Startups during a global pandemic: three ways to adapt to change
Based on examples from the Daftcode portfolio companies
Trying times test characters. It applies to both people and companies. COVID-19 pandemic changed the game for startups. Being agile is crucial for young businesses, and the sooner they adapt and act, the better for them. Startups from the Daftcode portfolio instantly rolled up their sleeves to bring new, important initiatives to life. A month after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Poland, we present 3 ways for startups to adapt to a new reality.
1. Quick tech and product pivots to reach new target groups
The only predictable about startup life is its unpredictability. That’s why the ability to change and adjust digital products or business models is very important. Nowadays it’s more important than ever.
One of our ventures Cateringoo is a business catering marketplace. The company delivers catering for business meetings and company parties, and just a month ago had its calendar packed with B2B bookings for the upcoming months. The moment the #stayhome rule was announced all these plans were gone.
To get things going over just one weekend Cateringoo has built an MVP of a new product, for a new target group. It’s a platform focused on lunch delivery for essential workers, eg. in production facilities. The company also joined the polish initiative Jesteśmy Razem, and this week will start delivering food to local hospitals.
What’s more, Cateringoo took care of its core clients and quickly added Easter catering to their offer. To cheer stay-at-home employees up, they prepared Easter-themed boxes for eg. Seqred, BCG and JSLegal staff. Safely delivered sweets and traditional food brought together remote employees, Daftcode’s too!
Another food-related business in the Daftcode portfolio — Restaurant Week Polska — is also a good example of adaptability to change. The biggest restaurant festival in Poland transformed into Delivery Week — the first take-away food festival in our country. It took them just one week to adapt their online booking platform to home deliveries. Not only do organizers bring a culinary feast straight to your home, but they also support local hospitality businesses. Their services are available in Wroclaw, Cracow, Poznan, Lodz, Szczecin, Bialystok, Silesia, Lublin, and Warsaw, and only in the capital city 73 restaurants joined the festival (more than 100 in total)! Delivery Week fulfils several hundred orders every day.
Tech-wise, this pivot was possible thanks to Restaurant Week’s easily-adaptable digital product. Once again, this proved that in a digital world, applications and websites should always be designed and developed with scalability and elasticity in mind.
2. Working for a good cause during challenging times
Sometimes no drastic changes are needed to actually change a lot. Even though schools, galleries and beauty salons are closed, startups working in these fields can remotely and technologically support businesses they’re in.
On a regular basis Skriware educates at schools and during workshops. When meeting children and educators all over the country is not possible, the company provides free home & self-learning resources for children. They organize e-lessons on their YouTube channel and educate teachers on leading classes remotely. Skriware’s handbook for teachers has already been revisited twice, to fit the changing needs of the system, and the third, most up-to-date version is in the making. The publication can be downloaded here.
Apart from education, Skriware focuses on 3D printing, which is also useful amid coronavirus. The company joined Drukarze Dla Szpitali — non profit initiative to help with 3D-printing parts for protective masks used in hospitals. The same cause is supported by Central Technology Hub (CDT) — the brick and mortar educational space Daftcode is engaged in as an operational partner. On the 31st of March, the machines that had been used to 3D print items on various classes for kids were switched to provide elements of protective equipment. CDT printers operate non-stop, producing about 80 items per week.
CDT also moved its classes online. Conducted e-workshops for 3 age groups: primary school classes 1–3, 4–6 and 7–8, they take place every day (from Monday till Friday) at 1PM, with free access. These lessons are a perfect opportunity for pupils to expand their knowledge in terms of math, Polish, social studies, fine arts, biology, and programming skills. All lessons are also available on the YouTube channel. The full current schedule of all classes is available here.
The webpage of Central Technology Hub (www.cdt.pl) has now an information center, focusing solely on online education. It provides advice for teachers and parents and access to helpful resources. It also includes a list of recommended homeschooling tools. The Central Technology Hub blog contains articles by experts, as well as lists of tools making working online much easier, a calendar of free online events or a “Helping in times of a quarantine” list of lockdown-related charitable and community-oriented initiatives that one can join at the moment. CDT makes sure students have no time to get bored.
But not only schools and educational institutions are closed. Also your favorite barbers, nail artists and stylists go through rough times. That’s why Booksy app can be now used not for booking appointments, but for giving small donations for your pros, whom you visit later. Being in a difficult situation itself, Booksy still wants to help with „Tip Now, Book Now, Visit Later” initiative, which supports local beauty businesses. Luckily, their efforts are supported by the biggest Polish media outlet Gazeta Wyborcza. The media company has published 21 covers depicting beauty stylists from all over the country who use Booksy in their daily operations. It is estimated that by the end of April Booksy will raise 1.5–2 mln PLN for beauty salons.
Moreover, Booksy launches a new feature in its app: video calls. It will allow therapists to meet their patients face to face and organize free consultations — so much needed when reality changes so fast. Booksy users will be also enabled to buy vouchers for future appointments.
3. Educating and advising clients — tips & tricks that make their lockdown life easier
The current business challenges are real and increasing every day: restricted travels, cancellation of large-scale events, and fewer opportunities for face-to-face meetings. But business can’t just totally stop. It is more demanding, especially when fraudsters try to use the situation in their favor. That is why our fin tech Nethone focused on activities to educate about fighting fraud.
For all Nethone’s clients, prospects and partners the company is organizing live training on April 16 — “Evaluation of tools used to circumvent anti-fraud systems”. During the webinar, they will find out: what carding is, how it affects business, and how to protect the company from carders.
Moreover, Nethone set up a special channel on Telegram: Coronavirus & Fraud News, which is a place for discussion and sharing insights and expert knowledge about fighting fraud in this demanding time for business.
Straal, an online payment provider for business clients, also educates, with a great emphasis on B2C clients. To avoid unnecessarily physical contact with other people, more and more consumers choose to shop online; quite many for the first time. Unfortunately, criminals are trying to take advantage of the situation. Fraudsters have intensified their activity in recent weeks — launching fake e-stores, distributing phishing messages, etc. Straal has prepared eight practical tips to help people stay safe while making purchases on the internet.
A 360 marketing agency from our portfolio, Performante, has organized free webinars about the importance of internal comms and HR’s and managers’ role during the crisis. The company also decided to help them with important tasks which are probably not the highest priority in their situation: Performante designed ready-to-go Easter digital assets, so they could publish them throughout their digital channels. Performante has also financially supported charities supplying hospitals with protective suits, masks, and visors.
Last but not least — Indoorway, our IoT for industrial spaces startup, launches a knowledge-sharing month. Their lean and smart factory specialists will lead free of charge consultations for production and logistics businesses, discussing opportunities to optimize operations and save money. At the end of April 2020, Indoorway will also publish Industry Meetcast series — biweekly online meetings with industry professionals and engineers. The programme will be conducted together with FitMech company, and its aim is to educate the industry about new technologies.
Dear startups, these are unprecedented times, and that’s undeniable. Having a dozen tech companies in our portfolio, Daftcode often advises CEOs and COOs WHAT to do amid the virus pandemic, and HOW to do it. One thing is clear and constant in each case: the WHEN — and the answer is obviously “now”. Transform and adjust products, engage in CSR initiatives and take great care of your clients. Do it now or regret it later.
