From Neighbor to Founder
Why I am Building Babble Health.
By Jessica Bieligk, 16 year Georgetown resident, currently living in the east village on P Street.
My product, Babble Health started, in many ways, with a ride to the doctor.
A few years ago, I began volunteering with Georgetown Village, helping older adults in our neighborhood get to and navigate doctor's appointments. At the same time, I was managing healthcare for myself and my three young children.
Two very different stages of life, but I kept noticing the same problem: so much of our healthcare depends on us remembering, organizing and sharing what was said after we leave the doctor's office.
Which medication are we supposed to take? When is the follow-up? What did the doctor say about that test result? What do I need to tell my husband, my sibling or another caregiver?
It's a lot to keep in our heads.
I started wondering whether technology could make that part of healthcare a little easier. That question eventually became Babble Health, a patient-owned care companion that helps people prepare for and capture doctor visits, then turns the conversation into a clear summary and next steps that can be easily shared with family and caregivers.
Our shorthand for it is simple: Babble remembers so you don't have to.
Georgetown is a key character in the story as Babble has gone from an idea to an app!
I'm a Georgetown University MBA graduate and now serve as a venture advisor in Georgetown's entrepreneurship program, where I have the privilege of working with student founders as they test ideas, talk to customers and figure out whether something they believe in can become a real business. Seeing them in action helped give me the courage to try to build something myself.
While working out of my home office on P Street, I’ve spent the last year talking to patients and caregivers, putting early versions of Babble into people's hands, listening to what works and what doesn't, and changing the product along the way. Many Georgetown friends and neighbors have been among our earliest testers, advisors and cheerleaders.
Now, Babble Health is live in the App Store, and I'd love for more of our Georgetown community to give it a try.
Download Babble, add your next doctor's appointment, and use it for yourself or someone whose care you help manage. Then tell me what you think. I read every piece of feedback, and it genuinely shapes what we build next.
For me, there's something particularly meaningful about seeing an idea that began while helping neighbors in Georgetown grow into a tool that might help families well beyond it.