Innovators in Aging? This 20 Minute Podcast Could Be a Gamechanger for Your Startup

Welcome Mel, welcome Bianca, thank you for joining me today!

Mel: Thanks for having us, Keren. 

So why don’t we start first of all. Discussing what exactly CABHI does. And perhaps how does it work with startups and innovators 

Bianca: So I think you know, our funders which come from the federal and provincial governments fund us to be a solution accelerator.

So what we’re doing is sourcing promising solutions in the area of aging and brain health. And then supporting them depending on where they’re coming from to refine their solutions, to validate and then work on a plan in terms of spreading and scaling and adopting those solutions. So what we’re trying to do is push, push them in a way up the value chain.

To that place where they can be introduced into the world and successfully adopted. So we’re, we’re working with many different kinds of innovators. Some that come from the point of care, they could be professionals, healthcare professionals, nurses, social workers, they could be entrepreneurs and the community.

They could be researchers that have built their evidence to a place where it’s ready to be translated into the real world. So. And that process is a very intentional process. It doesn’t happen by magic. It is something that you know, like you’re saying, we’re working behind the scenes with these entrepreneurs, with these innovators to look at where their needs are, how do we refine and develop, help them to do that?

And and what do we need to broker in terms of opportunities for them to help them to reach that next business milestone. 

Mel: We, as an accelerator, offer a number of very unique acceleration services. So as you mentioned, CABHI being powered by Baycrest, what does that mean?

Bay crest is a 104 year old institution focused on geriatric care. Also on site, on our campus at Baycrest is the Rotman research Institute. And. You know, a number of neuroscientists, postdocs, and graduates all focused on brain health solutions. And then we have the residents here at our campus. So we have this, you know, big organization here that we sort of lever the resources from to help us to do the research, to do the validation testing of, of promising new, innovative ideas and, and.

Eventually companies and then try to help those companies to scale and grow. And we don’t just work at the bay crest campus, but we have trial sites across North America, across Canada and the United States over 140 trial sites that are partner organizations that we really work with to help organizations to scale, grow, and get to market.

Bianca: Our programs are tailored that way as well, depending on whether we’re working with organizations that are going to be those early adopters or we’re working with frontline healthcare providers that are just trying to reach a proof of concept of an idea. Or it is a company that wants to spread and scale.

So the programs are designed that way. And the resources of our team are also very intentional. For instance, we have knowledge brokers, those people are the people that are actually focused on knowledge mobilization at different parts of the steps of. You know, a company where they’re executing focus groups to get end users to provide feedback, or it is that they’re working on the training segments that would facilitate adoption of a solution.

So we bring the right people in at the right time for the right stage of a project. 

And it’s not just for Canadian startups, right? So startups from all over the world can work with. 

Mel: absolutely. We have a series of programs. Some are, I’ll be honest, our focus for Canadians, but there are a number of programs that we do internationally.

A large part of our funding comes from Canadian different levels of government. So that’s why there’s usually a Canadian or always a Canadian, a Canadian component. To what we do, but we’ve run a number of programs internationally. So as I mentioned before, we have trial sites across the US. So it might be funding a Canadian company to do a trial at a US organization.

Alternatively we’ve done international programs with Your home country of innovation nation with Israel, we’ve done an Israel Canada collaboration program where we have funded Israeli companies to come to Canada to do validation testing here. So we have a number of programs. We’re discussing ones with the UK right now, and more with Israel, et cetera, and Japan about bringing.

International companies to Canada or vice versa, maybe Canadian companies to help them grow internationally. So we’re importing and exporting the best innovative ideas if you might. And those are under programs where we. Internationally you know, co-funding sometimes with our partners globally. So if there’s anybody out there in your podcast world interested in co-funding something for a global kind of partnership, let’s talk there’s other organizations internationally that just want access to the CABHI ecosystem and whether that’s access to our Rotman research scientists.

For example, we have a company out of Japan right now. Who’s shipped over a couple robotic devices and we’re doing validation testing to see if those robotics will work as well in Canada or North America as they do in Japan. They’re paying for that service. So there are some programs we run where. We will fund, or we will jointly fund with our partners.

There’s others that, you know, wanna skip that process altogether and just say, we wanna access to this and we’re actually willing to pay for it. So sometimes those are larger organizations and they know the value and the reputation and the quality of the validation testing that could be done through.

Through our group or the acceleration services we offer. And then some of the other things that we do really big on an international scale is our Leap platform. And I’m gonna let Bianca talk about that because that’s another completely novel way that international organizations and individuals may wanna access the CABHI ecosystem.

Bianca: So Keren as our projects grew. So the number of projects grew in our pipeline. We realized that the small community of end users that we first started with eight years ago, wasn’t enough. We needed to increase the reach and diversity of the communities that we were working with that were able to provide feedback.

And that also provided a much broader From within, we could define different target markets for our innovators. In which case about two years ago, we built up a website, a platform that was able to then connect with a very large virtual community of communities. Because leap is a virtual community of older adults and care partners.

And it is also a centralized mechanism that is virtual. For innovators for policy makers research. To connect with older adults and care partners. And we really very strongly believe that this kind of process to be productive doesn’t happen by magic. So we coach and we mentor our older adult communities.

We spend time with them to really understand. Their ways of being how they mobilize knowledge, what the health context is, so that when we’re working with innovators, we’re helping them and we’re helping them to define sort of their value proposition and to focus in on their target markets. We’re then brokering that connection to the end users that would provide the, that would optimize the kind of feedback. For the innovation. And so it is that, you know, these communities are working with us to provide feedback. They are an active component. We call them innovation collaborators. And we actually run sessions on the platform, how to be an innovation collaborator that we’d like to in the future actually create micro credentials for these lead members.

At the same time, the leap community provides opportunities for leap members to learn more about aging and brain health to keep them connected. And so what has grown out of that are courses in digital literacy, financial literacy, health literacy. So because the purpose of that community is for an informed group of people that are really interested in influencing the kinds of solutions that are developed for them as they age. The leap community is developed like a virtual community center with different virtual rooms that have specific activities. The storytelling room is about gathering insights from the community.

To help frame the kinds of problems that innovators should be working on. The innovation lab is for focus groups and co-design sessions. The learning hub is for you know, the workshops ask the expert. This is where we draw on the expertise of Bres in terms of researchers, clinicians. All the burning questions a community might have about their health and about other issues related to aging and caregiving.

And also innovation. We have one session. That’s all about showcasing innovators. The other thing we do is that when innovators are ready to pilot something, we might use the, the platform as a central place for innovators to pilot solutions and letting the, sort of the members of the community become those early testers and potentially in, in the future early market for solutions

So if I am an early stage startup founder sitting at home, listening to this podcast, watching this podcast, how do I tap into this wonderful resource of leap? 

Bianca: It would be through an intake process where we understand your needs as an innovator, what stage your project is in and what kind of problem it’s trying to solve.

Right. So we would really be trying to determine what your needs are and how then leap can be of help to you. And through the intake, we, we determine what, what, what we need to do because in some cases it is. You know, I’m still working on that idea. I need a focus group around just trying to refine the problem.

I’m trying to. Or it could be that I have this early prototype and I need to know a little bit more about what end users think about it, or it could be, I need to get more feedback. So I want a group to try it out for three months and come back and then we run a focus group. So it depends on what the needs are, the project stage.

Brilliant. So I will definitely link to C’s website, into the registration form for leap in the show notes. So you don’t have to Google it. So let’s say that I’ve gone through this process. I’ve tapped into the wonderful resource that is Leap.

I’ve gotten great feedback. I’ve even gotten some beta testers and I’m ready to launch my product. How can CABHI support my launch, my commercialization efforts. 

Bianca: depending on the product, whether it’s a B2B or a B2C, right? So again, the intake process is different.

If you, if an older adult or care partner wants to become a member of leap, that’s a you know, a direct thing. They can go onto the website. They can become members. If an innovator wants to engage with. Then they are doing this intake process with the CABHI team, right? So the CABHI team would determine what the needs are because when there are project stages related to commercialization, we have other programs that we run that are specific to that.

So that the services which we call acceleration services may include. Tying with the Cabi staff that are focused on commercialization to look at the business model, to identify cost and benefit parameters that maybe you want to look at. And so it and then sort of, and also to define that engagement with leap because leap is the end user community, but the needs of the innovator.

Also encompass brokering them with other innovation incubators, or, you know, refining their business model or as Mel does you know encouraging investment. So there are a variety of different needs depending on the stage again. And leap certainly is one where we’re bringing the end users in to inform the process.

All the way along from design development to spread and. 

Mel: Some of the other things, Keren too, we have an annual summit. You’ve kindly come and spoke at our summit and, of course, launched your recent book at our last summit. So thank you very much for being part of that, but that global summit is also a great avenue for innovators from around the world to get access to our network, our network partners, to communicate and, and network.

Everyone in the longevity space really globally this past year, as, as you would know, cause you had been in there, but we had over 850 delegates from 26 countries around the world. So truly quite a global event our first couple years we planned or did the first one in person. Then because of COVID, it, it went virtual.

And you know, obviously there’s pros and cons to being in person or virtual, but virtual it’s really expanded our global audience from the ease of being able to tap in anywhere. So if companies are interested, it’s a great avenue for networking, for getting you know, information about their product and service to be virtual.

A member or other ways, you know, might be a topic that we’d wanna showcase somehow in the conference. So it’d be great if they’re interested in getting in touch with us at the end of March. I think it’s March 22nd of this year. It follows a two day conference by the Rotman research Institute, our sister organization.

So it really covers everything from early stage research with Robman research. Through ours, where we have a couple pitch competitions with partners such as the Ontario brain Institute and our own pitch competition last year. And we think this year too, there’ll be over two and a half million dollars of funding available which makes it the largest pitch competition in the longevity sector globally that we understand in terms.

Events like that. The other ways to participate, you know, we have different calls for innovation. Some are Canadian, some are, you know, have more of a global nature. So follow us, sign up for our newsletter off our website, cabhi.com. Follow our social media. Next month, we are going to be launching two programs.

One our MC squared program, which stands for mentorship capital and continuation program. It’s a program that’s largely Canadian focused in terms of you have to have a Canadian presence, but we have funded a number of organizations Israeli American ones who have a Canadian office or look to set up a Canadian office.

So some organizations are looking to grow internationally. Canada’s a great stepping stone for the US to go international, you know, coming to Canada first. It’s their first opportunity. It’s, you know, the same language close in geography, same time zones, plural, but you know, it’s a great first step to go international for other international companies looking to get to the us.

Canada’s a great stepping stone again you know, it’s a bit smaller not geography, but in terms of population you know, access again to our research validation services. And then maybe it’s a great testing ground to say let’s iron out the wrinkles in Canada, and then try to enter the US market, which is a larger, you know, sometimes more difficult market in different respects.

Other ways is, you know, I run a marketing and communications team in the business development group and we run, you know, our social media and our newsletters. And sometimes if it’s international companies, you don’t have to be part of our portfolio, but if you have an interesting technology and our space, we’re happy to promote those best new solutions to our ecosystem.

Even if they’re not formally a funded pro project in our portfolio you know, part of what we’re trying to do is, is bring those best innovations to help Canadians or help Canadian solutions help people globally. So we’re happy to help just from marketing communications and, you know, reposting or publishing things through our social media, having access to our network, if that’s helpful.

Bianca: You know, we also look for opportunities for bringing people together. We call them idea collision days. And so you know, for, we used to do it before COVID in real time where different innovators working in similar areas, let’s say virtual reality or artificial intelligence would come in and they would be batting ideas against each other.

And sometimes relat. Developed where, you know, solutions might decide to bundle because the value proposition increases if they work together on a similar solution. So we wanna start doing that again in a hybrid fashion. The other type of event that we will be running, starting again in a hybrid way is called an innovation showcase.

And there will be one in the new year, right prior to the. Where locally we have in downtown Toronto an evening where end users and companies investors innovators all come together and there is an opportunity for people to link in remotely as well. And again, this idea of bringing people together to cross pollinate ideas, encourages relationship building.

Networking and all of that, because that’s important as well, especially for the early innovators, but also for the later ones that are looking for more investment and, you know, the next steps in what they’re trying to do. Absolutely. 

So speaking of, of investment in funding Mel, you mentioned the MC2 programs.

So if I’m an innovator sitting at home or in my office listening to this, and I. I wanna reach out to CABHI to see if there’s a possibility to get some funding. Is that program like the gateway or if, if an innovator reaches out to you and they’re not quite sure which program they fit into, because there are multiple programs at CABHI what would be the best way to basically reach out to you and figure out how they can work with you?

Mel: Yeah. So whenever we post a new MC squared cohort or one of our other cohorts, we put it online with the criteria. Is for that call for innovation. I mean, it’s largely solving those same issues that we’re always talking about, whether it’s cognitive health, mental health care, navigation tools you know, we’ll, we’ll put down exactly the, the unique focus of a specific call for innovation.

So they’ll be able to read a lot of it online, our next MC squared. I think we’re planning to launch it on October 3rd. So they can read about it. They’re welcome to contact me. They’re welcome to contact us through our website. There’s a, you know, a contact us on our website and it’ll get right to the person who’s leading that program and they can get back to somebody and answer specific questions if they have, if it’s not clear from our call for innovation and also please sign up for our newsletter.

Or follow our social media cuz on our social media, we always of course post wh what our next call for innovation is, what the criteria is, what the special focus we might be looking for at that time. 

Bianca: Our managers in the innovation office often receive questions directly from innovators asking, you know, what program is appropriate?

Is this, you know, so it’s fine. You know, it’s a, it’s something that we’re doing all the time. We try to. Direct them to the right kind of program. And sometimes it means connecting them to other resources while we’re, they’re sort of in that stage in between program calls, but we’re happy to answer questions and guide innovators along.

And so I see now that I got a message from one of our members at the AgeTech academy because I did mention to our members earlier today that I was meeting you and we were recording this podcast. So they’re actually asking about the summit. So will this ears or next year’s summit actually be hybrid or will it be completely virtual? What’s the plan? 

Mel: It will definitely be a large virtual component. We are thinking of having maybe certain VIPs to actually come in person that might be people who are being recorded for the event to do a small amount in person, but largely it will be a virtual event. So mini hybrid, but definitely mostly virtual.

Brilliant. So that was actually my last question, is there anything else that people, whether they’re innovators or older adults or caregivers or elder care organizations in the audience, is there anything else that they need to know?

Bianca: You know what we’re really passionate about our work. We’re always impressed with all the innovators out there and the energy and inspiration and passion that drives them. And so we encourage them to connect we’re here for you. 

Mel: And we’re just setting up the. Outlined for the upcoming summit on March 22nd.

So if organizations are interested to be part of that, we will be sending out information soon on our social media, but, you know, please contact us, contact me and be happy to, you know, get you involved in one way or another in that summit. So we look forward to seeing everybody there and maybe Karen you’ll have another book that you’ll be launching by then.

Well, I doubt that there will be another book, but the audio book and the hard cover should definitely be out by then. So I definitely encourage anyone to attend CABHI’s summit. It’s incredibly not only educational, but it’s also incredibly fun. Even in a virtual world. It’s incredibly fun and I’ve enjoyed it.

Every year that I’ve attended. So that’s highly, highly recommended. And I wanna thank you, both Mel and Bianca for joining me today. And I generally, I wanna thank the entire team at CABHI who’s been hard at work at really pushing innovation forward in this ecosystem. And I’m sure that anyone listening to this and anyone that’s ever been involved with CABHI will agree that CABHI is incredibly influential in this ecosystem. And we’re so lucky to have you. 

Mel: Thank you. Thank you, Keren. Appreciate all your support and always promoting CABHI and a number of CABHI’s startups on your age tech map of companies from around the world. We really appreciate your support. 

Thank you.