Every week, roughly a Dallas Cowboys stadium’s worth of Americans turn 65.
Chase Idleman is quick to reassure those of us nearing that milestone that 65 is “the new 35.” But he also thinks we’re nowhere near ready for the caregiving demands that are coming.
Idleman is founder and CEO of Arlow, a company that combines AI-powered tools with human advisors to help older adults and their families manage the day-to-day realities of aging. It’s part of the emerging category known as AgeTech—one Idleman sees as a greenfield.
His route to founder and CEO wasn’t exactly direct. He grew up expecting to take over his parents’ air ambulance business, spent two decades in medtech instead, then had what he cheerfully calls a “midlife crisis” and finally started a company of his own.
Chase and I talked about why startup life turned out to be 10 times harder than he expected, the founder’s 3 a.m. anxiety, how his years in the corporate world prepared him for entrepreneurship, and how Arlow is trying to …