A survey conducted by Shipping and Freight Resource asked 300 professionals around the world about the impact of COVID-19 on their supply chains. Nearly 59% of respondents said their operations were “significantly affected” by the coronavirus. Many, if not most, businesses are already feeling the effects of the virus thanks to the shift toward online shopping that is likely accelerated by COVID-19. However, there are some companies that have been thriving in the pandemic.

“We are seeing signs that online purchasing trends formed during the pandemic may see permanent adoption.”

Taylor Schreiner, the Director of Adobe Digital Insights

Remote work and a shift to digital was already happening, and while business owners and employees navigate the new normal, we were curious to hear what are some of the ways they have adapted to stay operating amid a global pandemic so we asked 9 entrepreneurs how has COVID-19 affected their business, our hope is that you may find inspiration in their stories.

“The pandemic affected my sign company definitely and slowed sales down. But for PLUG, I view the pandemic as an even greater opportunity. Pandemic has forced a lot of people to think outside of the box. Even though the PLUG idea and concept was launched before the pandemic, since April 2020 – the pandemic has helped to shape the way forward with the vision and opened new doors for exponential growth. Specifically, because it has highlighted to both business and consumers the need for technology in your everyday lives.” Kareem Jennings, CEO of Plug

“COVID accelerated our growth with companies. We saw a 29x increase in enterprise partnerships within a few months. With an increasing number of remote workers having less sense of belonging, companies have adopted Codi as the new way to work – offering neighborhood workspaces that help them support, attract, and retain top talent.” Christelle Rohaut, Co-founder and CEO of Codi

“The pandemic is a massive global tragedy that has impacted all of us in too many ways to mention, so I don’t want to make light of it, but it may have been a net positive for our business so far. Vocal Video is all about remote video collection, and there have certainly been a lot of companies who have been intensely interested in that this year. Sending a camera crew on a plane to conduct a customer interview isn’t as palatable as last year, even if you have the budget for it.” Jonathon Wolfe, Co-Founder of Vocal Video

“Fortunately, it hasn’t changed too much for Beautiful.ai. Presentations are an essential part of any team’s workflow. If anything, being remote has increased our monthly active users with more team members using presentations as a way to share progress on project milestones, keep team members aligned on business KPIs, or train employees on new tools or processes.” Jill Callan, CMO of Beautiful.ai

“We’re fortunate to run a tool that supports remote work really well, and one that a lot of companies are now realizing that they need. The only thing that’s changed are pieces of our marketing messaging, speaking more to the remote workforce and less about scaling and growth.” Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual

“Focusmate has definitely become relevant to a lot of new people, who are now working from home and feeling more isolated and less accountable than before.” Taylor Jacobson, Founder & CEO of Focusmate

“Like every other business, the pandemic surely affected our company both negatively and positively. The negative part came from the fact that people were not traveling as much (or at all) which meant that we had very few bookings for luggage storage compared to before. It was also a struggle to generate content in times where all content was about the pandemic. However, we created an information hub about the COVID-19 situations in major cities and we sincerely hope the information has been useful. At least we can see that the pages have been extremely popular measured by the traffic they received. It had a bit of a positive effect too as we had been so busy the last year. Out of the blue, we had the chance to take a step back and optimize everything we had done so far, making it stronger. We took the time to prepare for the future, made research, and improved things internally. We tried to help our partners by promoting their deals while they tried to help people in need of apartments or isolation.” Jannik Lawaetz, CEO of LuggageHero

“We’ve had to conduct more business virtually, and we’ve implemented hygiene and distancing standards for in-person customer appointments. Finally, the housing market has been extremely volatile, with initial slowdowns in buying and selling activities and a more recent uptick in business. We anticipate further changes as new information related to the virus changes and macroeconomic events unfold.” Joey Campbell, Head of Content at Sundae

“The pandemic has had a tremendous influence on Soar. As the world began to shut down, we partnered with ICF to offer our coaching platform for free to coaches as they sought digital solutions. We were forced to adapt quickly and improve our products in a world where remote interactions became the norm. In addition, learning and development departments have sought our audio solutions to help bridge the physical gap between them and their employees.” Scott Fleming, Head of Enterprise Partnerships at Soar

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We hope you, your family, your business, your employees, and your friends are staying healthy during this time. If you want to say hi or have any questions about naming, branding, and domain names get in touch, we’re always happy to hear from you.

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