SANTA CLARA, CA – The Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit announced today the six finalists of the Business Plan Competition, which entices entrepreneurs from around the world to showcase their innovative ideas, products, and services for the Boomer and aging market. The finalists will present their plans at the 12th annual summit, to be held June 30 at Santa Clara University.
After several months of development, the Google Ventures and FKA-backed bloom, is unveiling its first generation of products aimed to combat dementia, and (perhaps equally as important) the disintegration of communication among families.
The seed which blossomed into bloom’s initial suite of products was initially laid in founder Keith Kocho’s head by an errant copy of MIT Technology Review, Mr. Kocho says.
The passion of innovation for seniors. Rant on. It’s the most I have seen in the past five years: the halo that surrounds finding new companies that could, perhaps, help older adults, even if they were designed for some other purpose. Many assess them, invite them to networking events, cultivate and encourage their expectations about future opportunity and even award them prizes. The criteria for selection/participation of these entrants are not always disclosed, but phrases about criteria are on the sponsoring entities' websites. New entrants will "have an already developed, scalable and financially sustainable product/service" or they will be "capable of scaling" or they will judge "how easy is it to get the product?" Or the product/service will have "sustainable competitive advantages, positioning or efficiencies." So you might be persuaded that the companies that enter, apply, win, or gain investment must actually exhibit these characteristics.
Everybody off the bus -- the last convention for AARP. Last week’s Life@50+ National Event in Miami was reportedly the last time AARP will produce one of these national entertainment-filled conventions with speakers and tracks for all interests and crowds of boomer-and-beyond women (mostly, based on observation) -- volunteering to pack lunches, climbing onto buses, and basking in the Florida sunshine. The health-focused startup Live Pitch event on Thursday heard 4 minutes from the 10 finalists, 2 minutes from five Florida-based startups, and short 1-minute pitches from alternates from each of those. Judges selected Splitsecnd, a portable device-plus-service for automatic vehicle crash tracking (similar to GM's profitable OnStar, but currently vehicle brand-independent). The audience voted for Audicus (for buying lower-priced hearing aids online) and Constant Therapy (a mobile solution to help patients improve brain function after stroke or brain injury.)
In tackling aging with tech -- interesting few weeks. Sometimes odd things happen in sequences that beg a backward search for meaning. So let’s recap: within the past three weeks, Silicon Valley VCs invested in a presumably tech-enabled home care agency, Apple and IBM coughed up 5 million iPads for Japanese seniors (to “tackle aging”), and the US Senate held a hearing on the benefits of technology for those aging at home. Some might see these three disparate events, when viewed together, as a trend that shows how tech, big companies, and public policy are all coming together in an age-related trifecta of tech transformation. Whew!
WASHINGTON, DC-- Every day, 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65, and Americans 85 and older are the fastest growing segment of our population. At the same time that our nation’s population is aging, the number of caregivers upon which these aging Americans can rely is decreasing. According to numerous surveys, most seniors want to continue to live independently in their own homes and avoid nursing homes and other institutionalized care as long as possible.
