The Story of Halcyon Home: From Flyers on a College Campus to 1,000 Employees (Amy Sweet)

What began as a personal mission to find young, hip caregivers for her aunt quickly turned into a business opportunity—and eventually the founding of Halcyon Home, now the 4th largest woman-owned business based in Austin, TX. CEO Amy Sweet shares how her clinical background as a physician assistant led her to quickly add geriatric care management, home health, and hospice to her home care company—and what she learned navigating the complex Texas licensing process. She discusses the leadership challenges of scaling multiple service lines, hiring the right people to grow each department, and communicating how home care, home health, and hospice work together both internally and externally. Today, Halcyon provides thousands of visits every day and employs nearly 1,000 people across its services. Amy also shares her long-term vision of building an intergenerational community where seniors, students, and children thrive together.

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min

Mar 19, 2026

The Story of Halcyon Home: From Flyers on a College Campus to 1,000 Employees (Amy Sweet)

Miriam Allred (00:09)
Welcome to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. Today I am in Austin, Texas, and I am sitting across from Amy Sweet, the founder and CEO of Halcyon Home. Amy, welcome to the show. We're in your stomping grounds in Austin, and you just told me, I'm just gonna start with this out of the gate. The fourth largest woman owned business in Austin, Texas.

Amy Sweet (00:24)
Thank you so much. I'm excited to be

That is true. It oscillates whether Kendra Scott owns her business or whether PE owns it over the last couple of years. So I've been four and five, but yes.

Miriam Allred (00:47)
my gosh, congratulations. Thank you. I didn't know you until maybe four days ago and I am just blown away and have been wanting to just learn more ever since we first talked. So shout out to Bob Roth for introducing us. Thank you, Bob. Let's just get into you and your agency and your growth and your decision-making. Like I just want to hit it all here in like 30 minutes. So let's start with Halcyon Home. That's kind of a unique name. Every home care company has a story behind the name, tell us little bit about Halcyon.

Amy Sweet (01:18)
I was reading a Greek mythology book to my 12 year old stepson and it was a Percy Jackson book and I was learning all about Greek mythology and came across the word Halcyon right around the time I was starting this company was in the brainstorming phases and Halcyon was the time in Greek mythology that was referred to as idyllically peaceful and happy and I wanted to go into everybody's home and when it's in chaos and stress and decision making and crisis and make it idyllically peaceful and happy like the Greek calm waters where the Kingfisher bird could lay its eggs. So the Kingfisher is our little motto of a bird and everybody gets one at their five year anniversary and it's on all our logos.

Miriam Allred (02:09)
What a tender story. And that was what 15 or 16 years ago that you started this business?

Amy Sweet (02:13)
started in 2012, so 14 years ago in March.

Miriam Allred (02:18)
my goodness, congratulations. Before we unpack the founding story and the start, what were you doing before you started this business?

Amy Sweet (02:25)
I was a physician assistant working in GYN oncology and then GI and moonlighting and a SNF in a skilled nursing facility in geriatrics. So I was having two young kids. I had a one and two year old. So I had taken, I had done GYN oncology ever since I had become a PA. And when I was pregnant, I wanted a more part-time role. And so I started. Taking a part-time job as a GI physician assistant and then moonlighting in a skilled nursing facility, which definitely got me into the home care world.

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Miriam Allred (02:59)
That's what I was going to ask. So the skilled nursing specifically got you exposed to home care? Yeah.

Amy Sweet (03:04)
No, really what got me exposed to home care was my aunt who had lost her legs from a rare blood cancer moving to Austin and me having to care for her and her being a incredibly high maintenance and eccentric and incredible woman who did not like any of the agencies that were available in Austin.

and said, where are all the cool people? I want cool people taking care of me like I see at the Alamo draft house. And I don't see any of these people coming to care for me in home health or home care. So I went down and started ⁓ putting out flyers at the Austin Community College campuses to hire caregivers.

Miriam Allred (03:51)
to hire a caregiver for her or did she ask you explicitly to be her caregiver?

Amy Sweet (03:55)
No, she wanted me to hire people for her that I knew she would like. They had to love art and hip hop and you know, yeah, she wanted cool young people. She wanted to be around the next generation and she was like, where I want inspiring people around me. 31, 32.

Miriam Allred (04:12)
And how old were you at the time? And she asks you to go out and find these people. Did you know what kind of traditional home care was or look like?

Amy Sweet (04:23)
No, no clue. idea. No clue. But I had been a CNA when I was 16 in Massachusetts, taking care of elderly people in their homes. And I had done that so that I could get clinical hours to apply for a PA school back in the late 90s or mid 90s. And so I had fallen in love with seniors at that time and helping others and caring for people.

And so I knew what it was to be me at 16 wanting to have a career in healthcare and wanting to figure out how to pay my bills as a student and needing hours, clinical hours. I knew what that was like and I knew how much it shaped who I was as a person.

Miriam Allred (05:09)
So how do you go from finding hip caregivers for your aunt to starting a home care company? Like fill in that gap.

Amy Sweet (05:18)
It wasn't a very long time before I realized that there were a lot of other people that wanted caregivers like I was finding for my aunt. So it literally was just conversations like, you found that kind of person for your aunt, can you find that person for me too? So I had a friend that worked at a senior living community and she was like, there are so many people that want someone like your caregivers. And so I got my first.

three or four clients because she said, don't you go get a license so you can do this here too at this community?

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