In Toronto, innovation often comes from lived experience—and for Daniel Clarke, that experience became the foundation for Elderado, a free online platform helping families navigate the often overwhelming world of elder care.
After facing firsthand the challenges of finding the right care for his grandmother, Daniel set out to simplify a process that can feel confusing, stressful, and time-consuming. Today, Elderado empowers families—particularly those in the “sandwich generation”—to easily compare options like retirement homes, long-term care, and home care services. By making information more accessible and transparent, the platform helps families spend less time searching and more time where it matters most: with their loved ones.
What is your business called and what does it do?
My business is called Elderado. We’re a free website for families that makes it ease to navigate and compare elder care options for aging loved ones.
What made you want to do this work?
I have personal experience with this problem when I was a family caregiver to my Grandma, and we were looking for long-term care or assisted living. We were paired with a social worker who wanted to help, but in a lot of ways, her hands were tied. I couldn’t believe how hard it was for us to find and compare our options to figure out which home is the best option. It was frustrating, overwhelming, and kept us from being at my Grandma’s bedside.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
How do we make it easier for every family to find the elder care information they’re looking for – whether you’re interested in long-term care homes, retirement homes, or home care? Families need to learn how elder care works, what public and private resources exist, determine their budget, assess their loved ones’ care needs, and more. Plus, there’s a whole new language filled with lots of acronyms to learn – what’s the difference between long-term care and retirement homes, what are ADLs, and more. Our goal is to help families spend less time searching for information and more time with their loved ones.
Who are your clientele/demographics?
Our primary demographic is ‘Sandwich Generation’ adult children. This is typically a female (often the eldest daughter) who is helping to support their aging parents, while having kids of their own. We also find that a lot of social workers, discharge planners, and nurse navigators use Elderado to support their patients.
How does your business make money? How does it work?
Elderado is free for families to use; we don’t accept any sort of referral fee or commission. Instead, we offer advertising opportunities to retirement homes and home care operators. For example, a retirement home hosting an open house can promote their open house on their company page on Elderado and the pages of all the other similar nearby retirement homes.
Where in the city can we find your profession?
Elderado is a free web platform that can be accessed anywhere from your phone or computer at elderado.ca.
What is the best part about what you do? What is the worst part?
The best part is getting to spend time with residents in retirement homes and long-term care. I toured 77 retirement homes in 2025, and I got to hear hundreds of residents share their stories.
The worst part is when I speak to a family who needs support but can’t get it. Our public elder care resources (long-term care, home care, etc) are falling well short of demand, and there is a tremendous amount of stress and responsibility that falls on the family. It’s a terrible situation when I speak to a family who is doing all the right things, but cannot get the support that they need.
What is your favourite joke about your own profession?
Not a joke, but something a resident of Scarborough Retirement Residence said to me that I loved was, “A lot of people worry that moving into a retirement home means losing independence. But when you think about it, having someone else cook, clean, and shovel the snow doesn’t sound like losing independence to me.”
Where can we follow you?
Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook
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