Digital entrepreneurs over 50 in the app world

STAYING MENTALLY YOUNG Ramesh Jain got the start-up bug a couple of decades ago. While spending a year at Stanford University as a visiting professor of computer science, he was stunned by

the whirlwind of entrepreneurial activity among his fellow professors. "You're developing something people really can use," he says. "And it makes you a better

researcher." Now, Jain, 66, who is a professor at the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California in Irvine, is launching his seventh enterprise,

one that, he says, "brings together many concepts and ideas I've been researching for the past 20 years." The start-up will sell an app called Krumbs that provides a way to

link photos, much as text in documents can now be connected. Users tap an emoji that both indicates their feelings about a picture and takes the photo. Krumbs then composes a relevant

caption. In addition, on each picture there are four categories of links—events, places, emotions and people—that form the system for associating photos. Jain finds that he thrives on

working with forward-looking people in their 20s and 30s. "They talk about the future all the time," he says. "And to be honest, I don't ever feel much older than

them." Another dividend: His son, Neil, is a company cofounder. CAREGIVER CHECK-IN It was during a lunch in Atlanta with an acquaintance from church that Allen Barnes, 55, realized he

was hearing about a really exciting idea for a business. Barnes had just left his most recent gig as CEO of a manufacturing firm and wasn't interested in launching a company from

scratch. But this one, he thought, really seemed to fill a need: a digital system for verifying the credentials of third-party caregivers, from nurses to physical therapists, who visit

residents in senior living communities. The result was a company called Accushield. Caregivers sign in using a digital platform housed in a kiosk; it tells them what documents, from

liability insurance to immunization records, are required by the facility. After that information is scanned into the Accushield platform, the next time caregivers sign in, the system

verifies their credentials and prints out a badge allowing them entry. Since forming the company, Barnes has discovered how much he enjoys working with young tech-savvy colleagues. "You

don't ever want to stop learning," he says. _ANNE FIELD is a business journalist in Pelham, N.Y., who focuses on entrepreneurship and social enterprise._