Start with the premise -- Silicon Valley VC firms matter for entrepreneur success. Is this true? And especially, is it true for early stage companies, with founders that are known to VCs; or do angel investors or startup money from friends and family matter more? Instead of speculating, consider the leading Silicon Valley VC firms -- and examine their online featured list of investments. Note mention in this article that the venture 'industry has gone back to its IT- and IT-enabled services roots.' So let's take a look at their historical successes. Sequoia Capital -- health-related investments are disease oriented, big hits include LinkedIn, PayPal, Instagram, Kayak, and eHarmony. For sure, the full list contains many useful tools for people of all ages, but unless we're talking diabetes and glucometers, nothing much that is age-related for seniors.
Startup mania is one thing -- but bigger companies like tech too. AARP has a Longevity Network to encourage startups and an updated market overview report -- and funds are blossoming -- see Linkage Ventures and Aging 2.0. Then there's the StartUp Health billions and billions, and RockHealth (more billions) -- yada yada yada. With all of that money flowing and hype flowering around startup wannabes, who knows what other incubators, accelerators, and motivators in 2015 are ahead? The new year starts off at CES in Las Vegas -- will it bring new companies to light that are focused on seniors? Meanwhile way back here in what's left of 2014, a number of firms that are NOT startups by any definition have recently announced new offerings -- each of these acknowledges and encourages seniors to use cell phone, tablet, and smartphone technology today. List is alphabetical, and all content is taken from press announcements and/or the organizations' own websites.
Proliferation of device types is also proliferating malware. 159.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (66.8 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January 2014, 51% were Android devices, 41.6% were Apple iOS and rest were 'other'. There were 70 million tablets in the USA around then as well, 51% Apple, and 40% Android. Both device types are of interest to the malware hacking communities. Researchers at Georgia Tech showed how to hack an iPhone in 60 seconds, removing the Facebook app and replacing it with an imposter.
