WHY WE’VE PARTNERED WITH MASSCHALLENGE FINTECH:
Through our now 3-year collaboration with MassChallenge FinTech, AARP is excited by the startup communities’ interest and commitment to solving fintech challenges globally. We look forward to having you join us in helping people prepare for a rainy day and maximize their current nest eggs.
OUR CHALLENGES:
We are looking for disruptive technologies that:
- Help individuals identify and utilize continuing education opportunities from multigenerational creators
- Help people make their money last throughout their lifetime
- Create solutions to encourage and support the transparency of care among family caregivers
- Help people accurately plan for managing quality of life as income decreases
- Help individuals shift into a new normal (financial, etc.) when dealing with a life transition
- Help people navigate the new normal of living longer by addressing “sandwich generation” transitional challenge questions
- Establish a rainy-day fund to assist with managing unexpected health care costs
To give you a head start, here are a few tips for success:
- Education is necessary but not sufficient: The financial industry and others have plenty of tips on how to save, but too many Americans still aren’t prepared for a financial emergency. To help people make real change, we need to leverage the power of behavioral economics.
- Behold the power of the paycheck. Employers are an extremely promising delivery channel for savings solutions. The point of pay is an important moment to reach consumers and help them follow through on their savings goals. Hint: it’s also a place where payment technology is already pretty well-established.
- One size does not fit all. We need to know more about the needs of consumers who are underserved in the current market: low-wage workers, nontraditional workers and the self-employed, people of color, and women.
HOW WE’LL HELP STARTUPS GROW THEIR BUSINESSES:
We engage the startup ecosystem to help bring the best solutions to market and to scale. We engage with startups in stages, with a long-term strategy of choosing a select group of startups to collaborate with to transform markets and change lives.
- First, we encourage all entrepreneurs to keep the power of the 50+ market in mind when designing for all ages. Our message to entrepreneurs: In the US alone, people over the age of 50 generate $8.3 trillion in annual economic activity, so you ignore the 50+ market at your own peril.
- Next, we offer in-kind and investment support to a select group of startups. For more than 5 years, we have teamed up with the industry and programs like MassChallenge FinTech to offer to a small group of startups services such as access to AARP innovation experts, industry experts, 50+ consumers for qualitative testing, in-home user testing opportunities, media exposure, showcase opportunities at major conferences and events, and exposure to major influencers and investors. As we work with these startups, we assess their potential for transformational social impact through market innovation.
- Finally, we choose a small number of start-ups to work with in a more long-term way to drive impact for people 50+. We ask startups with the greatest promise to join AARP Innovation Labs, which uses AARP’s resources and expertise to bring the best of these ideas to scale.
At AARP, we remain steadfast in our mission to challenge the status quo and empower people to choose how they live as they age.