/ / Adapt or Die: What the Post-Pandemic Era Means for Entrepreneurs
/ / Adapt or Die: What the Post-Pandemic Era Means for Entrepreneurs

Adapt or Die: What the Post-Pandemic Era Means for Entrepreneurs

That “temporary” pandemic shift? I’ve got news for you: it’s permanent. Digital isn’t optional anymore. It’s oxygen. My portfolio companies that went all-in on digital transformation in 2020? They’re crushing it. The ones that “waited it out”? They’re either dead or on life support. The bottom line: your pre-2020 business model is as dead as your AOL email account (remember those days?). Let’s talk about why.

1. Your Customer Isn’t Coming Back Into Your B&M Location

They learned to do everything from their couch – in their pajamas. Groceries? Click. Entertainment? Stream. Work? Zoom. Do you think they miss your expensive office or retail storefront? Think again. While physical locations can be powerful branding experiences, they’re not converting the vast majority of your sales.

Convenience isn’t a feature anymore. It’s the baseline. And that goes for your hard-won, talented team members, too. Which leads us to my next point.

2. Remote Work Won Some (But Not All) Wars

Culture is what you do, not where you sit. That said – fully remote is not the best path for most companies. Hybrid wins. Smart companies found a balance between remote and in-person working. Could your company be fully remote? Maybe, but likely at some cost. Could you be fully on-site? Post-pandemic, the answer is pretty much 100% no here. Embracing remote work at least some of the time will expand your talent pool and boost productivity. My take: most companies will benefit most from a hybrid remote/on-site solution to maximize connection, creativity, and cross-pollination. 

3. The Digital Experience Is THE Experience

Your website is slow? Your app is clunky? Your checkout process feels like filing taxes? Game over. Amazon trained your customers. Now they expect that level of seamless and customer-centric accountability everywhere. No exceptions. No excuses.

4. The Great Bifurcation

One of the most satisfying experiences as an angel investor is watching how challenges create opportunities for those that have a visionary mindset. The pandemic did just that and it culled the wheat from the chaff. 

Here’s the truth: The pandemic created two types of businesses: Those that adapted fast and built moats, and those that became irrelevant. There’s no middle ground anymore.

How to Not Die

Want your tech startup to survive in the post-pandemic world? Here’s your playbook:

1. Embrace Radical Digital Transformation

Not just a website upgrade. Full-stack digital integration. Every process. Every touchpoint. Every interaction. If it can be digitized, digitize it. 

2. Data or Die

I talk about gut and intuition a lot but recognize that you can’t operate confidently if you don’t accurately understand the picture. Track everything. Analyze everything. Let data drive decisions. Be ruthless. If you’re not A/B testing, you’re guessing. If you’re guessing, you’re losing.

3. Automate or Perish

Labor costs are up. Talent is scarce. Automate everything that doesn’t require human creativity or emotional intelligence. Your competitors are doing it. Your margins demand it.

4. Go Direct or Go Home

Middlemen are dead. Supply chains are direct. Build direct relationships with your customers. Own your distribution. Every layer between you and your customer is a vulnerability.

5. Community Is the New Moat

Brand loyalty is dead. Community loyalty isn’t. Build a tribe. Foster connection. Create belonging. It’s harder to copy than features and harder to disrupt than pricing.

The Hard Truth that will Set You Free

It can be tempting to put your head in the sand and think the post-pandemic rules don’t apply to you, or that things will “go back to normal eventually.” Let me again emphasize that it does and it won’t. You’re not special. Your industry isn’t different. Your customers aren’t unique. The rules changed for everyone. Some winners from 2019 are losers today. Some losers from 2019 are crushing it now. The difference? Adaptation velocity. Embrace it. 

The pandemic didn’t change the future. It accelerated it. All those trends we predicted for 2030? They arrived in 2020. Welcome to the future. It’s not coming – it’s here. Enjoy the ride.