In the spring of 2018, I was pulled out of a client meeting in Japan. My mother had been admitted to critical care.

Before she passed, she turned to my father and said, “Your life is about to change.” I didn’t realize she should have been talking to me.

I always knew my mother was the foundation of our family. Only after she was gone did I see how much of that foundation was caregiving — for her two siblings, and for my father. The work she had been quietly carrying, alone, for years, suddenly had no one carrying it.

So I started.

It’s been a long, arduous journey. I’m now the sole caregiver for my 86-year-old father and my 82-year-old aunt, who has dementia. I’ve learned the hard way how much of caregiving is being constantly blindsided — by medical decisions, by paperwork, by a phone call that changes the next six months.

I’m building Tugboat because I believe caregivers shouldn’t have to navigate this alone, the way my mother did, the way I have. The tools we have today — AI that can anticipate what’s coming, organize what’s complicated, and quietly hold the things you can’t keep track of — finally make that possible.

If you’re a caregiver, I’m building this for you. And, honestly, I’m building it for me too.

— John

You’re still the captain. We just provide the power and precision when it’s needed most.