Take me to the moment when AgeTech became an investment opportunity you couldn't ignore. What shift in demographics, technology, consumer behavior, or healthcare made you pay attention?
Around 2015–16, I kept hitting the same number in diligence: People over 50 held roughly 80% of the wealth in this country, and almost every fund I knew was underwriting products for 25-year-olds. Seventy-eight million Americans will be 65+ by 2030. I don't think that part was a secret. What changed it from a demographic fact into an investable market was smartphone and iPad adoption among older adults, coupled with COVID normalizing telehealth. It meant a company could sell directly to the person with the problem instead of grinding through a 24-month senior living or health system sales cycle. Once you could reach a motivated, well-capitalized consumer directly, the unit economics finally worked at venture speed.
What's one assumption investors still get wrong about aging or older consumers—and where do you think that misconception is causing them to miss opportunities?
That older adults are broke and won't pay. About 40% of older adults don't have much in savings. That is real and a policy and government issue. The rest control most of the country's wealth and spend willingly out of pocket on health, independence, travel, and how they look and feel. The second half of the mistake is treating “seniors” as one segment, which is why so much gets missed: menopause and midlife women's health, longevity diagnostics, elder financial fraud (there still isn't a Series C company in that space), and caregiving as an employer benefit. These aren't niches; they're large categories nobody bothered to re-underwrite for a 50+ customer.
A second interesting assumption most investors get wrong is that an AgeTech deal has to be a company focused exclusively on older adults. Our portfolio company May Mobility has contracts with cities to provide autonomous transportation to older adults, but it also provides rides to people of every age and is now a multibillion-dollar company operating around the world.
When an AgeTech startup founder pitches you, what's one signal that tells you they're solving a truly scalable problem rather than building for a narrow niche?
Someone is already paying, and the founder can tell me exactly who and why now. I want urgency that the customer feels now. It could be a fall, a fraud loss, a diagnosis, or a parent discharged with 48 hours’ notice. Urgency is what converts interest into a credit card. Beyond that, I look for a second payer forming behind the first: cash-pay today with a reimbursement or employer path behind it, the way Midi sells directly to consumers while carrying insurance coverage. A great product with no sales is going into bankruptcy; a good product with real sales is a company.
What's one specific way the AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP has influenced how you discover, evaluate, or connect with startups—and has that led to an investment, introduction, or opportunity you might not have found otherwise?
The Collaborative gives me two things I can't buy: a testbed network where companies I invest in can get real feedback and develop relationships that result in action, and concentrated deal flow that isn't coming through the usual channels. Both help give me a real competitive advantage in this space. Our portfolio company Groove Health, which helps people who have osteoporosis and osteopenia, has benefited from the Collaborative and found it incredibly helpful.
As you look ahead to HLTH USA and Founders Day, what do you most want startup founders to understand about where aging and longevity are creating investable opportunities?
Aging isn't a vertical. It’s a customer, and the biggest opportunities are in enormous existing categories for that customer: cardiometabolic health, women's health, financial services, mobility, and the home. The money is shifting from institutional budgets to individuals and families who will self-fund a problem that's urgent enough, so build for the person and the people around them, not just the facility. Come with evidence of willingness to pay and a go-to-market plan that isn’t a copy of everyone else’s. That's the pitch that gets a second meeting.
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