Description
The past one hundred years in America have seen a narrowing emphasis on the nuclear family, the emergence of retirement communities and end-of-life care plans, and a cultural shift away from valuing the role of elderly wisdom—all hastened by the pace of technological innovation. This has left us with a society that largely sees our elders as an inconvenience rather than as an opportunity for the next generation to care for, learn from, and honor, affecting our approaches to everything from family leave to caregiving to the development of housing communities.
We’re interested in creative ventures that celebrate the role of our elders, create clearer pathways for wisdom transfer, and advocate and prioritize in-home caregiving. We’re also interested in groups offering credible alternatives to the growing conversation around physician-assisted death (a dialogue often anchored in burden and guilt).
In today’s commercially-driven world people are more likely to be seen and referred to as 'consumers' than anything else. Instead of being met with resistance, this shift has often meant that individuals have formed their identity through a composite of brands, and product purchasing can be guided more by the desire to make a statement about one’s identity and values than strict utility. As a result, the lines between social movement, capitalism, and community are increasingly blurry (see: Nike, Whole Foods, and Patagonia).
Given this reality (which is with us for both better and worse), we’d like to support entrepreneurs with a vision for building brands with a counter-culturally virtuous and optimistic view of the world, spreading hope and beauty, eliminating stigma, and most fundamentally, redirecting our identity away from materialistic consumption and toward lasting contentment.
