In March, we went back to our roots as a virtual event. Of course, COVID-19 was on everyone’s mind.
How to make connections and build communities without meeting in person
How startups can help
Opportunities to improve working from home tech
The relief deal
Silver lining
We covered so much information and captured so many recommendations that I just can’t write about all of them. I decided to focus on how startups are helping and a couple of interesting, positive consequences of the crisis. You can download the raw notes here.
How Startups Are Helping
Startups rise out of the ambiguity of figuring out how to do things that haven’t been done quite the same way before, if they’ve been done before at all. This makes startups, and their founders and employees, particularly well equipped to survive, help others, and maybe even thrive in these challenging times. Here are just a few examples of how startups are helping:
Ziel is leveraging its on-demand apparel manufacturing technology platform and supply chain partners to meet the demand for PPE and other items in short supply. Please consider donating to this effort. Donations directly support identifying, procurement, and delivery of critical PPE.
Invibed is offering free financial wellness consultations and practical information to help those most in need: the 78% of workers who live paycheck-to-paycheck; the 40% of Americans who don’t have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency. Now, since COVID-19, 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Many who were doing well financially are now struggling; and many who were barely getting by before have nowhere to turn.
Betaworks CEO, John Borthwick, recommends this Telegram group, a network of like minded caring souls from all over the World who like data and evidence and are trying to figure out WTF is going on...
And speaking of data, here’s a very clear approach to reasoning about all of the rapidly changing data, and parsing through the hype, that we all see in our news feeds. Here’s the graph that’s discussed in the video, with current data (the best available): https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/.
Resources re: Covid-19, is what exactly what it says it is, for Betaworks Studios members, friends of Betaworks, and anyone who finds it useful !
Help Main Street lets you help local businesses by buying gift cards or donating directly to provide critical cash support during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s 100% volunteer-run and all proceeds go to the local businesses that you choose to support.
Some amazing companies will surely emerge from the current crisis in an incredible position to help others; and a few of them will be very handsomely rewarded.
Seismologists in Brussels are measuring a 30% to 50% reduction in ambient seismic noise, the vibrations generated by cars, trains, buses and other “normal” activities, since mid-March.
About Startup Lean Coffee
Startup Lean Coffee is a monthly gathering of founders, early employees, advisors, investors, and anyone involved or interested in joining the startup world in any capacity. Our sole purpose is to help each other improve by sharing questions and experiences. All you need to bring is your attention, curiosity, and willingness to share.
We follow a Lean Coffee meeting format, a lightly facilitated meeting where participants democratically build an agenda and discuss each topic for a fixed time, voting to continue discussion or move on to the next topic after the time runs out.
Feel free to continue conversations that were started at our meetings and start new ones on our Startup Lean Coffee Slack workspace. Please treat our Slack space like our in-person meetings: ask questions, share interesting information, create channels.
Startup Lean Coffee is graciously hosted by Betaworks Studios. Participation is free; but space is limited. We usually meet on the 4th Friday of each month. Sign up for the next Startup Lean Coffee, which will be on Friday, April 24th at 9am.
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