832 Chia-Lin Simmons: CEO of LogicMark

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be.

0:09Kara Goldin:You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time.

0:53Kara Goldin:I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job.

1:38Kara Goldin:Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire.

2:19Kara Goldin:Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. It's 2026. Banking shouldn't still feel complicated. That's what stands out to me about Chime. They've stripped away the old banking playbook. No unnecessary fees, no confusion, just something that works. And it's not just simpler, it's more rewarding. With direct deposit, you can access up to$500 of your paycheck early with MyPay and earn up to$1 ,150 a year in rewards. And it's not just about avoiding fees. It's about making your money work harder. You can earn up to 3.75 APY on savings, get up to 5 % cash back on everyday spending with the Chime card, and even access premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24-7 concierge.

3:17Kara Goldin:Plus, you get features like SpotMe, which lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free and five-star customer support with real humans available 24-7. You're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to a more rewarding way to manage your money. Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com slash Kara Golden. That is chime.com slash Kara Golden. That's chime.com slash Kara Golden.

4:17Kara Goldin:So what if personal safety wasn't reactive, but predictive, preventative, and built seamlessly into everyday life. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Today, I'm joined by Shailene Simmons, CEO of LogicMark, a company that's reimagining what safety, independence, and connected care can look like in today's world. LogicMark started as a traditional medical alert hardware company. It is a health tech and personal safety company. It's now evolving into something so much bigger using AI-enabled platform initiatives designed to help people stay safe, connected, and independent from wearable devices to apps and real -time insights.

5:09Kara Goldin:The company is building technology that supports not just emergencies, but everyday peace of mind. And at a time when the population is aging rapidly and millions of families are balancing caregiving with everything else going on in their lives today, LogicMark is focused on creating solutions that are proactive, intuitive, and actually usable. This is a company that when it came across my desk is right at the right time. So I'm very, very excited to share with everybody what LogicMark is doing. And I'm so excited to speak with Shailene today and dig into how the company is making all the shifts that they're making in this wonderful, wonderful needed space.

6:03Kara Goldin:So Shailene, welcome to the Kara Golden Show. So excited to meet you. I'm excited to meet you as well. It's a pleasure to be here. It's 2026. Banking shouldn't still feel complicated. That's what stands out to me about Chime. They've stripped away the old banking playbook. No unnecessary fees, no confusion, just something that works. And it's not just simpler, it's more rewarding. With direct deposit, you can access up to$500 of your paycheck early with MyPay and earn up to$1 ,150 a year in rewards. And it's not just about avoiding fees. It's about making your money work harder. You can earn up to 3.75 APY on savings, get up to 5 % cash back on everyday spending with the Chime card, and even access premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24-7 concierge.

7:02Kara Goldin:Plus, you get features like SpotMe, which lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free and five-star customer support with real humans available 24-7. You're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to a more rewarding way to manage your money. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today. It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to Chime.com slash Kara Golden. That is Chime.com slash Kara Golden. That's Chime.com slash Kara Golden. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services, a secured Chime Visa credit card, and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA.

7:49MyPay to$500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percentage yield with chime plus status only. Otherwise, 1.00 % APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms.

8:02Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. First of all, businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.

8:46Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.

9:28Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. Really excited. So for listeners who may not know Logic Mart yet, how do you describe the company? Maybe how do you describe the company today? And then we'll get into sort of how that shifted over time. Sure. We're in a business of what we call personal safety. And so that means for those of us who are one of the one in three millennials and more than half of Gen Xers.

10:13We are the company that creates products to help them keep their loved ones safe, whether or not that's a, you know, independent going off to college, 18 year old kid for college and then or your aging parents. And so our job is to provide that safety net so that your loved ones can fly. And but we could still have all peace of mind.

10:34Kara Goldin:So you came into the company in June 2021, crazy time. We'll talk about the leading aspect of that during that transition period. But more than anything, when this company started, Logic of Mark, how has that changed from what it started as versus what it is today? Yeah, so this company was started by a tech innovator, and I believe he's the one who created those start your car remotely from the house. And so your engine could be running when you run out to the door. But it was a hardware only company. And so while I had really excellent margins, 60 % margins, it was just hardware. And so you push that button, and you can go to 911.

11:23And but boy, you know, if you anything happened to you better be actually conscious and you better reach that device and have the capability to push that button. And so that's really what we changed when we came on board is to really take what is really sort of old school company, the I've fallen and can't get up kind of business into the 21st century and bring all of this sort of great IoT, AI, ML sort of technology into industry that in many ways hasn't really evolved since the 1980s.

11:55Kara Goldin:It's 2026. Banking shouldn't still feel complicated. That's what stands out to me about Chime. They've stripped away the old banking playbook. No unnecessary fees, no confusion, just something that works. And it's not just simpler, it's more rewarding. With direct deposit, that you can access up to$500 of your paycheck early with MyPay and earn up to$1 ,150 a year in rewards. And it's not just about avoiding fees. It's about making your money work harder. You can earn up to 3.75 APY on savings, get up to 5 % cash back on everyday spending with the and even access premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24-7 concierge.

12:46Kara Goldin:Plus, you get features like SpotMe, which lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free and five-star customer support with real humans available 24-7. You're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to a more rewarding way to manage your money. chime is not just smarter banking it is the most rewarding way to bank join the millions who are already banking fee-free today it just takes a few minutes to sign up head to chime.com slash cara golden that is chime.com slash cara golden that's chime.com slash cara golden chime is a financial technology company not a bank banking services a secured chime visa credit card and my line of credit provided by the bank or bank na or stride bank na my pay eligibility requirements apply and credit limit ranges$20 to$500.

13:35Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percentage yield with chime plus status only. Otherwise, 1.00 % APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms.

13:46Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. First of all, businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.

14:30Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.

15:13Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. So, so interesting. So let's talk about the market overall. And I guess you're in a few different markets overall. all, but when you look at the demographic market, I should highlight, we're hearing a lot about the silver tsunami and how rapid growth of the 65 plus population is reshaping the care economy. Maybe people who are listening have experienced trying to give care to those they love, but maybe others just aren't really aware of what's going on in this population yet.

16:11Kara Goldin:So can you talk a little bit about that term, silver tsunami, and what that means? Sure, absolutely. So for the first time in literally decades, we're really experiencing where a quarter, close to a quarter of our population in the United States alone will be 65 and over, close to 25 % of that population. So we're not talking about a small portion of our population, that's U.S. only. On a global basis, really, that number is much, much higher percentage-wise. And when we talk about that silver tsunami, what we're really talking about is 10 ,000 people every day turning 65 and over. And if we look at CDC, they tell us that people who are 65 and over, one in four of them will fall.

16:55And so when they experience that fall, a number of horrible health sort of consequences typically come from those. And so what we're talking about when we talk about that silver tsunami is that sort of huge upramp of folks who are boomers turning 65 and the additional sort of vulnerability that is coming with them as well.

17:15Kara Goldin:So technology can reduce the burden that somebody has, but talk to me about logic, Mark, and how specifically it works for people and what it, I guess, alleviates for so many who are going through this caregiving cycle. Yeah, so, you know, along with the silver tsunami, I always call it like it's a perfect storm, if you sort of refer to that Mark Wahlberg movie, of things that are converging at the same time for all of us. And so I'm one of like half of all Gen Xers who are part of what's called the sandwich generation. It's one third of millennials, more than half of Gen Xers. So that means that we're actually helping to take care of our aging parents, as well as trying to launch our young children or even sort of adult age children out into the world.

18:04And so our hands, our minds, our time is just wrapped up in a lot of this work. And so what's happening with this particular industry is that at the same time that tons of people are turning 65 and over and 90 % of them wanting to age at home, this is also at the same time that we're, as a sandwich generation, have so much to manage. A good chunk of caretakers are actually often women. And then with those two convergences, at the same time, where there's just less of us taking care of that many elderly, we're also experiencing this strange sort of situation where post-COVID and even before COVID, in a healthcare sector, there's actually less professionals who are doing the work of helping us take care of our elderly loved ones.

18:49And so even before 2019, the numbers were, I think we had about a shortage of 300 ,000 people in the sort of aging care health environment professionally. Post-COVID, people were burned out. And so we're seeing even less healthcare providers professionally who are able to help take care of our senior loved ones. And so technology, it's really the perfect time for technology to step in and say, hey, look, is there an opportunity for technology to help anticipate what potential health problems might be coming or act as an extra pair of eyes and ears so that our loved ones could age with grace and security and give them that dignity, but also giving us as caretakers.

19:34And that's, again, one in three millennials and more than half of Gen Xers out there, that peace of mind.

19:39Kara Goldin:right and we're all used connected right everything this episode of the kara golden show is brought to you by linkedin hiring pro hi kara here for small businesses every hire matters but so does your time i felt that pressure firsthand you know a bad hire isn't just frustrating it's expensive in time money and team morale and yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.

20:27Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.

21:09Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. It's 2026. Banking shouldn't still feel complicated. it. That's what stands out to me about Chime. They've stripped away the old banking playbook. No unnecessary fees, no confusion, just something that works. And it's not just simpler, it's more rewarding. With direct deposit, you can access up to$500 of your paycheck early with MyPay and earn up to$1 ,150 a year in rewards.

21:56Kara Goldin:And it's not just about avoiding fees. It's about making your money work harder. You can earn up to 3.75 APY on savings, get up to 5 % cash back on everyday spending with the Chime card, and even access premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 24-7 concierge. Plus, you get features like Spot Me, which lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free and five-star customer support with real humans available 24-7. You're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to a more rewarding way to manage your money. Chime is not just smarter banking. It is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free today.

22:46Kara Goldin:It just takes a few minutes to sign up. Head to chime.com slash Kara Golden. That is Chime.com slash Kara Golden. That's Chime.com slash Kara Golden. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services, a secured Chime Visa credit card, and MyPay line of credit provided by the Bancor Bank NA or Stride Bank NA. MyPay eligibility requirements apply, and credit limit ranges$20 to$500. Optional services and products may have fees or charges. See Chime.com slash fees info. Advertised annual percentage yield with Chime Plus status only. Otherwise, 1.00 % APY applies. No min balance required.

23:14Chime card on-time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms.

23:19Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Intuit QuickBooks Payroll. When you're building a business, it's easy to get pulled into the little details and lose sight of the big picture. That's why having the right tools matters so much. Intuit QuickBooks Payroll helps you save time, reduce errors, and make smarter decisions by connecting payroll, employee management, time tracking, and accounting all in one system. And this summer, QuickBooks Payroll is expanding to support even more of how you hire, onboard, manage, and retain your team. Soon, businesses will be able to hire and onboard employees inside QuickBooks, manage HR documents with e-signatures and organize storage, automate HR workflows, and track time off, performance, and benefits alongside payroll.

24:15Kara Goldin:No duplicate entry, no jumping between vendors, no learning a whole new platform. Start using QuickBooks Payroll today to keep your focus on the big picture and get ready for what's next. Learn more at quickbooks.com slash workforce. That's quickbooks.com slash workforce. So can you walk us through the device and what, when someone orders this device, I'd love to hear, first of all, it's very simple to set up. And can you talk about exactly how it works and really what it's gonna do for you? Sure, absolutely. So for our products, one of the major things that we are concerned about is trying to make the footprint kind of small.

25:04Nobody wants to feel vulnerable. And so I will say that, you know, even for myself, my mother-in-law, when my father-in-law passed, she came to visit us in Oakland. So she sat down too quickly at one of these sort of ramen restaurants we were having lunch. And immediately her device goes off and it screams, Mrs. Becker, are you okay? And of course, like a movie, everybody turns and looks at her and she's super embarrassed. But most importantly, she's this very stylish woman. And she had this honking big thing on her chest that she was wearing in a lanyard. that look basically like a garage opener around her neck.

25:40And so what we're really trying to do is, it's being human-centric sort of product producers, we're trying to make things that just make people feel comfortable. And that's part of their everyday lives. And so we try to make the footprints kind of small or make them look like something that your kids wouldn't sort of laugh at you. It's a tiny cell phone, right? And so you feel like you fit in with everybody else. And it's very easy to use. You just, you know, in this particular case, put it around your neck. You call us or you activate it using your phone or your caretakers use your phone, activate the app and you activate the product and away you go.

26:20And if you fall, it will actually have automatic fall detection and it will actually help identify and listen to sort of whether or not you're breathing, whether or not there's any problems. And so because it's automatic fall detection, you don't actually have to be conscious when you push the button because oftentimes people have episodes and they actually aren't conscious enough to push that button. And so we want to make sure that that fall detection is actually very good. And here's where we layer AI on top of it, which is, you know, look, something could happen and we could, you know, discreetly say, you know, Mrs.