 Hey everyone, I'm Scott Shagayoka. I'm GoDaddy's entrepreneur in residence. I'm calling in here from San Francisco, California, and like many of us during this time of uncertainty with COVID-19, I am sheltering at home. And I hope that wherever you are, you are safe. I want to start by saying we're all going to get through this together. I know this is a very scary time for many of us. I know for me it's brought up a lot of anxiety. And what I know can be helpful during this time is getting some clarity. And that's why I'm going to be interviewing some experts about the issues that affect us as small business owners. This week I'm going to go into the Cures Act, specifically the Paycheck Protection Program. This is a piece of legislation that's supposed to be helpful, but I think there's a lot of apprehension right now mixed in with the optimism. So we're going to learn a little bit more about what this all means for us. But I want to start off by saying that this isn't financial or legal advice. You should still continue to go to those trusted websites, talk to your banks, and go to different sources of information since everything is constantly evolving. This week I've been lucky enough to interview three different experts on this topic, John Stanford from the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, Brian Peters from the Franklin Square Group, and Ashley Heinemann, who's go daddy's head of global policy. So John, you're my very first interview and I'm wondering if you could just kick us off with what is the Cures Act. So the Cures Act is the stimulus legislation passed by Congress a couple weeks ago. It appropriates $2 trillion for businesses and individuals in the United States to help combat the COVID-19 crisis that the country is facing. Part of this Cures Act, there's something called the Paycheck Protection Program, and it has $350 billion designated towards it that will basically allow the Small Business Administration to back loans for small businesses. And what's the Paycheck Protection Program? What does it cover? The Paycheck Protection Program or PPP is really the centerpiece of this legislation. It's a loan program, but that's somewhat of a misnomer because what's so interesting about it and sort of unprecedented is that if you use the loan to keep employees on payroll and maintain your normal business operations to some extent, the entire amount of the loan can be forgiven. If a small business takes this loan and can prove to the Small Business Administration that payroll has been maintained and the employees have not been let go, then that loan is forgivable. So instead of a loan, it becomes a grant. What's the goal for the Paycheck Protection Program and what does it cover? The goal of the Paycheck Protection Program is to incentivize small business employers to maintain their payroll and maintain their employees, keep them coming to work, and keep the business afloat so that people have jobs. It's also to pay for rent, to pay for your mortgage for your business, to pay for utilities, those sorts of things. And who's eligible for it? First, you have to be a small business. For many people, that might be five people, but the technical regulation is that you have to have 500 employees or less. If you have less than 500 employees, you're in. Okay, next question. Do you think that banks can actually handle this influx of applicants? To be completely honest, they're not ready. There are those that are probably more ready than others. I think what's important to keep in mind is that these are very interesting times, they're unprecedented times. It's amazing that a bill like this was actually able to get through as quickly as it did and for there to be a call for the program to be up and running in that quick amount of time. I think the banks would have loved to have more time. There's so much complication in banking writ large. I don't think many of us fully understand how the institutions are regulated. And so I think bankers naturally have lots of questions. They're very concerned about major new loan programs. I think it's too early to tell if they can handle the influx. For the banks, there are a lot of administrative challenges, how to fill out the paperwork and how to submit the forms to the federal government, whether the federal government has systems that are capable of handling the potentially millions of small business applications that are going to be coming through. I would say very likely millions of applications. If a bank isn't making this kind of loan available, eventually there should be a bank that you can find that will make these funds available. And down the road, there's even a possibility that companies like PayPal and Square or Stripe, more technology oriented companies are going to also be able to distribute these loans. I'd love to learn more about the complications too. Can you tell me a little bit more about those? Unfortunately, systems that come from the federal government and work with kind of older traditional systems are not moving as quickly as those small businesses need. This is a turbulent time, I think, for everyone. And there's a lot of media out there covering this massive program. Everyone knows a small business owner. Many of us are small business owners. And so I think we all feel very personal about this. And so when you hear headlines like the banks aren't lending or the agencies, SBA and Treasury aren't moving fast enough. We have to remember this thing only became law a week in change ago. How fast we're moving is causing a lot of challenges. And again, like I said, turbulence. Is the PPP first come first serve or will the money run out? What do we know about that? It's absolutely a first come first serve program. I think we need to make that crystal clear. There's $350 billion set aside. And when that money runs out, it runs out. As I speak, Congress is already moving to add another $200 billion to this program. They already see the fast uptake. And the reports this morning were that already $90 billion in loan applications had been processed. So it is a question of who's there first and moving quickly. So educate yourselves as a company as to what the rules are. If you go to SBA.gov, there actually is a link there that shows you what information is needed to apply for these loans before you even go to your lender. So you have an idea. Are there concerns about who might realistically get access to the funds though? That's one of the biggest challenges out there for small businesses is accessing credit. So if they don't have that kind of partnership, we would encourage them to look elsewhere, work with another financial partner or even a newer kind of technology company that is engaged in offering loans to small businesses. These are potentially going to be quicker routes to getting the credit you need to survive. Banks are primarily focusing on serving existing customers. And there are a few reasons for that. One is from a natural perspective, those are the folks who have been with them for a long time, and it's only natural that they would make this product available to them first. Second is by having customers already in the bank, they know a lot about that customer. I think it's important to remember that all of this could change tomorrow. All the conversations I've had, I always feel a little silly 24 hours later because something I said has changed. And so I want to make especially clear to anyone watching this or listening to this, the rules are changing, the details are changing. And as we all know, the devil is in the details. And so you need to be talking to your bank. Banks are showing a little bit of latitude about how they're interpreting it. So you could see very different details from bank to bank. And I think that's one of the challenges about all the information that's out there. Could you tell me a little bit more about when people should expect getting the PPP loan? Congress passed this law two weeks ago. Then the administration set up the program to begin accepting loans last Friday. So just six days ago as we speak, to my knowledge, no company has actually received funds yet. This is going to take time for the application process to work out. How long? I'm not quite sure yet. I think everybody's waiting to see how quickly the government and their lenders can make this process work. I'm also concerned that in these types of times, people tend to take advantage of the situation too. So I'm very hopeful that people are going to be smart. They're not going to fall for a lot of the scams that are likely to come about because of the situation. Just remember that you're not going to have the SBA contact you directly. You're not going to have a bank contact you directly. So don't fall for the fraudsters that are going to be out there trying to take advantage of the situation. So my hope is that small businesses are going to be smart about this and they're going to be able to reap the benefits of the program, at least as it's intended to be. So I've got to stress, none of this is business advice. None of this is lending advice. You need to talk to your banker, to your trusted advisors. But we hope that this has been a resource for you, giving a broad overview of one of the lending programs available to you as part of the CARES Act. In times of crisis, that's when the fraudsters get busy. And it would be really important for all small businesses to work with someone they trust, to work with the bank that they know, or to work with another lender that they know, if it's a square or a PayPal or an Intuit. Those kinds of companies people are familiar working with, work with somebody you trust. If you're a business owner considering this loan, you really need to visit sba.gov and treasury.gov to see the additional details about the program. That makes a lot of sense. And I think I'm also wondering, is there any hope or positivity that small business owners can embrace during this moment of uncertainty? To be as optimistic as possible about that question, I'm hopeful and I'm thankful that there is recognition that small business is critical to the national economy. And this is literally, you know, right out the gate is one of the top priorities of our administration. I think we're going to continue to see and hear incredible stories of resilience. And that's what gives me hope and positivity. And I think everyone can see those in their own community. But this is going to be a challenging time. But if there's one segment of the economy that can make this work and come back strong, it is the small business community. Small businesses are a fundamental part of what makes America great in so many ways. But that's why you see Congress moving swiftly to help out all kinds of small businesses from a sole prop up to a company with 500 employees. They're trying to make as many tools available as they can. It may not be perfect and it may not be getting off to a smooth start. But but I think that kind of assistance is there. It was great talking to you. Thanks so much for your time and I'll see you soon. I hope this information has all been useful for you and thanks for watching. I know your time is really valuable in the coming weeks. I'm going to be continuing to interview experts about different topics related to how we as small business owners can get through this COVID-19 crisis. And I hope you follow along. Stay tuned to all of the information that's coming up on trusted news sources and websites. You can also check out Open We Stand on the GoDaddy website for continuing developments as well. Stay safe and thanks so much for taking the time to be with us.