Female Founders
BY KERRY PIPES
FOUNDED IN LOVE
Necessity was the grandmother of this brand
S
helly Sun, co-founder of BrightStar Care, never planned to start a
company. But in 2001, she and her
husband, J.D. Sun, were struggling to find
quality in-home care for his grandmother
and discovered they weren’t alone. Soon
after, they decided to take matters into
their own hands.
“We built a healthcare staffing company to provide the full continuum of
care, from home care to supplemental
staffing for corporate clients such as nursing homes and physicians,” she says. Sun
says she worked 90 to 100 hours, 7 days a
week in those early years, but the payoff
has been worth it.
They launched the company in 2002
and began franchising in 2005. “Although
we already had three successful companyowned locations, we knew
that through franchising we
would be able to expand much
faster than if we were to do it
on our own,” she says. BrightStar Care was the first franchising company in the U.S.
to specialize in both medical
and non-medical care and
healthcare staffing.
Now a decade later,
BrightStar has grown to
more than 300 locations nationwide serving more than
15,000 families and generating more than $350 million
in system-wide revenue. The
brand offers a full continuum
of caregiving in the home,
including adult, elder, and
child care, along with babysitter and nanny services.
And Sun says there’s much
more to come, including a
new, complementary brand.
“I’m excited about the
start-up phase of our second brand, BrightStar Senior Living and Memory Care, and
the international expansion of BrightStar
Care in 2016,” she says.
NAME: Shelly Sun
TITLE: CEO, co-founder
COMPANY: BrightStar Care
SYSTEM-WIDE REVENUE: $350 million
NO. OF UNITS: 309
INTERNATIONAL UNITS: 0
GROWTH PLANS: By 2018, we plan to
have 3 brands and be operating in at least 8
international markets. In the next 10 years,
I predict that BrightStar Care will be serving
250,000 families and will have grown in
revenue to $3 billion.
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? Private
YEAR COMPANY FOUNDED: 2002
YEAR STARTED FRANCHISING: 2005
YOUR YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 11
GETTING STARTED
What inspired you to start your business? In late 2001, my husband J.D.’s
grandmother was in need of quality inhome healthcare. Through our personal
journey, we identified a gaping hole in the
healthcare sector, and we saw firsthand the
need for a better in-home care option. In
early 2002, my husband’s grandmother
passed away. Shortly after her death, we
were given the book Rich Dad Poor Dad as
a gift. The book relays a message for its
readers to take control of their own destiny. We took this as a serious
sign to start our own business
that would offer families a
service we were onc