Previous financial crises gave rise to high-profile companies. The spread of the coronavirus challenges entrepreneurs to meet new needs
Salt City Market in Syracuse, N.Y., May 17, 2020. The building is preparing to open in November and will be home to several new businesses despite the coronavirus pandemic. (Mustafa Hussain/The New York Times)
In March, as small businesses across the country were shutting down amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic, Shanel Fields was about to open one up.
For Fields, the timing couldn’t have been better. Her company, MD Ally, allows 911 dispatchers and other responders to route nonemergency calls and patients to virtual doctors, to help local governments improve their emergency response systems.
“Something that a lot of people don’t know is that more than half of calls that go to 911 are nonemergency,” said Fields, whose father’s experiences as a volunteer emergency medical worker sparked the idea. “Those nonemergency calls overcrowd ERs and delay ambulances.”
But she also recognizes how crazy it sounds to start a business during an economic collapse. She knows that while she’s hiring, many small businesses are worrying about whether they’ll ever reopen.
She’s not alone: New businesses are forming despite the pandemic, though at a significantly slower rate than before.
©2019 New York Times News Service