Most people think of music as entertainment. Rachel Francine thinks of it as infrastructure for the brain.
On this episode of Innovators, I spoke with the SingFit co-founder and CEO about how her company is using therapeutic music to help people with dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and speech loss. The idea sounds almost deceptively simple. People who lose the ability to speak can often still sing. Music activates multiple regions of the brain at the same time, creating pathways that normal speech sometimes cannot access.
SingFit turns that principle into software.
The platform recreates part of what music therapists do in clinical settings. Songs include lyric prompts, guided vocal tracks, and structured timing designed to encourage participation and cognitive engagement. The result is something that can be used not just by trained therapists, but by caregivers, nursing assistants, and families at home.
Francine said the company now operates in more than 10,000 skilled nursing and senior living centers across the United States. The company recently launched a caregiver-focused version with AARP aimed at helping families support loved ones at home.
One of the more interesting parts of the conversation was how deeply personal the company’s origin story is. The original idea came from Francine’s father, an inventor and former opera student who was fascinated by the role of lyric prompters in live performance. He imagined a system that could feed people lyrics in real time long before the technology existed to build it.
Years later, Francine’s brother became a music therapist after seeing a friend recover from a traumatic brain injury and emerge from a coma mouthing the words to “Wish You Were Here.”
That combination of therapy, family history, and technology became the foundation for SingFit.
Francine also made an important point about startups in healthcare and assistive technology. Too many founders start with technology instead of problems. Her advice was direct. Find a real problem first, then build the system around solving it.
In SingFit’s case, the company focused on one issue inside dementia care: social isolation. Patients often begin withdrawing socially as their condition progresses, which can accelerate decline and increase care costs. The platform was designed to create engagement, connection, and routine through music.
The broader issue she kept returning to was aging. Dementia care, caregiver support, and cognitive decline remain massively underserved compared to other parts of healthcare. Francine pointed out that only a handful of dementia drugs have been approved over the past century while cancer treatments continue advancing rapidly.
Music may not solve dementia. But the company is betting that engagement, memory, rhythm, and emotional connection can improve quality of life in ways that medicine alone often cannot.
And honestly, there is something refreshing about hearing a founder talk about care instead of scale for once.
