523: Creating Opportunities in a Time of Crisis

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The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten

Business


In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about creating opportunities in a time of crisis. During these difficult times, a lot of business are going to struggling to stay alive, and even more, are going to fail. It’s tempting for some founders to give in to the challenging times which ultimately results in the collapse of their businesses. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be so, with a little creativity and some innovation, founders can adapt and still keep their businesses afloat in these times. In this week’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about reinvention versus destruction, how this pandemic is negatively affecting some businesses, examples of example of entrepreneurs taking advantage of the current situation and examples of business that are innovating in this crisis much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:37 Why this topic was chosen. 02:17 An example of an entrepreneur taking advantage of the current situation. 06:19 How some restaurants are really innovating right now. 07:53 Another way some restaurants are innovating. 09:19 One other way some restaurants are innovating in this crisis. 12:02 How a startup in the fitness industry is innovating. 06:01 How being successful in a time of crisis is all about getting creative. 3 Key Points: Tailors are very risk-averse.Don’t let things that get in the way of others get in your way.I’ve been most impressed by the number of restaurants that are really iterating right now [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey everybody, this is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. And I think in true Steli and, I guess, Hiten form, Steli and me form, we're going to talk about something positive today and something that Steli came up with. I don't know when he came up with it, but I heard about it right now. And what it is is, I think, something much needed right now, which is a discussion about what we're seeing that's actually working in business right now, considering shelter in place, COVID out of control, I think somebody called this Armageddon or something like that to me five minutes ago, before I got on this. [0:00:40] Steli Efti: Oh, really? [0:00:41] Hiten Shah: Yeah. They called it Armageddon. They're like, "Yeah, how are you doing with the current Armageddon, blah, blah, blah?" I'm like, "I'm doing as fine as I can. And definitely better than a lot of people." So I can't can't really complain about anything. And so, yeah, let's talk about it. I think the big thing was, what approaches are working right now for people that we can kind of talk about, right? [0:01:03] Steli Efti: Yeah. I felt that it would be a good idea to just share some examples in our network, or within our friends, or anywhere that we've observed, that we've seen, over the last couple of months that we thought, "Wow, this is inspiring," or, "This is cool," that somebody is creating, or innovating, or adapting and changing, and succeeding in some way, finding opportunity, even in these difficult times, just to give people inspiration, to simulate them, and just because we have enough of the critical things that we read and hear about every single day. So how do we want to do this? You can go first, I can go first, with examples, and we'll go back and forth, and I'm sure we'll come up with and be able to share a bunch of good stuff with people. [0:01:47] Hiten Shah: Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. [0:01:48] Steli Efti: So the first thing that I'll bring up is... Actually I want to go outside of tech, alright? So, at the very beginning of COVID being a bigger thing in Europe, I remember that, in the first few weeks, there was this shortage of masks. It's not a problem anymore. This is a past problem. But while it was a big surging demand and problem,