Orange County business professionals, executives and investors share some advice to startups looking to navigate a tricky economy.
With an uncertain economic future, the business world can be an unpredictable place as companies change their strategies or pivot their models while navigating virtual platforms. Fortunately, entrepreneurs are familiar with adaption. From tailoring their pitches to a particular audience to finding a new target demographic through market research, entrepreneurs can often find ways to adapt their businesses to the current economic atmosphere. Here, UCI Beall Applied Innovation ecosystem partners and Orange County community experts provide advice for startups on ways to maneuver through this difficult economic time.
Julie Cranston, director, the Small Business Development Center @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation:
Prepare for the worst by making changes for the better. With revenues and investment potentially declining, startups need to make changes now in order to survive. Trim your runway, evaluate operational or product changes, explore federal grants, debt funding options and other financial tools to give your business a greater chance to survive, recover, and hopefully thrive post-COVID-19. Make use of the many no-cost resources available to you: advisors, board members, strategic partners, affiliates, and Small Business Administration– and state-funded business management consulting, such as SCORE and SBDC @ UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
Anurag Bist, founder and CEO, Monet Networks: 
Don’t stop innovating. Use your product/platform to adapt to the changing world in the best possible way you can. Startups and entrepreneurship are always about pivoting and responding to changes in marketplace, economic environment, and customer’s budgets. Many times, as is very true post-COVID, it becomes important to see if you are able to fine tune your startup’s technology to verticals and use cases, which have become more relevant today. For us at MONET, it meant using our core sentiment tracking methodology to environments and use cases where usage is growing rapidly, and repositioning our product messaging to emphasize that it can be used remotely to track consumer behavior. Every brand has a need to know how they should position themselves in front of their consumers.
Larry Kutcher, innovation advisor, president of theAdvantage:
Is it a pain pill or a vitamin? In a world of limited investment capital and customer resources, “need-to-have” outweighs “nice-to-have.” Your product should address a significant pain point that makes it indispensable and not discretionary. As we move toward a new normal, core needs, such as remote working, distance learning, personal health, security, as well as so many new areas will draw attention and garner investment resources. Be the solution.
Jeff Shaw, senior leasing director, Irvine Company Office Properties: 
Be flexible. One of the biggest drivers we found important to startups is flexibility with their workplace. Startups should choose a real estate partner that can help scale a company and provide flexibility as that company evolves. There continues to be a growing trend for these companies to find on-demand office space, which offers their own fully furnished and technology enabled workspace under flexible lease terms. These types of offerings can provide startups with hassle-free access to new space without the expense of spending their own capital.
Dan Rosen, chairman, Alliance of Angels:
Cash is king.Startups don’t die because they run out of ideas. They die because they run out of cash. Therefore, they need to figure out how to make their cash last through the next period of time needed to get to their next milestone. Talk to your advisors, figure out that period of time and have an honest plan of how you can make it through that critical period.
Be realistic. Is your business going to survive? You have to figure out if the plan you had is realistic enough to continue through this downturn. We are now entering a period where you are going to need to achieve real milestones. Use the money you currently have wisely in order to raise more cash, if needed. Not all good businesses survive this kind of upheaval.
John Yoon, vice president, Mercato Partners: 
Use the time to improve your marketing.During times of crisis, your company should focus on conserving cash and protecting revenues. From a marketing perspective, the slow down can provide an opportunity to improve your marketing logistics. This includes measuring the new normal (e.g., funnel stage conversions, web metrics, call-to-action results) and gathering situational intelligence (e.g., customer surveys, advisory councils). Also, use this time to analyze your website’s performance, search performance and update your sales metrics.
Carey Ransom, co-founder and president, OC4 Venture Studio:
Stand out.When you’re fully committed to your startup, you can stand out in a downturn. Investors understand that many of the best companies are started during a downturn, and they find a way to survive through it and thrive on the other side. Look for ways to demonstrate your commitment, scrappiness and survival instincts. Also, look how you’ll disrupt a big market and make a big difference, and you may just stand out from the crowd.
Scott Hamilton, president and CEO, Executive Next Practices Institute: 
Use low-risk concept testing. Given the ambiguity of the current environment, challenge your team to come up with low-cost, simple ideas you can quickly test with minimal exposure that might expand your value proposition. These ideas could expand on your current product/service offerings or even take you into new fields/industries where you can leverage your current expertise, talent or partnerships.
Maintain a non-linear mindset. In an environment of mass disruption, changes in your industry or field will not necessarily be linear. Instead, consider the implications of changes across other sectors and how those “collisions” will change your target markets. We often suggest using an “implications diagram” to forecast multiple options and the impacts your decisions may have.
Learn more about Applied Innovation’s programs that supports startups.
*Illustration: Julie Kennedy, UCI Beall Applied Innovation
*Photos provided by those featured