Before founding his fourth startup, Raleigh-based Obi Akpuda was introduced to the specialized home healthcare industry by his parents, who are both operators of their own agency. Using his self-taught technical engineering background—partially inspired by the movie The Social Network, Akpuda said—he went out to seek a solution to an issue that he often saw while working alongside his family.
This led him to begin work on what has since become PulseKonnect, a new company being built as a unique solution for modern small home care and behavioral health agencies.
“One reason PulseKonnect made sense was so my dad wouldn’t have to come to me all the time to fix simple tasks,” Akpuda joked. “And then [reason number] two, it was just one of those blessings in disguise that allowed me to become closer to my dad through the work that we’re doing. It’s the best of both worlds.”
Akpuda has found that the biggest overarching issue most smaller home care agencies face is billing and compliance—a job Akpuda himself was put on from the get go. After taking 20 to 30 hours a week sorting those bills out on paper, he realized that the same manual approach would be unsustainable for agencies trying to scale.
“That’s how employees and aids get paid, so if they’re not getting paid, then that usually leads to these aids quitting, and when they leave, that affects the care of actual patients,” Akpuda explained. “It was like a cyclical effect.”
PulseKonnect’s solution and market
PulseKonnect’s all-in-one interface is accessible to small agencies keeping track of multiple avenues themselves. Not only does it centralize billing, but it can also keep track of patient intakes and referrals, hiring and onboarding aid processes, and real-time visit verification with discrepancy alerts before claims go out.
Its ease of use is not the only thing that makes it stand out against other solutions on the market, Akpuda said. It’s also the fact that this system was built by an operator who has spent real time on the frontlines of these issues.
“This startup was built and was incubated talking to these same operators, the same decision makers to the same people who hold the same pain points as not only myself but operators at scale,” he continued.
While this solution was built for the overall home healthcare specialities, such as behavioral health and substance abuse, Akpuda said the biggest agency that PulseKonnect sees the most use in is senior care.
“Every day in America, approximately 10,000 people will turn 65,” he explained. “They will most likely develop severe long-term care needs in their lifetime. Ultimately, we’re trying to empower the caregivers and these agencies to take care of your loved ones in their most vulnerable states.
“We want to make sure that capacity is not the reason why the best care isn’t given to your loved one.”
Akpuda said PulseKonnect onboarded its seventh customer this month, with each new addition to this point coming via referral from an existing customer. The primary word-of-mouth marketing method, he said, has kept the growing community close-knit.
“[It] allows me to work with them as assigned partners [rather than just] as paying customers,” he noted.
According to PulseKonnect’s LinkedIn page, the startup’s early customers have already cut hiring time by 67%, reduced billing rejections by 70%, and saved an average of 15 hours of manual administrative work per week.
QUICK BITS
Startup: PulseKonnect
Founder: Obi Akpuda
Founded: 2025
Team size: 3
Location: Raleigh
Website: pulsekonnect.com
Funding: Bootstrapped; raising pre-seed
Akpuda emphasized that PulseKonnect is primarily for small to medium sized agencies. He recognized that not all firms are created and sustained equally, so PulseKonnect is offered in tiers that are customizable to each agency’s needs.
PulseKonnect has been completely bootstrapped since its inception, but is on track to raise a $1 million pre-seed round. These funds will go toward product development and bolstering their go-to-market strategy. He’s interested in speaking to not only funders with experiences in healthcare about this, but also home healthcare agencies in and beyond North Carolina.
