Ryan Alford sits down with Lily Vittayarukskul, CEO of Waterlily, for a conversation about aging, long-term care, and why most families are far less prepared than they think. Lily shares how her company uses AI trained on large historical datasets to help estimate future care needs and costs, giving people a more personal and more useful way to plan than broad national averages ever could.
The episode also explores why this issue feels new to so many people, from the decline of multigenerational households to the fact that many adult children now live far from their parents. Ryan helps surface the practical and emotional side of the conversation, while Lily explains how families, advisors, and institutions can use better information to make more sustainable decisions earlier.
They close by widening the frame to entrepreneurship and AI itself, including what it means to build in San Francisco, how hard it is to scale a serious company around a hard problem, and why AI may increasingly separate people who adapt from people who do not. The result is an episode that blends wellness, financial planning, longevity, and emerging technology in a way that feels timely and useful.
Topics Covered
The financial impact of longer life expectancy
Why long-term care planning is still a blind spot
How Waterlily predicts aging-related care costs
Why national averages are not good enough for planning
What has changed about family structure and caregiving
How advisors and families can use AI more effectively
The challenge of building an AI startup around a hard problem
Ryan Alford and Lily Vittayarukskul on aging, wealth, and technology
Links
Vibe Science
https://vibescience.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@Vibe.Science
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vibe-science-podcast/id1693460042
Ryan Alford
https://www.ryanalford.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ryanalford/
Lily Vittayarukskul / Waterlily
https://www.waterlily.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilyvittayarukskul/
