How Startups Can Survive the COVID-19 Crisis

The onslaught of this pandemic has upset so many aspects of our daily lives and startups are no exception. Hailed as a bright spot in the economy, today many of them are at the end of their ‘runway’. Delayed deals, paused investments and falling consumer spends are becoming commonplace during this time, dampening even the most optimistic startup founders’ sentiments.

Indeed, one of the biggest fallouts of the pandemic for startups is the drying up of investor funds. 2019 was a great year for Indian startups with B2C startups closing over 425 deals worth $6.23 billion in funding. Carrying on that trend into 2020 – in the first two months of this year, VC investment in Indian startups was even higher than in the same period last year. However, once the pandemic started tightening its grips, VCs too chose to pull the strings of their purses.

Meanwhile, millennial buyers are struggling with uncertain job prospects and as a result, have become more conscious of where they’re putting their money.

This all sounds rather bleak, doesn’t it?

Well, the good news is that history has examples from crises about how they can be handled and sometimes even used as a springboard…