IT for the elderly. Promotion and search of financing
In a previous post, I described our concept of "IT for the elderly." Now I’ll tell you how we promoted it and how we looked for financing.
HOW WE PROMOTED AN IDEA AND CONCEPT
Over the past year, we have shown a project at a few events supervised by the all-Russian organization “Support of Russia”, Sistema JSFC, MTS OJSC, and HSE. We became winners and winners of specialized contests.
1. In June 2014, the tablet for the elderly project was successfully presented at the meeting of the Intellect Center, which was organized by the Resource Bank for the Development of Social Entrepreneurship and supported by the Support of Russia Committee on Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility .
2. In July 2014, the HSE hosted the final of the MTS OJSC contest “Telecom - Idea 2014” . According to the results of the contest, the all-Russian organization “Support of Russia” and AFK “Sistema” named our project “Tablet for the elderly” the winner in the nomination “The best socially-oriented projects in the field of telecommunications”.
3. At the end of 2014, our project was accepted for examination by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). The agency introduced us to the Technology of Opportunities Social Innovation Development Center , a joint work with which has seriously expanded our horizons.
4. In April 2015, a meeting of the expert council of the Technology of Opportunities program was heldMSTU named after Bauman, at which it was decided to approve our project “Tablet for people with disabilities and senior citizens” as a participant in the project support program in the field of solving the problems of people with disabilities “Technology of opportunities”.
5. In May 2015, we successfully presented the project at the international conference M-Enabling Russia in Moscow.
At all events, our presentations aroused genuine interest and were accompanied by many interested discussions.
Regarding the search for financing, we wrote to several investment funds, contacted the Timchenko Charitable Fund, in particular, participated in the II Conference “Society for All Ages”.
INTERIM RESULTS
The results are currently mixed. The fact that we participated in exhibitions, spoke at conferences and published in the media made it possible to get in touch with a really very large number of people - there were thousands of readers, hundreds of listeners, dozens of interlocutors.
We have received confirmation of an active and benevolent interest: out of all the contacts, there are not a dozen people who cast doubt on the relevance of the problem and the adequacy of our solution. On the contrary, not only private individuals spoke about the interest in our product, but also representatives of the largest telecommunication companies, funds, and city administrations.
- Why are older people still not using tablets with your software? - you ask. For several reasons.
A couple of years ago, Skolkovo representatives said that our project can be financed in one of two possible ways - through grant support or as a regular commercial project.
A commercial project can be invested either by a private investment fund or by a state. The IT market for the elderly is completely new, private investors are cautious, and the social component of the project does nothing here. State investment funds are more accessible, but now the practice is such that when allocating investments, priority is given to direct and understandable medical care for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Likewise, charitable foundations that fund projects to help older people don’t spend money on what looks like entertainment — a photo album, music player, etc. Medical projects are much more likely to receive funding from charitable foundations.
State grants can only be received by NPOs. In this case, the product released for state money is distributed through state and non-state organizations uniting the elderly.
It is worth noting that all departments of social responsibility of large enterprises with whom we spoke express an active interest in our project, recognize how important such initiatives are in general and for the image of the company in particular. However, business units, as well as investors, hesitate to take any active actions in an unfamiliar market.
On the one hand, all the above limitations seem quite logical and reasonable. But let's recall Google investing in a spoon project that compensates for hand tremors; recall Apple and IBM, supplying Japanese pensioners with tablets. By the way, in Japan this is being done almost at the state level, and it’s understandable why: maintaining the mental health of an aging generation is one of the obvious priorities of social policy. Now let's look at our product “Pony: tablet for the elderly.” We are talking about involving the elderly in the world of digital technology, which means by definition about working for the brain, about brain fitness, about maintaining memory and mental health.
For some reason, among our investors and grantors, “health” means only physical health, and the mental health of millions of older people is not considered a worthy goal for financing.
But we are sure that there is a market, which, as can be seen from global trends, it will grow in Russia. The real need of the elderly has been obvious for a long time, and it would be wrong to delay. Therefore, we are doing what we can: with the support of the Center for the Development of Social Innovation "Technology of Opportunities" we launched a fundraising campaign on the Planeta.ru crowdfunding platform .
Fundraising continues, and all readers have a chance to make a small contribution and get some kind of bonus, in particular, a copy of our software: https://planeta.ru/campaigns/poni .
For those who don’t know, if in the end we won’t be able to collect the required amount (at least half of the declared amount), then according to the rules of the Planet the money will be returned to your account and you can support another project you like.
TOTAL AT THIS TIME
So, we want to provide vulnerable groups with the opportunity to use the new expanded reality. We have experience, knowledge and understanding, we have work resources and the necessary infrastructure. To date, a study has been conducted, TK has been prepared and a prototype of our application has been released. The next step should be the release of an industrial design that could be put into production and distributed. We are looking for financing for industrial design and market launch.
We need financing, highly specialized knowledge in gerontopsychology and UX-design, and, very importantly, partners. By partners I mean both financial partners and technology partners - companies that produce similar products, companies with which we, by combining our knowledge and efforts, could create something new together.
We are sure that this topic is very important for many. We will be glad to any ideas, advice, contacts - everything that would help us continue to actively develop the project, take the first real steps towards creating a comfortable IT environment for the elderly.
In this publication, I completed a description of how the project has evolved to date. In the next I plan to introduce a variant of collective testing of our product.