We've all been a lot more isolated lately.
As many of us hunker down in our homes under some form of social restriction, the time
away from family, friends and colleagues has been tough.
But while social distancing is a challenge for many, some have turned the crisis into opportunity.
I’m speaking to some entrepreneurs who have made it their business to help tackle loneliness
during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the last two months, it’s kind of gone a bit insane.
Oh, it’s like more than full-time now. I work on this probably 18 hours a day.
In Norway, isolation also means insulation, it’s the same word.
Everyone thought of isolation as something yellow that you have in your wall, until Covid.
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, another pandemic was on the rise: Loneliness.
In the era of connectivity and social apps, loneliness is ironically pervasive,
especially among young people.
Today, close to two-thirds of adults in the United States report feeling lonely,
up from just over 50% in 2018.
The United Kingdom even appointed a minister for loneliness in 2018, after recognizing
it as a public health challenge.
That has spawned a whole new industry aimed at combating the problem.
One person who knows that better than most is 29-year-old Karen Dolva,
co-founder of No Isolation.
Over the past five years, the Norwegian entrepreneur has been working to tackle loneliness among children
and the elderly with a series of ‘warm’ technology products.
One such tool is this telepresence robot, which connects children with long-term illnesses
with their classrooms.
While this tablet is specially designed for the elderly to keep in touch with their family
and friends.
The pandemic has highlighted the extent of isolation in society, says Karen.
We’ve definitely seen a change in the, if you call it, loneliness market.
I think when we started, we were very much alone.
Following the outbreak, demand for No Isolation’s products has skyrocketed.
In the final two weeks of March alone, the company sold 1,500 of its tablets
and had to fast-track production to fulfill new orders.
Of the senior products, we thought we weren’t going to produce anything more during 2020.
We thought we had a warehouse that would cover us through the year, and they were all sold in two weeks.
We had to turn around and find ways of producing more units.
Box-fresh has never been more true.
That has helped more elderly people stay connected with loved ones as they shelter at home.
Since the pandemic, each tablet user receives over 8 calls per week on average,
up from nearly two before the outbreak.
It’s quite cool to see how it’s working, because people are using it a lot!
They’re getting an average of 17 photos per week.
For these seniors, that’s like getting postcards.
They’re getting images of their grandkids; they’re getting video calls from their daughters;
they’re getting to be a part of the life that’s happening outside their own little sphere.
Every effort to encourage social connection counts.
Studies suggest people suffering from loneliness can be more susceptible to physical health conditions
such as stroke, heart disease and early mortality.
But the psychological impacts of isolation can be major, too.
In March, the World Health Organization released guidelines for dealing with the mental health
implications of coronavirus.
That’s where Calvin Benton, co-founder of U.K.-based Spill, comes in.
Since launching in 2018, the mental health platform has been providing workplaces with
access to online therapy sessions through the messaging tool Slack.
But with most people now working remotely and facing new anxieties, that service has
become more important than ever, says the 27-year-old entrepreneur.
In the last two months, we’ve had more inbound requests for Spill than we had in
the entire two years before that.
That means Calvin has had to move quickly to sign up its fast-growing customer-base.
So many companies are wanting to support their employees and they’re wanting to support them now.
So we’ve had to build a way for companies to sign up instantly.
We’ve had companies sign up and roll out Spill to their entire company
in less than 10 minutes, which is really, really amazing to see.
And it’s not just demand from employers.
Calvin says employees have been using the platform at four-times the usual rate,
especially for quick questions or one-off sessions.
The thing that we’ve really seen is just the rise in the need for answers.
There’s so much uncertainty around like what’s going to happen in the next few weeks
and months, and I think what’s been quite cool is our therapists can almost at least
predict how the emotional side of this is going to go.
That’s been good news for therapists too, who have been able to supplement lost income
from face-to-face appointments with digital alternatives.
Meanwhile, Spill has rolled out public services, such as ‘ask a therapist’ on Instagram Stories,
and free therapy sessions for people who have been retrenched,
which Calvin says is vital for raising awareness.
It’s cast a huge light on what we’re doing.
We’ve known we’ve had this amazing thing that’s just been like a big awareness campaign.
While isolation can take its toll physically and mentally for some people, it is the boredom
that is stifling for others.
And there’s a solution for that too.
I’m Danielle Baskin.
I am a product designer, entrepreneur, weird idea creator.
Danielle is the co-founder of Quarantine Chat, an app designed to connect strangers isolating
from coronavirus via random phone calls.
The 31-year-old and her co-founder Max Hawkins built the service on top of their existing
chat app, Dialup, in March, shortly after stay-at-home notices were implemented in the U.S.
The idea was inspired by Danielle’s earlier quarantine experience after getting infected
with glandular fever, also known as mono.
I just thought ‘oh, it would be cool if I could connect with someone else who has mono right now.’
So when coronavirus became a thing, I had this idea seeded in my mind from years before.
Also our app was already connecting people all over the world, so it just seemed like
the perfect tool to use to connect people who are in self-isolation.
And it’s taken off.
The app is currently responsible for 2,300 hours, or more than 95 days, worth of conversation
each week across 183 countries.
We thought it would be like a very simple way to like people would cheer each other up,
or there’d be these moments that sort of mimic talking to a barista or talking to your neighbor.
But what happens is people are actually talking on the phone for a long time and becoming friends.
Most of that growth has been organic, through word of mouth.
Danielle, who is now working on the app full-time, is thinking about avenues for expansion.
We are building a system within the app that if you like talking to someone you can reconnect with them later.
We’re still building and testing it but that’s like the number one feature request
that people have is: ‘How do I stay in touch with previous matches?’
The potential to expand could put the app on course for the next level.
I spoke to Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and founder of Long-Term Stock Exchange,
to find out what these entrepreneurs should do to ensure success for the long-term.
You should have in your mind that how you behave in a crisis will be permanently etched
into the memories of the people that you work with.
So that is high pressure, high stakes, you better get it right, but also a tremendous
opportunity to establish the new version of your company that you want it to be.
For those companies that are somewhat thriving, what would your advice be for them in terms
of making sure that they don’t just build themselves for this moment in time?
For all companies, but especially those that are doing well, have a vision in your mind
of what that new normal could look like for your business or industry, and try to live
into that vision, viewing the emergency actions that you’re taking right now are like the
bridge to that new normal.
We’re not going to be in this emergency state forever.
Some of these businesses are going to see a huge surge of demand, and then in the new
normal actually a fall off, as the underlying, prevailing trends reassert themselves.
So it’s also important not to go crazy over-hiring, over-this, over-that.
We want to really be thoughtful about what is the long-term framework that I can put
these people into that will allow the company to thrive even if things go back to semi-normal.
While it’s difficult to know what the new normal will look like, these entrepreneurs
are hoping that their ideas will make a difference in the future.
I truly hope that we can scale this.
It’s not like these groups are any less vulnerable in the United States or in Asia.
This isn’t something we’re doing because it’s like a poor man’s version of therapy.
We fundamentally believe it to be the future.
It’s difficult to know what returning to normal even means.
But if we’re used to communicating with each other virtually, and become more comfortable
talking to strangers, why would we suddenly ditch all those friends?