Investing in Longevity – Abby Miller Levy

The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

The population of Americans age 65 and older is on track to double between 2010 and 2040. And that’s leading to increased investments in innovative solutions to serve the needs of older adults, in areas including healthcare and wellness, financial services, senior housing, social connectivity and caregiving. Abby Miller Levy, of Primetime Partners, joins us to discuss what she sees happening in the rapidly growing longevity economy.

Abby Miller Levy joins us from New York.

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Bio

Abby Miller Levy is the managing Partner & Co-Founder of Primetime Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in, and builds from the ground up, companies that can transform the quality of living for older adults. She has spent her career helping businesses and consumer brands grow as an operator, entrepreneur and advisor, most notably in the wellness sector. Prior to Primetime Partners, Abby was an executive at SoulCycle, where she oversaw business development and revenue growth outside the consumer studio business, with an emphasis on building new digital products as the Senior Vice President of Strategy & Growth. Abby has also been a Founder herself, teaming with Arianna Huffington to launch Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company focused on employee productivity and wellness. Abby served as President of Thrive Global and remains on the Thrive Board. Abby began her career at McKinsey & Company then led product development at OXO International. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

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For More on Abby Miller Levy and Primetime Partners

Primetime Partners

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Age Tech Revolution – Keren Etkin

Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy

Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott

Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini

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Resources Mentioned in this Episode

MIT Age Lab – Blog

MIT Media Lab

Stanford Center on Longevity – Longevity Briefing newslettter

Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC – Vitality Magazine

AARP Research

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Wise Quotes

On Primetime Partners

“And so that’s really the genesis for me of starting Primetime was really on trying to solve this issue for my parents, recognizing that there were a lot of businesses to be built. And so instead of building one individual idea or concept into a business, I thought, well, maybe I would build an investment platform to fund dozens and hopefully hundreds of other entrepreneurs to solve or build things in this white space. And then I, and my partner Alan Patricof – he has been an investor for the past 50 years, starting a large private equity firm called Apax Partners, and then Greycroft, which is a multi-billion dollar venture firm – was also in intrigued by this issue of how do we get older Americans starting businesses, people with expertise and wisdom and network and skills. And so we came together to start the fund in the Spring of 2020.”

On Innovation in the Longevity Economy

“But what we’re more interested at Primetime, because we’re an early stage investment fund is the amount of innovation going on in the space. And so just to put a bookmark in there, since we launched in summer of 2020, so almost three years ago, we’ve looked at 1,300 startups that would be included in the longevity economy. This includes healthcare businesses, financial service businesses, consumer and media businesses. There is a lot of new ideas bubbling up because entrepreneurs have recognized, and all the incumbents of this ecosystem have recognized we need to move faster to build the infrastructure we need to serve an older population.”

On Digital Therapeutics

“We do not invest in businesses that are in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, but they are very aggressively investing in solutions in this area about each of our organs age. And then there’s been this new area that I’m really excited about called digital therapeutics. And Digital Therapeutics is an area that still needs to be FDA approved, but it’s basically using behavioral health in digital interventions as opposed to metabolic or pharmaceutical interventions to postpone, delay or prevent different types of diseases. So I think that there is tremendous investment going into this area. And so that’s from both government and the private sector.”

On Alternatives to Long-Term Care

“And then the third area is around alternatives to long-term care. 90% of Americans think that in-home care – these are home health aids and folks that come help with your daily activities of living – is covered by Medicare – and it’s as of today, it’s not. And the average American’s going to have a bill of $50,000 for in-home care. Now this excludes those big outliers of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and things where that home health bill can be millions of dollars. But in this case, most Americans are unprotected for this. And so we’re very interested in products that protect Americans from the outlier healthcare expenses that can frankly bankrupt them.”

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About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.