Meet Haji Salad, Founder and CEO @ Patron Senior Living

Patron Senior Living is an Omaha-based in-home care company centered on maintaining a sense of independence and dignity for clients. Salad competed and placed fifth in the Pitch Black 2025 pitch competition. 

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur or support other entrepreneurs?

One of the biggest reasons why I became an entrepreneur was to just build wealth for my family. I was born in a refugee camp in Kenya. My family had an opportunity to come down to the United States in 2004. I want to be able to take the opportunities that I’ve been given and capitalize on them. 

I’ve always enjoyed being able to help people and give back to my community. With my in-home care agency, I’m able to work with those older individuals within my community and support them within their homes and help them to stay independent as possible. 

I love giving back to my community. I love helping out my people. I love being able to show individuals who are like me that anything’s possible. You can go out there and chase your dreams, chase your goals, and you can do anything that you want to do as long as you are disciplined and put in the work to get there. 

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were just starting out?

The advice that I’ll give my 10-year-old self, who may not even know what he wants to do with his life, is: Whatever you choose to go after, whatever dream you choose to chase after, just wake up and do those little things to help you reach your dream every single day. 

If you never give up, you’ll always win. I know a lot of times when you start something new and you don’t understand it, it can be really hard — really complicated. It can be really easy to just give up, which is an easy option. And I would just say don’t choose the easy option. Choose the option which is the hardest because those options will help you to grow and to develop into the person that you want to be.

The process is what helps you become that person. 

How do you stay motivated when things feel overwhelming — or stagnant?

One of the ways that I keep myself motivated to continue to do what I do every day is just remembering how my clients feel when they get the services that they need. A lot of the time, the individuals that I’m working with are older individuals who may not necessarily have their families in their lives and they don’t have anyone who can support them in their homes. We’re able to hire somebody who is able to go inside our clients’ homes and help them: meal prep, transport them to their medical appointments or just socialize with them.

When I talk with my clients, they tell me, “I’ve never had somebody that’s just been here for me.” Hearing things like that, seeing the relief, seeing them happy and having somebody that’s there to support them — somebody that cares about them — motivates me to keep going. To keep pursuing this business. To keep expanding. Those days when I feel I don’t want to go anymore …

As long as I can help just one person, make a difference in one person’s life, that helps me and fuels me to continue to keep going — to keep overcoming any obstacles that come my way.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome and how did you overcome it?

I feel like the biggest challenge that I’ve overcome is becoming a Medicaid provider. That whole process took me (about) three to four months, and it was just very, very tedious. Any time you’re working with the state or like Medicaid or Medicare, it is a very tedious process. Everything takes a very, very long time.

I was just going back and forth with the state and the people who were helping me apply. At times, I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I know the importance of helping those individuals who may not be able to pay for home health care out of pocket.

That helped me stay motivated — stay positive. Eventually, after a couple months, we got approved to become a Medicaid provider. I was super happy. I’m glad that I stuck it out, stayed patient, continued to reach out, ask questions and get answers. 

How can the Nebraska community support you?

If there’s any individuals that you know who need in-home health care services, any individuals who can’t afford home health care, any older adults 55 years old or older, who have a disability or who have family caregivers who are taking care of them and they need support, they can reach out to Patron Senior Living. We can find different ways to support them.