Old Boys in the News – 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards Finalist 

For most of us, the moment we realise our parents are getting older comes quietly. A phone call where they sound a little more tired than usual. A visit where you notice things have slipped. The growing awareness that someone you love is at home alone more often than you’d like – and that you can’t always be there.

Andrew Guo (Class of ‘21) knows that feeling well. It was a conversation with his grandmother, who lives overseas, that first made him see the problem clearly. She was struggling with technology that was never designed for her. She was forgetting things. And her family, scattered across different cities and countries, had no simple way to stay across how she was really doing.

That conversation became the starting point for Idiom, a Melbourne-based startup Andrew co-founded after graduating from the University of Melbourne with a degree in finance. Together with his co-founder Julian Lewis, he set out to build something that could genuinely help.

The result is ILY, a daily wellbeing check-in service for older Australians living independently at home. ILY uses conversational AI, calls your loved one at a set time each day, weaves in any reminders the family has set, and sends a short update afterwards so family members know everything is okay. Nothing new for them to learn. Just a phone call.

The team has since been backed by the City of Melbourne and named finalists in the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards in the Luminary Tech Visionary category, recognition that what they are building speaks to a real and growing need in our community.

Australia is ageing. More than one million older Australians are currently living alone, and the families supporting them are increasingly stretched: managing careers, their own households, and the constant background worry that comes with having a parent living independently. ILY was built for that gap: the hours between visits, the days between calls, the moments families cannot be there but wish they could be.

The Melbourne High community spans generations: from recent graduates navigating early careers to alumni who have watched their own parents age, and some who are navigating that chapter themselves. If you have a parent, a grandparent, or someone close to you who is ageing at home, ILY may be worth exploring. And if you work in aged care, allied health, or community services, or know someone who does, Andrew will welcome the introduction.

ILY is currently offering free trials for families interested in experiencing the service firsthand.

To learn more or get in touch, visit idiom.technology or contact Andrew directly at support@idiom.technology or 0420 999 528.