By Diana Opong – Contributing writer
Jun 8, 2025

Featured in Puget Sound Business Journal.

Rippl founder Kris Engskov says his time at the White House and Starbucks "really gave me an appreciation for having (a) real mission to what you did." Here pictured at the Alexandria Center for Life Science in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood on May 15.
Anthony Bolante | PSBJ

Story Highlights

Rippl provides 24/7 virtual dementia care to keep patients home.
Kris Engskov founded Rippl after experiences with long-term care system.
Rippl has raised $55 million and serves patients in seven states.

Kris Engskov says his company, Rippl, has one goal for people with dementia — “to keep them at home, and that doesn’t exist anywhere.”

Rippl provides around-the-clock access to virtual dementia care for both patients and caregivers. Nurses manage medications, social workers provide emotional support and troubleshooting and families are assigned care navigators, who Engskov calls “guardian angels.”

Backed by investors like Arch Venture Partners, Google Ventures and Mass General Brigham, Rippl has raised $55 million to date and now serves patients in Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Missouri and California.

Engskov spoke with the Business Journal about raising money and his career path, which took him from the White House to Starbucks to Aegis Living before founding Rippl in 2021.

About Kris

Rippl founder and CEO

Age: 53
Hometown: Berryville, Arkansas
Residence: Seattle
Education: Bachelor’s in public administration, University of Arkansas
Previous roles: Aide to President Bill Clinton; Starbucks executive; Aegis Living president
Outside interests: Fly-fishing and keeping up with his athletic kids

A day in the life

We asked Kris to walk us through a typical workday:

5:30 a.m.: Wake up, drink a blueberry smoothie, lift weights, read papers online
7 a.m.: Wake up kids, get them ready for school
7:45 a.m.: At the office, start Zoom meetings with partners and Rippl teams
10:30 a.m.: If in Seattle, have as many walking meetings as possible
Noon: Lunch at desk. “I'm a leftovers fanatic.”
6:30 p.m.: Dinner with family, then get kids to sports practices
10:30 p.m.: Wind down with a book, usually a C.J. Box novel

When you imagined your future as a kid, what did it look like?

We had a hardware store in Arkansas. That’s what we did. That’s how we grew up. And I love that hardware store, and I credit that, working there every day after school and on the weekends, with a lot of good life lessons. I thought I would probably be running my parents’ hardware store.

What moment or experience sparked the idea for Rippl?

I had been at Starbucks for a number of years, and when I was deciding to leave, I wanted to do something very different, and I didn’t know what it was. ... Right at that moment, like a lot of people, both my parents had near misses with the long-term care system. ... It scared me and mostly made me sad, because I thought, “This is the best we’re doing?” It’s pretty sad.

What are some common misconceptions about dementia care?

I’d say first is the size of the challenge that we all ought to be deeply concerned about this. ... The wave is here. ... The second thing is, we ought to demand better for this group of people. We can’t wait. We’re all going to be impacted by this disease one way or the other. ... It’s going to be a parent, it’s going to be grandparents, be a friend, maybe you, hopefully not. But there is no cure, and right now we have to focus on getting ready to take care of the boomers. It’s just going to have (a) huge impact, because it does affect a caregiver.

What factors do you believe have contributed to Rippl’s success in attracting investors?

They’re long-term thinkers, and they know we’re trying to build a category here. (It’s) hard to believe that in many ways, dementia is at its earliest stages in terms of building care models that really do what we said, which is keep people at home. The investor community is realizing that this is going to be a very large group of patients that are very expensive, and (that) there are proven models right now on how to take care of them, better, cheaper. That’s pretty compelling.

How is equity influencing Rippl’s approach to dementia care?

Equity is really important to us, because dementia has an outsized impact on minority groups, particularly African Americans and Latinos (compared to) white people. ... Last summer, Medicare announced a new funding program for dementia called the GUIDE program that we (adopted). We’re now in seven states operating that, and they are paying for exactly the model of care that we built.

What did your time in the White House and at Starbucks teach you?

The time in the White House and the time at Starbucks really gave me an appreciation for having (a) real mission to what you did. President Clinton was a great role model for that. ... He had great empathy for lots of people, and I think really showed us how to care and then to act on those observations. (At Starbucks), I learned a lot of really valuable lessons around doing things with integrity and trying to bring in social good, alongside making money.

Who are you currently looking up to in the health care community, and why?

There are two local medical doctors, Dr. Martin Levine, chief medical officer of the Optum Care Network, and Dr. Barak Gaster, professor at the University of Washington, that have both made an enormous impact on making dementia care better here in the Pacific Northwest and well beyond.

Seattle isn’t the first city people name when it comes to health care innovation. It’s emerging as kind of a health hub because of Amazon and Microsoft and Fred Hutch (and the) Paul Allen (Brain Institute). I think Seattle is a little underestimated as a health care innovation hub. ... We’ve got everything you need. We’ve got research, we’ve got funders, we’ve got companies. I don’t know why we can’t do what Boston and San Francisco have done.

Seattle Health Care Startup Founder Aims to Keep Dementia Patients at Home