A classic.

00:54:07:09 – 00:54:39:11
Adam Kaplan
Or brain energy. Brain energy. And the reason why I’m going to say is good to good to great. Yeah. I knew you knew one of them but good to great was kind of the catalyst for me in my, like, thirst for, reading, about business. And I have read hundreds of books that have influenced the way that I, lead people, how I strategize, how I innovate.

00:54:39:12 – 00:55:07:05
Adam Kaplan
The other book, Brain Energy, is one that I, I read in, in the fourth quarter of 2022. And the reason why is because I was on a business trip and I had a panic attack, and I thought I was having a heart attack. I called an ambulance. I went to the cardiac unit medical center, and, it was a panic attack.

00:55:07:07 – 00:55:30:12
Adam Kaplan
My first I’ve ever had a came, you know, just I totally I do nothing triggered it. And so I started, reading and listening to, I, I really started listening to podcasts about health. And the one that I was the most drawn to is Huberman Labs, Andrew Huberman. And he interviewed a guy, who wrote this book called Brain Energy.

00:55:30:12 – 00:56:04:22
Adam Kaplan
And it’s basically about treating mental health through diet. And it’s essentially like you, you know, about cutting out, simple carbs, cutting out processed foods and cutting out sugar. And, and so I tried it to see if it would help me in reducing stress. And honestly, it was life changing. And, it really helped me, greater energy, greater mental clarity and, and really manage my, my stress level.

00:56:04:22 – 00:56:21:00
Adam Kaplan
So that got me on the road to, just learning a ton about longevity. And I that that journey continues to that to today. So, yeah, that was a hell of a purchase. I think it probably both extended my life and extended the quality of my life.

00:56:21:02 – 00:56:27:14
David Pardo
Wow. Okay. Huge recommendation for brain energy. Can you give us some podcast recs? Also, I heard you.

00:56:27:14 – 00:56:57:16
Adam Kaplan
Ran. Yeah, absolutely. So, my number one pod is the all in pod. And, it’s it’s a weekly podcast with for venture capitalists. Candidly, I never miss it. Every single week, it’s, you know, they talk about business, they talk about politics. They talk about, culture. And, and I just learn a ton, from, tuning into that.

00:56:57:18 – 00:57:26:20
Adam Kaplan
So that’d be my my number one. I would say I love and best, like the best. You know, I, you know, I I’ll pick like, you know, it doesn’t have to be somebody that I recognize. But, like, recently had on a guy, very, very successful ambassador who was on, Scully’s flight, and, he talked about the experience, you know, where, you know, he knew the plane was going down.

00:57:26:20 – 00:57:58:23
Adam Kaplan
And, you know, he he, he had a few minutes left to live and just kind of how that changed the course of his, his trajectory of, of his life and how he thinks about meaning and purpose and, it very much aligns with where I aspired to go as a, as an operator and as an investor, which is, you know, it’s not that it cannot be solely about, the returns that I have to do something that is meaningful and purposeful, and it’s making a difference.

00:57:59:00 – 00:58:20:03
Adam Kaplan
And so, like, you know, anything that, you know, can inspire me to do better, I personally love. So I’m a big fan of that pod. I love, Lex Friedman interviews. You know, he honestly both sides of the aisle. He just interviewed the, president of Argentina. Gives you kind of a view. Yeah, yeah.

00:58:20:04 – 00:58:21:12
David Pardo
The man. Yeah. Okay.

00:58:21:14 – 00:58:48:16
Adam Kaplan
Incredible. Incredible. What a great pod. Honestly, like, one of the best to listen to, this year and and kind of gives you a glimpse into what we maybe can expect from doge. And, so I really enjoyed that. I love honestly, I love, I love Huberman Labs, as I suggested. So I definitely like to mix in stuff that has to do with alpha list.

00:58:48:18 – 00:58:51:08
Adam Kaplan
But yeah, those are those are a few of my favorites.

00:58:51:10 – 00:59:00:19
David Pardo
Okay. I want to be respectful. Your time. I just my last question is you are super well-informed. Where do you get your health care news, industry news.

00:59:00:21 – 00:59:26:15
Adam Kaplan
So, for senior living, I go to senior housing news, you know, every day, and, you know, it’s it’s full of great information. I’ve been, you know, following them since, you know, the early days when they launched, and I think they, they do a great job with, with quality content. I, I like, and there’s a, there’s an individual.

00:59:26:15 – 00:59:32:08
Adam Kaplan
I follow his name. His last name is Madden. And he. Not John.

00:59:32:10 – 00:59:34:10
David Pardo
But not John.

00:59:34:12 – 00:59:54:22
Adam Kaplan
It’s it, it is. His name is, Blake. Blake. Man, I should know that my son, my oldest son’s name is Blake. So Blake Madden, and it’s it’s it’s healthcare news, and, he is, he’s just very, very informed. And, he provides a lot of links. And so I, you know, I’ll, I’ll pick, like, what?

00:59:54:22 – 01:00:19:12
Adam Kaplan
Links are kind of relevant to me. Honestly, LinkedIn is amazing. I follow, a lot of, like, I think, you know, thought leaders, people that I really respect. And, you know, they’ll post something, an article, on LinkedIn. I’ll, I’ll read it. So, I definitely find that to be for me, a really good source of news.

01:00:19:14 – 01:00:49:23
Adam Kaplan
And, and honestly, my network, a lot of people, you know, will send me attacks and email. And so if somebody you know that I respect that you send me an email with something, you say, hey, Adam, based on our conversations, I think you do enjoy this. I’ll read it, but I will say, I love to read and I love to listen to podcasts that help me, think bigger.

01:00:50:01 – 01:01:11:09
Adam Kaplan
Help me think more strategically. And, I love learning from, you know, the best out there. So I love, like, Moss book last year, you know, our was one of my favorites. So I know that I’m going to opportunity to go beyond health care and to take learnings from other industries and apply it into what I’m doing.

01:01:11:11 – 01:01:24:16
David Pardo
Yeah, I mean, we I think that’s how we started actually talking about cross fertilizing from the industry. So that was a good full circle. Adam. This was a really, genuine, genuinely interesting, deep dive podcast. I appreciate your time.

01:01:24:18 – 01:01:26:04
Adam Kaplan
Hey, really appreciate you having me.