The story of heysimone
How a documentary about seniors led to heysimone. Out of those conversations came one conviction: home care should be simpler.
To become the go-to platform for home support, so seniors can stay in their own home, longer.
Where heysimone came from
Mathew Mckinnon, founder
The documentary
In 2021 I produced a documentary about seniors — about aging, about home care, and about the wish so many of them have to stay in their own home for as long as they possibly can.
Meeting families all over Quebec, I saw just how complicated, stressful and exhausting it can be to find and organize home care. That is where the idea for heysimone came from.
What I found
Today, a lot of families are left with three options:
Wait for the public system, often with delays, staff who keep changing, waiting lists and a limited number of hours.
Turn to private agencies, which cost more and can be hard to coordinate.
Or carry it all themselves, as a family caregiver. And wear themselves down, a little at a time, under everything there is to manage.
And there is a blind spot on top of that: the Tax Credit for Home-Support Services for Seniors is still barely known. Every year, thousands of families leave hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on the table. Money that could pay for precious hours of help.
So I asked myself
“What if there were another way?”
A place where families can find the right person, manage the visits, and hear how someone they love is doing.
And a place where family caregivers can finally ask for a hand, and catch their breath.
That is where heysimone came from.
The everyday heroes
I did not build this for families alone
I met these people too: the neighbour who comes by every morning, the care worker who stays ten minutes longer, the retired man who clears the driveway without being asked. They carry a good part of home support on their own shoulders, and almost nobody sees them.
heysimone is just as much for them: to be found, to be chosen for what they are good at, and to be paid properly for it. You set your own rate and your own hours, and you keep 100% of your rate.
Quick sign-up · No commitment
Why now
By 2031, one Quebecer in four will be over 65. Seniors’ residences are full, CHSLDs are overflowing, and the demand for home care is far beyond what the public system can carry. The shortage is real.
But the shortage is not only about resources. It is about access. Thousands of people already help someone they love, or a neighbour, informally. They have never had the tool to turn that into a real service.
heysimone gives them that chance: all that was missing was the bridge between them and the families.
For professionals, the platform offers better working conditions: their rate, their schedule, 100% of what they earn. And for the people who help quietly — retirees, students, workers, kind souls — a visible place beside the seniors in their own community.
A platform built for the families of today. And for the providers who deserve to be found.