Company Overview
Hall Wang is Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder at Cogensus, a proprietary digital health and analytics platform focused on mental health support, cognitive insights, and legacy preservation to address SDOH. Learn more at https://www.cogensus.com/.
Can you tell us a little about your background before starting at your company?
Prior to Cogensus, I worked at Amazon’s audiobook company, Audible, where I was involved in AI product strategy and understanding how older customers consume media. I honed my core business skills as a consultant at Accenture Strategy, where I had projects with both software and life sciences clients.
I had a first career as an Army Officer for 8 years, where I went to Afghanistan twice for combat deployments. Through that experience I learned how to roll with the punches and get things done.
How did you start at your company? What were the first steps you took to get it off the ground and how did you identify the need for your product/service in the market?
My CEO, Matthew Edgerton, who I used to work with at Accenture, one day called me to tell me about his idea with Cogensus to improve the elder cognitive health. Like him, I have family experience with cognitive decline and its ailments of dementia and Alzheimer’s. I joined the company to make an impact with facilitating better care for the ongoing surge of older Americans.
I joined a few months after Matthew started the company, and I really focused on building investor relationships and getting our marketing/PR machine rolling to condition the market.
What innovations or unique features set your company apart from others in the industry?
Our philosophy is to use AI experiences, including AI companions and sharable AI content generation, to be a catalyst for human connection and community to reduce elder loneliness. There are startups out there making AI friends for the elderly, but we believe in centering around human relationships.
What has been the most effective strategy for scaling your business?
We are a pre-seed start up, so it is early days. Yet, we have grown our partners extensively through referrals. We arm our investors and current customers with authentic and relevant marketing material, and that has done well with creating meaningful introductions that have grown our partnerships.
Looking ahead, what are your goals for the future of your company?
We want to expand our business in the senior care space in the next 9 months and then expand ourselves to other types of healthcare businesses. Key to this is telling our story of how we are impactful to businesses and patients through our marketing and PR campaigns.
