A “new normal” is looming as markets act and react to COVID-19
Below is a note we sent today to our Inovia CEO’s, Founders and Community members, providing them with some guidance and our perspective with respect to the Coronavirus, protecting the people we love, and addressing the business challenges it’s creating.
Dear founders, CEOs and members of the Inovia community,
Like you, Inovia is closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation. The health and safety of our employees, advisors, portfolio, and those of our portfolio companies, and investors remain our top priority.
We have recently shared an updated travel policy with our team members, covering both domestic and international air travel and events. While this policy is in place, we also acknowledge the importance of each team member’s personal judgment of their specific situation as it relates to travel at this time.
In an effort to soften the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the USA’s and Canada’s Central Banks had both cut their interest rate by half a percentage point earlier this week.
Based on the unique circumstances we are living through, we strongly recommend that all our founders & CEOs put in place a plan of action (subject to change as the facts and circumstances evolve). This plan should include a clear travel policy, remote working procedures, and open communication channels to track the situation as closely as possible.
Like many of our co-investors, we also recommend moving up fundraising plans immediately and/or adjusting your spending to extend your runway by an additional six to twelve months (24 months in total). A global economic slowdown will impact revenue growth and spending and these should be revised accordingly. Please expect some customers to be forced to delay payments as well.
Please take the time to think about contingencies and dependencies for your business and operations. Every business is different. While some may be only slightly impacted by the current situation, others may face greater challenges. It’s important that you communicate expectations clearly with your team so that they can make intelligent choices for themselves, for their colleagues, and the business overall.
Needless to say, we should all follow the recommended measures to protect ourselves from illness, which are provided on the World Health Organization (“WHO”) website.
This way we can all do our part to stop the spread and go back to normal ASAP.
Sincerely,
The Inovia Team
Resources:
Coinbase has published a good Plan of Action example:
Coinbase Coronavirus Planning & Comms
Public Health / Travel Advisory sites:
The World Health Organization (WHO)
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC)
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/
The Government of Canada — Public Health
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outbreak
Johns Hopkins dashboard
http://bit.ly/2PQ24LN
Elad Gil writeup
COVID-19 PSA For Startups (eladgil.com)
The Atlantic article
A Vaccine Won’t Stop the New Coronavirus
Inovia advisor Dan Freedman’s post
Startup Business Planning For COVID-19 — Dan Freedman
