Existing home care organisations are only allowed to carry out medically necessary activities due to budget cuts and have great difficulty in finding sufficient care providers. At the same time, it is expected that by 2040 the number of people over 80 living alone will have doubled. There will then only be two working people for every pensioner in the Netherlands. The partners, children and relatives of the frail elderly will have to take over the role of the withdrawing government. However, this will cause great problems for these informal carers. To illustrate: 40% of informal carers who care for someone with dementia struggle with symptoms of severe depression (source: VUmc, May 2017). In this light, we wanted to offer an answer to the question: "Who will take on the daily, non-medical support of vulnerable elderly people if the informal carer cannot or no longer wants to?" with organisation Dinst. Many interviews confirmed that informal carers would be happy to hand over some tasks to "regular faces at home". Dinst wanted to be the counter for reliable home services. The intention was to show, with very good service and a competitive price, that people are willing to pay for support at home. In contrast to other organisations in elderly care, Dinst would be able to reach informal carers. This thanks to refreshing contemporary marketing and communication.

The two founders of Dinst first researched the problem by conducting many interviews with the target groups (the elderly, informal carers and potential service providers). Meanwhile, they built a first version of an online platform. This in a multidisciplinary team of about six motivated and socially committed people. Dinst then started as an online marketplace with professionals such as home hairdressers, beauticians and handymen at the homes of elderly people. Dinst had over 150 service providers who were personally screened and introduced themselves online. This included an introduction video, prices, availability and reviews.

Despite a strong team and enormous efforts, it was not possible to realise the set growth. However, this was badly needed in order to build up commercial existence. We went through two online routes to reach the target group. Directly to the consumer via dinst.nl and by offering our products on other websites. We also sold our platform as a 'white label SaaS' solution to large home care organisations: the software and set-up belonging to the marketplace could then be used by the home care organisations under their own flags. Besides data-driven online marketing, Dinst was also present in the neighbourhood with various activities. The largest number of new customers came from relationships with GPs. Despite the fact that customers rated their service providers with an average of 8.7, we did not succeed in building a bond with the customers. With hindsight, we can state that for these infrequent services (a handyman might visit twice a year, a hairdresser every six weeks), customers only want to get in touch with the right service provider. They may not need further involvement from Dinst. Due to a lack of turnover, we decided not to use up the investors' money, but to switch to a different model with one type of service. The Home Service was born: a familiar face at home for all daily tasks. A price of €19.95 per hour seemed perfectly affordable to us for 75% of the over-80s in the Netherlands. Certainly because people with a pgb (personal budget) could also come to Dinst. Dinst had a clear added value due to the continuity and quality offered within the weekly, sometimes daily, support at home. In discussions with informal carers, it turned out that they found extra support both necessary and affordable. However, the elderly (80+) of today think differently, as research among 685 older members of a public home care organisation in the Gooi region has shown. People over 80 think they are entitled to paid government support, otherwise they will fend for themselves. But paying for help at home, no...