In February, Monica Moody’s life changed forever.
Moody, 55, was diagnosed that month with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, and would soon have to go through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant to give her the best chance to fight the disease.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Shortly after the diagnosis, Moody’s niece recommended she set up a page on SupportNow, a startup founded by a couple in Dunwoody that combines aspects of GoFundMe, CaringBridge, Meal Train and more into one website for people going through tough times like illness or grieving the loss of a loved one.
“We just knew that we were going to need some support, both financially in terms of just getting on top of medical expenses, and also just emotional, spiritual support,” the Decatur resident told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was going to take a healing village to get not just me through this, but my entire family.”
But when she was first diagnosed and people were asking her how they could help, it was stressful.
“You’re so overwhelmed by the journey itself, that becomes a stressor in and of itself,” Moody said.
Having one place that centralized donations, meals, updates on her health and emotional support, “it took all of the weight off,” she explained. “When someone said, ‘Hey, how can I help?’ Send them the link.”
In the months since her diagnosis, Moody has received more than $17,000 in donations to help cover medical bills and had friends volunteer to bring her meals and make fresh juices for her, all through the website. Friends have also been able to leave supportive comments as she battles her cancer.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone and looked at the comments that people have left when they made a donation, or the comments that people leave under an update … those were sustaining features for me,” Moody said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
‘Our community really came through’
In January, Rachel Peterson, 31, took her then7-year-old son, Wesley, to urgent care because he wasn’t feeling well. They quickly discovered something was seriously wrong and by that evening he was having emergency surgery.
He was soon diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma and would have to go through intensive chemotherapy, unable to leave Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for more than a few hours until April.
“The day he was diagnosed, we have a couple at our church that lost a child to cancer, and they came to sit with us in the hospital and they recommended (SupportNow) to us,” Peterson said.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
She left her job to be able to stay with Wesley at the hospital, but she and her husband still had bills to pay and three other children to take care of. Through SupportNow they were able to raise $27,000 to cover medical expenses and household bills, have people sign up for child care, do laundry, bring groceries, cook meals or send gift cards so she and Wesley could eat while at the hospital.
Peterson was also able to post the things Wesley enjoyed, like the Atlanta Braves and collecting police patches. Wesley received more than 2,000 patches from around the world through people sharing the SupportNow link.
“Our community really came through for us,” she said. “I don’t think that would have been possible if we didn’t have the platform to coordinate it, because there was no place to coordinate something like that.”
Do well, do good
Jordan and Scott Arogeti created SupportNow because they had been on the supporter’s side during a tough time, wanting to help your loved one but not knowing how.
“There’s almost like this fog of confusion where you hear the news, your instinct is to take action, you want to check that box that you’ve done something that’s meaningful,” Scott Arogeti said, “but it can be hard to figure out what it is to do.”
The Arogetis were veterans of the Atlanta startup scene before launching their own company. Jordan Arogeti was an early employee of the nowmultibillion-dollar software company Salesloft.
Scott Arogeti had worked at multiple startups before joining forces with his wife to found the precursor to SupportNow, a grief support registry called Mi Alma, which they launched in spring 2023.
Credit: Michael Blackshire
Credit: Michael Blackshire
Last fall, they pivoted their business into SupportNow after getting feedback that though the grief support was great, people could use support in other tough times. What they came up with was a registry that brought “money, meals, volunteers and updates, all in one place,” Jordan Arogeti said. The Arogetis have raised more than $1.8 million in investments for Mi Alma and SupportNow.
In the past year, more than 20,000 people have used SupportNow and raised more than $1 million through the platform, according to the Arogetis. The platform is free for people to use, with 100% of donations going to the intended recipient.
Supporters have the option to add an additional 5% “roundup” when they donate to a page and that is how the company makes money at the moment, but they are “playing a long game,” Scott Arogeti said. They hope people will eventually think of SupportNow when they go through difficult times and they can earn a large share of the market, and eventually add other revenue sources.
“The goal is to both do well and do good,” he said.
They have raised awareness of the company through partnerships with Atlanta-area institutions like Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Northside Hospital and the Shepherd Center as well as social media influencers and word-of-mouth.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Since launching their SupportNow pages, both Moody and Peterson are now in better places. Moody received her stem cell transplant on Aug. 2, “my new birth date,” and is slowly rebuilding her immune system.
Wesley is in remission, in second grade and playing baseball.
“In April, he was so weak, he could hardly walk,” Peterson said, “to like, you know, hitting balls … and just getting back to his childhood.”
Credit: Christy Hyde Photography
Credit: Christy Hyde Photography
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