The 2005 $10,000 Boomer Business Plan Competition Finalists

An integral element of the What’s Next? Boomer Business Summit, the event attracted 40 executive summaries from entrepreneurs, early-stage companies and students from the U.S., Iceland, England and Hong Kong. Plans were received from top tier universities, including Santa Clara University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago, and Princeton University. Plans represented many industries including technology, travel, sexuality/health/wellness and housing.

Grand Prize Winner

Tibion Corporation
(Moffett Field, CA) Tibion Corporation is a start-up in the orthopedic medical device space. The mission of the company is to improve the quality of life for the mobility impaired through the development, sale, and support of active orthotic products. These products provide exo-skeleton based muscle augmentation and rehabilitation for those with loss of muscle function due to disease, injury, aging, or surgery. The first application of Tibion technology is the PowerKnee, which provides augmentation of the quadricep’s muscle strength. The PowerKnee provides the critical assistance to allow otherwise immobile individuals to perform activities of daily living such as sitting down and rising from a chair, walking, and going up and down stairs. The devices are enabled by Tibion’s patent-pending, sensor-driven, actuator technologies along with advancements in the areas of embedded computer systems and orthotics.
Executive Team
Kern Bhugra, BSEE, MSEE - Founder and CEO; Robert Horst, MSEE, PhD (Computer Science) - Founder and CTO; Mark Williams, MD, JD, MBA - VP Medical Affairs; Morris Chubb, CPA, BS (Finance), CFO

Finalists (in alphabetical order)

GDTS Ltd
(Reykjavik-Mos, Iceland) GDTS Ltd has developed a new product for the shoe industry. The Green Diamond shoe soles contain granulates that improve grip and prevent slipping.. The company has developed, refined, and proved the process for injecting the granules into the rubber mix used in shoe soles. Results from tests by a highly regarded, independent testing facility show that the grip of Green Diamond soles is up to 3 x greater than that of conventional soles.
Green Diamond Traction Soles is an Icelandic company founded to exploit a novel approach to reduce slipping, tripping and falling on slippery surfaces that are exist everywhere; at the place of work and play and indoors and outdoors alike. The Occupational Safety and Health Association claims that around 25.000 people in the US slip, trip or fall every day.
Green Diamond Soles are a unique revolutionary new sole design incorporating hard granules into the rubber mixture that dramatically increase friction on smooth, wet, slippery surfaces. The market for these improved soles is potentially vast. Immediate interest is anticipated from all industries where there is potential for accidents from slips and falls, as well as from many sports and recreational consumers.
Executive Team
Óskar F Jónsson CEO and Head of Development

LifeBio, Inc.
(Marysville, OH) LifeBio, Inc. empowers millions of people of differing ages and backgrounds (particularly Baby Boomers and others age 50+ in the U.S.) to tell their own and others' life stories using the world's first comprehensive online autobiography/biography question template available at www.lifebio.com. LifeBio's paid membership options allow people to access 250+ carefully-crafted questions with the final product being a customized electronic or hardcover book. LifeBio takes scrapbooking to a whole new "digital" level while making it possible to share a complete written legacy along with the pictures.
Executive Team
Beth Sanders - CEO/President and Co-Founder; Jeff Sanders - CIO and Co-Founder

Moving Solutions
(Wynnewood, PA) Moving Solutions, a Pennsylvania-based company founded in 1996, provides customized relocation services for older adults. Building on its strength as a leader in Senior Move Management and the proven success of the licensing program, Moving Solutions developed a national brand through franchising.
Executive Team
Margit Novack President and CEO; Karen Reber, Vice President for Franchise Development; William Wilkinsky, Director of Franchise Coaching

PharmaAbby
(Pittsburgh, PA) PharmaAbby, will ease the entire prescription pick-up, ordering, and refilling processes at pharmacies across the country. PharmaAbby, a computer virtual assistant will serve as a liaison between pharmacies and customers allowing customers to receive reminder phone calls and/or emails when their prescriptions are available and ready, or to ease the process of ordering their prescriptions. PharmaAbby uses the most up-to-date VoIP technology to make hundreds of phone calls at the same time, easing the restrictions currently on pharmacies who spend an average of an hour a day on the phone calling customers about prescription reminders
Executive Team
Ricardo A. Alvarado, Mistina Muscatel, Allan Velzy, Benjamin Tsai, Timothy Lowe, Jarrod Highberger, David Latirmore

SterraClimb™
The company makes a product that will revolutionize home life as well as the delivery industry. We invented SterraClimb™, the first fully powered stair-climbing hand truck, which eliminates the need to carry heavy objects up and down stairs ever again. Two versions of the product will be sold, one to consumers, the other to business. For the consumer, we expect the main usage to be for the transporting of heavy grocery bags from car to kitchen and for the moving of heavy objects when moving into a residence. For business, the product will be marketed to shipping carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL) and Home and Office bottled water delivery companies (Danone, Nestle Waters). Both of these industries daily must deliver heavy packages/water jugs up stairwells, causing inefficiency and vast worker’s compensation claims. SterraClimb™ is the solution to this problem. Distribution channels will initially be direct sales (infomercial and home shopping networks) for the consumer version, and B2B for the professional unit.
Executive Team
Steven Kamara, CEO; Michael Yang, CTO

The esteemed panel of finalist judges included:
Frank Batten, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Landmark Communications
John (Launny) Steffens, Founder and CEO, Spring Mountain Capital, Former Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch
Laura Rossman, VP, Lifestage Products and Integrated Marketing, AARP Services, Inc.
David Yarnell, General Partner, Brand Equity Ventures
Ilya Oshman, VP, General Manager, Pfizer Strategic Investments Group
Jon Staenberg, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners