Coffee with Pablo Otero: social innovation in the care of the elderly with MiResi

The “Coffee with Entrepreneurs” initiative brings you closer to leaders of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem to learn first-hand about their experiences and trajectories.

Our latest Coffee was with Pablo Otero Sáez, founder and CEO of miResi, the platform that is transforming access to nursing homes and home care services in Spain.

In his chat with José Carlos Huerta, our Director of the Startups Program, Pablo tells us how miResi makes it easier and more personalized to find support for the care of the elderly, creating a bridge between technology and social assistance.

In this talk, Pablo shares the challenges of founding miResi, its impact on families, and lessons on how to combine technology and empathy in the healthcare sector. This meeting is an opportunity to understand the power of social innovation in improving the well-being of the elderly.

Here you can see the Coffee with Pablo Otero Sáez:

Coffee with Pablo Otero Sáez, CEO miResi

Below, we summarize the coffee with Pablo Otero:

Pablo’s professional career and the origins of miResi

The story of Pablo Otero and the origins of miResi are intertwined in a journey of personal and professional transformation that starts from a corporate environment to the world of social entrepreneurship. Its path begins in the field of investment banking, a sector characterised by the analysis of complex operations, rigor in risk management and an eminently financial perspective. In this context, Pablo specializes in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), where he acquires analytical skills and knows various sectors, including nursing homes. Although it seems an atypical turn, this first contact with the care sector, from a business perspective, sows the seed of what would eventually become miResi.

Pablo describes his time in banking as a learning time in which he develops a critical ability to identify market inefficiencies. When you take a closer look at the structure of many nursing homes in Spain, you notice that this sector is characterized by outdated practices and a general lack of transparency. In his visits to nursing homes as part of his work in M&A, he notices that many of them still operate in an analogue way, with manual systems that hinder communication and internal organisation. Pablo identifies a clear gap: the sector, for the most part, is made up of small and medium-sized companies that lack digital tools, in part because the professionals who manage these centers are focused on caring for people and not on technology management. This lack of technological infrastructure in the residences means that the search process for families is arduous, and this, for Pablo, represents an opportunity.

From a young age, Pablo has been attracted to entrepreneurship. She shares that her interest in creating projects has a family root; His parents are also entrepreneurs, and he grows up in a work environment where risk and flexibility are normalized. This early entrepreneurial spirit leads him to organize small businesses and experiment with various initiatives, such as creating a local soccer team at a young age. However, despite his interest and his first steps in minor ventures, his parents initially advise him to work in a large company and accumulate experience before launching himself on his own.

Over time, Pablo decides that the time has come to put his experience and entrepreneurial instinct into practice. The idea of miResi arises as a response to a clear problem: to facilitate access to truthful and real-time information on nursing homes and care services for the elderly, in an environment where the offer is opaque and difficult to compare. Pablo realises that the sector has a potential for improvement through the use of technology, and envisions a platform that allows families to find care options in a simpler, more agile and personalised way.

At first, Pablo admits that he did not have a clear product in mind, but he did have the determination to explore and deeply understand the needs of this sector. With this vision, and without a defined roadmap, he begins to visit nursing homes and dialogue with those responsible to understand the specific pain points of his operation. These first conversations are crucial for the initial design of miResi, which Pablo develops together with the market. By asking the residences directly how they could help them, they establish a collaborative relationship that allows them to create a platform that meets the needs of families while facilitating the day-to-day management of these centers. Thus, miResi becomes a co-created solution, adapted to the particular characteristics of a sector with little digitalization and high levels of emotional and vocational responsibility.

Pablo understands that gaining customer trust requires more than an advanced technology platform; A combination of empathy and practicality is needed to allow families to face an often painful situation, such as choosing a suitable place to care for their loved ones. From the beginning, it has focused on creating a user experience that is simple and transparent, where access to information makes it easier to choose and gives families peace of mind that they have made an informed decision. For him, technology is not the goal in itself, but the means to solve a real problem in people’s lives.

With a platform that offers clear value to both residences and families, miResi becomes a comprehensive solution that seeks to modernize and humanize the nursing home and elderly care sector. Pablo’s professional experience in banking and his background in M&A allow him to build a robust business model that, at the same time, responds to a social need. For him, the key is to understand that miResi users are looking for information and are also looking for an ally in a complicated time, and it is this sensitivity towards the end customer that distinguishes the platform.

Creating a transparent and accessible platform

miResi is therefore born from a need for transparency and accessibility. Pablo explains that the aim is to give families a clear view of the availability, price and characteristics of the residences in real time, facilitating a process that has traditionally been long and exhausting. In addition, it seeks to offer a system in which families can share their experience, contributing to the improvement of the sector and favouring healthy competition between residences.

One of the first challenges is the highly fragmented nature of the sector. Many residences are small businesses that do not have marketing or technology specialists. Through miResi, Pablo strives to offer a tool that allows these establishments to manage their places, attract customers and, in some cases, act as a front office, answering calls and requests efficiently.

Innovation and growth in the elderly care sector

Pablo also explains that miResi is not limited to residences. The platform includes other social and health services, such as day centres, rehabilitation centres and long-stay hospitals, which considerably expands its target market. Currently, miResi has about 1,200 registered residences and continues to grow at a rapid pace (for example, 80 new residences have been added in the last month).

The founder details his work process to better understand the needs of each residence. Since the beginning, he has been personally involved in the creation of the product, visiting hundreds of residences and meeting with their managers. Thanks to this proximity to the customer, miResi develops a joint, adaptable and truly useful solution for the sector. Pablo points out that the business model is simple: when miResi facilitates the entry of a resident, the residence pays a fee to the platform, a formula that has proven to be efficient and sustainable.

The role of technology in miResi

For Pablo, technology at miResi is a means, not a competitive advantage per se. He clarifies that it is not about developing “sophisticated” software, but about ensuring that residences and families find a simple and efficient user experience.

MiResi has developed a system that manages the availability of places in nursing homes and care centres in real time. This functionality responds to a specific need: families need clear information about the available beds, prices and services in each centre, and to be able to compare them without making physical visits. For nursing homes, which usually have few administrative staff, updating this information accurately represents a great challenge. MiResi’s system simplifies this process, offering nursing homes a platform to manage their occupancy and allowing families to get up-to-date data at any time.

In addition, MiResi has a customer management platform that facilitates the handling of requests and reduces the operational burden of the residences. In Spain, most residences are small businesses without a team specialized in telephone service or digital marketing, which makes activities such as answering calls or managing reservations complicated. MiResi covers this need through its front office system, with which they take on the management of calls and requests on behalf of the residences, thus freeing up their staff to dedicate themselves to their main work, which is the care of the elderly.

Pablo explains that they have recently launched an additional service to search for qualified personnel for nursing homes, another major challenge in this sector, which faces a significant lack of trained professionals. This tool allows MiResi to help nursing homes fill vacancies quickly and ensures that the required staff are available in the shortest possible time, an aspect that nursing homes particularly value given their limited time and resources for these recruitment processes.

As for the user experience, Pablo emphasizes the importance of technology being easy to use and really useful, rather than complicated or sophisticated for no reason. Simplicity is key so that both residences and families can take advantage of the functionalities without the need for advanced technical knowledge. At MiResi, the team is constantly working on improving the accessibility of its software, ensuring that nursing homes, even if they are not familiar with digital tools, find a functional and practical solution in the platform.

MiResi is thus consolidating itself as a comprehensive platform for nursing homes in Spain. Its technology has become a fundamental resource that improves transparency and facilitates both customer acquisition and the internal management of nursing homes, simplifying a sector that, until now, did not have effective digital options.

The challenges of a local marketplace

As Pablo explains, miResi operates under the marketplace model, which implies the need to balance supply and demand at the local level. A great challenge is to ensure that in each region there are enough residences and interested users, something that at the time was complex when the platform went from operating only in Madrid to covering all of Spain. To solve this difficulty, Pablo and his team develop a system that manages customer acquisition based on the availability of beds, the geographical area and the specific needs of each residence.

The importance of starting a business with someone

Pablo stresses the value of entrepreneurship accompanied, especially in a sector such as nursing homes, which requires both a focus on the business and a solid technological infrastructure. Although Pablo started the project alone, he soon identified the need to have a complementary profile that provides technical experience and management skills in the technological area. Thus, he decided to incorporate Denis Roldán, a programming specialist and director of the programming laboratory at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, as CTO of MiResi.

Denis brings to MiResi the technical knowledge necessary to develop and adapt the platform, optimizing its functionalities and ensuring its day-to-day operability. Pablo recognizes that this collaboration, in addition to helping in terms of growth and efficiency, is also important at the level of mental health and personal balance, allowing him to share the challenges and crucial decisions of the business with someone he trusts. According to Pablo, working as a team with Denis has allowed them to address problems from different perspectives and with greater clarity, making the development of a useful technology more viable and adjusted to the real needs of their clients.

In addition, Pablo explains that having a partner with whom to share responsibilities is especially beneficial in times of pressure. Having someone to discuss difficult ideas and decisions with allows for a more balanced approach and reduces the risk of mistakes.

The Importance of Capital Resilience and Efficiency

Pablo mentions how in the world of startups there is sometimes a tendency to spend resources excessively. Having funded miResi with venture capital and having a team of committed investors, they have had to balance the speed of growth with the efficiency of their operations. Instead of hiring large commercial teams at the beginning, Pablo has personally been visiting the residences, which allows him to optimize costs and also better understand the needs of the sector.

A capital increase and the future of miResi

In an important step, miResi has recently completed a €2 million financing round, backed by prestigious investors such as Creas and Bankinter. Pablo shares that this expansion represents a unique opportunity to consolidate the company’s growth and expand its offer. The incorporation of professional investors has brought new learnings for Pablo, who now receives support in areas such as business management and leadership. For the founder of miResi, having a team of committed investors is an advantage that reinforces his vision of making miResi a benchmark in Spain and, in the future, in Europe.

Pablo imagines that in five years, miResi will be the equivalent of Booking.com for nursing homes, allowing any user to find the care they need quickly and easily. Pablo’s ambition is for miResi to become the undisputed leader in the sector, with the possibility of consolidating itself even at the European level.

This growth will allow miResi to expand its service offerings, improving both the experience of families and residences. In addition, it opens the possibility of a future IPO, a milestone that would offer founding partners and investors the opportunity to capitalize on their holdings and strengthen the company’s position in a market with an ever-increasing demand.

Some lessons learned along the way

Pablo points out that entrepreneurship involves learning crucial lessons as you go. One of the most important, he says, is to manage the treasury well: “Payrolls are not paid by active users or metrics, but by the money in the bank.” For him, real liquidity is more relevant than the trendy indicators in the world of startups. In his words, it is not about how many residences they have signed, but how much they have actually paid.

In addition, it underlines the importance of keeping the focus on strategic objectives. In an environment where new opportunities are always emerging, it is easy to disperse and pursue goals that are not aligned with the core problem you want to solve. For Pablo, although exploring new markets or tempting projects could generate income in the short term, the real value of miResi lies in continuing to improve its core proposition: connecting supply and demand in the nursing home sector in an efficient and transparent way.

Tips for future entrepreneurs

Before moving on to the Q session, Pablo shares a key piece of advice for those starting out in entrepreneurship: it is essential to understand that this career is hard and requires continuous dedication. He stresses the importance of always listening to the customer, making sure that the product being developed responds to a real market need.

QA session

In the round of questions, Pablo answers several questions from the audience:

Use of miResi: Confirm that the platform is open to any user seeking nursing home or care services. miResi is freely accessible through the internet and allows you to explore the available options.

Teleworking at miResi: although he prefers to work in the office, he recognizes that teleworking is a reality. He explains that teleworking can be positive in some positions, especially for those looking for a better work-life balance, although he recommends that new employees or those with high responsibility work in person to be in direct contact with the team.

Purchase decision through intermediaries: An assistant asks how it affects the fact that the end user is not the one making the purchase decision. Pablo explains that this situation complicates the process, since the buyer is usually a child or relative, and must also agree on the decision with other members of the family. The complexity is aggravated when the user is a person with cognitive impairment, which requires especially empathetic and careful treatment.

Family conflict in choosing a residence: Pablo talks about the feeling of guilt that many family members experience when choosing a residence for their loved ones. She mentions that, despite the efforts of nursing homes to improve their services, the process is still emotionally difficult for many families. Pablo invites those who wish to better understand this reality to observe miResi’s work in caring for families seeking help in difficult situations.

With this initiative, Pablo demonstrates that entrepreneurship can be a very powerful tool to improve the lives of many people, especially in sectors where technology and empathy meet to meet needs as fundamental as caring for our elderly.

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