The Lead
Long before the coronavirus crisis, physician Dr. Abdul El-Sayed described another condition inflicting physical and mental harm across the country. In a 2019 podcast, the former executive director of the Detroit Health Department and CNN contributor described the “epidemic of loneliness.”
“Americans are lonelier than we’ve ever been. We’re living alone, vacationing alone, eating alone, working alone, you’re probably listening to this podcast alone. And that has a big impact on how we feel."
This is shored up by scientific literature. One study from The Heart Centre at the Copenhagen University Hospital found that loneliness may actually increase a person's risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. A separate group of researchers found that loneliness might be as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
Of course, there’s no problem a startup can’t (try to) solve, and ‘community startups’ have collectively drawn billions in venture capital over the last few years. The Wing, The Riveter, Ethel’s Club, The Lola and The Gathering Spot (the latter two founded in the Southeast), and many more cater to a clientele craving connection beyond what they get from their immediate circle.
These communities, thus far, have largely hinged on physical proximity — gathering in-person in spaces, at events, for meals or over drinks.
But what happens to these communities when, due to the more imminent health crisis of coronavirus, they are upended, along with all of our daily lives?
In a time where physical isolation is mandated, can digital communities fill the gap?
Scooter Taylor thinks so. The Atlanta entrepreneur saw the writing on the wall in early March when events began getting cancelled and the words “social distancing” entered the common vernacular.
Along with friend and fellow founder Tre’von Hill, Scooter spun up ‘QuarantineCon’, a digital conference put together in a few days and livestreamed on Sunday, March 22. The event featured experts across music, tech, health, entrepreneurship and business.
“The idea was created to bring together the world's movers and shakers, to hear from experts that are crushin’ it within their respective fields, and to maximize the time we all now have at home,” states the description of QuarantineCon.
They brought in dynamic speakers like music executive Jason Geter, entrepreneur Beatrice Dixon, and investor Jewel Burks-Solomon.
And yes, networking was part of the program. The online events platform they used, a startup itself called Hopin, allows attendees to chat, message, meet, and virtually visit online “booths” where other startups displayed their products and services.
On its website, the Accel and Slack-backed Hopin says that it’s solving two big issues the traditional event industry grapples with. The first: environmental. Events are significant contributors to CO2 emissions, pollution, and wasted food and water.
The second issue: accessibility. Not everyone can gather in-person. Travel is expensive. People have impairments and disabilities. They have commitments, families, monetary constraints.
And, once in a generation, we are all are in the midst of a global pandemic.
Scooter and Tre’von’s four-day planning sprint resulted in over 4,500 QuarantineCon registrants.
“We realized that we built a community the day after the first conference. To us that means we have to think more dynamically than just in conference terms,” said Scooter.
“So we’re throwing more events that touch on an array of topics that can be in a more ‘panel/after work style’ — we’re talking mental health, wealth building, career building.”
The following week, QuarantineCon hosted a virtual financial panel, an apt topic in today’s climate. They also set up an all-day fitness event, a sort of virtual gym where 18 instructors and trainers taught strength training, yoga, boxing, barre, and meditation.
Hundreds tuned in to sweat together, apart.
Most recently, the community hosted a ticketed workshop, donating the proceeds to a relief fund for Atlanta creatives. They’re looking at the logistics of hosting virtual pitch competitions.
There are lots of predictions being made about the new habits being spawned by the extraordinary time we find ourselves living in. Will in-person grocery shopping end forever? Will companies stop spending money on office rent? Or will this forced physical separation engender a backlash, where the post-virus world looks a lot more like a pre-digital era where we crave in-person connection and analog relationships?
We don’t know the answers to the above, just as we don’t know how long this worldwide physical distancing will last. But by fueling a community that is as agile, scrappy, tight-knit and clear-eyed as the very best-of-the-best startup, Scooter and Tre’von have future-proofed their vision, come hell or corona.
Coronavirus business resources from SE startups
The pandemic is hitting business hard everywhere. In response, many Southeastern startups are cutting deals and offering resources to support founders, newly remote workers, and small businesses. We’ve highlighted a few below, but have set up a form so anyone in the community can add new companies/resources. You can find the full continuously-updated list here.
Network with Mixtroz’s (Birmingham, AL) new virtual offering
Integrate your calendar with Zoom and GoToMeeting for free through June via Calendly (Atlanta, GA)
Communicate with your retail store’s customers on a real-time, geo-targeted, and hyper-localized basis (perfect for communicating special hours, for example) with Radius8 (Atlanta, GA) localization
Gotcha (Charleston, SC) is offering discounts on its electric vehicles to local restaurants and merchants in an effort to help meet the demand for delivered products. Available in: Baton Rouge, Charleston, Mobile, and Raleigh
Boostopia (Durham, NC), a platform to better manage the customer support function, is offering a free audit of your support operations with key opportunities to improve customer service and cut costs
Know any additional resources from SE startups? Let us know here.
Coronavirus health resources from SE startups:
Get screened live by a doctor through your smartphone with a Physician360 (Atlanta, GA) telemedicine consult
Medhaul (Memphis, TN) connects patients with difficulty accessing transportation with transit to doctor’s appointments or hospitals
Sharecare (Atlanta, GA) has launched a centralized hub to gather the latest developments and medically-verified guidance about COVID-19.
The Follow On
From now on, we’re going to include an additional point of view by bringing in a local investor or entrepreneur to weigh in on a few prescient questions regarding the current climate. Right now, that climate happens to be shaped by, you guessed it, coronvirus. How is the crisis affecting investing in the region? Thoughts from Monique Villa, Investor at Mucker Capital.
What is the direct affect that coronavirus is having on your current day-to-day, deal flow, portfolio support, etc?
Deal flow has increased for Mucker, given many investors have taken a pause on new funding until there is more clarity in the markets, while founders are encouraged to bolster their runway to account for the next 18-24 months of questionable sales growth prospects. Portfolio support is the #1 priority for every investor I talk to, helping to triage sales and product strategies, org. chart prioritization and subsequent layoffs, and overall cash flow management. On a day-to-day basis, it is easy for active investors like us to work 24/7 and still have more we can be doing to help founders inside and outside of the portfolio navigate this critical time.
What challenges are you hearing from your counterparts in the region?
Fund sizes are impacting early-stage investors' ability to consider bridge funding for their companies needing to extend runway, while deals of all stages are being scrutinized at a higher level (this applies from coast to coast and is not unique to the Southeast) for cash efficiency and ability to maintain buoyancy through an uncertain future. Founders in the middle of raising rounds when this all started have suffered from investors withdrawing their commitments at the last second. Having access to true high-risk capital, with a reasonable fund size to support follow-on and bridge funding, will be critical for founders moving forward.
How do you think coronavirus will affect investing in the SE from those within the region? From those outside of the region?
Pitchbook recently published a report anticipating a decline in total venture transactions over the next few quarters. Despite uncertainty, institutional capital with dry powder will still need to deploy capital by writing new checks within the timeframe promised to their LPs, despite any minor breaks in their activity. Angel investors and family offices have more autonomy to freeze or decrease the number of checks they write, which constitutes much of the early-stage capital available to founders in the Southeast. Investors from outside of the region will need to decide whether they will revert back to funding local companies only, or if the newfound appreciation for remote work and WFH will carry over into new, remote investor-founder relationships.
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