Norway Health Tech is a non-for-profit member organization and the largest health technology cluster in Norway. Many of the members are firms founded by women. "No Isolation" is one of these firms and is founded by Karen Dolva.
Some say that women are reluctant to start their own company and become entrepreneurs. This statement is not something Karen Dolva reasons with. She started her own company right after the university where she obtained a degree in UX/interaction design. Her heart was in communication, people and technology and that made her attack one of the largest problems in the world today; loneliness. And she started with the most vulnerable group; children with chronic disease that are isolated from school and friends due to hospital stays or prolonged absences.
Karen founded No Isolation in 2015 and her goal was to fight loneliness and social isolation. She was convinced that technology is an important contributor in the fight of big and small societal challenges, and in order to reach any results have to be designed through the user’s eyes, ears and experienced based on the problem defined.
Since the start the company now have 45 employees, offices in 3 countries and are selling products in 13 countries. They have two products: AV1 – a replacement in the classroom for children and youngsters with a long-term disease, and KOMP – a screen with one button that enables digital communication for seniors and other with limited technological skills.
The company’s collective motivation and driving force is to help young people back into society, whether that be school or social life, when they have been out due to sickness or other causes for being away and for seniors who get a peak into the lives of grandkids and other relatives that they didn’t have a chance to before. No Isolation wants to enable every user to tell a story of reduced loneliness and isolation.
Together with a great and engaged team, Karen’s ambition is about to become a reality. Although not there yet – it does take a few years to eliminate loneliness – but based on the results the company has produced so far, it won’t be long before new warm technology takes down the barriers one by one and help us all get closer to the goal.
No Isolation is a proud member of Norway Health Tech – one of four main sponsors of Norway as Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019.