About Us
Our vision is to create the best climate in the world for people from anywhere on the planet to understand the 50+ population at a highly detailed level and then ideate and provide new solutions that can truly scale. We help ideators to develop compelling solutions that can make older adult lives better and make huge differences in society.
Learn more about how you can get involved as a foundation or strategic partner
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Silver Moonshots is research based and seeks to surface major Moonshot challenges in the older adult population and then encourage startups and other organizations to commit time and money to come up with solutions that can really scale.
Our efforts are therefore on creating solid base data and then a supportive environment to encourage people’s efforts. This supportive climate will consist mainly of mentoring and coaching-both in person and virtually using advanced communication technology.
Our efforts are to focus on a range of unmet needs, challenges and opportunities that the 50+ adult space offers in 4 major areas:
Become a strategic partner
Silver Moonshots works with non-profits, foundations, philanthropists, educational institutions and for profit corporations that care about older adult issues and are interested in working with us. Example issues that we understand well and can be measured and tested in detail in the older adult rich microcosm community within the Coachella Valley (and extrapolated much more widely) are shown below:
- Alzheimer’s/ Dementia
- Blindness
- Cancer
- COPD
- Deafness
- Depression
- Falls
- Food insecurity
- Heart disease
- HIV
- Homelessness
- Mental illness
- Obesity/Diabetes
- Opioid dependency
- Physical/financial abuse
- Poverty
- Sleep deprivation
- STDs
- Unpaid caregiving
- Wellness
Our Philosophy and Values
We believe that the 50+ population needs more focused approaches on their unmet needs. In some cases, these unmet needs don’t just require incremental solutions but large-scale “moonshot” efforts. We pursue this path by living the following values:
Being Humble
The more we can have personal humility and admit that we don’t know a lot of things (but are wiling to listen hard and find out) the better.
Gathering Deep Customer Research
Meaningful change happens because our research is well thought through and properly executed and when the voice of the customer (for the particular target population) is fully and well captured at design stages.
Being Entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurial approaches can make efforts to address social challenges faster, smarter, and more impactful. We work to use new technologies, collaborate with other risk-takers and accelerate innovative approaches to social change.
Collaborating and Learning
Collaborating extensively promotes better outcomes and solutions that can grow fast and scale. We like to explore a wide range of issues in the older adult space that are pressing and share our learning (including both successes and failures).
Working Smart but having Fun
Working smart means finding good people who get things done, both individually and in partnership, and knowing how to collaborate, being open to change and embracing failure as often the greatest learning opportunity. We strive to always have fun and to encourage everyone to bring passion and joy to their work.
Our Team
Led by our Executive Director, Jon Warner, the team at SilverMoonshots (including a highly experienced mentor group that deeply understand the “longevity” sector or market) has a diverse range of backgrounds and skill sets, but we share a common passion for older adults finding solutions for their unmet needs. Details on our founders are below:
Jon Warner
Jon is a 5 time CEO and has founded 3 startup companies. He has served on the board of St Barnabas for the last 4 years-LA's largest nonprofit in aging in LA county and is Co-Chair of the Aging into the Future conference attracting a large and diverse audience across North America. He is also Chapter President for Aging 2.0 in Los Angeles County and serves on the California National Healthcare and Care workforce planning committee in Sacramento.
Matt Stodder
Matt has long experience in the technology, startup and coworking industry, working for such companies as Apple and Yahoo, and consulting with numerous other technology companies and startups. He also currently leads a L.A.-based pre-accelerator, which runs education and mentorship programs for early stage startups. Matt’s experience is in both the for profit and not for profit sector
Michael Dorman
Michael is a serial entrepreneur with two successful e-commerce exits. He mentors at the precellerator focused on crowdfunding and startup marketing. He brings substantial experience, expertise and leadership as a brand strategist, marketer, leader and operator. He is deeply involved in the startup and technology scene and also currently runs his own successful sales, marketing and business development consultancy.
In addition to the above team, we have a very diverse group of highly experienced mentors, all over the country and the world, who both understand the 50+ older adult marketplace and its most pressing needs but who also have deep knowledge about how solutions can be developed, either from new or by harnessing existing entrepreneurial thinking and getting it to grow and succeed in this population.