Businesses We Can Learn From

In a time of crisis everyone looks to leaders for guidance. Thousands of individuals have stepped up over the past few weeks and months in a time of turmoil. Organizations also look to one another for ideas and guidance. Over the past few weeks thousands of organizations have stepped up and have altered their plans to help where they can.

Below we’ve shared some of the businesses that we have personally found admirable in a time of crisis. Hopefully we can all learn a thing or two about what they are doing and apply the same ideas to our businesses and everyday lives. Plus, we all could probably go for some positive stories.

Note: These are just a few examples of businesses we admire. If you have any you feel should be added to the list, send us a message to marketing@visible.vc

Zoom

Over the past few weeks Zoom has obviously been vital to just about every company (p.s. Read how we use Zoom as a fully remote company here). Outside of being an integral part of our collective productivity, Zoom has stepped up in a big way to help educators and students. Last week, Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, announced they’d be giving away Zoom to K-12 educators and students in Italy, Japan, and the U.S.

As Alex Konrad wrote in Forbes, “Having already removed the time limit from video chats using Zoom’s free service for affected regions in China and elsewhere, Yuan took another measure to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus: he decided to remove the limit for any K-12 schools affected in Japan, Italy and the United States.”

For me personally, it has been incredible to watch my significant other give speech therapy to students over Zoom.

Seamus

Seamus is a niche golf brand focused on handcrafted head covers and golf accessories located in Portland, OR. Seamus Golf might be a lesser known brand but they are setting a high standard. Last week, the Seamus golf team announced that they’d be designing and producing masks to help with the shortage. Using their production team and facilities Seamus projects that they’ll be able to make 5,000 masks in 3 days.

Read more from Megan, the Co-Founder of Seamus below:

View this post on Instagram

30% OFF SITE WIDE // Sometime today, our Co-Founder Megan will be provided with more information on the actual design tech pack and materials to be used. We are proud of our team. They took the time to design a mask and figured out how many we can make. 5,000 in three days with our 10 sewers sewing if it were the design above. Our team is well accustomed to working on projects we’ve never worked on before. Some of our team learned to sew at SEAMUS, thus it is possible that we could to increase our workforce if that need presented itself. In the meantime, we will continue to offer a 30% site wide to all customers until we are making masks. Having taken serious steps to ensure Social Distancing, we now truly believe we are in a position to help. #farandsure

A post shared by SEAMUS GOLF (@seamusgolf) on Mar 20, 2020 at 9:10am PDT

Tock

“Tock is a comprehensive platform built to fundamentally change the way restaurants think about and run their business. This includes a robust reservation, guest, and table management system for restaurants of all sizes across the globe.” As more restaurants struggle to stay open, Nick Kokonas, CEO of Tock, and the team have already started to help restaurants build carry out operations. To do so, the team fast tracked and already built Tock To Go. Tock To Go allows companies that usually don’t have carry out operations offer meals to go.

Nick Kokonas is an incredibly transparent and admirable leader. Check out the email from Nick to their company explaining the decisions they’ve made below:

My email to The Alinea Group team explaining our plans. May be useful for other restaurants / businesses and for the public to understand why we are doing pick-up meals. Transparency is important: pic.twitter.com/j98GszOy4g

— nick kokonas (@nickkokonas) March 20, 2020

Allbirds

By this point most people are familiar with Allbirds. For those of you who may not be familiar, “Allbirds specializes in manufacturing eco-friendly wool shoes.”

The team at Allbirds announced that they are donating shoes to anyone who works in healthcare and is on the front lines of fighting COVID-19. An incredible move for a brand already big in the medical and healthcare industries. Check out the post from Allbirds below:

View this post on Instagram

To our US healthcare community – we want to thank you for being on the front lines and helping to keep our communities healthy. We appreciate and admire everything you are doing. We hope a pair of Tuke Matcha Wool Runners on us might be a small token of our appreciation. Thank you. – (Offer valid while supplies last)

A post shared by Allbirds (@allbirds) on Mar 20, 2020 at 11:40am PDT

Patagonia

“Patagonia is an American clothing company that markets and sells outdoor clothing.” Patagonia was one of the first major retailers in the U.S. to announce that they’d be closing their retail stores (many stores have since followed). Not only did Patagonia decide to close their retail stores but they made the decision to close their online shop AND continue to pay all of their hourly employees. You can read the note from Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia, below:

The companies above are just a small sample size of the leaders and organizations that have stepped up in a time of turmoil. Hopefully we can all take something away from these businesses and apply it to our own businesses and day to day lives.