October 12, 2026 — ShieldCart, a Chrome extension and caregiver dashboard built by a family caregiver for her father living with dementia, has opened a free pilot for families through December 31, 2026. The pilot launches just ahead of the holiday season, when sale emails, Black Friday offers and one-click checkouts make dementia-related overspending hardest to manage.
Repeat orders, impulse purchases and food deliveries are a common and often overlooked challenge of dementia care. Families are frequently left with two bad options: take away a loved one’s cards and independence, or watch bills, packages and debt pile up.
ShieldCart offers a middle path. When the loved one clicks “Place order” on any online store, ShieldCart routes the cart to a mock checkout and mock confirmation page. From their perspective, online shopping remains as usual. Meanwhile, the order details go to the caregiver’s phone, and the caregiver can place the order if it’s important — or simply ignore it if it’s a compulsive or repeat purchase. ShieldCart doesn’t process transactions or store credit card data, and it works across the internet — on every retailer, food delivery service and local mom-and-pop shop.
Built for one father, now open to other families
Co-founder Hanna Miller built ShieldCart for her father, a retired pharmaceutical scientist with a PhD in biomathematics and a generous, devoted grandfather. As dementia progressed, that generosity showed up as gifts for his grandchildren ordered again and again, followed by daily food deliveries. Chasing and canceling orders was exhausting and ineffective, and confrontations were too painful and undignified. With ShieldCart, he could keep shopping as usual, without receiving 12 sushi platters a day or facing constant reminders of what dementia was taking from him — and the family saved thousands of dollars a month.
“Even though I had to step in and become the ‘parent,’ I was able to do it in a way that he couldn’t feel it,” said Miller. “Knowing that the system we built for him will now help other families navigate these challenges with that same respect and love feels like a true privilege.”
Business Insider featured the family’s story on October 11: Before my dad died from dementia, I built him a mock checkout platform to avoid huge purchases.
Two non-technical founders, one real-world tester
Miller, a former architect, and co-founder Nikki Elbaz, a SaaS lifecycle strategist, are both non-technical founders. Miller prototyped the first version on Lovable, then rebuilt ShieldCart from scratch with Claude Code. She tested it with her father over his last months, and many features came directly from his daily use:
Mock Error mode, an optional setting for food and same-day delivery that shows a gentle “service unavailable” message instead of a confirmation, so the loved one isn’t left waiting for a no-show delivery
“It was beautiful to see that he could be generous again,” said Elbaz. “We’ve given him that freedom back.”
Availability
ShieldCart is free for pilot families through December 31, 2026. It has two parts: a Chrome extension on the loved one’s desktop or laptop computer, which can be set up remotely, and a caregiver dashboard that works on any iPhone or Android phone. Families should confirm they have their loved one’s consent or Power of Attorney before installing. Families can apply at shieldcart.app.
About ShieldCart
ShieldCart is a Chrome extension and caregiver dashboard that helps families manage dementia-related online shopping with dignity. Founded by Hanna Miller and Nikki Elbaz, ShieldCart intercepts online orders before they’re placed and sends them to a family caregiver for review. Learn more at shieldcart.app.
Media contact: Nikki Elbaz, co-founder · contact@shieldcart.app
