Interview with Rory Hennessey
Gary Barg: Hi Rory, Let’s just jump right in because a lot of people are just knowing that the unwanted calls never stop and wish they can figure out how to beat that. Why don’t traditional call blockers work? And what makes imp different?
Rory Hennessey: The idea of call blockers is really nothing new. That technology has been around since the ‘70s. Our founder, George, has tried every iteration of them. There are a couple of main problems with call blockers. One is that the spammer technology is just so good that it’s so easy to spoof a number. What we mean by spoof is that when you look at your caller ID, the chances are you’ll recognize the area code, or you’ll see a name that looks like it’s someone that you should recognize.
In fact, we are caregivers for my grandmother here in New Hampshire, and the first thing we did was put imp into her landline in her bedroom because she would say, “Oh, I answered the call because I thought it was somebody from back home, and I should have known their number.” Technology now makes it so easy to pretend to be somebody else. It’s also super cheap to place these outbound calls, so scammers are paying pennies per call to flood landlines everywhere.
Because there are so many available phone numbers, you cut off one head of the serpent and five more pop up. They’re able to easily and cheaply call you from a different number, and that circumvents traditional call blockers. It doesn’t do you any good to try to block a call after the fact. So, what we do at imp is stop the calls before they have a chance to get started, and that’s where the Greenlist Technology comes into play. We want to stop unwanted calls before the phone can ring.
Gary Barg: Well, how are caregivers using imp at this point?
Rory Hennessey: We have a family with two sons and a daughter who live locally to mom, and trade off responsibilities. What imp allows them to do is the pharmacy calls and leaves mom a message, “Hey, your prescription is ready.” The sister calls the brother—they all get the message on their smartphone, and then they can coordinate who’s picking that up. So it helps delegate that responsibility and that level of care.
The other thing is that it’s easy for remote caregivers, for example, we have a member on the West Coast. Mom is in the South and the daughter now has a window into mom’s life that she otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Mom has taken out insurance policies with the insurance companies leaving voice messages. She didn’t even know this was a problem.
Gary Barg: You mentioned Greenlist Technology. What is that? How does that work?
Rory Hennessey: When we started imp, the paradigm by which most call blocking companies have approached this problem is by starting with the calls you don’t want. Yet, that’s a tough place to start from because there are so many of those calls. So we flipped the equation on its head and asked, “What if we started with the calls that we actually want?” Because that’s a much smaller pool of people and is where Greenlist Technology comes in. Our greenlist is made up of the callers you actually do want to hear from.
The way that works is that at setup, you plug in the imp box into your landline, and it syncs with your smartphone and your contacts. Now the contacts in your smartphone are recognized by your landline phone. So, then the only time your landline will ring is if it’s somebody in your contact list.
Gary Barg: What if somebody’s not in your greenlist or the contact list?
Rory Hennessey: We have three different lists. The greenlist which we just talked about, which is the list of callers that you want to speak with. At the other end of the spectrum, we have what we call the redlist, which is the same as traditional call blockers. These are known bad guys. These redlisted callers make up only five percent of all calls. So, the bulk of callers end up in this middle as what we call our Greylist. These are callers that aren’t in your contacts and you haven’t decided to block them.
With the Greylist what imp says is, “what we’re going to do is just silently take a message and we’ll send you the message.” If this is somebody you want to move over to your greenlist or redlist, no problem. But we’re initially going to not let them make your phone ring, and we’re going to take a message for you. Then you can decide when and if you want to call them back.
Gary Barg: What kind of control does a caregiver have? What kind of interaction does a caregiver have when imp is on their loved one’s phone?
Rory Hennessey: That’s on a caregiver-by-caregiver basis. It depends on what stage of Alzheimer’s their loved one is dealing with. Sometimes in the earlier stages, the recipient says, “hey, these are who I want to hear from.” In other situations, the caregiver is saying, “okay, I only want these five calls to come through to mom” so imp silently sits in the corner. The caregiver can fine-tune that list to what makes the most sense. The idea with imp is that it’s meant to work like a landline in your home where multiple people can manage and use it, and multiple people get the messages. Imp makes the landline the communal tool we all knew growing up.
Gary Barg: What is the imp box? How does it work?
Rory Hennessey: We spent two years developing the hardware for the imp box, which is about a six-by-six square and an inch thick. It has a pretty minimal footprint, and just plugs into your landline phone. Then the imp box does the dirty work of checking each and every call. If you’re a caregiver, you get this information from wherever you are. You don’t need to be in the house or standing next your phone to listen to the voicemails. The imp box facilitates all the notifications and messages from wherever you are.
Gary Barg: Okay, I’m interested. I want an imp. What’s my next step? Where do I get it, and then how do I set it up?
Rory Hennessey: These are available at joinimp.com. In the house that imp is being set up, the user does need a landline phone, caller ID enabled and wireless internet. Then to complete the setup, you do need a smartphone. So, for my grandmother, for example, who doesn’t have a smartphone, I can use my smart phone to set it up for her. We’ve made it super easy to set up. It’s a plug-and-play five-minute process. Then you’re up and running, stopping unwanted calls in under five minutes. We also have actual real-life people you can call with any questions. We’re happy to schedule FaceTime and Zoom calls to make the setup process as easy and painless as possible.
Gary Barg: Do you have any anecdotes or any stories that caregivers have told you about their interaction with imp, how it’s working for them and their families?
Rory Hennessey: In fact, we created an entire page of caregiver reviews. I was drawn to imp because my grandfather had Alzheimer’s. The first thing grandma had to do was remove the phone. So we lost our ability to call grandpa. We also get emails on a weekly basis like from the caregiver who said imp has completely transformed her mother's life. She is now much less anxious and happier due to less scary phone calls. Now, when it does ring, she gravitates towards the phone to answer it because she knows it’s somebody with whom she wants to speak. If there is a theme in these emails we get, it’s that the house is less anxious and much more peaceful. To keep our loved ones safe, there’s of course, home security systems designed to make sure that nobody unwanted can come into the house, but the landline is still that one back door that people can sneak into.
Gary Barg: That’s an interesting comment because if I remember correctly, imp wasn’t necessarily created to support caregivers. But, once caregivers found out about it, they started swarming you guys and going, “yeah, I don’t care what else you’re using it for. I need it.”
Rory Hennessey: That’s exactly right. The open arms with which the caregivers embraced us and started sending us these incredible love letters. It feels great that we’re doing something meaningful for people that truly need it. So for us, it’s been really fulfilling to continue to invest in these relationships and become an active member of the caregiver community.
Gary Barg: What would be the one most important piece of advice as a caregiver you’d like to share with your fellow caregivers?
Rory Hennessey: Really, it’s all these little things that add up and remind us to be patient with our loved ones and cherish the opportunity to be here and give back to them. Because, for most caregivers, it really is a payback for everything that we were given. Personally, I’m grateful for the opportunity. My wife is grateful to have a grandmother and for us, it’s been an exercise of patience. The more patient we are, the more rewarding it is.
Gary Barg: I love it. In all these years, I think that may be the first time that someone answered with patients, and I think it’s so important. I appreciate that. Thank you and thank George and thank all the impsters for all you do.