Crunchbase Resources to Help Your Business and the Community During COVID-19

There’s no doubt that COVID-19 has changed our daily lives. 

Here at Crunchbase, we are in our third week of working remotely and social distancing. We recognize and appreciate how lucky we are to be able to function as a remote team. Our community of users and customers have shared with us how this pandemic has impacted their companies and employees. Some have been able to adapt, albeit painfully, while others haven’t been as fortunate. 

While we can’t change the macro environment we find ourselves in, we want to use our little corner of the world to help you navigate yours. In that spirit, our team has compiled some resources we hope will help your business as we chart a new course forward together.

Given these uncertain times, we understand opportunities will be hard to come by and we hope these free tools will help.

1. Ways to target recession-resistant companies

We have created lists using Crunchbase data to find companies that could be potential prospects for your business. While we don’t know the exact needs of each company, or how they are specifically dealing with COVID-19, we have pre-filtered the lists to focus on companies that meet criteria typically associated with business health.

Searches that sales teams can use to find new accounts

A search that entrepreneurs can use to find investors

Searches investors can use to find startups

The private markets, while less visible than the public markets, are also experiencing major volatility during this time. There will be dips, but also opportunities for those who are on the lookout. Here are resources to help you stay in the loop.

  • Summary newsletter: The Crunchbase Daily is a free newsletter that shares a summary of recent news, funding announcements, and acquisitions. This is helpful if you’re looking for high-level information across a broad swath of private companies or industries. Subscribe here
  • Company-specific updates: If you only want emails about a specific list of companies, you can sign up for email notifications within Crunchbase. We’ll automatically send you an email–at your selected frequency–when there are updates. This requires registering for a free account (no payment required). Details here
  • News coverage: The Crunchbase News team publishes independent editorial coverage about private companies and trends. They have unique insights and human interest angles not often found in other publications. Here’s a sample of recent articles that might be relevant:

3. Tips from other experts dealing with COVID-19

In addition to our editorial coverage, Crunchbase provides best practices and how-to’s that help our users succeed in their jobs. In the coming weeks, we will be building up our library of educational resources for professionals dealing with the impact of COVID-19.

If you’re a salesperson, entrepreneur, or investor, and have tips you’d like to share on our blog, send us a note. In the meantime, here are some initial resources: 

4. Recruiting and hiring resources

We’ve seen companies and people come together to use the power of data for good, generating free tools and trackers to keep a pulse on layoffs and the state of hiring. The Awesome People List, developed by Julia Lipton and David Siegel, includes information on layoffs, companies still hiring, and how to help. Candor also developed a list of companies that are freezing hiring due to COVID-19. TechEvents Today is hosting a virtual job fair to help those laid off due to COVID-19 on April 13. We’ll continue to keep an eye out for helpful resources and link them here.

5. Ways to give back

Through this challenging time, it has truly been inspiring to see organizations dropping everything and finding ways to step up and help those in need by donating to relief efforts or creating special COVID-19 relief offers, or using technology to connect those in need. With the highest weekly unemployment filings in U.S. history over the last two weeks, and families struggling to stay safe and healthy, it’s more important than ever that we come together to help our communities.

Prioritizing philanthropy encourages unity among employees, inspires applicants, and supports communities. It also enables an organization to pivot support in times of need. Our team at Crunchbase recommends supporting the following organizations: 

  • Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization that is coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations, and businesses globally to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and essential medical items to health workers responding to COVID-19.
  • United Way (Bay Area, or national), a program that offers resources to eradicate poverty and support for low-income families in our community. United Way’s COVID Relief Fund utilices its vast network to distribute information and connect people with need and living expenses during this crisis.
  • The CDC Foundation, which builds partnerships with organizations across the globe to understand, treat, and ultimately control disease outbreaks of all kinds. A donation to the Coronavirus fund supports medical supplies, lab resources, health agencies and particularly vulnerable people this time.
  • Tipping Point Community finds, funds, and supports the most effective nonprofits in the Bay Area that offer direct services and resources to people with the goal of ending cyclical poverty. Their COVID relief fund is aimed to help marginalized groups disproportionately impacted by the crisis.

Let us know how we can help

On a personal level, I imagine you’re all trying to navigate the uncertainty much like we are. While we want to continue to track and report on the wins, we also want to be sensitive and respectful of the struggles. So please reach out to us at hello@crunchbase.com with additional ways we can serve you. We’ll keep updating this list of resources as more become available.

Stay safe out there.

Jager


This post was last updated on April 14, 2020 with the addition of ServiceNow’s support for COVID-19 response page.

Updated on updated on April 8, 2020 with the addition of TechEvents Today’s virtual job fair and Tropic’s list of software vendors with COVID-19 relief offers.

Updated on April 6, 2020 with a call to action to give back to the community during this time. We recommend supporting Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization that is coordinating with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations, and businesses globally to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and essential medical items to health workers responding to COVID-19.

Updated on April 1, 2020 with the addition of the Awesome People List (developed by Julia Lipton and David Siegel) that includes information on layoffs, companies still hiring, and information on how to help, along with Candor’s list of companies that are freezing hiring due to COVID-19.

  • Originally published March 27, 2020, updated September 19, 2024