As Reed Hayes stood inside an assisted living facility in front of an elderly man struggling with dementia, he wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The man sat slouched in his wheelchair, unmoving, his eyes barely open. Hayes had enrolled in MIT's Sloan School of Management with the idea of helping older adults overcome depression and isolation through the immersive world of virtual reality. Now he needed to test his idea.

Hayes turned on a virtual reality experience featuring a three-dimensional painting by Vincent Van Gogh and a classical piano playing in the background. Nervously, he placed the headset on the man. What happened next stunned everyone in the room.

"He just came alive," Hayes remembers. "He started moving around, tapping his feet, laughing. He was all of a sudden much more engaged in the world, and this from someone who was slouched over, to now kind of bouncing around. [My classmate] Dennis and I looked at each other like, 'Holy cow, we might be onto something.' It was remarkable."

It would not be the last time Hayes and Dennis Lally saw the transformative impact of virtual reality (VR). Their startup, Rendever, has since brought its VR experiences to more than 100 senior living communities, and has launched in hospitals to extend the enthralling world of VR to patients of all ages.

"Starting Rendever was one of the most important things I've done in my life," Hayes says. "It holds a special place in my heart, and it's probably the most material impact I'll have in my life."

Rendever's main product is its resident engagement platform, which offers users a variety of games and activities like virtual scuba diving and hiking, and includes content from diverse sources that let users travel almost anywhere in the world. One of the most important features of the platform, though, is its ability to sync to multiple headsets at once, prompting social group activities.