“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the extent to which the fortunes of some of tech's biggest businesses are tied to some of the country's smallest ones.”
Get what matters in tech, in your inbox every morning. Sign up for Source Code.Though it was already late on the West Coast, Hartz called her lobbyist, Heather Podesta of D.C.-based Invariant, to deliver what she described as a"heartfelt monologue" about what the impending crisis was going to do to small businesses like the ones Eventbrite serves.
In early May, Eventbrite teamed up with Airbnb, Etsy, Thumbtack and Upwork on a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to make the next round of federal stimulus loans more accessible to sole proprietors and businesses with only a few employees. Eventbrite, Airbnb and Etsy had also lobbied Congress on small business issues in the lead-up to passage of the CARES Act.
Some banks prioritized existing customers when doling out loans, making it difficult for sole proprietors who didn't already have large business accounts with banks to obtain funds. Senate Republicans have rejected the HEROES Act. But in a video tweeted this week, Florida's Marco Rubio, who chairs the Small Business Committee, said he expects Senate Republicans to soon introduce legislation that would give businesses more than eight weeks to spend the money."For those asking about whether the time is going to be extended, we have the votes to do that,".
Eventbrite built its own platform to help event creators get the most up-to-date information about federal loans. It circulated a questionnaire to the same people, asking how their businesses had been affected and what type of assistance they were seeking. Eventbrite used those responses to inform multiple letters to Congress and one to the White House.
It's not only Main Street businesses benefitting from these alliances. Some smaller tech firms are, too. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Eric Dy, CEO of the startup Bloomlife, was on the verge of applying for Food and Drug Administration approval for a device that women can wear to help them monitor their pregnancies for complications. Knowing that the FDA would be consumed getting COVID-19 tests to market, Dy wondered whether his own approval would be on hold.
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