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December 31, 2020 Fledgling Enterprises

Accelerator programs have learned to adapt during pandemic

IMAGE | COURTESY
By Fran Fried

So you’re in the business of helping entrepreneurs grow their fledgling ventures, and, well, this once-in-a-century pandemic hits, and there’s no instruction manual for you or your clients on how to navigate it.

Somehow, amid the uncertainty, New Haven business accelerators, and some of the small-business owners they work with, have not only weathered the storm so far, but thrived.

“In March, April, into May … we saw a real dip in the number of participants,” said Margaret Lee, co-founder and co-director of nonprofit startup accelerator Collab. “As we settled into a new normal, we’ve seen an increase to pre-pandemic levels. We had 55 applications for 11 spots for our latest [11-week program for entrepreneurs]. People are fired up.”

When the pandemic hit, New Haven accelerators, which typically depend on in-person collaboration, had to change gears on the fly.

Lee and fellow Collab co-director and co-founder Caroline Smith made the shift to virtual quickly. Meetings with accelerator participants moved to Zoom. Collab’s one-on-one sessions with group members moved from the public library to the phone. The spring cohort ended in June and Collab started a second online-only group in September, which ended Dec. 9.

There was a fear of the great unknown throughout the process, but when you’re dealing with people with even more fear and more to lose, panic is not an option.

“We realized our work in March, April, into May would be a lot of emotional support,” Lee said. “I told them I’m really scared too, and a lot of things were going to change. We were working with seven people trying to build a business through such a harrowing time. We were creating a sense of community. Then, doing the material, it brought a sense of normalcy that we really missed.”

Serving a need

MakeHaven serves as an incubator for entrepreneurs seeking to build and market prototypes.

When the pandemic hit, Executive Director J.R. Logan said MakeHaven had to shut down for a month-and-a-half, except for making personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line healthcare workers.

Realizing the need for PPE, he loaned out sewing machines to make reusable masks. MakeHaven also created videos and patterns for members and volunteers, who made 3,000 masks by June.

The organization also collaborated with Yale to create more than 2,000 face shields, and with Yale New Haven Hospital on intubation gear. It also produced prototype ventilators.

Meanwhile, its classes and workshops moved online. Slowly, in phases — and with safety guidelines and facility updates in place — its Chapel Street incubator reopened to more creators.

Those extra safety measures — which included hand-washing stations, temperature checks, new air filtration systems and mandatory mask-wearing policies — provided some comfort to creators like Sinem Sinmaz, a recent Yale graduate and mechanical engineer who joined OnTrack Rehabilitation as its first full-time employee in mid-July.

She’s helping develop prototype balance boards for people rehabbing from concussions. So far, the startup has built four of them.

“Finding a makerspace was our biggest problem,” with facilities closing down, Sinmaz said, and “we were really anxious to start production and prototyping. We needed a space where we felt safe. Thank goodness for MakeHaven. They had very good protocols in place, and it was only open to small businesses [at the time], so there was more open space, and it made me feel more confident.”

Essential service

CitySeed participated in Collab’s accelerator two years ago and now it’s mentoring others. In fact, CitySeed shares a food business accelerator program with Collab.

Cortney Renton became CitySeed’s executive director in April, during the thick of COVID’s first wave.

Besides having to get up to speed on the organization and move the spring cohort online, she dealt with the operation’s two key business ventures: its farmers’ markets and sanctuary kitchen.

The farmers’ markets, at Conte West Hills Magnet School in Wooster Square and Edgewood Park, were deemed an essential service by the state and moved to a drive-thru, pre-order model.

CitySeed’s sanctuary kitchen business was built around catering prior to the pandemic but had to pivot to take out.

“We changed the way we packaged things, we changed our menu,” Renton said.

CitySeed is also moving its sanctuary kitchen to the former Grass Roots Deli on Legion Avenue, which has a much larger kitchen space. There will be another food accelerator cohort with Collab beginning in January; there are 60 applicants for eight to 10 spots. And thanks to a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Production Program, CitySeed will be able to hire its first dedicated staff person.

Needed support

Sandra Salmon and her daughter, Zara Salmon, took part in Collab’s virtual spring cohort as they built their non-medical homecare agency.

“For me, it was strange,” Zara said. “There were some things we felt were missing,” such as face-to-face interaction and a sense of community, “but Caroline and Margaret did a great job to make sure we had a great experience.”

Sandra, a longtime nurse at the VA Medical Center in West Haven, said she was much more comfortable with the virtual setting.

“I was not tied to a building,” she said “I did [meetings] in the car, in the bathroom, everywhere.”

And she said she got a lot of support from Collab, which put her in touch with a Boston-based marketing expert.

“He told me what I needed to know,” Sandra said. “I know what my weaknesses are, and he praised my strengths. I needed that. It was a good mentorship.” 

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