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2004 ASA-NCOA Joint Conference
MicroMRI, a company started by a student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, has won the $10,000 Boomer Business Plan Challenge, a competition aimed at developing products and services for older adults and aging boomers. Among the competition finalists were a Web-based rating system for wheelchair users and others with disabilities; a portable device that monitors a user's vital signs during exercise; and a distribution company for stylish, high-end clothing for mature women. The winner was announced at the recent 2004 Joint Conference of the American Society on Aging (ASA) and the National Council on the Aging in San Francisco, during the special program "What's Next? Transforming Boomers' Needs and Interests to Success in the Marketplace." The competition was organized by ASA and its Business Forum on Aging, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, and Mary Furlong and Associates. THE FIRST COMPETITION The international competition attracted 85 contestants who are developing new products or services for the underserved market of older consumers. Contestants ranged from full-time students to entrepreneurs with seed or early-stage companies to independent business professionals. A team of judges-venture capitalists, corporate CEOs, academics and retirement organization executives-winnowed the list of plans down to 20, then selected six finalists before tapping MicroMRI for the top prize. Descriptions of all 20 plans and contact information are available online at www.maryfurlong.com/whatsnext. For more information on the conference and business plan competition, phone (415) 751-3802. "The Boomer Business Plan Challenge is the first and only business plan competition focused on and integrated with a market segment, in this case consumers ages 50 and over," said Barry Z. Posner, dean of Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. "This focus meets the Leavey School of Business mission of creating meaning-not just money (the focus of many business plan competitions)-and makes sense for a school concerned with educating leaders with competence, conscience and compassion." ASA president and CEO Gloria Cavanaugh noted, "The innovators and entrepreneurs who participated in this business plan challenge represent the leading edge of a national and international response to the aging of the boomer generation." She added, "Now is the time for the rest of the business community to take heed and follow in their footsteps." Mary Furlong, whose consulting firm for the 50-plus market organized the competition, commented, "There is an unmistakable new energy and passion around this market. The potential social impact is unlike anything I've seen since the introduction of the personal computer 20 years ago." Now an executive professor of entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University, Calif., Furlong was the founder of SeniorNet and ThirdAge.com. VIRTUAL BONE BIOPSY MicroMRI, the Philadelphia-based company with the winning business plan, offers a Virtual Bone Biopsy (VBB) add-on system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. It provides a noninvasive means for testing a patient's bone microstructure, an indicator of bone strength and a warning sign of osteoporosis. According to Felix Wehrli, company founder and principal inventor, "VBB is the only noninvasive technology to date that can measure trabecular bone microstructure in vivo, offering physicians and researchers an effective method for monitoring drug treatment."
Wehrli, a senior investigator at the Department of Radiology of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, explained that by measuring bone-impact strength with VBB, "physicians will be better able to quantify fracture risk and to recommend appropriate treatments." Chief executive officer Onne Ganel added that pharmaceutical companies might benefit from using VBB technology as a drug-development tool. The company also announced this spring that it has received a 5-year, $4.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for clinical trials involving the installation of VBB in five systems at prominent MRI centers around the United States. The trial will also involve monitoring 200 patients who are on a variety of therapies for two years. According to Michael Kleerekoper, chief medical officer for MicroMRI and principal investigator for the trial, the study hypothesis is that physicians who use VBB structural parameters will be able to determine the efficacy of a treatment in as little as two years. Kleerekoper, an endocrinologist and gerontologist for the School of Medicine at Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., explained that the existing bone-density approach only enables doctors to detect change after an average of five years of continuous therapy. The MicroMRI business plan was also the recent first-prize winner in the University of San Francisco's 2004 International Business Plan Competition. For more information, visit the MicroMRI website at www.micromri.com. INSPIRED Some the finalists were inspired by personal experiences to begin their entrepreneurial careers. James Sharples, a Wharton graduate originally from Mechanicsburg, Pa., has used a wheelchair for more than 25 years. An avid traveler, he often encountered difficulties in determining the level of accessibility available at hotels and restaurants across the United States for people with disabilities. Sharples responded by creating Level Travel, a Web-based rating system for other travelers with disabilities. Sharples notes that 103 million people in the United States who are age 55 or older have at least one physical limitation or sensory impairment. In 2002, these groups spent more than $30 billion on travel and tourism. Level Travel, based in Westtown, Pa., is located online at leveltravel.com. The youngest finalist, Cory Capoccia, a 19-year old sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles, was inspired by his grandmother to start YourMedTime, an electronic in-home device that will remind patients and healthcare consumers of their daily medication needs. Once they reach the marketplace, the units would be integrated with a national network of call centers that will program and update each client's information. Capoccia came up with the concept for YourMedTime while observing his family's struggle to care for his feisty, independent grandmother as she declined from chronic illness. Getting her to take her medications properly was a continual problem, he said, until she died. He created YourMedTime with help from his 44-year-old father and three brothers, all in their 20s. For more information, contact Capoccia at (661) 253-2843 or ccapoccia@comcast.net; or visit YourMedTime.com. OUTRAGED Chris and Natasha Ashton were outraged enough by a veterinary bill for the care of their cat to create Fetch Pet Insurance to mitigate the increasing costs of veterinary care. The husband-wife team, who moved to Philadelphia from their native England some years ago, were recently awarded exclusive license to serve as the U.S. agents for Petplan UK, the world's largest pet insurance company. Petplan offers a "Cover for Life" guarantee, and no predetermined benefit schedules. The Ashton's business plan cited a recent McKinsey Quarterly report showing that the main years of pet ownership occur in the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population-those ages 45 to 64. These pet owners spend the greatest amount of money on their pets, which often help to fill the empty nest after children have left home. Fetch Pet also won the 2003 Wharton Business Plan Competition and is planning to begin selling policies in the United States this summer. For more information, visit the website at www.fetchpetinsurance.com, or contact Fetch Pet at (215) 563-8686 or chris.ashton@fetchpetinsurance.com. Jonathan Pui, a student at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pa., created The MobileFit Group to develop a portable device that monitors a user's vital signs during exercise. The Personal Wellness Coach is a mobile wearable computing system using an array of sensors and application software that supports a range of activities relevant to a person's wellness and health, such as health data collection, interpretation, feedback and self monitoring. It can be used in nearly any location and takes over the duties and characteristics of a personal fitness trainer. It aims to motivate users to improve training efficiency; assist them with reaching personal goals; and help prevent harm, such as from overreaching one's exercise capacity. For more information, contact Pui at jpui@andrew.cmu.edu. Piter Pereira Leal, currently pursuing his master's degree in business administration at the University of Chicago, became enamored with the fashions of Vellucci created by Brazilian designer Vera Tessara. The internationally acclaimed designer, whose women's wear is now distributed in Latin American countries, England and Italy, targets mature women with elegant, confident, attractive and comfortable fashions at an affordable price, Leal said. By making exclusive designs and painting each piece of fabric individually, Vellucci gives each work a distinct identity. For more information, contact Leal at (404) 422-6096 or pleal@gsb.uchicago.edu. Sponsors of the competition were the MetLife Mature Market Institute, Les Concierges Inc., IBM, Pulse Data HumanWare, the Retirement Research Foundation and the San Francisco Business Times.
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