KEY POINTS:
It happens every day. People give up their day jobs to start up ambitious website ideas.
Not all of them succeed and some sheepishly return to salaried jobs a few months later.
Marketeer Richard Poole and his business partner - FindA founder Shane Bradley - decided more than
two years ago that they would set up a consumer-friendly website for a vibrant sector of the community. They sat down with a book of ideas and the thing that appealed to them most was the 50-plus age group.
They agonised over the name, something about babyboomers was mooted, but the pair did not want to be limited to them because, eventually, the older part of the population would not be baby- boomers, so GrownUps was the name they decided on.
GrownUps, which is being relaunched this month, is an online lifestyle website written for the 50-plus generation with features on travel, health and lifestyle, genealogy and finance.
"It is more of a magazine-style site. There are a lot of pictures but more subtle advertising," says Poole.
With a relaunch planned this month, upgrading the ability of members to integrate more meaningfully with the site, GrownUps attracted 31,000 unique visitors in March.
The marketeer says the website is now of a size that they can conduct pretty meaningful surveys of about 10,000 people. "We'd like to think that GrownUps will be the voice of 50-plus people," he says.
Poole, in his 30s, worked on the website part time for the first year or so, then gave up his marketing consultancy to maintain and run the website full time last June.
The participation in the website has been gratifying, says Poole, and responding to it is a seven-day-a-week job.
The relatively young man is now on first-name terms with a number of his website members and he feels he knows their concerns intimately.
From his research, he has found that people from 50 to 65 are responsible for four generations of people. About 60 per cent of grandparents contribute to children, he says.
You could say he's got emotionally involved in his new career. He says he does not like the word "seniors" and is indignant about the way the well-financed sector is virtually ignored by the advertising world, which prefers targeting youthful 20 to 30-year-olds.
"Fifty is not old. It's about being alive," he says enthusiastically. "It's a bit of a myth that people of 50-plus are not that with it.
"We know that 65 per cent of people 50-plus are using the internet every day and their usage increases as they get into the 60 to 70 range."
The oldest member to frequent the site is 93 and he leads a very active lifestyle, says Poole.
GrownUps encourages participation, offering a number of chat rooms which are some of the most popular areas in the website.
"We ask for feedback constantly," says Poole who does at times have to play the policeman.
"If getting a bit rough we take people off. It's only happened once in the past eight months."
Poole is trying to help people research a subject more fully through the new design.
"If you are reading about Fiji, on the same page, you will be able to look at discussions that are taking place on Fiji. People will be encouraged to add their stories."
He is trying to encourage peer to peer contact, particularly with travel.
And Poole is that anxious GrownUps does not endorse any particular brands.
"We don't want to be a site that is pushing brands. People can come and feel safe. I think there are so many offshoots from it, it's hard to know where things will end up."
Unlike some website founders, Poole is actually earning a wage. He has found a sponsor for the site, Sentinel, the finance company which sells home equity release packages. It took a 20 per cent stake in the business.
"It's been an interesting experience, I feel opportunities in the market are growing," says Poole who seems in no danger of returning to the old day job.