Launching Startups in Retirement

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Douglass says the timing was right for a company that promotes humane farming Chris Usher

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Michael Lesner, who is "fiftysomething," worked for decades as a marketing and media executive at firms such as Leo Burnett and CBS (CBS) before founding AcuNetx, which makes diagnostic tools to prevent senior citizens from falling. He's using his marketing and media experience to serve as a board member and mentor for MBA candidates at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business. "It's an incredible networking tool," he says. He persuaded the graduate school to use his new venture as part of the curriculum. In return, he's getting free marketing, financial, and management advice.

Finding Seed Money

While Atkins, the card entrepreneur, got a buyout package that equaled more than a year's pay, not everyone has the luxury of a retirement package or savings to fall back on. That leads some people, like Adele Douglass, to raid retirement accounts.

After working as a lobbyist on animal rights and children's issues, Douglass left her job at 57 and cleaned out her retirement savings, worth more than $80,000, to launch Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit in Herndon, Va. Her organization certifies that livestock for meat, poultry, and dairy products was treated humanely. She doesn't regret using her savings. And with the popularity of the local-food movement, the timing was perfect. Thanks to her group, she says, nearly 23 million animals were raised under certified humane standards last year, up from 143,000 animals in 2003. Her financial safety net right now, she says, is her three children: "My kids would never let me be out on the street."

Other self-starters have tapped into the value of their homes—an option no longer available for many would-be borrowers. Connie and Thomas Betts sold their Portland (Ore.) home in 2003 and bought a farm in central Oregon. They sold their 41-foot sailboat for $50,000, and used the money to buy the four pregnant alpacas and a herd sire needed to start Cascade Alpacas ranch. They also borrowed $30,000 to buy inventory for a yarn shop on an American Express (AXP) OPEN Card, a credit card geared to small business owners.

The business is thriving. They have 50 alpacas and make the bulk of their income selling pregnant females to other farms for as much as $22,000 each. Recently, to cover the cost of purchasing a neighboring farm, Connie, 56, who formerly worked as a writer of technology training manuals, returned to work. For now, that leaves Thomas, 55, a former marine-supplies executive, to run the ranch and shop on his own. The trade-offs are worth it, says Connie. "It's a wonderful life."

Young is a Personal Business editor for BusinessWeek .

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