Join us on today's Business as Usual as we host Danielle D. Duplin, Cofounder and Global Director of AGENCY, which is working with Procter & Gamble and the Cambridge Innovation Center to identify solutions for the many issues that impact the aging (senior citizens) market. They have reached out to the Pittsburgh Technology Council to connect with start-ups that might have specific solutions to the following challenges:
Transcription:
So Good afternoon. Welcome to business as usual. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council. I'm also joined by Jonathan Kersting. He's vice president of all things, media, and communication. And we are very thrilled to be here today with our guests that are joining us. And I believe from Boston, but I'll know for sure in a moment. So a couple of things before we get started, just to remind everyone that, you know, we've kept your microphones mute. And that's with the intent that we don't want to hear what's going on in the background, and there's an opportunity for chat. I would like to give a shout out to our sponsors. That's Huntington bank. They've been with us right from the beginning. And they believed in us as we started to build this community each day at noon, and we're pretty thrilled about it. The topic today which I'll get into in a minute, which actually is around the issues of aging and products and things that we've been pretty close to over the last few months, I also want to give a shout out to Webb law firm. They've been around since 1845, and all things intellectual property. And they are actually globally known for the work that they do and the companies that they represent, both big and small. So we thank them for their support as well. The other thing is, I want to just tell everyone that tomorrow we're being joined by Bobby apalla, from local Capital Management is going to discuss their organization's new way, and unique way of generating investment capital to fuel fast growing companies. And I believe on Thursday, we're going to be joined by Kelly Weiland, from the innovation Partnership, which is a statewide organization that provides micro grants and free grant writing services to companies that are pursuing larger r&d grants on Friday. We are being joined by Councilwoman Erica Stross burger to be followed by Monday county executive rich Fitzgerald. And then we have David Morehouse president of the Pittsburgh Penguins, we also have some more folks in the lineup. So I just wanted to throw that out there and make sure that you know that we're working each and every day to provide relevant information for all of you. So I already gave you the rules in terms of how we're behaving. So I want to just jump in. And I want to introduce Danielle duplin, who is the co founder and global director of agency, which is part of the Cambridge Innovation Center, also known as CIC in Boston. And then she's also brought her director of operations, Lindsay Clark, who's here for any kind of support, and to answer any other questions. So thank you, Danielle, for being with us. And I think you're from Boston, right? You're sitting in Boston right now.
Indeed, we are. I'm north of Boston right now, but I'm originally in New Yorker. Yeah, so and I'm loving the opportunity to get together with folks, really from all geographies, but especially the Pittsburgh tech Council. We have a Massachusetts tech council here. And I really respect the work you guys do to, to really elevate the role of technology companies. So thank you for the invitation.
That's great. They're great. And we've been up to CIC over the years. So we're pretty, you know, impressed in terms of what the work is going on. So what we'll do is I know you have some information to sort of set the stage for us. But the intent is for this to be a little interactive, and somewhat casual. But I think what might be really helpful is you give us an overview of what is the work that you're doing at agency and just sort of set the table for us, and then we'll jump into some further questions.
And so wonderful.
We I know we have slides.
Okay, great.
Perfect, so give me a second here. So Andy Well, again, thank you for the opportunity, very excited to talk about this work, particularly in light of a lot of the tragedies that we're hearing worldwide with the pandemics impact to the aging populations. And in fact, all of us are experiencing and some small moment of foreshadowing the day to day life of what it means to grow older and be isolated and be disconnected from your family and friends or maybe not have access to the services that you need. And so in many ways, there's been this, this global empathy for older adults around the world that has happened and it's really opened up a lot of conversations for our innovators at agency and at the CIC who are focusing on improving the aging journey. So what is agency we are a global network of innovators who are coming up with products and services and big ideas to help people live longer and age better. And so what? When we say aging, really aging is living? And how do we live our best life until our last day? And yes, we are also looking at death tech too. There's been some really interesting conversations about what it means to to live a healthy, joyful, purposeful life and to plan for the end of life, which is opening up some really beautiful opportunities for people to to innovate around this so. So we at agency, you know, we know that everybody comes to this work with a story. And this is my grandmother, she's our spirit guide for this work. And yes, she blew out those candles on her hundred and seventh birthday. Yes, indeed. And she you know, she had a good life and she had a good death. I mean, at the end you Nursing was home and the home at Forest Hills queens she was born and raised in surrounded by her loving caregivers and family and literally ran out of money like the day to the day. So, you know, financial independence, financial security, and, and lifestyle security. These are all the things that we think about with our innovators at aging. And and each one of our entrepreneurs as well as our corporate innovators come to this work, either with their own lived experience having cared for their parents or being a sandwich generation or where they themselves recently retired and then say, No, no, retirement is not what I thought it was. I want to back into work.
Or, you know, from a corporate standpoint, or strategic standpoint, this is a huge market. I mean, hundreds of millions of people are thankfully, you know, we're all benefiting from the longevity dividends. But our later years, you know, maybe brand marketers aren't paying attention to us the way they were paying attention to us. Whatever 18 to 35. You know, our needs do change as we age, lots of people don't want to be cared for yet we need the innovation for the care the caregiving process. And, and so at agency, we have four pillars. So co working is the first which is indeed at the Cambridge Innovation Center, which is the original co working space 20 years ago founded by MIT grad. So we believe that proximity and trust builds trust in the ecosystem and when you have trust, then you can innovate much like the Pittsburgh tech Council, right, you all know one another. You get together frequently, you know, you would work you would share each other's initiatives more readily. And so we're building that community through physical proximity at the CIC. And of course, we're pivoting to virtual in light of the pandemic, and CIC is is expanding nationwide and worldwide. So we can bring in companies from from the Netherlands. From Japan from Poland, you know, places where a different aspects of the aging journey from a social standpoint, they're approaching things very differently or they have a different payer network. So it could very well be that companies that are innovating here might have a better market opportunity overseas, or vice versa. There might be some fascinating innovations happening that we could import, if you will, here to the states. So so we had agency provide that cross cultural connection through our co working and so forth. Our second pillar is convening. So we have events that bring people together that foster community, we can showcase thought leaders, we can engage conversation on some of the tougher subjects. We also give a platform for innovators to then get in front of audiences. So we're hosting a pitch fest next week with AARP innovation labs. This week, we're talking with Procter and Gamble about their innovation strategy from a corporate standpoint. So we really provide a place for innovators to take Get to know the community. Our third pillar is connect. And this is where agency helps to, as we say, unblock the log jam in the ecosystem. So if you're a company and you need a next meeting or you have a next milestone and something's in your way, we add agency can help broker a conversation, create that meeting, get an expert to talk to and then collectively, we can see patterns. And so we can become advocates at the state level or the national level to say here, here are the choke points in innovation and how a different policy and we're see this now with telemedicine for instance, with the pandemic, so many telemedicine rules have been lifted, or I should say regulations have been have been lifted to allow much more telemedicine interactions and it's it's absolutely unleashing this this pent up demand for innovators to deliver services online. So we really hope those regulations don't get rolled back. And then finally, our fourth pillar Perhaps the most important is commercialize. So our goal at agency is to help these companies grow, you know, first spark the idea, then build a company around that idea and then grow. And you know, we want unicorns coming out of this network, because that will attract more innovators to this work. And it'll be a signal that that from an economic benefit, as well as a moral benefit. That, you know, there's upside for everybody. And that's what entrepreneurs love. They love solving hard problems with a unique way with the upside potential to change the world. So an agency This is it.
So these are some of the content areas. Yeah.
And, and then this is just some of, you know, just a little snapshot of our space and some of our companies and what they're working on. So, so yeah, that's, that's great.
We are what we do. Awesome. That's great. So, so a little bit about what so what is your background in terms Have you know how you came to this?
So, so my personal so so the background for agency or for both for you and for, you know, for agency because you talk about something called captains of innovation. So I'm interested in understanding that and I'm just sort of interested in how you have come to the role that you're in because you seem very, you know, driven aided by it. So, yeah, just want to make sure that we're understanding that.
Sure. So, so from as I mentioned, the CIC was founded over 20 years ago by MIT grad. Right, so, so the model works. And so for 20 years, the CIC has built up this huge community of innovators who have grown their companies from stealth mode all the way to unicorn. And so when you look at the current landscape, you know, co working has become, you know, very common business model. So, so the CEO says, Well, what can we do to can providing value to the world in a unique way. And it turns out that clusters have a significant extra benefit for both the innovators themselves to be among peers that are also working in the same space. But it becomes an attractor for investors for influencers. And we become, you know, better, like collectively better, right. So this model took hold in that we've got a number of other industry clusters at CIC, we've got one focused on food, one focused on smart cities, and so forth. So right around this time captains of innovation, which is, as Lindsay mentioned, to a corporate consultancy, that helps corporates, particularly corporates who have to reinvent themselves, right, for the modern era, right. So kind of, you know, they realized that maybe behind the times, maybe their innovation, you know, blueprint isn't quite, you know, up to, you know, nice and easy, some rejuvenation. Here. And so connecting with startups in a thoughtful and meaningful way. They will work with captains of innovation to broker those connections. And and to do like think tanks and exploration of new business models and so forth. So sampo Japan, which is Japan second largest insurance company, as well as the second largest nursing care operator, they have 400 nursing facilities, 25,000 beds across their properties, were realizing that both sides of their business were highly connected. So the insurance and claims burden for people with Alzheimer's disease and caregiver burden it's about I don't want to call it burden. It's it's a sacred task, but it clearly has costs associated with it. As well as their experiences of managing the nursing facilities. They were seeing the opportunities at scale to make an impact. So they hired captains of innovation, to say help us understand the innovation ecosystem in the States. Let's do a hackathon. Let's just see how we can innovate. And from there, we saw the range of ideas that came out of that hackathon from no tech marketing campaigns on let's end, loneliness, which is important from a social determinant health standpoint, all the way to the most scientifically based startups that we're doing, like blood test to detect for biomarkers for dementia. And then everything in the middle that the Pittsburgh tech council can appreciate, which is all the software that goes into managing care coordination, or managing medication adherence or managing back end systems at senior care operators and so forth. So software was playing large in the idea space here. So we sat back we said, well, this is it, right? Like how do you take a world scale problem which is aging, right and take technology and say the only way that we can possibly care for as many millions of people and in a cost effective way is to apply technology in a thoughtful ways, and we've got a full range of sectors that can participate. So yes, the healthcare sector, yes. transportation sector. Yes. The housing sector? Yes. The biotech sector. Yes. The food sector, yes. The leisure sector, the lifelong learning sector. We see universities here in Massachusetts, that are building senior care homes, right on campus, to be part of the student community. So so we see this as Yes. And every sector can play a role technology helps to scale. And it made the perfect sense to create a cluster around a couple of things, a couple of things. One is I'm assuming that any of the work in terms of product development has seniors and customers heavily involved in the design. Okay. I just want to make sure that, that that's part of it. And then the other is you're doing work with Procter and Gamble. Right? So so let's hear about that. And what might people in Pittsburgh be interested in?
Beautiful. So indeed so as I mentioned, all companies now at least the smart ones are now looking towards the aging population as an opportunity to continue to have lifelong relationships with their customers, and and how can we best serve customers with their increased needs, or changing needs, I should say. And so Procter and Gamble, as we know, is 180 year old company, with over 300 consumer product brands as part of their portfolio. They these are highly trusted brands, we trust Procter and Gamble to shampoo our children to, you know, take care of our skin that you know, they're in Procter gamble as part of the most intimate moments that we have. And so, how might Procter and Gamble pivot to grow old with their customers if you will? Right. And this is not just how you do self care for activities of Living, but the indeed the care partner interaction. I don't know if any of you have seen the Gillette ad for the trio for the shaver that allows the sun to shave his father, give yourself a minute to watch this and you will end up crying. And you will end up really with a deep and profound sense of what it means to to be highly functional and independent and caring for yourself and that to care for your loved ones. And so we see this as a beautiful opportunity for innovators to really make a difference. And the number of areas that Procter and Gamble is looking for. And again, they are a consumer brand company. So they are looking for, you know, fast moving consumables, particularly with a tech component indeed, but they're looking for specifically how do we de risk showering, when you look at the number of falls like falling is one of the key trigger events, if you will, for declining health as well as for being intended to move as we say from your home into a nursing care facility. If you're falling too much at home and you're unattended that's just bad news all around. And so that might you might be moved into a higher care setting. And so how do you de risk showering which is where most of the falls happen is one key area. Maintaining skin health as we know skin is our biggest organ and and your skin is becomes more fragile, less absorbent as we age. And so what are the unique needs one very fascinating. area is hydration and the balance of hydration with continents. So as we age our our thirst sensation naturally declines. So we really do need to be reminded to drink and hydrate goes back to skin health and brain health for sure as well as sleep. But then there's this this shame component that comes in that if you drink too much And you are starting to experience and continents, then you might hold back on drinking or you certainly might not drink before you go out if you're afraid of having a bladder leakage or whatnot. And so continents is a huge area of focus and an overall mobility. Like we just know you got to get out, you got to enjoy your surroundings. You got to go out in public, you got to meet with people, you got a garden in your backyard, you got to do all the things you want to do. So mobility and stability is a huge area that allow people to continue to be strong, and their well being so Procter and Gamble's looking at a full range of ideas to cover some of the activities of daily living.
So if there are people that are on this call, or they didn't have a chance to be on this call, but they're interested and they think they have a solution, a solution to some of the areas that you've talked about specifically as it relates to property and gamble. What what's the process? What's the journey for them?
Love it. So we want to meet you and we would love to hang out and learn What you're building, learn how we can be helpful. And so if you go to our website, CIC comm slash agency CIC comm slash agency, you'll see there is a whole section on the global call for startups, and for innovators. And you can click right there for more information, to click to collaborate, we ask you to fill out some information so we can learn about your company, what you're building, and then we'll take it from there, depending on if it's a meeting, if it's a demo, or what the next steps are, what are some of the what are some of the steps? I mean, how early can an idea be very early, very early. And it also can be an idea that could be adjacent. So indeed, as you mentioned, not you know, not everybody's thinking about the older adult market, but they may in fact, be super serving, let's say athletes on their hydration or they may be super serving folks who have dexterity issues or mobility issues because maybe post surgery, something anything, like if you're working on something If you sat back and you thought, My innovation is addressing some kind of functional limitation, or capability for one demographic, maybe if we learn a little bit about how to nuance that for the older demographic, so that might be the conversation that we have, right. Others might be, well, I actually have a great product, but I don't know how to brand it or I don't know how to, like get to channel partner. Like we've got a number of companies that have an amazing product, but they have absolutely no distribution experience, right? And so PNG could help with helping to frame a strategy for let's say, you know, a global distribution, you might have a product that, in fact, is very science based and needs some clinical studies or some kind of third party validation, or something with regulatory bodies, let's say the FDA, so that would be yet another group that we connect with, to say, Okay, how do we get this into some kind of clinical trial, how do we get some insurance companies looking at and so forth? So it really depends on the answer. Because,
I mean, obviously it depends. And so do you ever help companies with getting investment or is this something that it's just a pathway to to PNG? Do they have an investment arm?
Okay, so a couple of things a couple of ways to answer that question. So for p&g, specifically, p&g because they recognize they're such a multi. So many brands in their portfolio have created Procter and Gamble venture studio, which is their like innovation front door, if you will. So that's who we're working directly with. So p&g venture studio will do that intake that assessment and figure out, you know, what the next steps and conversations ought to be. So we are working directly with a venture studio, and indeed, that might invest in that company co invest, I might acquire that company, you know, whatever that path that natural path would need to be. We had agency however, Though we are working with many, many, many, many corporates, each of whom have a different outreach objective or strategic objective. So there might be so if it's not P and G, that is the match. Okay? We will help find out other companies that might be potential partners or collaborators. And indeed, while we don't provide investment, we're not an incubator. We're not a, you know, an angel group. We do provide a number of opportunities to meet with venture capitalists, we host events on how to fund your startup, we provide like that, especially with the CIC and venture cafe does, specifically is to help broker those conversations between investors and innovators.
And so are you going around the country doing these kinds of conversations just like you're having with us right now?
I would love to get invited to every one of these conversations. Yes, because we want more innovators paying attention to this feels so so yeah, yeah. And in fact, so this week, we are having a fireside chat with Proctor and Gamble venture studio. So Thursday evening 4pm. I invite you all to participate. Next week we're hosting a pitch fest with AARP innovation labs. So Indeed, indeed, we went around the country and curated startups to meet a RPS innovation objective, which is to say I was pressed for vitality. Right. So their objective was like, how do we how do we enhance the vitality of older adults through lifestyle, fitness, nutrition and well being? Right? So we are captains of innovation and an agency have gone and curated startup so we had over 100 startups to consider. And we've picked nine and they'll be presenting and pitching next week.
Awesome. So if people are listening in they're saying, gee, that's really interesting. I'll reach out to what is your expectation of the companies. But what are they is this do they need to To participate in terms of paying for your services, you know, how does all that work?
Sure. So we have a number of different engagement models. So if you're a company who is interested in becoming a strategic partner with agency, you want to help us co design the future of aging. We welcome you. As a strategic partner. We have many different levels of partnership. We were excited to and proud that Governor Baker was our first seed funder. So we have a match the governor grant and and that gives you access to our partners Council, and to meeting with the other influencers and stakeholders in our network. That we also can engage on a project basis through captains of innovation. Let's say your company wants to do a start up scan, for instance, we can do a private startup scan, you get all of the results of that scan. If you also want to do a public event that you want cosponsor we can work with you on that much like we're doing with p&g and AARP. And then if you are in fact a company that wants to be part of the agency that work, we have different membership categories. So indeed you pay to be a member and that gives you access to the CIC, it gives you access to all of our members. Okay, good.
And so what what do you know about Pittsburgh? Do you know anything about about us here? Have you been here with us from here?
I have not worked with enough company. So I would love to know more. So tell me, Well, I'm not I'm not going to tell you right now. Because the people who are listening No, but I think that my sweetest spots that we have here are in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, there are a lot of people that are working on software strategies that are both front and back end and trying to supply support for some of the situations that you've depicted. The thing about pets For where the opportunity is strong here is that we have a one of the highest aging populations, people who have stayed in Pittsburgh and lasted here. I think we're number two or three in the country in terms of aging and even aging in place. We obviously like every place around the United States, we've had our own fair share of issues around COVID in people who are in communal environments, and I know that that's been a big issue in Massachusetts, just like it's been here in Pittsburgh. And we also have Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that are working on the most incredible, you know, research that's known around the world. And so it was CIC thinking about setting up a presence in Pittsburgh at one point. Do you know anything about that?
So go ahead, Lindsay. Yeah.
Let's unmute Lindsay.
Lindsay, as I mentioned earlier is their director of operations. Thank you, Lindsay. Hi, guys. Can you hear me now?
Yes. Hi. Um, so CIC is actively working on expanding to 50 cities around the world in the next 10 years. I would say Pittsburgh is definitely of interest to us. And typically it takes about three to five years for CIC to set up in a new city. But the robotics and AI scene is fantastic. And we would love to be more deeply involved with the Pittsburgh community. We, we opened CIC Philadelphia in 2018. So we're moving into Pennsylvania, but it's for example list. Okay, awesome. Thank you for that. And Michael, Nilo out there is just reminding me that he's seeing a lot of wearable technology. And I forgot to mention that the thing about Pittsburgh is that Pittsburgh is so diverse. We're not really a one trick pony town. And there really isn't anything that We're not working on here, particularly as it relates to devices and the information of things, which obviously has a big correlation in terms of people who are aging, as we, as everyone on this call is aging. So anything that's tied to that we also have the Jewish health care foundation I mentioned earlier, and they would be tremendous partners, and they've done a lot of leading thought work in that space as well and have been huge advocates.
I love it. Yeah. And that, in fact, is is one of the big asks of all of our innovators clearly they want, you know, pathways to funding of course, but also and just as important is access to pilot customers and folks who could give direct feedback to their products along the way, as you mentioned, that you know, customer centric design, and that is one of our core ethos, it's got evidence, so yes, if you're working on something, we need to know that it's better By research science and so forth, but empathy, right that you are truly designing with a senior in mind. And of course, economics, right, like a business model that is sustainable. So, So indeed, you know, we'd love to work with the Jewish health care Foundation, particularly if you know means feedback. We're working with a company up in Maine University have a name. And they've been on a regular basis, they convened what they call the legacy scholars, these are people who are in their 60s 70s and 80s, who give feedback to our startups. And it's super valuable.
That's great. Well, it is now 1230. I thank you for 30 minutes of your time in the course of the day. Hopefully this has been, you know, some education both for us and for you. And we look forward to hearing from you in the near future. So I want to thank everyone and come back tomorrow because I believe Jonathan, we have Bobby's palette Is that correct?
Dude, I'm excited. Bobby's a good guy in talking about the new ways of localizing and financing companies here. It's awesome. Thank you.
Awesome. Thank you. It's great to meet everybody. Thank you so much for the invitation and the opportunity. I look forward to future connections.
Looking forward to your Pittsburgh Office.
Well, you could still work with us before that happens.
Absolutely. No, you guys are doing some great work. We need to be better connected. That's for sure.
Thank you. Thank you.
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