Birmingham's Heroes: 5 ways businesses have adapted to do well and do good in these unprecedented times

As Endeavor Global Board Director Reid Hoffman pointed out in a recent webinar for Endeavor Entrepreneurs, “one of the interesting things about crises is that they really sort between heroes and villains”. In Birmingham, Alabama, we’re lucky to have a lot of heroes. 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen entrepreneurs step up and ecosystem partners rally behind them. Businesses all over Jefferson Country are being forced to adapt in all sorts of ways, very few of them comfortable.

We recently shared how Endeavor’s ScaleUp Birmingham program is adapting to meet the evolving needs of the ecosystem. Today we want to celebrate the many ways Birmingham entrepreneurs are adapting to do well and do good in these unprecedented times.

1. Expanding offerings to meet new needs

Other entrepreneurs have jumped on the opportunity to develop new features or offerings to meet the needs of clients in a post-COVID world. 

  • In addition to its core services (Payroll, Compliance, HR, and Employee Benefits), PEO Simpeo is assisting organizations with the Paycheck Protection Loan process and helping small and medium sized businesses adapt to the expansion of FMLA. 

  • Kerry Schradar and Ashlee Ammonds are rolling out Virtual Mixtroz and a Progressive Web App to help employers, educators, and event organizers connect people in real-time and provide valuable data from those connections. 

  • Wyndy is working with healthcare facilities and other essential industries to cover the cost of babysitting for their workers. Founders Tommy and Ginger Mayfield also brought Wyndy user and infectious disease doctor Dr. Ellen Eaton of UAB on as an advisor to help families navigate and minimize health risks through these unprecedented times.

2. Bringing Birmingham favorites home

Businesses all over Birmingham are adapting to sell online and offering curbside pickup and delivery options for a physically distanced world. A few local brands have taken this a step further with collaborations and digital experiences that let you bring them home in new ways.

3. Building on what they’re best at

A number of Birmingham businesses are rising to the challenge of increased demand as the pressures of shelter-in-place orders increase the urgency of clients and users jumping onboard.

  • CaseStatus is helping lawyers adapt to remote work with their world class Client Management Platform. The firm is also hosting virtual happy hours for the legal community and hiring for its implementation and development teams.

  • Guideway Care continues to support and extend clinical care teams with their technology-enabled care guidance programs. Care Guides have become a lifeline to patients with chronic diseases, and their pre-screening protocol is helping healthcare organizations more quickly identify potential cases. 

  • Pack Health was quick to spin up an information hub, capture how COVID-19 is impacting high risk patients in their own words, and offer its services to healthcare workers free of charge. They’ve also partnered with Immediate to provide on-demand pay and financial wellness for their employees

  • In addition to hiring more shoppers and full time staff, Shipt is introducing contactless delivery, providing all shoppers with a set of gloves and mask, providing up to 2 weeks of financial assistance to shoppers who are diagnosed with coronavirus or placed under mandatory individual quarantine, and donating $150,000 to FeedingAmerica to help communities in need.

4. Lowering barriers and opening doors

Several Birmingham founders are making it easier to adopt their technology to help clients and workers weather the storm.

  • Gary York’s HelpLightning, a merged reality and virtual interaction platform, launched two programs that allow customers to obtain additional/new licenses at no cost.

  • Matt Pierce of financial health platform Immediate was quick to coordinate with both his investors and bank to waive all ImmediatePay early access fees during the COVID-19 season. They’ve seen unprecedented adoption among new clients in the healthcare and senior living space and are rolling out a new Return to Work program that will waive all employee transaction fees for the first 60 days.

  • Delphine Carter’s Boulo Solutions, a platform that matches talented women with flexible remote jobs, is offering not only to match companies with the right Boulo talent to execute their pivots, but to cover the cost of the part time hires.

  • Jim Cavalle of INFLCR is offering free access to their personalized content delivery platform for any collegiate department, professional team, organization, or agency to streamline external communication and engage with fans on social media. 

5. Rallying around the cause

The hashtags #BhamStrong, #BhamCares, and #BhamSupport are catching like wildfire as the community comes together to support healthcare workers and local businesses affected by COVID-19. 

What else are you seeing Birmingham entrepreneurs do to serve customers and community while sustaining their businesses through this crisis? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments below.