(Sorry for sending twice but apparently the first email doesn’t let you comment! Still learning how Substack works! Here you should be able to comment however!)
Good morning Super Founders!
So this is the first Friday Community Thread where we all can publicly comment/reply to the weekly discussion topic.
For this community thread, I highly recommend when askedyou enter an anonymous user name so that other Super Founders, your investors, your customers & myself don’t know who is doing the writing!
Meaning that you don’t need to worry about repercussions & we all can have a real/honest discussion vs. pretending we’re all doing fine!
Anyway without further ado on to this week’s thread which is titled:
’How is business really?’
Most businesses due to Covid-19 were expecting a brutal April, did this happen? or was it slightly better than you expected? Did you have to layoff/furlow staff - how did it go? How is your team morale looking? What does May/June look like for you? etc.
Yes, these are hard days but I hope the above helps you get a few things off your chest, show you that your not alone & maybe just maybe bring some optimism to your Friday!
Sadly for us, being a platform for online reservations at restaurants, revenue was down 50% in March, about 99% down in April, and will be 100% down in May and June, until restaurants are allowed to open in July. We have done a pivot towards delivery subscriptions (not on-demand delivery, although there are some on-demand delivery options as well) at the beginning of May, and have seen some traction. Hoping this picks up in May and June, or else the carnage will be huge. We have had to cut salaries for everyone, but haven't let go of anyone yet. Hard times for us (and everyone), but perhaps especially harder because restaurants are simply not allowed to stay open now.
Im in the education industry where the business model is on a subscription basis. Due to the pandemic, we are seeing 50% drop on our collection efforts. Reason being is that our market is in the B to C SES market range where unfortunately our student's parents are in the most vulnerable cohort of consumers group. Many of them are furloughed or even let go by their companies.
It is also ironic to see that the majority of our industry players are very late in tech adaptation for the business. Its seems like a lot of us just got fire in the pants just now! Somehow the industry's human resource regeneration looks much more needed than ever.
Luckily my business has started to build the tech infrastructure to support sales and learning before the pandemic came around the first time. It gives us plenty room to mitigate the risks and correct our path.
Morale if the team is surprisingly high because they are seeing that the digital transformation we are doing is actually working!
Our business is advertising-driven so we have seen consumption go up but ad rates go down. Overall revenue is down 30% for April. We are fortunate that we don't have to look at letting go of anyone this couple of months. Ramadan was supposed to be the biggest month of the year but most of the spend has been postponed and some have been canceled altogether. So this will lead to a lower than expected year. Hoping for a big Q4
Morale: our team is doing ok working from home, we are supporting them with regular happy hours, meditation sessions, sharing sessions etc. Although we can see Zoom/webinar fatigue setting in already
Thanks for the comment JS & yes also seeing sales also down when it comes to media by about ~30%. And yes also hoping for a good Q4 & maybe even Q3 as Goldman Sachs expects! (Fingers crossed!)
Also seeing the Zoom / Webinar fatigue & actually finding we're telling people that actually you don't need to meet that much! As apparently with Zoom/WFH - apparently people like to setup video calls a lot more when in fact a email would have sufficed!
Thanks for setting this up. Our business, in the Digital marketing sector, took a serious hit in March, coming in at 24% of target, but we bounced back to high 60’s in April. Luckily we also did a 40% cost reduction so it seems like things could be ok once the reduction in sales hits the cash flow (many of our clients give us NET 60 or NET 90 terms of payment)
We had to let some people go, but it felt like more cutting fat than muscle or bone so not so bad.
Funny thing I is I feel there’s some fat still left to cut - but I’m afraid the machine won’t run well without them.
Looking forward to hiring super muscle - now is an amazing time when a lot of great talent has suddenly been released into the market and I feel those who pick it up will be very well positioned.
A part of me wants to make new hires and let go of the poor performing people at the same time. Seems a weird thing to do during a hiring freeze and maybe bad for morale though - that said cutting fat can be good for morale too since the muscle can see the fat...
Yeah I can see how that can be a bit of quandary there!
One quote that I heard recently from the podcast Pivot that I think it really fitting given these days is
"Nothing can happen for decades, but decades can happen in days"
With their general point being that right now however you act is multiplied, so if your worried about morale taking a hit, etc. maybe worth to factor in whether you'd still make the call if the effect is far greater than you expect!
2 of 3 businesses are running smooth, no impact on revenue yet. Both are software as a service. The third one has had a 40% drop in revenue, and we've had to freeze hiring, look at reducing costs. No layoffs yet, but doesn't look good if this condition lasts for another 2-3 months.
Teams are doing well, no issues with remote work so far. Overall morale is looking good, HR has been very active in engaging team members.
Great to hear that 2/3 out of your businesses are running well & seeing no impact! I'm guessing the third one perhaps wasn't a SaaS product?
But yes, same here when it comes to team morale I've actually been really impressed by my teams's resistance - though we can some of the extroverts are starting to slowly go a little stir crazy!
Yes, your guess is correct, I actually forgot to mention that the third business is serving the Education industry (offline). Now moving to integrate as much as possible with online Edtech SaaS players.
Stir crazy is better than fatigue, I guess. Any signs of demotivated, depressed team members?
Great initiative & I think these community posts are a great idea!
Answering you question, for our business we saw sales drop by 35% which isn't great! But thankfully it's looking as if May will be back to normal. So fingers crossed others are also seeing the rebound!
Hey Patrick, great initiative!
Sadly for us, being a platform for online reservations at restaurants, revenue was down 50% in March, about 99% down in April, and will be 100% down in May and June, until restaurants are allowed to open in July. We have done a pivot towards delivery subscriptions (not on-demand delivery, although there are some on-demand delivery options as well) at the beginning of May, and have seen some traction. Hoping this picks up in May and June, or else the carnage will be huge. We have had to cut salaries for everyone, but haven't let go of anyone yet. Hard times for us (and everyone), but perhaps especially harder because restaurants are simply not allowed to stay open now.
Hey Patrick,
Loving what you are doing here. Keep it up!
Im in the education industry where the business model is on a subscription basis. Due to the pandemic, we are seeing 50% drop on our collection efforts. Reason being is that our market is in the B to C SES market range where unfortunately our student's parents are in the most vulnerable cohort of consumers group. Many of them are furloughed or even let go by their companies.
It is also ironic to see that the majority of our industry players are very late in tech adaptation for the business. Its seems like a lot of us just got fire in the pants just now! Somehow the industry's human resource regeneration looks much more needed than ever.
Luckily my business has started to build the tech infrastructure to support sales and learning before the pandemic came around the first time. It gives us plenty room to mitigate the risks and correct our path.
Morale if the team is surprisingly high because they are seeing that the digital transformation we are doing is actually working!
Our business is advertising-driven so we have seen consumption go up but ad rates go down. Overall revenue is down 30% for April. We are fortunate that we don't have to look at letting go of anyone this couple of months. Ramadan was supposed to be the biggest month of the year but most of the spend has been postponed and some have been canceled altogether. So this will lead to a lower than expected year. Hoping for a big Q4
Morale: our team is doing ok working from home, we are supporting them with regular happy hours, meditation sessions, sharing sessions etc. Although we can see Zoom/webinar fatigue setting in already
Thanks for the comment JS & yes also seeing sales also down when it comes to media by about ~30%. And yes also hoping for a good Q4 & maybe even Q3 as Goldman Sachs expects! (Fingers crossed!)
Also seeing the Zoom / Webinar fatigue & actually finding we're telling people that actually you don't need to meet that much! As apparently with Zoom/WFH - apparently people like to setup video calls a lot more when in fact a email would have sufficed!
Am helping a crowdfunding platform for donations now, so the wave are HUGE!
We are shooting 1000%from Feb to March and about 201% from March to April.
Ending Ramadan, and (hopefully) the Covid wave, we are looking to settle in in a new baseline and retools our gears after a swamped 2 months!
Looking to hiring strategical position as well!
Hey Stef,
Wow 1000% & then 200%! Great to hear how generous people can be during these times!
How big is the if you don't mind me asking? and what are the key tasks that they are spending most of their days on at the moment?
Congrats though!
Patrick
Hi Patrick
Thanks for setting this up. Our business, in the Digital marketing sector, took a serious hit in March, coming in at 24% of target, but we bounced back to high 60’s in April. Luckily we also did a 40% cost reduction so it seems like things could be ok once the reduction in sales hits the cash flow (many of our clients give us NET 60 or NET 90 terms of payment)
We had to let some people go, but it felt like more cutting fat than muscle or bone so not so bad.
Funny thing I is I feel there’s some fat still left to cut - but I’m afraid the machine won’t run well without them.
Looking forward to hiring super muscle - now is an amazing time when a lot of great talent has suddenly been released into the market and I feel those who pick it up will be very well positioned.
A part of me wants to make new hires and let go of the poor performing people at the same time. Seems a weird thing to do during a hiring freeze and maybe bad for morale though - that said cutting fat can be good for morale too since the muscle can see the fat...
Hey Alex,
Yeah I can see how that can be a bit of quandary there!
One quote that I heard recently from the podcast Pivot that I think it really fitting given these days is
"Nothing can happen for decades, but decades can happen in days"
With their general point being that right now however you act is multiplied, so if your worried about morale taking a hit, etc. maybe worth to factor in whether you'd still make the call if the effect is far greater than you expect!
Good luck in which ever choice you make however!
Patrick
Hi Patrick & Super Founders,
2 of 3 businesses are running smooth, no impact on revenue yet. Both are software as a service. The third one has had a 40% drop in revenue, and we've had to freeze hiring, look at reducing costs. No layoffs yet, but doesn't look good if this condition lasts for another 2-3 months.
Teams are doing well, no issues with remote work so far. Overall morale is looking good, HR has been very active in engaging team members.
Hey James,
Great to hear that 2/3 out of your businesses are running well & seeing no impact! I'm guessing the third one perhaps wasn't a SaaS product?
But yes, same here when it comes to team morale I've actually been really impressed by my teams's resistance - though we can some of the extroverts are starting to slowly go a little stir crazy!
Best,
Patrick
Yes, your guess is correct, I actually forgot to mention that the third business is serving the Education industry (offline). Now moving to integrate as much as possible with online Edtech SaaS players.
Stir crazy is better than fatigue, I guess. Any signs of demotivated, depressed team members?
Hey Patrick,
Great initiative & I think these community posts are a great idea!
Answering you question, for our business we saw sales drop by 35% which isn't great! But thankfully it's looking as if May will be back to normal. So fingers crossed others are also seeing the rebound!
Hope the same can be said for others!
Thanks Joe & great to hear that your potentially seeing a return to business as usual in May!