Palo Alto – May 5, 2020 – Woodside Capital Partners is proud to present our newest report, 99 Startups Poised For Growth: Prospering Amidst Pandemic. You can view or download the report via this link.
Amidst a world turned upside down by the Coronavirus Crisis, our Senior Team at Woodside Capital Partners circled up to identify the startups that are well-positioned for growth as the world emerges from the darkest days of the crisis. All but one of the companies are private, ranging from fledgling start-ups to pre-Unicorn.
The crisis highlights enormous opportunities for innovative companies that bring new solutions to big markets such as government, education, healthcare, and large enterprises. Technology can solve some of the most pressing problems that are being spotlighted during the crisis including lack of readiness of our healthcare system to handle a crisis like COVID-19, the challenges around distributing stimulus money, improving efficiency while working remotely, supporting effective remote education, and more.
Industry Segments
The 99 startups featured in this report offer products and services that address some of the above challenges, and more. Most, if not all, would have bright futures even without the crisis. The companies operate in five industry segments:
- Health Tech
- Ed-Tech/Distance Learning
- Enterprise Tech for Distributed Workforces
- Lifestyle Companies for the Homebody Economy
- Robotics
Forging Greatness Amidst Uncertainty
As we created the list, we want to note that some of the most impressive companies in history were founded just before or during economic downturns, including Disney, Facebook, FedEx, Google, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce.
Downturns foster creation of great businesses for a host of reasons – start with a good idea, add a little core market traction, then add a number of unique factors that arise during downturns. For example – hard times push entrepreneurs to be more creative, to stretch investment capital further, and to operate more economically. Candidate pools for talent are generally better, candidates are less expensive, and adversity brings teams closer together. Companies can sometimes find it easier to get earned/free media during a downturn than during a boom. The good discipline forged during lean times gets baked-in to these companies’ cultures and can last for decades thereafter.
If downturns can be a key ingredient for success, this particular downturn offers a historic opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors.
We believe that the investors/acquirers that have both dry powder and bold vision will direct new capital to deserving new initiatives. We further believe this crisis will give rise to a new class of large, significant companies that grow out of the tech innovation ecosystem – as government, education, and non-tech companies double-down on technology.
At a high level, the investment capital is available – investors have plenty of dry powder to burn. Private equity firms are sitting on perhaps $1.5 trillion; venture capital firms have raised more than $200 billion in just the past two years; and more than 500 of the top 2000 companies in the world have more cash than debt on their balance sheets.
To get a copy of the report, please fill out this form.
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