 Hey everyone, considering the current global pandemic, we've decided to hit pause on our normal release schedule and open up the conversation to include topics that are a bit more pressing right now. So in this episode, we're going to talk about how the coronavirus quarantine and economic shutdown is affecting businesses, steps you can take to stay productive in this time of uncertainty, and if you find yourself working from home, we've got some tips for you on how you can make that transition as smooth as possible. From all of us to start up the storefront, we hope you're keeping your spirits up, and we thank you for being a part of this wonderful community of entrepreneurs. Now on to the episode. All right, welcome to the podcast. We're here trying times for the country under coronavirus. It's me and Nick, Nick say hello to all the people. Hello. We're keeping our social distance from each other. Yeah, we're at least six feet away, which is not true, not true at all, about two and a half. It feels bad out there. It feels bad. I think that people are kind of adjusting to the new lifestyle of being quarantined. Let's talk a little bit about how it's impacting people. So on one of the things, according to the information, which is a new source really dedicated to those companies in Silicon Valley, basically what's going to happen is the virus is going to separate the strong and the weak. And so startups that have been using a lot of cash to keep growing and not really hoarding any cash companies like WeWork are going to be basically forced to shut down. The companies that are strong and have been making sound financial decisions are going to be hopefully able to remain quick facts for everybody. We were just on the phone with the Lionsgate executive. He's saying that television viewership is up 60%. And so they think there's an opportunity there in terms of television, obviously everyone's streaming or watching things at home. I think the NBA, the NFL are probably missing or the MLB missing opportunities. Even if they streamed a game, a ton, like a large percentage of America would be able to tune in. Let's talk about some of the bad news. Some of the employees are obviously losing their jobs. The service industry is getting destroyed. If you work in the hotel business, it's not a good time. Not to mention the film industry as well from my own personal livelihood. Makes an editor, producer. All my upcoming jobs had been canceled. And this was before, they were canceled before that the CDC came out that said that they would like to see gatherings of 50 people or more eliminated. And we were already small crews, but the clients were just being overly precautious as they probably should for liability's sake. And they just canceled ahead of time. So for the near future, there's nothing on probably anyone's calendar in the entertainment industry. And that's why we're here. We're doing this. Hopefully to bring you guys some real content, uplifting. Also kind of, we don't really do the news, but it feels like we are reporting just some facts. I found interesting. Lift stock is down about 30%. As you guys know, lift does not do delivery. Uber's down a little bit. Nothing crazy. Something like 5%. But as you guys know, Uber eats is all the rage right now. Delivery is at least here in LA booming. You can order just about anything you want. Takeout is also an option. So that's been at least able to keep people that drive for Uber employed, which again is part of the service industry. There's a lot of people that are hard hit that we've had on the podcast, a lot of restaurant tours, a lot of chefs. And so the only thing we can really tell them is the SBA is presently given emergency loans out to small businesses across the country. You can get up to $2 million. I think the government, as you guys know, the Fed cut the rates to 0%. The government is really hoping all the entrepreneurs step in and don't lay off their employees, but do something like get a loan out just as a way to flow and keep providing wages to these people who obviously aren't working. Hopefully that goes through. The other thing the government's probably going to do is give everyone $1,000. How they do that could be a tax rebate. Andrew Yang was right all along. I don't know about that, but maybe. Back to the tech side, Runway Growth Capital CEO says the phone is running off the hook. Companies keep calling just to raise whatever sense they can to keep businesses going instead of laying people off, which is just a really interesting weird time. One of the messages we'd like to impart today coming from a positive place is what can we as entrepreneurs, self-starters be doing in this time of uncertainty and quarantine? There are a lot of options that you can take and, to be fair, a lot of opportunities as well. It just depends on your perspective and your own personal metrics for success. Some of the things that are going right, obviously companies like Skype, companies like Zoom, companies like Slack are redefining what it means to work from home. We have some companies finding this an amazing opportunity to do well. If you're a real estate developer investor like me, you're getting some of the best market. You're basically getting free money. We're literally being told we're going to be able to borrow money at something like 2% or less, which is incredible. At least my lifetime has that been an option. The reason we wanted to do this podcast in particular is to hopefully inspire, hopefully as you can see, we're here, we're filming this podcast. We want to give people ideas. Some ideas I wrote down yesterday of things that some of my friends I think out there are doing. Obviously, if you have kids, you're doing a bunch of art projects. That's always fun. Get some valuable time. Do some art. Teach your kids something new. Some other ones. If there's an instrument you've wanted to learn, whether it be a guitar or drums, go do that. Hopefully you can get that instrument. You can go buy it and then go home and learn it. One of the things I've been doing is learning a language. I downloaded this app called Mondly. It's like $10 a month, but you can learn Italian. I don't have a television at my house. For me, it's not like I'm watching anything. I'm not really watching movies or anything. It's a good time to try to just all those things that are on your list that you've been ignoring. It's a great time to jump into those. All those little projects around the house that you've been putting off, now is a great time to do them. At the end of the day, not only are they getting accomplished, but it's also a great way to feel productive because that's the biggest thing is keeping your own morale up. Anything that you can do to be productive will certainly help that along. I think too, if you're a business, talk to your investors. Talk to everybody that you possibly can. Don't hide. Don't think this problem is going to go away. Get out of your head. Please go talk to your investors. See what help you can do. You can get a loan. Your worst case scenarios, go get some debt, whether it's credit card debt, whether it's the SBA. Just lean in to solving the problem. A lot of companies are probably finding out what it's like, what tools they use in times like these, how they all stay on top of the tasks that they need to get done. Think your marketing. Now is the perfect time to do something like we're doing. Start a podcast. Do some digital advertising. Give back. There's a tremendous amount of people out there that obviously need your goods, your services. Think about how you can either sell your goods for a discount, donate your goods to... There's so many people that are homeless. I'm not even talking about in your head when people hear homeless. They think it's some 45-year-old they never met. There's literally kids that go to school every day. All school, all ages, university, high school, middle school that are homeless and they for sure need access to whatever it is that you can give them, whether it's food, whether it's clothing. The big things that I've been reading about are things that you might not normally associate with a quarantine like this and government programs shutting down. For instance, libraries across the U.S. are shutting their doors and libraries are an incredibly valuable resource for the community at large because they provide a place for kids to go, have a quiet space to study and learn and do their homework. They also provide a safe haven for the homeless people as well, just a place to get off the streets and library staff have been doing this for years and now that these community refuge centers have closed their doors, that does provide a gap for a lot of these people. So anything that we can do to help them is obviously beneficial and in terms of going and talking about the kids who use them to do their homework and whatnot, it's been uplifting to see that some organizations are stepping in to fill some of those gaps in school closures. So for instance, school meals, a lot of kids rely on school to get their nutrients for the day because they don't have the resources to get it home, they don't have the means. So now that schools are closed, there are plenty of organizations that are stepping in to fill that gap and to get these kids fed. One example I saw yesterday of people using this as an opportunity to give back to the community is Sweetgreen. All the first responders, hospital workers, yeah, they're giving free meals. Yeah, you know, if you've got the means, this is the time where as a society, we really do have to do whatever we can to take care of each other. Facebook is giving employees extra $1,000 that's confirmed. And as of right now, the U.S. will give Americans checks as part of a stimulus. It says here that an 850 billion economic stimulus package is moving forward. So we'll see. We'll see how soon everyone can get their checks. Obviously, the service workers or the people needed them the most, there's a tremendous amount of people that live paycheck to paycheck. And hopefully this can help them weather this storm. Here's a funnier note. So again, going back to the information, great news source covers a lot of Silicon Valley startups. So Catherine Dockery, founder of Vice Ventures. She typically invests in companies that we'll call SIN startups. And so this is our quote from her. All of my companies are doing exceptionally well because people are stuck at home. They're ordering alcohol, nicotine, and sex toys all online. And so there's someone doing OK. Another person says, Greg Hayes, CEO and co-founder of Branch Furniture, online office furniture retailer says for him, it's been an issue because he gets a lot of his products from China where the outbreak originated. And so on that side of it, I mean, they're obviously getting hit with delays, but the delays for people that are getting products from China could even be so much greater. I mean, when are we possibly going to get and open up the import exports again? Who knows? From a venture capital perspective, I think this is good. Whenever things like this happen, the way I think about it is like there's an ocean and there's rocks under the ocean and in a healthy economic cycle, what ends up happening is a lot of those rocks go unseen, right? Nobody sees them. Things are good. And when things like the coronavirus or a recession or these sort of economic impacts occur, it's really a time for you to see your rocks very clearly. It's a time for every startup, every entrepreneur to think, oh my god, these are all the issues I've been hiding because things have been so good and all the venture capital is good. And now there's no question venture capital is going to be way, way, way, way, way more selective as it relates to where they put their money. And it's a good time for a lot of these startup entrepreneurs to get a sense of where those rocks are and ideally mitigate, solve the issues where they can. Because it's basically like they have a microscope right now and they can see where they're spending too much, what's not yielding anything good for them. It's house cleaning season. All right, guys. New segment alert tips on how to work from home. I'll tell you what works for me. Again, everyone has their different things. So I like loud music. I play loud music when I work from home. I use Apple Music, put the speaker on. I pick a radio station, something coffee, coffee vibes, coffee shop vibes. I try to take a walk. So every three hours I try to like leave the house, go for a quick walk, which you can still do under coronavirus, which is nice. Obviously it's been raining a few days here in LA, not too bad today. The important thing for me is, like you said, to get out of the house, which I'm not always good at doing. There are days when I do not leave my house and I feel worse for it. So I can definitely back you up on that point, get out of the house every now and then. If only to walk around your block, it will help you clear your mind. It will get you back to your work, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. The other thing is that if you've never had to work from home before, it's important that you take this time to set up a dedicated workspace for yourself. Whether that be your kitchen table, it doesn't have to be permanent, but it needs to be a dedicated workspace. You need to have the ability to have this area to yourself where you can just focus on your work. And if that involves playing loud music, great. I love when I'm able to play music when I'm working. But if you can't, then if at all possible, try and isolate yourself just from the other happenings on in the house, that might not always be a possibility. But if you can at all, make a space for yourself and make it your own. Yeah, for sure. Dedicate your space. I know Natalia who's often on the podcast. She likes to have two monitors set up and so she's got the double monitor, she's got the laptop. No music likes it, super quiet. And that's it. It kind of creates like a cave-type environment around herself, which is kind of like an isolation. She works best in isolation. Find that space. If you have kids, obviously it's going to be kind of trying do what you can or just break up the day, maybe work an hour and then play with your kids for an hour. Nick, let's talk about something we talked about earlier. Obviously, you're renting your place. A lot of things got canceled for you. What's the situation with your landlord? You know, this was a very welcome surprise. So I've been living in my place for five years now and I've had a really good relationship with my landlord. And so yesterday they reached out to me via text just saying, hey, I know you're in the gig economy, you and your brother. If anything comes up, we want to help you guys out and help you guys through this. And if anything comes up or you can't make rent, let us know and we'll be happy to organize a short-term payment plan or deferral until this whole thing blows over. And, you know, that was entirely unlooked for, but at the same time it really did. It meant a lot to me because even if I don't need it to have that kind of home security in that, you know, at the end of the day, I know I'm not going to be kicked out of my house for not paying rent if I don't have a job. That was everything in the world that I needed to hear at that moment. And so I told them, I was like, it's too soon to know if I, you know, how much this thing will affect me, but I really do appreciate it and let's just stay in touch over the coming weeks and months. If God forbid this thing drags out that long, but if you are in a position to help your tenants out, I think that's vital. Reach out to them and just, you know, say, look, we can work through this together. If it comes to that, I'm here for you. I think about this like, so when I was going to business school, there was like negotiating class and it's just like in negotiating class, you write down 10 things you would never ask somebody and just see what they say. And one of those things was like, hey, can I get free rent or something like that? And I think like now is the time to totally lean into that, whether you're kind of in your position, whether you're a tech founder, talk to your investors, ask them crazy questions. It's a crazy time. See what they can give you, see what help they can give. And just don't be afraid to ask the question because I know being in your head with employees and responsibility and children and a company to run can be demoralizing if you just stay in that place. This is the time to get creative. Yeah, for sure. For everyone involved, there are workarounds. It might take some things that are not typically viable, but if it helps you in the long run, this is the time to implement it. And to be honest, this is the time to experiment with them. Take a chance. Yeah, take the chances now. If you do have funds, go out and support the local economy while you can. I mean, that's another thing. If you do have some money on hand, maybe you've needed to go shopping for a while. Maybe all your jeans have some rips in them. Go do that immediately. I know my wife and I just went shopping. We were just like literally walking around to get out of the house and saw this new store. It opened up maybe three weeks ago. We went inside, ended up buying two shirts and the guy threw in like something for free just because we were out there supporting him and they desperately need it. And so if you can help to go back, support the local business, do what you can. Everyone around you, I mean, especially retail right now, is going to take a huge hit. And so anything we can do to help them is massively important. I know restaurants are starting to give out gift cards. And so while they're closed, they're trying to give like up to 20% discounts on certain gift cards. And so ideally that helps them kind of float this area this time while there's no sales being made. Yeah, because a lot of them have had to close, even though the option in LA, in LA all restaurants and bars have to be closed except for takeout. But a lot of them are just shuttering their doors because for them, takeout is not a viable enough option to keep the doors open. So gift cards are a great option. Even if they do close for the meantime, it'll help them rebound and get back on their feet a lot quicker when eventually they do reopen. I always like to play this game with people too. So if you are thinking worst case scenario and your mind is in a terrible spot, play it out. What is it actually? How much money does it actually cost for you to be completely in a coma for three months? Think about it that way. And if you're spending $10,000 a month, then that's $30,000 that you're going to be in debt. And that's not the end of the world. I mean, put it on a credit card. I know it's not ideal, but at least like you'll have your life, you'll have your house, you might have your employees, your pets will be taken care of, your kids will be taken care of, and just kind of put it in that perspective. It's not that bad. I mean, it's just a time to hunker down and hopefully make some changes that can help improve your business. But at the same time, it's you'll have your health, you'll be alive. If you guys need any tips on what to do during the coronavirus, one of the most helpful websites that I found has been the John Hopkins website. They're tracking it. They have a 3D interactive map on all the known cases, the number of deaths worldwide. And so go check it out, know what to do, obviously tune in to the news. It doesn't, hopefully there isn't going to be a national shutdown. I think at this point we're limited to 10 people per gathering, which is fine. But at the end of the day, stay home, don't move too much, avoid public gatherings. For the whole reason of like, this slower this can spread, the better off our first responders and everyone in the hospital and the people that have the disease can be treated in a normal way and they'll have the number of beds required to hopefully get treatment. So we'll be tuning in as often as we can, but take a listen, give us a rating. Keep in touch. Keep in touch. Let us know what you'd like to see. This is a community where we want to support each other no matter what. So if you guys are in need of anything, reach out and we'll certainly try and get the word out and help you where we can. But also just to be there for one another. That's the most important thing in the world right now is be there for one another, support each other because we are all in this together. Yeah, and if you're in LA and you want to come on the podcast while this is all hunkered down, come on over. We're happy to have you. We'll create content with you. This is kind of like therapy. So it's like a therapy session that we'll do. The differences, we're just going to share it with the public. All right, take care, everyone. Thanks, guys. Be well. The start of the SOAR Front team consists of Diego Torres Palma, Natalia Capolini, Megan Conrad, Haley Nelson, and me, Nick Conrad. We've got a couple more shows we're going to be putting out over the next week or so. And if you aren't already, consider subscribing. This is a very supportive and helpful community of entrepreneurs and we'd love for you to be a part of it. We'd also love to hear how you all are coping with this epidemic. So reach out to us on all the social media platforms at Startup to SOAR Front. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time.