Ya got ya lemon, ya make ya lemonade.

MassChallenge is an accelerator, helping startups get off the ground by providing expert advice, co-working space, access to a primo network of investors and execs, workshops - all the good stuff that can help an early-stage little company grow. A lot of what they've done since they were founded (i.e., started up) ten years ago has been hands on, face to face. But this is the summer of virtual, when ain't no one's all that eager to jump into co-working space. 

That's not the only thing that's been changing for the companies that had been selected to participate in this year's MassChallenge. For some of them, the pandemic has caused a rethink in their overall business strategy, starting with the basics like what they do and what they are.

Many of these startups were created around one idea, but have quickly adapted their business plans to solve problems created by the coronavirus pandemic. (Source: Scott Kirsner in the Boston Globe)

One of this year's participants, one with a name that's either brilliant or dreadful - Nuture Pods - 

...was originally focused on matching single parents who live together in homes with other single parents — a “co-living” arrangement that would help address the high costs of housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. But the two working parents who started the company, Deborah Tu and Joey Jelenik, saw that the spring’s sudden shift to remote learning created a more urgent problem.

So they figured that they could jigger their software so that parents could use it to create learning pods. It matches families based on how old their kids are, where they're located, and - perhaps most critically - what their appetite for risk is. Does everyone have to be 100% committed to social distancing? Are you okay if someone in your kid's learning pod gets on an airplane on occasion?

The company is also creating a database of those looking to work as a "pod leader" if the families decide that they want to reduce the burden on themselves by hiring an outsider to supervise or even teach the kids. 

I think this is a great idea. Some of my clients are juggling full-time work from home with the new responsibility to keep their kids learning. I'm sure many of them would benefit from a mutual aid society. They get more time to focus on work, and the kids get more of a semblance of a "real" school experience. 

But while it's a great idea, it will kinda-sorta be out of business once in-person school is back, no? I guess once that happens that they'll revert to their initial concept, which sounds good in theory. But in practice? Are there all that many single parents who want to share space with another single parent? Seems like this could be fraught with problems - like what happens when Single Parent A finds a real partner, and leaves Single Parent B (and child) in a financial and emotional lurch. But I guess these problems are no different than any other 21st century social and economic dilemmas. Things will work out. Somehow. Still don't think this is much of a business but, hey, when Twitter first came out I thought it would be used primarily by entertainers who wanted to connect with their fans. So what do I know?

TravelEZ started out life as a way to rate restaurants on how accessible they are to those with impaired mobility. Sounds reasonable, if not especially lucrative. Anyway, they've decided to shift gears and are offering info on how safe a dining experience a restaurant is offering. Are those tables really six feet apart? Etc. 

Whether focused on accessibility or COVID safety, I don't see this app providing much more value than what a restaurant can put of their web site - or what you can find out through a Yelp review. 

Once again, what do I know?

Then there's NextBurb. Their first idea was helping "workers moving to new cities find their ideal neighborhood to live in." Their target clients were the relo and recruiting departments of big tech companies. This doesn't seem all that winning and original an idea to me. Can't you find plenty of information online already? Another case of what do I know.

In any event, COVID pretty much put an end to relo-ing, other than relo-ing from your bedroom to your den. So now NextBurb is focusing on folks who want to become a permanent work from homer and are looking for a new place to live. NextBurb:

...can calculate a commute distance, if you need to get in to an office — or it can give you information about the quality of schools, the closest dog park, or the crime rate. The startup plans to make money by connecting people with real estate agents who can help them purchase or rent a home.

Again, this all sounds good, but it also sounds like things you can pretty much find out with a Google search. Maybe NextBurb's value-add will be that they're an info aggregator. I apparently know nothing, however.

I do know that, if the fear-mongers speaking at this week's RNC are right (and not just rightwing), if Joe Biden's elected, there'll be no more suburbs, because low income POC will be swarming in. So just to be on the safe side, while they're virtually hanging around the virtual accelerator, they might want to rethink their company's name.

Then there's Generus, an idea that I actually think has legs. Their premise is helping:

...companies arrange volunteer events for employees — things like helping to support 5K charity races, making sleeping mats for refugees, or preparing meals for community supper programs. By late spring, chief executive Jamie Larsen was noticing that companies were looking for ways to keep their work-from-home employees connected to one another.

So they've made their COVID lemon into lemonade by figuring out virtual volunteering opportunities. 

What do participants in a virtual volunteering event actually do? They might read letters from prisoners and collect books to donate to the Quincy-based Prison Book Program, say, or take a painting lesson and donate the resulting artwork to Household Goods, an Acton nonprofit that helps people furnish their homes.

When I worked full time, companies weren't into volunteering. I can't think of one thing that any place I worked organized any charitable/social contribution activities. It just wasn't a thing. But it is now, and I've seen a lot of it when it comes to the non-profits I'm involved with. While the pandemic has cut into things, St. Francis House has a number of companies that regularly or sporadically send teams in to serve in the clothing department and kitchen.  And Christmas in the City relies on businesses to buy gifts for the kiddos we help, and to staff events. It'll be different this year: no big event. But local businesses will be helping us out with all the toys we need. 

And now, as more and more people are working from home - something that's likely to outlast the pandemic - I think there'll be ongoing interest in virtual volunteering opportunities. So this one may be a keeper. But what do I know?

Well, what I do know is that all these little startups are trying to make lemonade out of the COVID lemon. And I do know that, if I were handed a lemon, I'd probably just stare at it. So while I may think most of these ideas are no great shakes, it's more than I've got!