How Startups are Stepping Up to Support Other Startups

No one understands startups better than other startups. This includes everything from understanding the pressure of trying to find profitability before your runway dries up to being as efficient as possible in times of uncertainty. The kind of insight that only people who live and breathe startups can offer their fellow entrepreneurs.

Take the current COVID-19 pandemic. With most of the world’s startup hubs under shelter in place orders and businesses of all stripes and colors losing sales and customers, lots of startups are feeling the pain. Still others are feeling another kind of pressure, a massive wave of customers testing the limits of a product or service as they too work from home.

In either scenario, that hasn’t stopped dozens of startups from sharing information about how they’re now operating and offering support — both financial and operational — to fellow startups on how to weather the storm. For example, some startups, like Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, are making their coronavirus planning materials, such as sample internal communications emails, publicly available on their blog, and staff safety management startup SafetyCulture has released free COVID-19 response templates and tools for businesses.

Other startups are offering business solutions, ranging from discounts and free accounts for up to three months, or removing all restrictions for their subscription services for students and front-line health care workers. (See our full list below.) For example, SaaS search product startup Algolia is making its pro plan free to any developer or team working on a COVID-19-related, not-for-profit websites or apps and email and email platform MailChimp is offering free accounts for its more feature-rich service to local governments, school, healthcare providers, and others that need to communicate critical health information. Meanwhile, the expense management startup Expensify is reimbursing families with SNAP benefits $50 when they make a purchase with their SNAP card— noting online that they hope the extra funds helps families take care of themselves in tough times — and for one’s mental health, meditation apps Headspace and Calm are both offering free meditations and movement exercises, while HealthUnlocked, the world’s largest social network for health, has launched a new online community where self isolating individuals can support one another and ask for advice.

Some startups are even helping out governments and healthcare systems directly. Odilo, which provides technological platforms for remote learning and educational content, has closed agreements with Spain, Italy, Mexico, and four other governments to provide remote learning and free libraries to their citizens, while Swedish telehealth start-up KRY has launched a free and secure platform for healthcare professionals to conduct video appointments with patients—in 10 different languages, including English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

To learn more about what tools, discounts, and services startups are offering other startups (and the business world at large), check out our running list of offerings here. Note: some offers may be subject to expiration dates outlined on the offering startup’s website.

AWS is committed to supporting our employees, customers, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic including creating the the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative to facilitate innovation in patient testing, making the AWS COVID-19 data lake publicly available to accelerate COVID-19 research, and waving fees for services like AWS IQ to support startups in need of AWS expertise. For daily updates on our COVID-19-related relief initiatives, check out the Amazon COVID-19 blog.