An interview with Krzysztof Jacuński, CEO of OriginWay Longevity Living

Today, I would like to talk about your new company, OriginWay Longevity Living. Its planned activities caught my attention and prompted me to suggest this interview. To begin with, I would like to ask about the OriginWay name and the tree symbol in the logo, which also appears in connection with other companies. I must admit I find it somewhat confusing.

Krzysztof Jacuński: Let me start with Origin Active Lifestyle Communities, a Canadian company that has been run for several decades by my business partner and friend, Neil Prashad. After graduating in architecture from Harvard, together with several colleagues he founded Amica, which soon became one of the largest operators of senior care residences in North America. After a few years, Neil decided to pursue his own path. He began by purchasing and modernizing a failing care facility called Origin — hence the name.

Today, Origin is one of the highest-rated companies in this sector in Canada. When I decided to start a similar business in Poland, I chose Origin from among several foreign companies that were planning to enter our market at the time. Not only because I have lived in Canada for nearly 40 years, which made cooperation with a Canadian company seem more natural. From my very first meeting with Neil, I knew that both he and the company he represented were people I wanted to build joint ventures with.

Why?

Neil is an exceptionally interesting person. Raised by an Indian Buddhist father and a Portuguese Catholic mother, he combines what I consider the best qualities of both traditions: calmness, empathy, integrity, and a profound perspective on life. His mother spent her entire professional life working as a nurse in care facilities, including palliative care. I believe it was largely through her influence that Neil developed such a strong desire to help others.

You established Origin Polska in Poland?

Yes. The company was registered in 2013. Our first facility was developed based on my sketches, which were the result of many months spent studying therapeutic architecture. I strongly believe that the space in which we live is one of the most important factors supporting our health. Originally, we planned to focus exclusively on caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

But your first facility, Centrum Origin Otwock, focuses primarily on rehabilitation.

Yes — that was driven by market demand. The need for modern, comprehensive rehabilitation for serious health conditions, particularly neurological disorders, was and remains enormous in Poland. Centrum Origin Otwock is divided into seven independent areas, which we call clusters. At present, only two of them are dedicated to people with dementia. The facility currently accommodates 130 patients, and we are about to begin its further expansion.

Am I correct in understanding that you are still active in the rehabilitation sector?

Together with our new partner, LNA Santé, we established the joint venture LNA Santé Origin in February 2022. We bought out all of the previous investors, and today it is LNA Santé Origin, rather than Origin Polska, that operates our facilities. I serve as Chairman of its Management Board. Day-to-day operations are managed by an excellent team of specialists who have also received additional training in France.

There is information online about the complex in Mechelinki, and it appears that this was also your project.

After our success in rehabilitation, I wanted to continue developing my interest in healthy lifestyles and, above all, disease prevention. For many years, I had wanted to create a complex dedicated specifically to those goals.

I found an exceptional site in Mechelinki near Gdynia — on a hill, several hundred metres from the beach, with a beautiful view over the Bay of Gdańsk. Based on my concept, a complex was developed there which I named ReVital. It included my first serviced residence project. The development was made possible through financing arranged by Origin Investments, a company I founded specifically to organize investment financing. I am no longer associated with that company, and the Mechelinki development is now being continued without my involvement.

You are now establishing a new company, OriginWay. Please tell us about the concept.

I would be very happy to, because for years I have been fascinated by disease prevention and by living environments that are designed and managed in ways that support health. OriginWay Longevity Living is a company created to pursue precisely these goals.

Longevity has become a fashionable word.

Unfortunately, yes, and it has already become somewhat overused. As a result of the trend that has developed over the past several years, companies offering “longevity” — which can simply be translated as long life — have been appearing everywhere.

This is another chapter in the evolution of health and wellness services. It began with hotel gyms, which gradually developed into extensive fitness areas. Later, when various relaxation services were added, they began to be described as spas. In the next stage of development, additional services with a medical dimension were introduced, creating Medical Spas, which have now evolved into longevity centers or longevity clinics.

How do you assess them?

When it comes to relaxation and leisure services, some companies offer a reasonably good standard. In my opinion, however, many of them are still far from meeting the requirements of a genuine healthy longevity offer.

There are several well-known clinics around the world that clearly stand out in terms of quality and reliability, offering services based on scientific research and modern medicine. Unfortunately, there are very few of them, and I believe that the majority of offers marketed under the longevity label have very little to do with living a long life in good health.
Very often, the primary objective of these services is simply to drain customers’ wallets. In some cases, the treatments offered not only fail to help but, when used over the long term, may even cause harm.

That is worrying.

Unfortunately, it is. Some entrepreneurs want to profit quickly from high demand and limited supply without investing in the expertise that is genuinely required, because developing that knowledge is difficult and expensive. As a result, places are being created that are connected with medical longevity in name only.

I therefore have two fundamental questions. What is driving this demand and, most importantly, how will your company guarantee that the services it offers are reliable and based on medical knowledge?

Let me start with demand. Statistics show that the number of serious diseases is steadily increasing. Contrary to what some people claim, this is not simply the result of better diagnostics, but also of the poor quality of the environment in which we live and unhealthy lifestyles.
Cancer and cardiovascular diseases are beginning to occur among increasingly younger people. The median age at which strokes occur, which used to be around 70, has been steadily decreasing for years. Strokes are now affecting younger and younger people, including those in their thirties. The same applies to colorectal, stomach, breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers — these diseases are becoming more common among younger people, even teenagers.

This alarming trend is driven by environmental factors such as polluted air, chemicals in our clothes and ubiquitous fragrances, poor diet, obesity, a growing burden of microplastics capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, and lack of physical activity.
The growing number of diseases and disabilities places enormous pressure on healthcare systems, which are increasingly unable to cope with this growth, particularly at the primary care level. I see this everywhere, even in wealthy Canada, where hospitals provide care at a very high standard, yet patients may sometimes wait months for their first appointment with a specialist.

None of us wants to end up in hospital. None of us wants to spend retirement in a nursing care facility, and none of us wants to watch our children or grandchildren suffer from disease.
This creates constantly growing demand for disease prevention, healthy lifestyles, and living in health-supportive environments. We have no other way to protect ourselves than to begin taking much greater responsibility for our own health and doing everything we reasonably can to prevent disease from developing.
We want not only to live longer, but also to live healthier lives.

In response to this trend, the global market for disease prevention, supplements, nutrition, and fitness is expanding rapidly, and this growth will continue.

Now I will return to your question about guaranteeing that our company offers only solutions that are proven and medically validated.
This is the foundation of what we do, because OriginWay Longevity Living intends to become a permanent part of the healthcare system and aims to become a leader in prevention and a synonym for healthy longevity.
We will not take shortcuts, offer fashionable services with little genuine health value, or introduce unproven solutions. That is why we have established cooperation with outstanding specialists, scientists, and physicians.

When will we see the OriginWay offer?

We would like to be ready within the next three to four months.

How will these services be delivered?

We envisage four customer pathways. All of them begin with diagnostics, but they differ in how the programs are implemented.

If the client lives in a serviced residence operated by OLL, they will be able to use various activity programs, appropriate nutrition, and treatments on site.
A person who does not live in one of our residences will be able to purchase a subscription, and we will organize access to the appropriate programs, including through a dedicated app for a smartphone or tablet.

We will also launch our own longevity clinics with fitness facilities. The first one will most likely be established in the complex currently under construction in Kraków — we will provide further details soon.

We will also organize regular residential retreats at selected hotels and guesthouses. This will be a complementary program designed both to educate participants and to provide an intensive introduction to an individually prepared program.
We have already begun preliminary discussions with property owners who want to increase occupancy and reduce the seasonality of their current offers.

And when will the first serviced residence offers become available?

We are working intensively on this with developers who are either already constructing or planning to construct such properties.
The challenge is that we want our residences to be located in health-supportive environments: free from pollution and toxins and conducive to both physical and mental wellbeing.

And what do you mean by a good location?

In addition to meeting the requirements I have just mentioned, it cannot be somewhere in the middle of nowhere, because residents want to participate in everyday urban life.
I mention this because we receive many offers in beautiful locations that are unfortunately difficult to access and isolated from everyday life and infrastructure.

Such places can be attractive, but primarily for short stays. We all need peace and quiet from time to time, but that is what longevity retreats are intended to provide.