🏆 The ‘Holy Grail’ of technology

Founders Factory Startup Bulletin #28: Financial longevity, top recommended reads, jobs & events

Welcome to the Founders Factory Startup Bulletin—“Created for founders, by founders”.

We bring you a round-up of startup and investment stories, key learnings from founders, and insights from the Founders Factory team.

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King Arthur isn’t the only person to seek eternal life

Eternal life, the fountain of youth, the Holy Grail. Humans have always told stories about the pursuit of long life. And as long as medicine and technology has developed and progressed, so has our experimentation of new ways to prolong both the length of our lives, and the quality of these additional years. 

The implications of long life are far reaching—particularly with regard to personal finances. How can we ensure our financial resources, and the infrastructure that underpins them, grow in harmony with our life expectancy? 

We’re currently exploring the intersection of fintech and longevity, and where particular opportunities may lie. Read more about our thinking below, and how you can possibly get involved. 

Also in today’s Startup Bulletin:

• Our Tweet of the month

• Our top recommended reads

• Opportunities in tech—including jobs & events

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⌛️ Why are we interested in financial longevity?

Venture designer Samuel Rueesch shares his thoughts on the fastest growing yet neglected space of financial longevity

Our population is getting older

Huge advances in technology and medicine have seen us incrementally extending our life expectancy over the last few decades. Nearly 1 in 3 babies born today will live to over 100. Even today’s ‘baby boomers’ can reasonably expect to live well into their 80s and early 90s. Over the past two decades, life expectancy has increased by six years in Western countries. 

What does this mean? Our population as a whole is getting older. The over 85s category is the fastest growing segment. By 2050, one in four people will be over 60. 

This has far reaching implications for society. Everything from healthcare systems to housing infrastructure to the future of work is significantly impacted by a population that intends to extend, and keep extending, its lifespan.

Longevity until now has been largely health focused

Prolonging life is one thing, but how about improving old age? This has shifted the conversation away from just ‘lifespan’ and towards ‘healthspan’: not just measuring the number of extra years you live, but the quality of those years. 

Up until this point, this conversation has largely been focused around physical health. ‘AgeTech’ innovations have been designed around improving cognition and preserving muscle mass, things that will see people living healthier, more active lives into their later years. 

But improving quality of life isn’t just about physical or mental health. There are many subsidiary categories around a person’s lifestyle that need to be adapted for older age.

Financial infrastructure hasn’t adjusted to our extended life and health spans

Building technology products for older generations has for a long time been considered unattractive to entrepreneurs. It’s difficult to reach this customer segment, and they’ve typically seen lower tech adoption. This is of course changing, as older people become more tech savvy and comfortable with trying new technology. 

Financial services stand to benefit hugely from this. Consider insurance, a huge financial product which has seen disruption in recent years but until now has remained unchanged for older populations. How do insurance propositions change as life expectancy grows?

Or what about wealth and income management? On the one hand, there’s an issue with undersaving. 20% of baby boomers have little to no private pension or housing wealth—a ticking time bomb as they get older and approach retirement age. Under-spending is the photo negative of this: many have accumulated savings and pensions, but neglect to spend them in their lifetimes. 

Financial longevity presents a huge white space for innovation. We’re interested in exploring venture concepts in the following spaces: protection, healthcare, travel & leisure, housing, and wealth & income. If you’re building in one of these spaces, or are developing any early stage concepts, we’d love to hear from you.

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🐦 Tweet of the Month

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📚 What we’ve been reading

• State of SaaS (Productiv)

• LinkedIn’s Ryan Roslansky: ‘You can only learn how to be a CEO by being a CEO’ (Financial Times)

• Threadzilla (Scott Galloway)

• Hollywood on Strike (Stratechery)

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Opportunities in tech

🛠️ Jobs

• Product Coach, Founders Factory (London/Hybrid)

• Programme & Events Coordinator, Founders Factory (London/Hybrid)

• Interim Finance Manager, Founders Factory (London/Hybrid)

📆 Events

• Berlin Founder Office Hours (August 25th, Berlin)—we’re inviting entrepreneurs in the Berlin/Germany ecosystem to meet our team for advice and support. Whether you need help perfecting your deck, or are interested in finding out more about co-founding a business with us, you can apply here

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See you next month 👋

Interested in reading more of the same insights? Check out the Founders Factory blog, and previous newsletters.