The United States is about to witness a tectonic demographic shift. By 2034, as the baby boomers age en masse, the number of people over 65 will be greater than the number of children for the first time, according to the US Census Bureau. And yet, as market segments go, seniors have historically been overlooked, underserved, and misunderstood as consumers. While the pandemic has exposed many of the unmet needs of older adults, from tools to make aging in place easier, to ways to meaningfully spend their time, the sudden Zoom boom in the wake of quarantine has also upended some of the assumptions about this demographic. Suddenly there is burgeoning interest in innovating for the oldest members of our society. Abby Miller Levy (MBA 2001), Meredith Oppenheim (MBA 2001), and Lissy Hu (MBA/MD 2014) are among the startup founders racing to get ahead of this cresting demographic wave and provide the tools and services that will help older adults live longer, healthier lives.

Investing in Experience

Abby Miller Levy was motivated to start a venture fund in the older-adult sector after discovering a dearth of options for her parents as they looked for meaningful ways to spend their time after retirement. Levy was seeing the same set of circumstances play out in her day job at the time, as president of Thrive Global, a wellness company she founded with CEO Arianna Huffington. “Something that was quite frustrating to me was that I would get so many business plans that would be focused only on the unmet user needs of moms, millennials, and dogs, but really none on the soon-to-be 25 percent of our population that’s age 60-plus,” she says.

Levy started writing business plans for companies she thought should exist but, she observes, “I realized that there were a multitude of businesses that could be created and, instead, maybe the business that I should create is an investment firm to promote founders entering the space and innovation in the sector.” She discovered that investor Alan Patricof, founder of Apax Partners and venture capital firm Greycroft (and a Thrive Global investor), was interested in investing in entrepreneurship in the aging sector as his “third act.” The duo combined forces and launched Primetime Partners last summer.

Primetime’s $50 million venture fund currently has 10 companies in its portfolio, including Tembo Health, a specialty care telemedicine business focused on seniors. “The insight is that, at some point, seniors will be comfortable with video chat—and lo and behold, COVID-19 has really proven that to be the case. That’s an example of the myth being upended by the reality of COVID-19,” says Levy. She and Patricof, who is in his 80s, are also proactively looking for founders who are older, rather than people in their 20s or 30s, who tend to be the more typical denizens of the world of venture capital. Later this year, they’re planning to launch a pitch contest to that end. “It’s like Shark Tank for older adults,” explains Levy. As the pair look for new businesses to support, one area that personally interests Levy is family caregiving. “We have 50 million unpaid, untrained family caregivers. I'm really interested in the care that’s happening in the shadows and how can we create services and offerings to support them.”

Thriving Online

After three decades in service of people who are over the age of 50, Meredith Oppenheim is working to nudge the industry in a new direction—broadening the scope of its offerings to include meaningful online engagement. Her new company, Vitality Society, was launched in January 2020 as an online community with fitness, wellness, and educational courses, as well as opportunities to connect with other older adults. Oppenheim’s research in the field shows that the message that most resonated with this population is one focused on vitality, creativity, and curiosity. “It has everything to do with engaging, and that’s what excites and delights our members,” she says.

After earning her MBA, she worked as an executive in the senior-housing industry, which included oversight of a multibillion-dollar portfolio for a health care real estate investment trust. During that time, she also served on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (MBA 1966) Age-friendly NYC Commission and the NYC Department for the Aging’s nonprofit board.

Oppenheim’s big “aha” moment arrived out of family necessity, in caring for her parents during an illness. She realized there were few good options in the senior-housing industry for someone like her mother, who was then in her early 70s and living a vibrant life, which placed her outside the demographic. In fact, the industry serves only 10 percent of people over the age of 80, Oppenheim says, though it could serve so many more, including those who are considerably younger but still eager for a sense of community.

Vitality Society aims to broaden that industry scope through 20 hours of live programming each week, aimed at people who either live in senior housing or aren’t yet ready for that step. Thousands of members flocked to the site during quarantine to sign on for classes such as “barefoot therapy,” which helps with neuropathy and balance issues; special events such as virtual travel or dance parties; or enrichment programs about European artists. Members who chat and connect online say that the opportunity for social interaction has been a game changer for their physical and mental well-being, according to Oppenheim. “Others have said, ‘This is my lifeline,’” she observes.

The average subscriber spends five hours a week participating in live classes, which is an “unprecedented level of engagement amongst people 60-plus,” says Oppenheim. And others have noticed: Vitality Society is launching partnerships with companies such as Citi Mastercard and American Airlines, as well as others in the health care and senior-housing industries.

Care Finder

Lissy Hu founded her company, CarePort Health, after becoming interested in what happens to patients after they leave the hospital, during what is called their “post-acute care.” Many seniors don’t simply return to life as normal. They first need to go to a nursing home or rehab center or schedule a visiting nurse. As a medical student, Hu was shocked that most of this coordination happened via fax and phone, as nurses and patients struggled to find available and appropriate facilities and services. “It’s so obvious that if you live in a world where there are things like TripAdvisor and Yelp and Hotels.com, where you can find information and book hotels halfway around the world, that you should be able to do something like this for the nursing home down the street,” says Hu.

Hu’s idea won the HBS New Venture Competition Social Enterprise Track in 2012, and the business took off. CarePort, which has a subscription-based model in which hospitals and post-acute care facilities pay for software to coordinate care with one another, now processes some 30 percent of patient transitions out of hospitals. In October 2020, CarePort was bought by health technology company WellSky for $1.35 billion. CEO Hu says that one reason WellSky was a good fit is its large nationwide network of home-based services. “Now, instead of sending a patient home with a home-health nurse, hospitals will be able to coordinate their infusion, help with their oxygen, and help with any of the other community-based services that we need to bring into that home. WellSky really widened that network and moved us in a direction that we were already going, which is further into the home.”

The pandemic has had a big impact on CarePort, Hu explains. “In all walks of life, COVID-19 seems to be highlighting and accelerating trends that were already occurring pre-COVID,” she says. “There’s just been so much more of a realization around how important post-acute care is.” It is critical for hospitals to quickly and seamlessly find facilities and services to care for these recovering patients, not only to aid them but also to quickly create room for the next set of COVID-19 patients.

Looking forward, Hu says there is reason for optimism in the senior-care space. “As the population swells, as there are more expectations around technology and quality of care, I think that we’re entering a very, very exciting decade.”

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