Founder Patio Sessions

There’s not much to say that hasn’t been said about Covid-19. We all know the situation we are in, because we are feeling it first-hand. But I wanted to share with all of you a story about coping.

In Spain, where I come from, people have been in lock-down for a few days now . There, millions of people are coming out to their balconies every day, all the time– they sing to each other, they play bingo, they workout together, they chat and they clap to show gratitude to our healthcare workers. It’s far from a party — they can’t leave their homes, they are worried about their jobs, the financial security of their kids and the health of their elderly. But they are sticking together creating communities in their patios. And same is happening in Italy.

Spanish people in playing bingo from their balconies

And that got me thinking. We are all neighbours in this. I have been speaking to many founders in the last few days, just to listen to how they are thinking about navigating the situation, and many of you have asked about what other founders were doing. Did I know how others were going about implementing WFH, had many founders felt a slowdown in funding, what was the impact on sales for other start-ups in the space…? Many of you also asked how you can help, whether there were others ready to do something, how to find them.

So, I thought we could import the Mediterranean patio sessions. We might not physically live in the same patio, and we might have no balconies to come out to. But we actually do, digitally.

A digital patio

Open to every founder, we’ll be organising weekly Founder Patio Sessions, digital meetups for founders to get together, chat, share, listen, support… I won’t be attending as your balcony should be a 100% free space for you to sing, share, laugh, cry or clap. I’ll just be helping to coordinate the patio. If interested, please sign up here and I’ll be back with more details on the format.

At times when the responsible and bravest thing to do is to stay home while the world transforms, tech has the power to bring us closer and make the world a bit more human. Hugs will be back, and beers and pubs after work. But in the meantime, we can stay close, even if from afar.

Family friends singing to their neighbours to cheer them up during lockdown. ‘It’s not that we are superheros, it’s just that we love life’, the song says. But they are superheroes indeed.

Stay safe, stay sane and #letsdothis together.