Tackled the Pandemic
Natalie Gordon, founder of Babylist, which hosted more than a million online baby registries in
2020: “My fear was that with Covid, baby showers would be hardest hit. We worked really hard to help people have great virtual baby showers.”
Samantha Long, co-founder and CEO of ELI Directional Drilling, a utility construction contractor specializing in tele
com: “We built hundreds of miles of high-speed internet infrastructure, allowing thousands to work from home, attend school virtually, and stay connected with family and friends. We nearly doubled our revenue.”
Megan Glover, cofounder and CEO of 120Water, a digital water-testing com
pany: “Consumers want to know what’s in their water. That’s why we’ve grown 100 percent year over year. We adapted our platform to wastewater monitoring, giving customers health data on the spread of Covid.”
Krystle Mobayeni, founder of BentoBox, an e-commerce platform that has worked with 12,000
restaurants: “We went from website-design company to full technology partner, enabling restaurants to centralize their digital storefront.” Ann Crady Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Hatch, a maker of sleep devices for babies and adults: “After enduring a year unlike any other, America’s sleep cycles were affected significantly. In May 2020, we launched Restore, which helps parents wind down and get a good night’s sleep. It took off in a huge way.” Laura Behrens Wu, founder of Shippo, an e-commerce shipping and logistics app: “With e-commerce booming in the past 18 months, every online shopper expects Amazon Prime standards from all the merchants they shop at. We are working on making that a reality.” Mary Ray, co-founder and COO of MyHealth Teams, a social network for patients with chronic conditions: “I was diagnosed with breast cancer right before lockdown. I went through intensive treatment—chemo, radiation, the works. I had to rely on our team. In the springtime, I was able to hit the ground running.” Kelly Ann Collins, founder and CEO of Vult Lab, marketing firm for nonprofits including the Gates Foundation: “As Covid deaths surged, we helped deliver lifesaving [ad campaigns] and coronavirus testing in rural and minority communities. We reached 800,000 people on six continents in 2020.” Shadiah Sigala, co-founder and CEO of Kinside, which negotiates spots in daycare and preschool as part of benefits packages: “The business of child care came to a halt. We put revenue aside and improved the service so we’d be ready [postlockdown] when every family in America would need child care again. Our revenue has doubled in the past four months.”
Helen Egger, cofounder and chief medical and scientific officer of Little Otter, a digital mental health care provider for
children: “The elephant in the room with any mental health company is the stigma and the shame people feel. We hope that families feel welcome, supported, and seen.”
Rebecca Egger, co-founder and CEO of
Little Otter: “Waitlists for mental health professionals average two to six months; for young children, it’s even longer. We’re not going to solve this problem by training more people. We have to use technology and connect families with the right type of care.”
Lee Mayer, founder of Havenly, an online interior design ser
vice: “The pandemic saw massive demand in business for us, which shows me that the importance of our homes was emphasized by how much more we used them. We allowed our customers to make their homes not only more beautiful but also more functional.”