America is about to experience the largest brain-drain in corporate history. Every day 10,000 baby boomers exit full-time work, taking with them decades of domain knowledge in finance, operations, engineering, and sales. Yet retirement isn’t one long beach day—72 % of professionals 60–75 say they still want project-based work for income, purpose, and social connection.¹
Unfortunately their options are grim: piecemeal gig apps that prize speed over expertise, or traditional staffing firms that ignore anyone “past prime hiring age.”
On the other side of town, 43 % of small-to-mid businesses report chronic skill shortages, especially in strategic roles they can’t justify hiring full-time.² Fractional CFOs, compliance leads, and ERP specialists cost SMBs upward of $180k per year—if they can even find them. The talent supply and demand lines cross perfectly, yet they rarely meet because today’s matching tools don’t understand seasoned knowledge workers or trust-heavy engagements.
SilverSkills bridges that gap. We’re building a match engine that speaks both languages: it captures retirees’ deep-skill fingerprints, vets them once, then pairs them with SMB projects that truly need senior horsepower—complete with escrow, milestone reviews, and optional mentorship add-ons. By turning “forgotten” expertise into on-demand firepower, we aim to lift senior incomes, de-risk SMB growth, and keep priceless know-how circulating in the economy instead of idling in early retirement.
¹ AARP “Working in Retirement” Survey, 2024.
² National Federation of Independent Business Talent Gap Report, 2025.
Hypothesis: Semi-retired professionals will gladly take fractional gigs if discovery, payment, and liability are turnkey—while SMBs will pay a 10 % fee for that access.
