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pjudice | 5 years ago

I think the concept of turning to entrepreneurs to solve unseen negative consequences of COVID is awesome. I wonder how to ensure founders actually focus on COVID-related issues rather than taking advantage of the visibility and funding to focus on other issues.

discuss

steventey|5 years ago

Yeah, that was one of my concerns as well - some of these startups seem to be targeting issues that are tangential at best to COVID, and that was a little confusing to me given the article's title.

johnwaldie|5 years ago

This is a problem and I agree. Most of our portfolio companies are concerned that COVID is temporary and are seeking alternative business models in parallel. This is because institutional investors, who will ultimately end up funding the companies down the road due to Reg C funding limited to $1M/yr, continue to tell startups that need to have alternative business models in case a vaccine is approved. To some extent, trying to move away from the deeply entrenched institutional investment model is an ouroboros.