My Grandmother's TV
The simplest solutions are usually the ones you overlook because they're too obvious.
My grandmother was 90 years old. She lived through more history than most textbooks cover. She raised children, buried a husband, watched the world transform multiple times over. She is, in every meaningful sense, a remarkable person.
She is also completely uninterested in learning how to use a smartphone.
This created a problem.
As her primary caregiver—or one of them, at least—I needed her to know things. Appointment times. Medication schedules. When family was coming to visit. The standard solution is obvious: put it on her phone, set reminders, maybe get her an easy-to-use calendar app.
We tried that. Multiple times. Different phones, different apps, different approaches.
It didn't work. Not because she couldn't learn, but because she didn't want to. And I began to realize that our insistence on digital solutions was really about us, not her. We wanted her to adapt to our tools. But she'd already found a tool that worked perfectly well for her.
She watches TV every single day. Same chair. Same time. The TV is the center of her daily routine.
The question became obvious once I let myself see it: What if the schedule just lived on the TV?
GrandScreen started there. A simple display that shows what matters today—appointments, medication reminders, family photos rotating through. No apps to open. No notifications to dismiss. No passwords to remember. Just information, on the screen, when she needs it.
I think about this a lot when I'm building anything. The fanciest solution is rarely the best one. The best solution is the one that fits into someone's actual life.
My grandmother's life includes a TV and a comfortable chair and decades of routine. Any solution that ignores that reality isn't really a solution at all.
GrandScreen is live now. It works with any smart TV, Fire Stick, or old tablet. The person watching doesn't need to log in or learn anything new. They just look at the screen, like they always do.
The family member or caregiver manages everything from their phone. Updates sync automatically.
It costs $29, one time. No subscription.
I built it because I needed it. Now it's here for anyone else who does too.