Navigating the Crisis: Key Takeaways and Resources

/ Insights

On 31 March, we hosted our first virtual roundtable entitled “Navigating this Crisis Together” with a small group of start-up founders. In an interactive discussion, we addressed the challenges and concerns these founders are currently facing. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Cash is king: Conserve your cash by making the tough decisions now. See if customers are willing to prepay. Explore strategic partnerships that could create recurring revenue.
  • Be human: Contact your customers, partners, investors and ask them how they are doing. How has COVID-19 affected their business and strategy? How can you help them? How can they help you?
  • Be transparent: Will you be around in 3, 6, 12 months? What is your strategy for ensuring that happens? Convince yourself, and then convince your stakeholders.
  • Stay visible: Communicate with your (potential) customers, investors and other stakeholders. Make your customers part of your journey in this unknown situation. In general, if they don’t hear from you, they consider your company ‘dead’.
  • Be flexible: Is there a new opportunity, short or long term, that your business could lead in this new reality while staying true to your long-term strategy and core beliefs? How can you help others, even if it’s temporarily for free? It has the potential to grow your brand and help you and others recover quickly after COVID-19.
  • Be ready to go: Keep track of developments and changing needs. When this is over, make sure your business is the first to leave the starting line.
  • Prepare: Don’t waste time, be efficient, and structure your processes to scale quickly after COVID-19. Focus on opportunities, not on turnover, build products and services.  Look for recovery indicators and parallels such as China’s recovering economy.

Here are also links to some useful resources:

Are you interested in joining upcoming roundtables and other events for start-ups and scale-ups and having access to valuable insights? Then make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and join our LinkedIn group. Do you have a question for our Masters or need advice, send us an email at hello@mastersofscale.nl.