Invention Lab
Testbed. Insights. Success.
Our Partners
Our Unique Collaboration
- VillageCore organizes and runs the program, ensuring smooth operations while guiding the validation process to assess the potential of new concepts.
- Senior Care providers bring members to participate in testing.
- Non-profits focusing on Seniors and Caregivers bring members to participate in testing.
- Investors serve as advisors, offering expert mentorship and guidance.
- Accelerators funnel innovative startups into the program, provide funding, and steady stream of companies.
- Agetech Startups provide the solution, define the market needs, establish the testing platform, and offer training on their products. They benefit from real-world feedback, mentorship, and validation within the senior care ecosystem, allowing them to refine their solutions and scale in the AgeTech market.
Program Highlights
- Innovative Collaboration: Bringing together a wealth of knowledge and resources.
- Testbed: A dynamic environment where startups can work alongside prospective customers, peers and mentors, fostering innovation and collaboration.
- Focus on Aging: Dedicated to developing products and services that help seniors and their caregivers.
Why Invention Lab
- Why AgeTech: By 2050, the global senior population will reach 1.5 billion, while the U.S. caregiver-to-senior ratio is expected to fall from 7:1 to 4:1 by 2030. This growing gap demands innovative solutions that empower seniors to live healthier, independent lives, driving the need for new AgeTech developments.
- Turning Ideas into Products: Innovators Lab helps startups turn their ideas into viable products by providing a robust platform for testing, refining, and launching innovations.
Program Structure
A brief look at our program structure.
Phase 1: Orientation, Onboarding, & Idea Refinement
- Introduction to Innovators Lab: its mission, and partners.
- Overview: Detailed explanation of the incubator and testbed program.
- Market Insights: Introduction to senior and caregiver challenges.
- Mentor Assignments: Pairing participants with mentors.
- Project Definition: Defining goals and establishing success criteria.
- Project Scope: Outlining scope, timeline, and target customer base.
Phase 2: Target Persona Identification & Mapping User Journey
- Target Persona Identification: Understand the target audience and finalize initial user personas.
- User Journey Mapping: Analyze how each persona interacts with the product and technology.
Phase 3: Prototype Development, Testing Plan & User Iteration
- Prototype Development: Create prototypes based on personas and mapped user journeys.
- Testing Plan: Design a detailed approach for testing the prototypes.
- User Testing: Conduct tests with the target demographic to gather feedback on usability and performance.
- Iteration: Use feedback to refine and improve the prototypes.
Phase 4: Test Data Review, Data Driven Insights, & Recommendations
- Test Data Consolidation: Create reports necessary for identifying data driven insights.
- Recommendations:
- User Feedback Summary: Summarize key insights from user testing.
- Marketing Buzzwords: Identify relevant buzzwords to enhance market positioning.
- Product Refinements: Suggest necessary product changes based on user input.
- Pitch Refinement: Tailor the pitch for investors and the target market.
What We Offer
Workshops and Mentorship: A series of hands-on workshops covering design thinking, pilot project development, data analysis, and investor pitching. Mentors provide guidance at every step of the journey.
Third Party Pilot Testing: Pilot tests with real users, gathering valuable feedback.
Vendor Introductions: Vetted Attorneys, CPAs, Designers, and Developers that are willing to provide discounts to the startups are extensions of the incubator.
Partner Introductions: Where possible we will provide introductions to partner organizations such as AARP Agetech Collaborative, Aging 2.0, and other startups in the ecosystem.
Advisor and Board Member Introductions: These may include experienced executives, senior industry leaders, venture capital advisors, and experts in technology and aging innovation.
Investment Support: Once a minimum viable product (MVP) is developed, we assist startups with investor pitches and securing funding for further development.
Invention Lab
Looking for 2024 beta participants.