From Meetup to Movement: AgeTech Atlanta is Making Waves Across North America | The AgeTech Podcast S4E10

Did you know that Asia Atlanta started as a local meetup and he’s now expanding across north America. In this week’s episode of the AgeTech podcast. I talk with Jeff Gray, the founder of Asia Atlanta. About how they’re creating game changing opportunities for startups and about their CES debut. There’s a lot to unpack.

So let’s dive right in.

Keren Etkin: jeff, welcome to the show.

Jeff Gray: Thanks for having me. Good to see you as always.

Keren Etkin: Likewise. So in favor of those who have never heard of AgeTech Atlanta, for some reason, tell us a little bit about it and about its expansion.

Jeff Gray: Sure. So I am based out of the, have been professionally based out of the Atlanta tech village in Atlanta, Georgia, the fourth largest tech hub and for years since 2016 and during that time, as I had gotten into AgeTech with my own venture over the years, people would continually come to me for introductions and cross connections. And I was cajoled into having a networking event. So three years ago in August, we held what would become the first AgeTech Atlanta meeting. But, early on, we stuck to a format of having three people present the innovations they were working on. And these presenters range from small, just have an idea on the back of an envelope to some pretty big companies. And we just stuck with it every other month and a couple months in, we named it. AgeTech Atlanta. Three years later, we’re the fastest growing AgeTech community. I think in the world. We have had a cadence of in person, really high quality gatherings in Atlanta every other month for three years. Twice have produced the AgeTech Challenge Innovation Showcase at the American Society on Aging. Saw you there last year and you gave your keynote. And we produce a lot of other contents as well. So the big news is that over the last year, we’ve been communicating with AgeTech leaders around the U.

S. And made a decision to open new communities throughout North America. So as of today, we now have AgeTech Los Angeles. Denver, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D. C., Toronto Boston, and we’re about to open San Francisco. We’ll have those communities. I don’t think we’re, everybody asked, are you going to open more? No time soon, but we’re really thrilled. We’ve had our first meetups in most of those communities already led by a rockstar cast of people that, that live and work and have been in the AgeTech world for some folks from the earliest days, others are newcomers. But anyway, that’s the big news is that we are now a somewhat of a North American spanning organization, and we’re really excited about it.

Keren Etkin: It’s super exciting to have AgeTech Atlanta expanding nationally to the biggest tech hubs in America.

Jeff Gray: Yeah, we’re thrilled about it. People ask what we’re what’s our mission? And overarchingly, we are looking to support the innovator. And Keren, for us, an innovator is not just a startup founder, it’s a researcher, it’s an educator. It could be a corporate entrepreneur or a company looking to expand its product lines or differentiate in the space. And we do, and we support those folks in 4 key areas, and we’re getting better at this over time, but what we hear resoundingly is that those folks are looking for connections to community content. Consumers or customers, and capital. So through the in person events and a lot of kind of asynchronous, you might call it mentoring and communication and one on ones we try to help those innovators make those connections that can drive their innovations in their companies forward.

Keren Etkin: Wonderful. It is so needed as a, as someone who has started a company before I know how important it is to have that supportive community of peers that you can confide in and connect with and reach out to when you have any challenges or when you need any introductions.

Jeff Gray: Do you agree that the peer to peer stuff is really important? I, we feel like it is. Yeah. Just to be able to connect with somebody who’s already been there, or even if it’s the two of you are at the same stage, but you can bounce ideas off one another.

Keren Etkin: Absolutely. I think it’s invaluable because it gets really lonely sometimes.

Jeff Gray: Yeah, it’s I always say that I think the, it’s the only being a startup founder is the only job harder than being a family caregiver. It’s a really, it can be a lonely journey. You don’t know what you don’t know. You’re constantly questioning your own judgment. And just having some peers really helps.

We’re about a month away from launching a private Slack channel, which is designed for this exact purpose. Look for us to launch that again in about a month. But our goal is to let everybody, have a place where they can, whether they wake up with, at midnight with something on their mind, or they have a question in the middle of the day to be able to jump in there and, ask questions, share content, or, and also promote, their own businesses and what they’re doing.

So we’re excited about that. It’s about a month away,

so you’re the first person that we’ve you’re the first to know.

It’s not a secret, but we haven’t really talked about it yet.

And by the way, just So you know, we. You got a scoop. Yeah, yes, exactly. By the way, that idea came. So I think the magic that we have is in these incredible community CEOs that really use their talents and creativity in all different ways. And we, as a team, we meet once a week to just share ideas. And this idea came out of one of our weekly weekly, all hands on deck calls and we’re, we move quickly and we’re excited to bring this to the community.

Keren Etkin: super exciting. One other exciting thing that we’ve previously discussed, is your presence at CES

Jeff Gray: yes, I’m excited to tell you about that. I’ve been to CES three years in a row. Twice exhibiting in once last year at large and just roving the floor and interviewing founders and of course, hanging out like everybody does at the AARP AgeTech collaborative sort of pavilion. But I came back last year and I met with one of our main partners and sponsors, the Metro Atlanta chamber of commerce. And I said, Atlanta needs to be on that exhibit hall floor next year. We’re doing things as a community in Atlanta that other communities aren’t, and we need to be there. We’ve got great innovators and so took a little time, a little doing, maybe a little salesmanship on my part, but we got it done. And so with their help and other sponsorship, we will have. Our first exhibit in the Venetian Expo Hall will be in the digital health section, which, by the way, for the first year, digital health has now been merged into the Venetian Expo Hall. It has formerly been over in the North Hall in the Las Vegas Convention Center to keep.

It’s really great. So folks don’t have to bounce back and forth, because, So much of the AgeTech innovation is in and around the smart home stuff that’s in the Venetian I don’t know if you’ve been there before I think you have So we’re really excited about it. We’ll be announcing 12 great companies that are going to come on this incredible Atlanta road trip if you will and they will each they will all rotate through a shared booth Be able to exhibit and also be able to enjoy networking through the other exhibitors. I’ve always found if you are there to exhibit and to make connections, you need to be able to be at a booth, but also to break away because so much of the opportunity is in the other booths, right? There’s people from all over the globe. That are potential partners for me that also happen to be exhibiting.

So we are really excited about it. So just a little, it’s a small start. We don’t have a huge, it’s not a huge booth, but we’ll be there. That’s for sure. And we’re really excited about it.

Keren Etkin: I’m excited about it too. So after running AgeTecb Atlanta for three years and now expanding nationally and to Canada, what do you see as sort benefits for starting in Atlanta versus some of the other tech hubs? Are there any unique challenges or benefits?

Jeff Gray: Yeah I would. Atlanta is a unique place, but I will say having been to all these cities, I feel each of the cities that we, where we have communities offers some really unique benefits. Atlanta is, it’s a really welcoming town. It is a great place to grow and network quickly. southern hospitality is a real thing. It’s easy to to reach out to people and get a chance to maybe pitch a really big company to try your product or give you some feedback or do a pilot. Really great venture community there as well. And then, of course, the Metro chamber and the city are, this tremendously aggressive in terms of. All of the economic development benefits that they work so hard to offer and all that’s, we can we always, we do have folks who are actually talking to us and want to make connections about potentially having a headquarters there or a second headquarters. But it’s just, I think the key is, it is a very welcoming city.

It’s a big little town and I think that really helps. We’ve got tons of fortune 500 headquarters there. We excel in AgeTech life sciences, biotech, SAS, FinTech, internet security, digital health. So there are just tons from a venture perspective, there’s been a lot of wealth created from the founders who’ve gone on to have fantastic exits and those. Those folks are incredibly loyal to Atlanta and give back in a really big way. And so whether it’s casual mentoring or the opportunity to pitch a big client and of course, places like the Atlanta tech village, I can’t tell. I always tell people it’s the, I can’t imagine a better place. To start up then at the tech village.

It is the most simple model for serendipitously it’s structured to help you have serendipitous connections and it really does work. So that’s a great place. I’m biased because our headquarters there, by the way, one of our best partners is the Atlanta tech village itself, who provides us with a great office suite and enables us to give away two scholarships every six months.

So today we have Melody Roberts with Live Labs and Bryce Folsom with eLife, both in there on, on six month rent free residencies to get their projects off the ground. Melody’s actually moved her company from Chicago to Atlanta. So it’s a way for her to orient herself to the Atlanta landscape. So we award those scholarships every six to eight months. We now have a way to let folks that are just starting out or at a pivotal place in their journey. Have a have a free home base.

Keren Etkin: That is so amazing and so helpful for startups who are just starting out

Jeff Gray: yeah. Rent is a real pressure. Just having a little bit of rent free breathing room is a big deal.

Keren Etkin: It is a big deal.

Jeff Gray: Plus they get to hang out with me all the time,

Keren Etkin: If you ever get to Atlanta, I do recommend hanging out with Jeff. You must get so many entrepreneurs who are just starting out and not really sure what to build, but definitely want to build something in the AgeTech ecosystem.

Jeff Gray: Yeah.

Keren Etkin: are some of the challenges or opportunities that you see that are out there available?

that you recommend startups to go after

Jeff Gray: That is a really interesting question. I bet you and I could have a long talk about this, by the way. So a couple of things. I think there’s an opportunity and a challenge rolled up all into one. I don’t know if you see this, but do you notice there’s so many of the founders of AgeTech are. It’s like the venture is led by a personal story. Do you notice that as

Keren Etkin: 99 percent of the time.

Jeff Gray: Yeah. So you come out of a personal experience. And it’s probably a transformative experience. You have a mom or a dad that has Alzheimer’s or died with the disease Parkinson’s family caregiver issues all kinds of profound issues that have driven you in. And that actually can present the biggest challenge because those. If you take a first time founder and let’s be honest, being a first time founder is very difficult. You just, there’s so much you haven’t been through and advisors help only so much. Sometimes advisors can be confusing. And so I find that what people don’t do is vast amounts of customer discovery. They’re inclined to that mom’s survey problem, right? You tell your mom your idea and they tell you they love it. And I think that’s both the challenge and the opportunity. You got to do a lot of work. You need to find ways to put your product idea. In front of people and let that and let them love it or hate it or somewhere in between and give you feedback and it’s just not a short process. I think generally what I see is people, raise some family and friends money. A little pre seed round and get a full head of steam and they build something that they think needs to be built. And then they’ve got to completely retrench and go all the way back to the process. Number 1 is you got to do your work on the discovery side.

It’s hard enough anyway. You can do all that work and get some false signals. It’s not easy. So I think that’s the biggest thing I will say. We, in the North, in the US market, there tends to be a propensity to go after, Medicare Advantage senior living, private pay, senior living, AAA, PACE program kind of folks. I always say to everybody, because a lot of these innovations that I see could go different directions. Let’s take applications for digital literacy, right? There’s some of those out there. And helping seniors bridge the digital divide and to onboard them and make them more successful in navigating a small screen, environment, Medicare in the U.

S. The budget for the Medicare budget is a trillion dollars. Just a little bit less, 900 and some billion dollars. And so you think that’s where I got to go. Maybe keep in mind travel and tourism in the United States is a 2. 2 trillion industry and 9 trillion globally. And so you’ve got to be thinking about travel, tourism, transportation, retail, Home improvement, real estate.

There are so many finance and FinTech, right? There’s just so many places where you can create innovations that address the needs of older adults. or the loved ones that care for them that may not just be in that one wheelhouse of Medicare Advantage senior living where everybody goes right out of the gate. So I don’t know if that’s answers the question, but that’s some of the encouragement that we give. I don’t like to use the word advices, look broadly. And do a lot of customer discovery.

Keren Etkin: I totally agree. I think that like you said, so many entrepreneurs have that personal experience and it leads them down a path of building a product that is useful and helpful and can bring value, but it’s also. In a very competitive and saturated category.

Jeff Gray: Yep.

Keren Etkin: While if you just want to build something in AgeTech, there’s so much opportunity out there in markets that are worth trillions of dollars

Jeff Gray: Yep.

Keren Etkin: but are still not being addressed,

Jeff Gray: I think there’s a sentence that I hear founders say to me that when I hear it, six months later, that founder has been struggling and it’s, it is, it’s something along the lines of I founded this company and I’m building what I needed when I went through this. That’s dangerous ground you can only extract so much from your own personal experience and by the way I don’t know about you, but I see a lot of applications mobile apps that are designed to help people manage what you call a care circle, right?

We’re all going to use this app and do something. And I always say, I still haven’t seen anything better than the most brilliant care circle management software ever invented. And it’s called a group chat. And I just, my dad went through a serious crisis. It was all hands on deck for about a year. Thankfully, he. Got through that and is doing well. And as much knowledge as I think I have of what’s available in the AgeTech space, I didn’t download a third party app to manage my dad’s care. We lived and breathed in group chat. And, assigned tasks and shared calendars. And can you pick this up and, scan the bottle of the prescriptions that here’s what’s this is that CVS drug.

Go get this. And so I, it’s hard for me to believe that we could, that you could advance an app where I have to download it, create an account, install it, share it, go through all of those steps and have it be better than. This brilliant thing that’s on the Android and iPhones that most of us carry.

Keren Etkin: agreed.

Jeff Gray: I was a little pessimistic there.

I don’t know.

Keren Etkin: I completely agree. I think what’s missing for caregivers these days is not a means to communicate with the care circle, but rather to delegate, work to task rabbits in a way that you can trust that they will get the job done. And also that they are vetted. people that you can trust to deliver something or come into your parents home.

Jeff Gray: Yeah, I think it’s also that how big is the problem you’re solving a thing. My dream application I wish someone would invent is a care is a navigator. We as a family spend a lot of time getting care reinstated, right? Physical therapy is still needed, but it gets, we run the course. We have all these steps to go through to get reinstated, and that’s just one example. But The navigation part of this puzzle for care is huge. Man, I’ll tell you, with some application of generative AI and some real intelligence to where I could have an agent that I could delegate those tasks to and say, Go find this out, right?

Make these phone calls. I know we’re probably a little ways away from it, but that’s a really big problem. That’s a huge problem. And it’s an example of a problem. I think somebody is going to tackle and do something, really do something with, that could be impressive, those kinds of ideas. I love and I think the I think novelty, by the way, I think novelty is so important as well for a founder. And I don’t think they often are asking themselves. Is this a novel approach? Or am I just doing something that’s just been done and we’re not really that much different or we’re 10 percent better. I think that gets overlooked a lot. By the way, I think I don’t have the data on this, but I think you do see. I think you do see experienced founders who’ve had one exit maybe, or a startup, even if it didn’t succeed, but they’d been through it once. I think you see those founders doing a lot better.

Keren Etkin: That’s statistics. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.

Jeff Gray: Yeah. Yeah. It’s out there in general. I don’t know about in AgeTech,

Keren Etkin: Before we wrap up, I would like to ask you, Jeff, to take out your crystal ball

Jeff Gray: ah,

Keren Etkin: try to predict best case scenario, what the AgeTech ecosystem could look like 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

Jeff Gray: well, a couple of things. That’s a really good question. No rehearse, no practice on my part here. So I’m going to shoot for the hit from the hip. A couple of things. First of all, I think the big winners will be AgeTech adjacent and there’ll be lots of them. And so these will be companies that a lot of the winners in the space.

These are companies that scale and and become really significant ventures. And return capital to their investors. I think a lot of them will be adjacent. I saw a great there’s a great app that i’ve been that’s just launched that does scam protection And it’s they’re targeting the senior market, but this is a great App, like i’ve started using it.

Okay, so I think that’s number one five years out the big success stories we’ll be in, we’ll be in adjacent verticals or serve more than one market. Cause I don’t think like FinTech or SAS, I don’t see AgeTech as that kind of a powerhouse, discreet siloed vertical, where you’re going to have companies that are, billion dollar companies that are pure play AgeTech.

So that’s probably the biggest thing that I would foresee is that the. The winners will be in the, will be adjacent and not necessarily only serve older adults. So that’s probably the biggest thing I think I would see on the horizon. I also think I think we would logically expect to see more venture capital interested in the marketplace.

Today, I think it’s still a fairly small slice. But every day we get calls from, I got a note from the VC the other day that said, do you know anybody that’s in the death space, the after loss space? We’re really interested in it,

Keren Etkin: I know somebody.

Jeff Gray: yeah, that’s the way. Yeah, same here. So I said, but it’s funny you should ask, right? More venture capital, we can try to quantify it, but I would say you’d see, maybe as much as five times more capital deployed into this space in five years than you do today, right? Maybe even more. So those would be the two things, lots more capital. I think we definitely are all hopeful that we have some ventures that are doing great.

I think. Exit. There haven’t been as many exits in all sectors, but some exits, those always help fuel more innovation. So I think we’ll see more exits. And I think also we’ll see more series A and series B rounds. I think right now in our space, those there are fewer series A rounds in the AgeTech space that would be compared to the, the startup ecosystem at large or in other verticals. I think you’ll see that. I think, by the way, I tell you why that some of that is. So let’s say you’re a really really, great venture addressing the needs of senior living and you’re just killing it, that ARR is going to be under underneath contracted services.

That’s not going to be pure SAS, right? So you’re having access to less growth capital. From the standpoint of sheer numbers of investors that are interested. We are not in a pure SAS model, but you’re really, your business is coming through executed long term contracts.

It’s just a different model. It scales differently, right? Grows differently. So I think as VCs get more comfortable with the way that business works, we’ll see more investment. I don’t

know. What do you think?

Keren Etkin: probably right. I think you’re probably right. But we’ll see. Time will

Jeff Gray: Yes, we will. But I think what we do know is this this growing industry is not going anywhere but up.

So it’s a matter of, I think it’s just a matter of how big and how many and how much we grow over the next five years, 10 years.

Keren Etkin: 20 years.

Jeff Gray: 20 years. Yeah.

I’ll say I, I am I am more interested in my own journey relative to this whole space, so I’m in my early sixties, and the more I’m in the space, the more I see the need for the innovations that I’m trying to help foster.

Because, I don’t think anybody that is 87 today. And maybe is got some real serious challenge and is underserved in certain areas, maybe struggling with areas of care, cost, mobility, independence that needs help. I don’t think any of those people saw themselves there, right? We don’t, I don’t sit here today saying there’s where I’m going to be. And so I’m a little bit trying to foster the innovation that might support me, honestly, and people like me, quite frankly.

Keren Etkin: I’m not sure that people who reach their late 80s 90s today have ever imagined that they would get this age because their parents didn’t.

Jeff Gray: Yep.

Keren Etkin: So it’s very hard to imagine what your life would be like.

Jeff Gray: True. I think for us, I think there might be a tendency to believe it will be easier than it will be when you sit at 55 and 60 and look forward. Age, today, age still does come with challenges. That’s a fact of life.

Keren Etkin: Absolutely. So before we wrap up, is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you would like to talk about

Jeff Gray: No, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to share about our growth and where we’re going. And I hope that any, that as many people that see this who will be at CES will come and visit us. We hope to see lots of friendly faces. And I probably have the most open open door of anybody in the space.

My phone number and my direct email are on my LinkedIn bio and my DMS are always open. So I am very encouraging. If I can be of any help to anybody you can, email me, call me, text me, or send me a message. Either myself or Gordon or one of our other great team members. We’re happy to help. So don’t be shy.

Keren Etkin: Southern hospitality for sure.

Jeff Gray: That’s right. That’s right.

Keren Etkin: Jeff, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. And I wish AgeTech Atlanta. Lots of success with its expansion and at CES, it’s going to be so exciting.

Jeff Gray: It is. Thanks again for having me on the show. It’s really always a pleasure to talk to you.

Keren Etkin: Likewise