Also see: Boomer Entrepreneurs Seek Venture Backing
Tom Murphy
RedwoodAge.com
Boomers represent a vast, fast-growing, global market, but entrepreneurs who want to profit from the trend need to remain flexible.
That guidance comes from Samer Salameh, a featured speaker at the fifth annual Boomer Venture Summit. Salameh's still-evolving venture, Livtopia.com, focuses on helping American baby boomers find and buy retirement homes in other countries.
His young business reflects a trend known as "reverse immigration" in which residents of a first-world country like the United States choose to retire in a second-world country like Mexico, where their meager savings will go twice as far.
Like many entrepreneurs, Salameh is trying to raise venture capital to expand his web site.
He should have less trouble than most; during the bubble years, Salameh helped rescue then-troubled Prodigy.net and later sold it to AT&T for over $2 billion. That kind of success tends to draw Silicon Valley VCs like Sand Hill flies.
But other entrepreneurs shouldn't lose faith given opportunities abounding on every continent, according to Ladan Manteghi, president of the AARP Global Network, a coalition of agencies focused on aging around the world.
Manteghi, another speaker at the conference, noted the over-65 population is growing by 800,000 people a month, stimulating demand for a wide array of goods and services. Together, the over-55 age group controls 70 percent of the wealth, according to HSBC data cited by the aging expert.
"Global aging is one of the defining issues of the 21st century," said said. "The boomers are leading a demographic and social revolution."
Top Opportunities
Manteghi pointed to four key areas that are ripe for new businesses: fun (including entertainment and travel),
health, concierge services and technology. For example, she noted that Japanese
automakers are now producing robotic health aides that can help cover a
global shortage of nurses. Meanwhile, security companies are building devices that
help keep seniors safe at home, including carpets that can predict when someone's
about to fall.
One key area of opportunity is travel. Manteghi cited one estimate that boomers will eventually spend $11 trillion - that's trillion with a T - on travel that goes way beyond taking a bus tour to Dollywood.
Some boomers travel to seek medical care abroad at a fraction of what it costs at home. She noted an artery bypass operation that costs $130,000 in the US may only cost $18,000 in Singapore or $10,000 in India, although they're performed in US-certified hospitals. Manteghi predicted the big insurance companies will soon ask their customers to get procedures overseas.
Taken together, the opportunities call for innovation and investment, said Mary Furloang, who has been hosting the summits at Santa Clara University since their inception. Furlong, the founder of SeniorNet and Third Age, is also the uthor of "Turning Silver Into Gold."
She urged investors and entrepreneurs in the audience to help create a "Silver Enterprise Zone" in Silicon Valley to meet the needs of the aging population.
Via Con Dios, Amigo
The reverse immigration trend is growing rapidly, with many cash-strapped
Americans heading off into the sunset in places like Canada, Mexico and Costa
Rica. As Salameh noted, 20,000 Americans are already moving to Mexico each year,
despite obstacles such as a lack of language skills or the red tape involved in
buying real estate across the border.
The advantages make it worthwhile for many, he said. A beachfront home in Mexico may cost only $200,000 compared to $400,000 or more in the US. There are no property taxes, and it costs only $200 a month to join the Mexican social security system, which provides basic medical care.
Salameh encouraged the audience, which included many entrepreneurs, to pursue business opportunities that fulfilled a need for boomers. But he warned that enterprising businesspeople need to remain flexible as they set out on their quest.
Livtopia, for example, started out as MexRetire.com, asking visitors to pay a fee for advice on how to move to Mexico. That didn't work because people didn't want to pay. So he changed it to a free site called MexLiving, but soon had demand from younger readers and questions about other countries.
Livtopia, he said, is still changing. He hopes to expand it into 20 countries this year, such as BuscasCasa in Spain.
"If you have a great idea, you have to stick to it, but your tactics will absolutely change," he said. "If you're too stuck on a way of doing business, you will fail. You must be flexible."
That advice will no doubt come in handy for the two young companies that won the top prize of $10,000 each at the summit. They competed against 60 startups for the honor, including 10 finalists that presented at this year's summit.
The winners were: Niveus Medical, which makes electrical muscle stimulation systems; and Home Preferred, a retail chain for those who want to age in place.
Also see: Boomer Entrepreneurs Seek Venture Backing
