Plants and corona

On Sunday, I ordered $220+ worth of plants from PlantsAndFriends and had them delivered today. I’ll be honest and admit that it’s probably slightly ridiculous that I did this. But I wanted to do my part to support local businesses and have no buyer’s remorse. I have never met the team in person, but they seem to be hard working group of entrepreneurs that I was excited to support. Go check them out @plantsandfriends

On to the next…

What’s more likely at this point in the market… a) new all time highs, or b) the market dropping sharply again? The S&P was up almost 3% today and I think everyone is confused. If you predicted this, you’d be a really rich person right now.

Meanwhile in real life, California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted out his 6 principles for opening the state back up. Considering that California has done wonders in regards to containing covid, it’s hard to argue with his plan. Follow the science, not politics. Good job Gavin.

Given that we have a Governor who has done a great job here in managing the situation, I can’t help but predict that this is going to be take longer than what I initially predicted. Unfortunately, I do not see sports continuing with fans anytime soon. I can’t imagine large gatherings until we have a vaccine in place. The risk is too high and going into another shelter in place will freak people out more than they already are.

We’re in this for the long haul. We’ll start to see some things go back to normal in May and June, just don’t expect everything.

The new normal - offices and work-life balance

On Friday, I wrote about how I don’t see the end of commercial real estate and offices in general. In summary, while I don’t see offices completely going away, I do see most companies downsizing offices and likely cutting benefits such as free lunch. Things will be different, but I’m not convinced as some that most startups will just go full remote. Not yet at least.

As someone who is currently searching for an office for my startup, I have been doing a lot of thinking and planning for the “new normal” after lockdown ends. For better or worse, people will develop new habits due to being forced to work from home. Whenever the dust settles, people will start to go back to offices and coworking spaces with a new outlook and preferences for work style.

One habit that I’ve noticed that myself and others on the team have been taking advantage of is the flexibility in work hours. Without commutes or standard hours where we’re all expected in the office, people are taking advantage of the day more to do things such as workout, go to the grocery store, or just enjoying the outdoors.

It was a gorgeous day outside today so I wanted to take advantage of the weather and get some Vitamin D. I did an hour of yoga on my roof from 11-12. Took calls from 12-2. And then relaxed on my roof from 2-3. Of course, I’ll need to make up the hours lost with more hours in the evening, but this lifestyle largely suits how I like to work.

I suspect I am not the only one here. People are going to start realizing that going to the gym or picking up groceries at 3pm is much more desirable than during the 5pm rush. So my prediction here in the new normal: offices will not go away, but office/work hours as we know it will largely disappear. It will be much more acceptable for people to step out of the office for errands and even leisure during the day as people start demanding more flexibility to fit their work styles.

The "free" market

I woke up to this tweet by Mayor London Breed.

Restaurants are struggling to survive and delivery is their main option for staying open. I'm instituting a cap on the fees that delivery services can charge restaurants during this emergency, because it can make the difference between them staying afloat or laying-off staff.

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) April 10, 2020

In a city where politicians never cease to amaze, Mayor London Breed has done it again. I do believe Mayor Breed has the best of intentions here, but someone really needs to tell her to pick up an Economics 101 book. This policy is a rash decision that is going to have unintended consequences and will likely result in MORE restaurants going under.

The delivery services is a great example of the free markets at play. There are many big name delivery players including Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, Caviar, and Postmates. In the free markets, pricing takes place at the intersection of supply and demand. In other words, the free markets will set the price of delivery by itself.

This is not a monopoly where one company can set the price and gouge customers. In fact, DoorDash has actually already reduced fees to help in this crisis. If one or more of these services decides to be evil and try to price gouge customers during this crisis, then restaurants will just work with the other competitors. These delivery services are in turn forced to price their services accordingly. This is the free markets at work and the result is consumers being able to order food delivery at will at prices they are willing to pay.

Mayor Breed enacting a 15% restaurant commission cap is an unnecessary price on delivery as one already exists. What does this mean for consumers, delivery drivers, and restaurants?

There is likely going to be a shortage of deliveries. If a company’s margin on these services are now shifted, then this cost will be placed somewhere else… likely on the delivery driver’s cut. Reduced fees for the delivery driver means less delivery drivers. Less delivery drivers means less deliveries. Less deliveries means less business for these restaurants.

We’ve now come full circle. The very people Mayor Breed is trying to save are now going to be negatively impacted by silly policy. Apparently, Economics 101 is a class that isn’t required to be taken to be Mayor.

The end of commercial real estate?

I was scrolling Twitter today and today’s tech twitter debate was about the end of commercial real estate. To no one’s surprise, many CEOs and employees of startups starting to realize how great working from home is and how much they can save by cutting office and food costs.

This was a trend that had roots many years ago even prior to when coronavirus was born. More and more companies are becoming distributed due to higher cost of living, improving technology, and cost savings to the company. Secfi operates with my product and engineering teams based in Amsterdam and our business/operations team based in San Francisco.

Distributed teams are the future, but is coronavirus truly the end of offices? I don’t see it. Yes, I have no doubt many companies will shift to start working from home more and shrink office spaces in general. Some companies will do this willingly. Some will be forced to. This was the trend we were seeing prior to covid, and this virus will accelerate the trend.

With that said, removing the ability to work from an office is a consequence that may likely result in less camaraderie and sense of belonging. Employees want to be given the option to work from home or the office for convenience, not to be permanently stuck working from home.

I sense people being forced to work from home fall within two camps, 1) those who cannot wait to go back to an office, and 2) those who cannot see themselves working from an office again. Offering only one of those options hurts your ability to recruit and attract top talent. I for one would be more reluctant to work for a company that has no office presence.

My prediction for the new normal is that almost every tech company will be much more open to working from home and there will be less pressure to go into the office. Leases will shrink and be more flexible, but there still be office space for those that want to come in.

Fact is that having an office and having employees come in can promote efficiency and team building if done correctly. I love seeing my coworkers in the office. Not everyone feels like me and that’s okay. Everyone works differently, but companies will need to cater to both ends of the spectrum.

Fighting the fed

On Tuesday I wrote how it seems all quiet on the western front and talked about how calm things have been relative to the pre-covid era. As luck would have it, that led to a hectic Wednesday where I was drowning in work and emails. Funny how things work.

On to the next…

Unemployment is skyrocketing. Businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy despite government bailouts. Banks and experts are saying we’re destined for a recession. Yet the S&P is up 11.14% this past week and the market is continuing to rally. This morning I put in a few limit sell orders, went to meditate, and came back to see them all fulfilled.

The Fed has made it clear that they’re going to do everything possible to prop up this market. Today they announced plans to inject another $2.3T into the economy which helped the rally going into the holy weekend.

I have friends that are still shorting the market and learning the hard way that they can’t fight the fed. I do think there’s a lot of price manipulation right now with the fed and government injecting this much cash into the economy to try to get us through the corona economy.

I’m enjoying this rally but some sold stocks on the way up today. I don’t think we’re close to clear yet. There is still a bearish sentiment and the government is going to need to prop up a lot of businesses and people for the foreseeable future. The Fed and Congress can’t continue to pay people forever and we have millions of people to place into jobs in the next few months until we can officially call this over.

All quiet on the western front

There’s a lot of opinions going back and forth on the current situation. The Surgeon General said over the weekend that this will be the most critical week raising concerns that the death toll could be over 100,000 once all said and done. Today, the CDC said the death toll could be much less.

I don’t really know what to believe at this point. Based on what I’ve seen, the optimist in me is starting to think that we’re going to start seeing things going back to normal in early May, but then some really smart people telling me that they see this going on for many more months.

I understand the need to err on the side of caution as lives are at stake, but on the other hand you can’t just completely ignore the impact this has on the economy and therefore peoples’ jobs and businesses. It’s an insanely difficult decision and I’m just happy I don’t have to be the person to make it.

While I wait this out like the rest of America, I couldn’t help but think that things are all quiet on the western front. My inbox is as quiet as I’ve seen it on a Tuesday. People are generally in less of a rush nowadays.

Perhaps people are realizing the potential severity of the situation and taking more time to prioritize family and work-life balance. Maybe working from home has forced people to have more focus on work-life balance. Very likely it’s a mix of both.

There’s never a shortage of things to do in startup land. I wouldn’t call the last 3 weeks pleasant from a work standpoint by any means, but I’ll admit that it has been nice to have a bit of quiet so I can catch-up on a lot of internal projects.

I realize that these times won’t last. We’ll go back to the typical startup frenzy sooner than later, but I’ll be sure to enjoy this time to get caught up on things. Soon enough we’ll go back to the hectic days of office searches, candidate interviews, and meetings at companies and we’ll miss these few weeks/months that we had where things were all quiet.

The toughest week

Week 4 of quarantine started like most Mondays. I felt rested from the weekend but took me a bit to get motivated and going. It didn’t help that it was rainy today so I couldn’t get outside like I normally do.

Today may have been the most overall positive day in regards to the coronavirus which isn’t saying much, but perhaps there’s hope that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The market rallied today. News that New York and San Francisco is flat lining is encouraging.

The “toughest and most critical” week all in all started out relatively quiet. We’ll see if it lasts. I’m staying optimistic that perhaps if we have a good week then we can start thinking about life going back to somewhat normalcy in the next month or two. I’m in good spirits, but I’m at the point where I’m thinking and missing all my favorite activities.

I miss going to dinner with friends on a Friday. Luckily, a lot of my favorite restaurants are still open for delivery, but it’s not the same as going out.

I miss sports. The Master’s got pushed back to November which will be interesting. I miss the competition and having something to root for.

I miss traveling. I was supposed to be in South Korea right now eating some amazing food and drinking soju with good friends.

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to what people are going through right now. It’s easy to complain about quarantine, but given everything going on, this is a minor inconvenience to pay so I have to take a deep breath and just be grateful for where I’m at.

Hard times in the neighborhood

I’ve had a really good day so far. I went for a long run this morning and picked up some groceries and seafood from the farmer’s market. I cooked us a seafood feast this afternoon starting with some oysters, mussels in a garlic lemon broth, and topped it all off with a couple live dungeness crabs.

Having a great home cooked feast was a great distraction from everything going on, but the situation is getting increasingly harder to ignore. We had Tiger King to distract us this past week, but at some point our attention goes back to the news and the numbers.

You can only distract yourself so much until reality sets in. I had a friend from high school who was diagnosed. She’s going to make it out fine, but we’re at the point where we’re all going to know or personally be directed affected by the virus. We can only hope for the best case scenario for our close friends and loved ones, but the reality is that there will be some unexpected outcomes.

That’s the challenge with all this. No one knows what the outcome truly will be or who will be affected. This could last 1 more month at best and end with relatively minimal outcomes or this could carry over for months or even years. Like most things in life, the scary part is the unknown.

Let’s all hope for the best and do our part so the best will happen.

What I am seeing in private markets in the corona economy

Given our line of work at Secfi, I live and breathe in the private markets as we work primarily with tech and other venture backed startups. I’ve had a lot of friends ask me what I’m seeing in the private markets right now and I figured I take this gorgeous Friday afternoon to write about some of the trends I’m seeing.

We have all seen the rollercoaster ride in the public markets with stocks closing this week down given the unemployment reports. What is not as evident is the effect on the private markets.

Historically, private markets have lagged behind public markets by months. There is usually a cycle effect in which private market investors lose investing appetite due to a recession resulting in less funding for startups resulting in less growth and revenue resulting in less startups being launched which of course results in less capital being allocated to the private markets. The typical recession cycle may take a few months to get through.

What makes this situation different is the immediate impact coronavirus is having. Stores and factories being closed down and employees being forced to stay home is having an immediate overnight impact on sales and revenue numbers resulting in immediate layoffs. The stimulus package may help keep some startups afloat, but the reality is that many of these startups will not be able to survive in the short-term without bailout money from investors or the government.

Of course, pricing on an emergency funding round is never going to be favorable for the company. And the fact that many of these startups don’t have runway for even 3 months is going to overall negatively impact and expose the industry. “Top-line growth at all cost” was already in jeopardy prior to the current situation, and covid will likely put the nail on the coffin on that trend.

Companies offering nontangible goods and services are likely still sitting pretty overall given everything. I have not seen much immediate impact on many companies including those in big data or most SaaS companies. They will undoubtedly be affected by a shrinking economy, but the impact will be much more on a lag in line with previous recessions than the immediate term.

There will be an impact on fintech depending on what line of business you are in. Lenders and challenger banks are in a difficult position given the low interest rates. Payment companies may see a hit with reduced spending overall. Again, the impact will likely be down the road if there is a recession.

There’ll be additional insights as the covid situation starts to unravel. Companies that we once thought were sitting pretty will unfortunately fall on the other side of the aisle due to a recession. There has been very little news of deals being closed with VCs pushing investments to save portfolio companies, but I expect that to come out shortly. And of course, in the short term there will be more layoffs and more bankruptcies.

I’ll write more about this as the corona situation unravels. Have a good weekend.

Secfi's new product and launch

We kicked off Q2 2020 with a bang today with a new version of our website and new products to help employees better understand their stock options. There’s a lot to be excited about in this release.

First, our site got a face lift with a bunch of awesome graphics and improvements. It’s much more interactive and allows our clients to understand what we do in a much more effective way.

In addition, we released Secfi’s Equity University. We have been a leader in the stock option space, but have yet to release personalized content on our platform. This has been a project we’ve been planning on for awhile now and we’re really excited to get this out so people can use our guides to understand their equity better.

Last, but not least, we also released new tech enabled tools meant to help a user understand their equity and create a plan around their equity. With this release, we put in a AMT Crossover calculator, a Tax Bracket Maximization tool, as well as a Profit Simulator. These tools were created based on feedback on years of working with start-up employees.

Users will be able to create an account in a matter of minutes and use all our tools to get customized recommendations tailored to their situation.

Our mission at Secfi is to help startup employees & shareholders understand, maximize and unlock the value of their equity. This release springboards us into the next phase of our mission and we’re very excited to continue to serve the startup community.

End of March update

I went to the park today at 5pm to play with some dogs and soak in the sun. It felt really good. Last night and this morning were stressful times of work for no particular reason. I think it’s easy to get a bit of anxiety during these times and I need to take a deep breath at times and relax.

On to the next…

Today is the last day of March and thought it would be good to write about the end of Q1 at Secfi.

This quarter-end at Secfi is interesting for the obvious reason of covid, but at the same time it’s the first full quarter we have as a team as we hired quite a bit at the end of last year. It’s been an interesting ride. It’s a quarter that started with a lot of optimism that may have been derailed a bit by covid and other factors.

On the flip side, we’ve been fortunate at Secfi to have weathered the storm better than most. Our team is healthy and functioning well. We were already distributed between Amsterdam and San Francisco so it was not a major disruption.

After almost an entire year being by myself or with one other person in the other, it was the first time we had a team. We’ve got a small team of 5, but it’s a great team that gets along well. I’ve had a lot of learning adjustments along the way. I haven’t had staff since my last job so that’s been a good readjustment. I also realized that I need to knock the New York big firm life personality out — it still comes up every once in awhile sadly.

Quarter-end couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s a perfect opportunity to sit down, take a deep breath, reset, and refocus. I’m looking forward to grinding as a team from home over Zoom and achieving some good goals in Q2.

Nothing makes sense

I wasn’t feeling great going into the weekend, but some rest and fun was what the doctor ordered. I caught up with a lot of my college buddies via Zoom on Saturday and we all probably had a few drinks too many. Despite feeling a bit off Sunday, a good catch-up over beers (and shots) where we can take our mind off the current situation was exactly what I needed. I felt great this Monday and have been pretty productive overall.

On to the next…

A close buddy of mine exclaimed today that “he doesn’t see how this situation continues to push the market higher”. I had a good laugh as he tried to make sense of this market.

The truth is nothing really makes sense right now.

There is nothing normal about a global pandemic. There’s nothing normal about social distancing and shelter-in-place. There’s nothing normal about the leader of the free world being Donald Trump.

This is a unprecedented situation that’s going to be much worse before it gets better. The market will respond accordingly. Sometimes it’ll make sense and sometimes it’ll puzzle even the most veteran investors.

For those of us that are going through our first major crisis as investors, it’s time to stop trying to make sense of this market. It’s going to be volatile and the next few months will be a rollercoaster. We’ll need to buckle up.

Live and die by Zoom

I’ve been impressed by Zoom and surprised that there have not been any major crashes yet during the mandatory work from home era. It’s a testament to the company and the public market has been responding with a high valuation on Zoom stock.

While Zoom and videoconferencing has gone a long way over the last few years, there’s still a lot to be desired. Maybe I’m just old school, but I don’t think much can be done to replace that face to face interaction at the current moment.

On Friday, we had a company all-hands meeting and I couldn’t help but to think things were just a bit more awkward than normal. Our team is spread between Amsterdam and San Francisco so usually these calls make each office get together in a meeting room where there’s a lot of fun exchanges. We didn’t get the same effect on this all-hands.

On top of that, there were some minor technical difficulties. My screen was on a lag so my quick presentation was a bit derailed. People who had questions would ask them at same time causing the, “no you go ahead” exchange. Some people clearly had better microphones than others and a few folk were hard to hear.

On the flip side, maybe I’m just spoiled and looking for things to complain about. After all, video conferencing tools like Zoom allowed our team of 35+ spread all over the world to get together on a video chat.

Yesterday, my college friends and I started a happy hour video chat with 6 people that grew to over 20. Some people hadn’t seen each other for almost 10 years and Zoom brought us all together in a mini college reunion.

We were able to share stories, drink beers, and even take a few shots together. After about 4 hours, our crew was drunk and merry like we would have been if we had all been in a bar together in Seattle where we met. I had a blast.

Perhaps it’s not fair to complain about Zoom. Yes, there’s a lot left to be desired, but it’s made our lives significantly better during this time. Maybe my complaints are mainly just an adjustment period. Maybe by the end of this quarantine, I’ll look to Zoom as the thing that got me through it or maybe I’ll be so sick of it that I’ll never want to do a video conference call again.

Either way, I’m glad videoconferencing tools like Zoom exist and I am excited to see the new innovation that comes in the next few years in regards to video conferencing.

How to fix 83(i)

The market is volatile and we keep seeing massive recoveries followed by drops. A $2T stimulus package was finally passed and signed by Trump. America is finally first again… in the coronavirus cases. I’m in a very somber mood today. It was a really tough week overall — lots of highs and lots of lows and my emotions are all over the place.

I need to rest and recover this weekend. I plan to do a bit of work over the weekend, but mainly on stuff I am excited about so I can recharge and head into next week in a more positive mood.

I wrote a post a couple days ago about how Section 83(i) falls short for stock option holders. I’m adding the second part to the primer where I discuss how to fix 83(i). I am hoping to share the final product once it’s ready, but for now, I’m keeping things confidential and only sharing my primer.

Here you go:

Many employers will be forced with the tough decision to lay off employees to cope with the crisis. In turn, many employees will be left with vested stock options in which they likely do not have the cash to exercise, especially given the circumstances. The unfortunate reality is that if executed correctly by the IRS and Congress, the 83(i) election could have been a much needed tax break for employees affected by the COVID-19 crisis. 

Nothing is simple in U.S. taxation, but there may be a few “simple” tweaks that may be what taxpayers need today. 

• Change the 80% rule to require employers to offer options (ISO, NSO, etc.) and RSUs to 80% of employees. This eases the administrative burden of tracking ISOs, NSOs, and RSUs to each meet the 80% rule separately while maintaining the intent of the rule.

• Remove the requirement that forces employers to hold 83(i) stock in escrow. The escrow is an excessive requirement to ensure that the employee pays the tax bill in the future. People buy and sell assets including stock, cryptocurrency, etc. on a daily basis and they are required to self-report any gains/losses to the IRS. This should be no different.

• Allow the employee to defer the income taxes associated with exercise today, but allow the employee to surrender stock back to the company without paying that tax when the deferral period is over. This allows the employee to make the decision on whether to pay up the taxes associated or allow the stock to effectively expire preventing the difficult situation where an employee is required to pay tax even on worthless stock. 

The hope of the Section 83(i) election

I wrote a short-ish primer on the Section 83(i) election that was enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It isn’t meant to be published so writing isn’t great, but it’s meant to be a quick introduction for a project I’m working on. I’ll keep things vague for now and post if this ever goes live, but figured I share what I wrote.

The TL;DR is that the 83(i) has the right intent which is to allow private company employees to defer taxes, but is not practical due to the heavy restrictions for the company and limited benefits for the employee.

Here you go:

A Section 83(i) election has a lot of potential benefits that may be appealing to start-up employees. On the surface, it allows an employee with non-qualified stock options (NSOs) to exercise their options, and defer the ordinary income tax bill associated with exercising to as long as 5 years. However, the benefits to the employee are severely limited and could pose potential issues.

• The election only defers regular taxable income which would be for employees who hold non-qualified stock options (NSOs). For employees granted ISOs, you cannot defer the alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability. If you hold ISOs, you can still take the election, but you lose all tax benefits of having ISOs making it unattractive for ISO holders. 

• Employees still have to pay this back in a maximum of 5 years if the company still hasn’t exited. Although it buys you time to save for the tax bill, you’re still at risk to pay the tax bill down the road and be in the same position you were in today. 

• Employees are still liable for paying income tax on the value of the equity at the time of exercise. If the value of the stock drops after the 5 year period is up, they will be paying a higher amount putting them worse off than they would have been if they had waited. 

Furthermore, after the IRS released guidance on Section 83(i) in Notice 2018-97, it is clear that not only are the benefits for the employee limited, but the administrative burden for companies to offer the 83(i) election is heavy. 

• There is a rule that requires employers to make grants of options or RSUs to 80% of it’s employees. Employers must always calculate how many options or RSUs were granted to their employees every year to ensure it meets the 80% rule. Furthermore, there are restrictions on who qualifies to be part of that 80%.

• An employer must hold the stock in which the 83(i) election was made in an escrow account until the end of the deferral period when the employee fulfills the withholding requirement by paying the income tax. 

• An employer must provide notice of availability of Section 83(i) election. This likely means that employers will need to amend their equity plans to say whether they are making the 83(i) election, and if so, meet at stringent requirements every year. 

The intention of the bill is on the right track but after reviewing the fine print, it is difficult to see many employers offering this for the employees given the administrative burden and relatively limited upside for the employee. Small start-ups are focused on building a company and likely would not want to be burdened with additional work managing a 83(i) offering for their employees. Unfortunately, this is just another example of the clear disconnect in Congress on the issues that stock option holders and start-up employees face. 

Work from home life

I go through a lot of ups and downs working from home. Some days I feel overwhelming positive and that it’s going to be a great life lesson for me to go through this at this point in my life and career. Other days I feel trapped and helpless. I suspect I’m not the only one going through this.

I have many friends and clients who work from home nearly everyday. I never understood it. I love being outside. I love going to the gym. Going for a walk. Eating lunch by myself or with colleagues.

My up and down days are likely a product of the times mixed with a big disruption to my routine. Work has undoubtedly been tough over the last week and half. I miss my colleagues.

At the same time, I also have been doing a terrible job at sticking to my routine. I’ve been going to bed and sleeping in later. I no longer go on walks when I am stressed. I cook lunch at home as an opportunity to save money.

This may last a few more weeks at best and a few months at worst. I can’t control the coronavirus but I can control my routine.

Difficult decisions and conversations

The impact of coronavirus on the market and economy has forced a lot of people into making some difficult decisions. There’s no shortage of examples here.

Airbnb had to make a decision to allow refunds for all bookings due to coronavirus. Hosts are upset as they’ve had to take the blunt end of the cost. Flywheel, one of my favorite workout classes, has decided to lay off 95% of it’s workforce as it fights to survive.

There are thousands of other businesses as well making difficult decisions to lay off workers, cut pay, and/or close shop. My father’s small business that he has run for nearly 30 years is likely going to be closed as a result of this.

Even if not discussing layoffs or paycuts, every company will need to make business decisions that will have a real impact on others. I have a friend who “put 5 companies out of business” last week as she had to cut purchase orders from small companies who won’t survive.

At Secfi, we’ve had a lot of difficult conversations internally and with our clients these past couple weeks. This is the part of business that really sucks. No one wants to have to make these decisions or have these conversations, but someone needs to. There’s no magic easy button here. Very likely, the person on the other end of the decision or conversation will be upset, or even worse, angry.

This past week, I’ve relied on a couple tools to help me through these conversations: honesty and overcorrection.

I try to stay as honest as possible and calmly explain the situation and why we need to make this decision. Fabricating things does no good and most people will see right through this. I cut straight to the point and give my honest assessment of the whole ordeal.

After honestly explaining the situation, I then do my best to overcorrect the situation. There’s only so much you can do to control the situation at hand, but there are many other things you can do to try to help or make the situation right. Going above and beyond shows that you truly care and have empathy for the situation. It’s the least you can do after breaking bad news to the individual.

These decisions and conversations are not easy, but I know I’ll be a better leader on the other end once I am done with them.

Trends to follow in the new normal

I wrote about life post coronavirus in my blog post a couple days ago, Post CoVid-19: The new normal. I wrote about the opportunities that will be available in the post coronavirus world which I call the new normal.

I wanted to follow-up on that post and write about some of the trends that I have been seeing that people out there will be able to capitalize on.

Some of these trends may be brutally obvious while others will seem like a reach. Of course, a lot of these may never materialize in the new normal. Given that, only a handful of people in this world has ever seen a global pandemic like CoVid-19 and it’s naive to think that life will go back to being the same after the dust settles.

My list and observations as of today:

• Hygienic standards will be raised. It was a rude wake up call to the world, but perhaps we needed a reminder that you should wash your hands often and cough into your arm. Germs/viruses have always been spread this way, but it took a global pandemic for us to take it seriously. Look for people to react much differently to bad hygiene and for companies to take advantage and make it easier to be hygienic. Anyone want a sink that automatically plays a song that lasts 20 seconds to make us wash our hands better?

• Masks have been widely used in Asian countries to prevent the spread of germs. Contrary to belief here in the U.S., most use these masks so they don’t spread their own germs to others, not to necessarily protect themselves. I would not be surprised to see masks starting to become the new norm here in the U.S., much like it has been in Japan, Korea, and China. I’m looking forward to those $200 Supreme masks everywhere.

• Simple things such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, and iPads at checkout will be reconsidered. The new normal will see a large infusion of touchless technology. May we see a resurgence of using your feet to do things such as turning on the water or opening doors?

• Retail stores will continue to trend downwards overall. More and more people will switch from going to stores like Target to purely shopping online. BUT this opens the door the small box retailers. While large stores like Target, Walmart, etc. will start to disappear as they go more and more online, the small mom and pop stores will see a resurgence to fill the need of people who like to shop.

• Expect to see start-ups tackling mass and clear communication across large groups of people. This is the first global crisis since perhaps the Cold War. There is not a clear cut way and easy way for authorities and officials to communicate to everyone in an effective way. South Korea created a coronavirus app so the government can communicate and provide guidelines to their citizens. It’s about time for America to step up and do the same when the next crisis comes.

• Office space was becoming less and less common. The future of work will be less time in offices and more time working from home and other communal spaces. While this trend was already in full force, expect covid to accelerate this.

• May we see a resurgence of community soon? The advent of technology such as television, video games, and smart phones has seemingly made us more distant. Potential catastrophic events such as CoVid-19 will bring us closer together. I saw a sign the other day of someone in my neighborhood volunteering to help the elderly with groceries and food. I see business owners on Twitter dedicating their factories and offering free food to healthcare workers. People are looking to donate their stimulus checks on the internet. I suspect to see more and more startups that help people get off their phones and get together in their communities.

• For the first time in perhaps the world’s history, we are seeing the entire globe connect against a common enemy. We will soon see the power we can unlock when we work together against that common enemy. Globalization enabled this widespread pandemic. Globalization will also be the reason we end it. Expect to see even more globalization and connectivity in the world. The first part of Trump’s presidency was marked with America first and trade wars. Perhaps a global pandemic is what we needed to tear down walls and start working with each other better.

I plan to continue to write more about these topics as the new normal takes place. It’s an interesting time to be alive.

Post CoVid-19: The new normal

The doom and gloom is very much alive and likely won’t end for weeks at best. Like much of the rest of the world, I am paying close attention to the news and other sources of daily doom. I am not however paying attention to contribute to the panic, but rather to find opportunities in our post quarantine world.

Every crisis in the world has always doubled as an incubator for innovation. We don’t have to look far for great examples. Possibly the most famous company bred out of a crisis in recent memory? GroupOn which started as a deal site in the post financial crisis recession.

Once we get through this terrible situation, we’ll all be left adjusting to life post CoVid-19. Life outside this world of self-quarantine will largely go back to normal, but there will be differences and changes in everyday life, hopefully for the better of humans and this planet. This will be the new normal.

Those that are watching and thinking will be able to see the trends before they are here. For those that have been paying attention, the trends are forming already.

What we don’t know is also what I am excited about. How will entrepreneurs and companies adjust and innovate based on these new trends?

Not everything that comes out of this global crisis will be bad. There will be innovation and quality of life will get better for many. It’s out there for the taking, we just have to be bold enough to see these opportunities in the midst of a crisis.

Corona for start-ups

I’ve had a good amount of conversations with friends and business connections in the financial world regarding the market. As someone in the start-up world, the conversations naturally gravitate towards the impact of venture capital funding and start-ups.

Unfortunately, many start-ups won’t make it out of this coronavirus induced recession alive. Of course, the reality is that many would not have survived anyways even if this virus didn’t rear it’s head this year. Still this is a tough pill to swallow and a hard way to go out for many founders and employees with dreams.

There will undoubtedly be a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda, and pondering what if. The start-up world we live in is one that can be very generous, but one in which the lights can turn off in a matter of days.

I don’t think anyone could have truly planned for a global pandemic like CoVid-19, but start-ups can and need to plan for rainy days, months, and even years. This of course is easier said than done, but the lessons learned from this year will likely stick and be more of a norm.

It’s a new day and age in start-up and venture capital land. It’s up to the start-ups to change their course of action and start planning accordingly to survive.