COVID-19: Notes From StartUp Health’s Global Army of Health Transformers

Twice a week, StartUp Health hosts a virtual community forum to unite our founders who now hail from 25 countries and 6 continents. The goal is to leverage the network effect and foster collaboration so together we can share learnings and lessons learned, support each other and progress through the battle each week. 

Yesterday, over 100 of our Health Transformers from more than a dozen countries joined the 90 minutes session. It was an inspiring working session, and I felt grateful to collaborate with such heroes. 

Many of these founders are on the frontlines today helping battle COVID-19 as health practitioners or doctorpreneurs; many are also working to bring their solutions to the battle helping with COVID-19. (Here’s a list of 15 of our companies offering their solutions for free and on yesterday's call we learned about more than 2 dozen more which we will be providing a public database for shortly: https://healthtransformer.co/health-innovators-offer-their-tools-for-free-during-the-covid-19-outbreak-7b28ba21e44b. 

The call, which took place via video call, was attended by CEOs and founders from more than a dozen countries, including Italy, Spain, Israel, Finland and the United Kingdom as well as US hotspots Seattle, NYC and Bay Area. We began with a moment of silence and asked for each attendee, no matter what remote working situation they found themselves in, to simply take a deep breath.

Breathing, deeply, felt good.

It was a helpful beginning because what followed was 90 minutes of intense sharing and collaboration. It was as though a pressure valve had been released. Serial entrepreneur West Shell of Conversa shared wisdom about how a startup can pivot and stay relevant during a crisis. Canadian physician-entrepreneur Dr. Alexandra Greenhill, CEO of Careteam, offered lessons learned from the SARS outbreak and response. Hunter Howard, founder of Hormone Therapeutics, who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, shared his first hand experience and answered questions about the testing process. And in the concurrent live chat we use, it was as though there was a conference within a conference, with founders sharing help and combining forces in real time.

These are uncertain times, yes, but today I am more grateful than ever for the entrepreneurs, the clinicians and caregivers, the teachers, and all the Health Transformers who are taking the call to action and coming together to help...

If you too have a solution you think can help, here is a bit about the COVID-19 call for innovation we are currently working on...

Stay safe, stay healthy. 

P.S. Here’s a podcast I did this week on this topic. (Sorry the audio gets a little messed up toward the end). Peace.