OurCrowd

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In the News: How startups are handling the COVID-19 frontlines

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The COVID-19 pandemic arrived unannounced in late 2019, disrupting lives and businesses in ways that were previously unimaginable. Steering a company through the uncertainty of this crisis is daunting – here are four tips we shared with our own companies: Four Best Practices for Companies During a Crisis.

At OurCrowd, we’re not only backing a whole host of companies that are busy on the frontlines fighting the coronavirus battle, but we’re getting ready for the next pandemic as well. Watch my interview on CNBC as I discuss how tech is being utilized to combat COVID-19, and how the investment community is now very focused on helping these companies that are critical in this fight.

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We are wishing all those who are celebrating a happy, healthy holiday week!

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In the News: Time to move fast and fix things

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Now is the time for tech to drive the effort and support the global community in reversing the course of this coronavirus pandemic and help us establish a more successful, healthier and safer future. The tech world has the ingenuity, resources, imagination and drive to tackle the new challenges brought by COVID-19. Read more in this Al Jazeera op/ed published by Jason Greenblatt and myself. 

Last week saw a great example of tech moving fast and fixing things, with our company Kryon, a leader in robotic process automation. In just 48 hours they managed to complete a typically 1-2 month process and helped Maccabi Health Care Services move all of the Israeli Health Ministry’s coronavirus testing data into their core database. Read it in The Jerusalem Post, and watch my interview on the story with Kryon and Maccabi.

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Our portfolio company data.world is helping Tableu make Johns Hopkins coronavirus data available – and that’s just the start. Join our next webinar, where CEO Brett Hurt will discuss the use of big data to solve COVID-19, and how data.world is applying its technology to the current crisis. The webinar will take place Thursday, April 2nd at 7 PM Jerusalem, 12 PM New York, 9 AM San Francisco – sign up here.

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Four Best Practices for Companies During a Crisis

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The COVID-19 pandemic arrived unannounced in late 2019, disrupting lives and businesses in ways that were previously unimaginable. It could get a lot worse before it gets better, but the world has not ended. Steering a company through the uncertainty of this crisis is daunting, but here are four tips OurCrowd shared with its portfolio to help chart the right course.

1. Don’t fight the wave, ride it 

In times of crisis, companies need to be very agile and maintain the ability to adjust quickly to new realities. “Remain relevant” is the mantra of the hour, and that means crafting your message or adjusting the focus of your product or services to be more relevant for the world as it is. Now is the time of distant learning, social distancing, and obviously the medical applications – think hard about where you fit in.

2. Reach out to your customers 

You need to be in constant contact with your customers. Don’t just assume that because you’ve had a customer for the last two years that they’ll be there for the next few quarters. Have an active conversation to understand their needs and how they are changing so that you can adapt to be supportive in the future.

3. Re-evaluate Customer Acquisition Cost & LifeTime Value 

OurCrowd believes that for many industries, this traditional matrix is going to need to be reassessed. Companies will need to reevaluate Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and LifeTime Value (LTV) because sales cycles could be extended, churn might grow, causing the lifetime value of your customers to shrink.  Understanding how this new metric is affecting your industry and your company is imperative.

4. Cut your burn rate to extend runway 

Take a close look at your burn rate. Make sure the founders, management teams, and boards are focusing on cutting costs in order to extend runway. Determine if all of your employees are essential and if savings can be found by reducing CAC and marketing expenses during this crisis.

The easiest way to raise $3 million in this crisis environment is to cut $250,000 a month from your burn rate.  Most of OurCrowd’s portfolio companies initiated this process in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Steps from reducing salaries across the board to cutting personnel by 15-30%, depending on the industry, have been reported.   The earlier and the more decisive you are during the crisis, the better it will be.

In the VC community we are seeing signs of cautious activity, with term sheets on the table and yes, even exits.  Despite near total lockdowns in countries everywhere, OurCrowd is working full time to support our companies and identify selective opportunities. Great companies are built in downturns, and technology has a big role to play in solving and helping us through the crisis.  It will get better, and you’ll need to be “in the tube” riding the wave to get to the other end of this crisis.

 

Business Unusual: Time for Tech to Move Fast and Fix Things

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The following op-ed was written by OurCrowd CEO Jonathan Medved and former Assistant to the President of the United States, Jason Greenblatt.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus has thrown our vision of a connected digital world poised to solve any crisis through global communication into disarray. We must acknowledge that despite the incredible advances our society has made as a result of technology, we failed to spot the patterns of this pandemic before they spread.

COVID-19 has changed the world, creased the social fabric, upended business, and threatened supply chains. People are fearful and hunkering down at home.

And it’s likely to get a lot worse before it gets better.

It’s time for tech to shine and help things get back to normal and to prepare for a more successful, healthy and safe future. Now is the time to move fast and fix things.

This world-wide crisis presents the greatest challenge yet faced by digital technology. This new struggle against an invisible lethal threat will result in the creation of new areas of business activity. Some that exist already will expand dramatically: digital medicine; artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics; remote social and business networking; online freight and logistics; one-click cybersecurity and payment systems for small businesses; 3-D printing for vital medical equipment; training for distance learning – just to name a few. Other entirely new industries will appear.

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Startups Taking on the Coronavirus Pandemic

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The reality of the corona crisis for startup companies – and really any business – is that they need to stay as relevant as possible in this new, uncharted environment. Many of the long term trends that were evident before the crisis such as distance learning, working from home, or e-commerce, are now reaching an inflection point.

These trends have been accelerated beyond belief in the last few weeks and a snap back to the prior status quo seems unlikely once this crisis is over. It is doubtful that brick and mortar stores will regain much of the market share they’ve lost to online e-commerce before the crisis began. There are going to be long term systematic changes as a result of the change in behavior,  from telehealth and medtech to vaccines and early warning, OurCrowd portfolio companies are helping combat the corona crisis and are already gearing up to fight the next pandemic.

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In the News: Startups Equipped to Combat the Coronavirus

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It’s been another intense week as the global community continues to combat the coronavirus pandemic. I am proud of my team, working day and night to support our companies playing a part in this effort, mobilize our global community to join that effort in fighting the pandemic, and to identify selective opportunities to get in front of it. Read more about how OurCrowd is working through this period in my interview with CTech.

I highly recommend you watch the recording of the webinar we held last week, where, joined by members of our executive team, I shared our insider view into the impact of coronavirus on startups, implications for the market, portfolio companies fighting the battle, and OurCrowd’s next steps. We plan on maintaining strong connectivity with our community and holding various more webinars in the near future – stay tuned on that.

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Furthermore, I believe that great companies are built in downturns and technology has a great role to play in solving and helping us get through this crisis. “From diagnosis, mitigation, patient tracking, contamination prevention, and protecting medical staff, to education and exercise for the homebound”, check out Israeli startups, several of which we are proud to have in OurCrowd’s portfolio, that are working to help defeat this pandemic.

With the above being said, and OurCrowd remaining aware as well as active in supporting the fight against this virus, read on for more tech updates.

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In the News: Join our Wednesday Webinar on coronavirus: Challenges & Innovation in the tech sector

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Alongside governments around the globe, Israel is taking strict social distancing measures in the face of the COVID-19 global health emergency. The startup nation is also utilizing its strengths to tackle the coronavirus – read about Israel’s ingenuity in response to the pandemic. To remind you, I will be hosting a webinar this Wednesday, March 18th at 6 PM Israel, 12 PM New York, 9 AM San Francisco, alongside OurCrowd’s medical venture partner Morris Laster, about the impact of coronavirus on startups, how some startups are fighting back, and what steps we are taking as OurCrowd. Click here or to register for the webinar.

On a positive note, we are often blown away by the stories of success that our startups bring and this one no less so: Will Irwin had suffered from Essential Tremor for more than 2 decades when he heard about the Israeli startup, Insightec. He reached out to a colleague, Jonathan Wiesen, who sits on the OurCrowd Medical Advisory board, and the rest is history. Watch this video for their moving story.

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In the News: The impact of coronavirus on startups & OurCrowd’s next steps

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As the global community comes together to combat the coronavirus, our thoughts are with those directly and indirectly affected. Israel has taken an active role in trying to prevent the spread of the virus and has reduced potential exposure in various ways. Read here how Israeli research groups are hard at work on a vaccine. OurCrowd is maintaining close contact with our portfolio and network to provide guidance in navigating this crisis. See here a note that Sequoia sent its founders and CEOs regarding the current situation.

Join me for a webinar next Wednesday, March 18th at 6 PM Israel, 12 PM New York, 9 AM San Francisco, about the impact of coronavirus on startups, how some startups are fighting back, and what steps we are taking as OurCrowd. Click here

“From healthcare to transportation; artificial intelligence to agriculture and food and fighting fires in Australia to protection from missiles, OurCrowd is saving and improving lives.” Have a look at this piece – From cancer to coronavirus, OurCrowd innovates for humanity.

Up until the coronavirus outbreak, Israeli tech companies were off to a promising start, as they raised over $1.5 billion in the first two months of the year. Watch this video, where Nomura Chief U.S. Economist predicts a strong H2 recovery from the corona crisis.

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