AARP is pleased today to announce details of its sixth Innovation@50+ LivePitch event which will be held Wednesday April 12 and Thursday April 13, 2017, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. This dual-pitch event is the only one of its kind, bringing together innovative startups pitching before expert judges along with their actual intended end users. In addition to healthcare technology, which has been the theme for the past five years, this year’s event will also add a focus on financial technology (FinTech).
Innovation featured in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, known for the Kentucky Derby and Bourbon, has also emerged as one of the aging care headquarter cities in the US, with some of largest providers of aging care services -- like Kindred, Signature, Atria, as well as Humana and Delta Dental, among others. This is the third year of the Louisville Innovation Summit – which provides a platform for the sponsoring organizations as well as a forum for startups and an innovation competition. Announced by the city's mayor Greg Fischer at the event, Louisville was just named as an Age Friendly Communities by one of the event's sponsors, AARP, using the framework that originated by the World Health Organization Among those exhibiting were Pharmerica, GrandCare, and LifeBio. The event also included some of the very (very) newest. All information is from the companies' or Summit website):
LOUISVILLE, KY, August 12, 2016–The third annual Louisville Innovation Summit will address many issues facing the Aging Care industry, as it presents its third annual summit in Louisville, KY, October 9-11th at the city’s downtown Marriott. In the last few weeks, the Summit has added an exciting line up of industry leaders to its growing list of world-renowned speakers.
Do VCs matter in the older adult space?According to a Stanford Business School analysis, in today's economy VCs have become a 'dominant force' in the financing of innovative companies. This began, they note, with "a regulatory change in 1979 that permitted pension funds to invest in VC funds." Okay, but do VCs really matter? Now switch coasts and perspectives, note how a Harvard Business School report picked through six myths about VCs, pretty much debunking the rhetoric in the Stanford report. Most VC funds, especially larger ones, do not outperform the market. "VC financing is the exception, not the norm, for startups" and given the rise of crowd funding and a broad range of angel investors, "VCs will continue to play a significant, but most likely smaller, role in channeling capital to disruptive start-ups." The question to ponder: which category of investor, and specifically which investor groups, are interested in the older boomer and senior markets?
