SA国际传媒

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting businesses all over the world. But amid all the news of layoffs, operations scaling down and closures lies something that I hope will never go away: hope.

It鈥檚 not just established startups that can help ease the pains of the current crisis.

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, CEO and co-founder of , believes the current situation should fuel the birth of new startups to help revive the economy and yes, help save lives. And his pre-seed accelerator is ramping up its operations to reach those goals during the crisis.

鈥淭his is a call to arms to the best equipped people to help us restart the economy and get humanity back to work. Like now,鈥� Ressi told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淓ntrepreneurs are the people who are going to get us out of the pandemic and build the future we want to live in.鈥�

Founder Institute is currently seeing historically high volumes of people applying for its programs. The organization helps entrepreneurs as early as the idea stage to help make those ideas a reality.

Over the years, it has created over 4,500 companies worldwide and has an estimated portfolio value of $20 billion. Eighty percent of the companies that have gone through Founder Institute鈥檚 14-week program are still operating.

Today, Founder Institute is enrolling more entrepreneurs than ever, with more than 60 city programs currently accepting applications, Ressi said. It doesn鈥檛 expect all its applicants to give up their jobs, though. The organization accepts applicants with full-time jobs who are building 鈥渟ide hustle鈥� projects. It is also rolling out a number of new scholarships as part of its.

The 鈥榞reat restart鈥�

Certain sectors such as travel, hospitality, retail and restaurants are being hit particularly hard.

鈥淢any of those businesses are going to be impacted for months, or even years,鈥� Ressi told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淏ut someone needs to pick up the slack and it鈥檚 startups. I鈥檓 calling this the great restart, not reset. We don鈥檛 want to go back to zero and wind up where we were. We need to restart and do something new.鈥�

He believes startups will be the ones to create cures, tests, vaccines and the technology to distribute those vaccines, among other things.

Already, a few of Founder Institute鈥檚 graduate companies are flourishing amid the pandemic, Ressi said.

One telehealth startup out of India is in the right place at the right time. provides second opinions digitally and is primarily focused on the Indian market. Since the country recently allowed for primary care to be done virtually or digitally, and SecondMedic had all the infrastructure in place, the startup was positioned to step in.

鈥淭he regulatory change in India caused the business to blow up,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ince no one was previously allowed to do virtual or remote care in India, SecondMedic was able to jump into primary care.鈥�

Another company, , provides chatbots for the beleaguered hotel sector.

鈥淗otels are getting thousands of calls about changes, cancellations and rebookings,鈥� Ressi noted. 鈥淢any don鈥檛 have the staff to deal with it all. So this company is just exploding because it鈥檚 able to provide a really positive customer support experience for users using AI and other tools.鈥�

While it may feel like the world is falling apart, it鈥檚 important to stay optimistic and looking forward. After all, some of the world鈥檚 most impactful and successful companies today were, too, once startups.

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