Rewiring, Not Retiring: Health and Innovation for the Vanguard Generation

David Shaywitz

Most of my columns tend to focus on the importance and difficulty of applying emerging technologies to biopharma R&D, aiming to accelerate the delivery of impactful medicines to patients. 

Yet, as long-time readers know, I have an enduring interest in how to sustain health and ward off illness, a discipline that’s sometimes called Preventive Medicine, Preemptive Health, or, the term I prefer, Functional Longevity. 

Over the years, I’ve examined what it takes to make behavior change last, explored the role of technology and health coaches in tackling obesity, shared my own weight loss and maintenance experience, and looked at the discovery and impact of the GLP-1RA’s.  I’ve discussed the limitations of existing digital fitness platforms, which seem disproportionately focused on helping the young and fit stay young and get fitter.

I’ve examined how corporate wellness programs have struggled to evolve, often failing when interventions are implemented in isolation rather than part of a holistic strategy (as British scholars Michael Kelly and Mary Barker have thoughtfully discussed).  Similarly, I’ve reviewed the disappointing results of an ambitious behavior change study, while continuing to emphasize that we still must proceed with hope rather than cynicism. 

I’ve also talked about the often elusive promise wearables offer to provide deeper health insights, and the challenges encountered by “Quantified Selfers.” 

At the heart of all these explorations is agency – your confidence in your ability to influence the world and positively shape your health and environment.  Most recently, I’ve considered how AI might enhance personal agency and improve health. 

The Vanguard

Of the many opportunities within functional longevity, one stands out: the inadequately served needs of a demographic I think of as the “Vanguard.”  These are folks (like me) who are over fifty and grew up in an era of personal technology affording unprecedented agency.  They’ve torn up in disgust the AARP membership card they were sent when they turned 50. For them, 50 isn’t an inflection point — it’s simply a continuation of the dynamic, engaged life they’ve always lived and intend to keep living. 

They are tech-savvy and highly engaged but also face unique challenges. Reading tiny text on a screen and interacting with clunky interfaces isn’t always seamless, and their expectations for fitness and social spaces often differ substantially from twentysomethings. But they aren’t retreating to the sidelines — they expect products and services designed for their reality and are ready to engage with those who take them seriously.

I see in this demographic a profound opportunity to enhance health, not just manage decline — focusing on movement, connection, purpose, and agency to extend healthspan without the hype of extreme longevity fads, miracle pills, or fringe biohacking. It’s about real, evidence-based innovations that help the Vanguard move better, think sharper, stay engaged, and live with purpose.

Venture investors, particularly those in the Valley, are famously obsessed with youth. Many tech VCs adore and pursue young founders, despite the considerable success that more experienced founders have achieved, as Ali Tamaseb has so thoughtfully discussed in Super Founders, and as Ben Cohen highlights in a recent WSJ column. 

The result? A flood of products built by young founders, for young users, leaving those older than fifty overlooked, underserved, naively caricatured – and often all three. It isn’t so much age bias as it is market blindness. This disconnect has created a massive gap in innovation — and a profound opportunity for those willing to meet the Vanguard where they are.

The Vanguard isn’t aging out — they’re leveling up; they’re rewiring, not retiring.  They need entrepreneurs who see them, meet them, and take them where they want to go.

This is one of the great unmet needs of our time — and an extraordinary opportunity for entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators ready to design, build, and deliver the future the Vanguard expects – and deserves.