[Life Chapter 3 Business] 'Silvertalk' Creating Dementia Prevention Workbooks for Seniors

Women's Magazine Woman Sense, Founded by CEO Lee Eun-sook, Former Reporter of Jubu Saenghwal

Silver Talk CEO Eun-sook Lee, who publishes the learning material 'Silver Talk' for elderly people with mild cognitive impairment

The 16-story building of Social Campus On located in Dangsan-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, is a space where several social enterprise entrepreneurs reside. Through the wide windows, the main road and the Han River come into full view. The sunlight seems to warmly embrace the hub of entrepreneurs gathered together. On the 24th, Asia Economy met with Lee Eun-sook (62), CEO of the social enterprise ‘Silvertalk,’ which produces learning materials exclusively for the elderly. CEO Lee joined the women’s magazine 'Jubusaenghwal' in 1984 and worked as a magazine reporter for 20 years. She was also the editor-in-chief of the women’s magazine 'Woman Sense.'

Silvertalk is a social enterprise that creates and supplies learning materials exclusively for seniors. It was founded in July 2021 with initial capital of 40 million KRW. Three former journalists came together, contemplating a meaningful life after retirement, which led to the startup. Having lived their lives immersed in writing, they were confident in their ‘content competitiveness.’ Their long-standing know-how in producing women’s magazines laid the foundation for creating learning content exclusively for the elderly. Rather than merely modifying children’s learning materials, they compete with differentiated content designed to stimulate seniors’ memory.

CEO Lee said, “Even without separate marketing, we have gathered about 1,500 members so far.” Most subscribers are children worried about their parents’ dementia prevention who voluntarily subscribe to Silvertalk by searching ‘elderly dementia learning materials’ on search engines. Last year, they also signed an agreement with Gwangjin-gu Office in Seoul to supply learning materials. Gwangjin-gu Office runs a program where life instructors visit elderly living alone weekly, and Silvertalk was selected as a service that can help improve seniors’ cognition during this process. On the 16th, they also signed a business agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Mapo Silver Care Center to jointly develop content aimed at enhancing cognitive improvement for seniors.

CEO Lee described starting a new life through entrepreneurship at the considerable age of 60 as “a process where pride, excitement, and hardship intersect.” The new beginning that can satisfy the unresolved desire for social contribution after retirement provides various senses of accomplishment. Writing numerous applications necessary for startup support and learning about systems and policies increased her independence. Her relationship with her children also grew stronger. She explained, “I feel like my children recognize me more.” However, physical burdens due to aging and illness remain challenges to overcome. Nevertheless, she explained that “the human network accumulated through social life so far” is also an ‘incentive’ that an entrepreneur entering old age can enjoy.

- What kind of company is Silvertalk?

▲ It is a social enterprise that produces and sells ‘Silvertalk,’ a silver-specialized learning material for seniors. By producing and supplying learning content that can stimulate brain exercise, it helps prevent dementia. When subscribing to Silvertalk, four weeks’ worth of learning materials are delivered monthly to the subscriber’s home. They have not yet provided digital content such as apps or internet-based formats and currently offer problems in the form of analog paper learning materials. The company was established in July 2021 with 40 million KRW in support from the Social Enterprise Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

- Why did you focus on the item of learning materials for seniors?

▲ First, choosing content in the form of magazines stems from my professional background. I worked as a reporter and editor-in-chief for about 20 years at women’s magazines Jubusaenghwal and Woman Sense. Writing and creating content was the most familiar process for me. The reason for focusing on learning materials exclusively for seniors is largely due to personal background. My mother, who is ninety this year, was recently diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a pre-dementia stage. Mild cognitive impairment is not yet dementia. If properly cared for at this stage, it may not progress to dementia. It means that just helping to exercise the brain diligently is enough. These circumstances became the trigger, and I gathered colleagues who had worked with me creating content at the magazine to ‘give it a try,’ which led to the business start.

- Were these colleagues people you worked with at Jubusaenghwal and Woman Sense?

▲ Yes. They all retired after decades of working in society. Journalists who only worked found that being a ‘housewife’ did not fulfill their social needs. Rather than aiming to earn a lot of money, they needed social proof of existence. They wanted to do socially meaningful work. Then, they applied for the social entrepreneur training program of the Social Enterprise Promotion Agency and, after a rigorous process, received initial funding of 40 million KRW. However, the ‘government money’ was not just given freely. The required conditions were strict. As they met each condition, they ended up establishing a corporation and becoming the CEO. Thus, the company was founded in July 2021, became a preliminary social enterprise by the end of 2021, and consistently produced Silvertalk from January to December 2022.

- Although it is called learning materials, I understand the subscription cycle is monthly. In that case, the learner’s willpower seems most important.

▲ Initially, we delivered weekly, but we faced cost issues. There were also many losses. Due to our current financial situation, we are delivering monthly. We also considered dispatching visiting instructors, but this too had many practical limitations. Checking and managing the backgrounds of visiting instructors was not easy for a small startup like us. Once the business stabilizes, we want to overcome the limitations of the delivery cycle through digitalization. We are planning to provide customized learning materials for each senior and enable individual management.

- What does digitalization mean in this context?

▲ Despite not having a special marketing model, about 1,500 readers subscribe to our learning materials through Coupang and Naver. We believe this is thanks to readers’ trust in our content competitiveness. Recently, many business proposals for collaboration have come in. Since we can produce customized content for seniors, proposals have come to digitalize this. We are exploring ways to collaborate with companies that can develop apps to make our learning materials easily accessible digitally. However, we have no intention of abandoning the current basic concept of delivering paper learning materials through analog printing. Although in today’s context, this paper learning material production industry might be considered a ‘smokestack industry,’ we believe that the process of seniors solving learning materials by hand is very necessary for improving their cognitive abilities.

- Among learning materials for seniors, what differentiates Silvertalk?

▲ Many elderly learning materials on the market are, upon closer look, slightly modified versions of children’s learning materials. We, however, target seniors from the start and fill our content with a focus on improving seniors’ cognitive abilities. It is standard to have supervision by dementia experts or specialists, and many problems are designed to stimulate recall of past memories. For example, in the memory recall section, we ask questions like ‘Write about what kind of person your parents were, their hometown, appearance, personality, age at passing, and special memories.’ The biggest advantage is that it is a lifestyle-oriented, senior-customized learning material.