TYWIDE — Santa Monica — along with the rest of the nation — is trending older and a local startup is using new technology to make aging easier.
HomeHero, based in the Downtown office of startup incubator Science Inc., lets seniors and their loved ones find and manage caregivers all from their mobile devices or computers.
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of Santa Monicans over the age of 65 grew by 11 percent and, even more substantial, the number of residents between the ages of 55 and 64 grew 48 percent, according to the U.S. Census.
Incubators and contests -- do they enable innovation? Paul Krugman's interesting article about GE’s competition to find a new design raises a question about how to boost innovation and lower its cost. If you read the article, entitled 'Complexity is Free' – you will discover how a simple contest, fielded internationally, generated a design improvement at almost no cost for GE: "The winning prize pool [was] $20,000, spread out across 8 finalists, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $7,000 each." So for $20K, GE got something it wanted, layered that something into a design process that enables continuous revision to designs without new infrastructure investment (the 'free' in the title.) Does anyone else find it interesting that there was no internal engineer who could figure out how to design a lighter-weight bracket component -- and that a contest was required? Or was this a publicity stunt to generate good will for GE?
Many in-home caregivers struggle to make ends meet. More than 90 percent are women, nearly half are minorities, and 40 percent rely on Medicaid and food stamps.
