Facebook's VP of Play, Jason Rubin, says games have 'helped people find their happy place'
"This has been a horrible period of time. I keep telling my seven-year-old she'll remember these times and tell her own kids and grandkids about it. She hasn't seen her friends in months or been to class. It's been really hard.
"On the upside, I have this job and I'm not looking for employment, and I'm aware a significant part of the US is just trying to make ends meet.
"As a games maker, I had a very strong belief they would be the biggest entertainment medium in the world, but also that they would be a force for good, and something that made the world better.
"It's hard to say there have been many upsides to the past year. I've had the benefit of being able to spend more time with my kids and get into shape. I think this is a moment of change that isn't going to bend back, and I hope we can all keep pushing forward."
'We are vulnerable,' says Axel Hefer, CEO of Trivago
"The top priority for 2021 for business and for personal is to find and be comfortable within this new normal — be it as a travel business to serve the changing traveler needs and adapting the business for the new industry norm, finding a new normal as a hybrid of office work and remote work, and being able to get back to a regular routine with the family.
"To me the key lesson is that we are vulnerable. Everything is optimized to the status quo. When you think about it, there is very little slack — in our healthcare system, or in many of our businesses."
Tania Boler, chief executive of femtech startup Elvie, worries about culture being lost for remote hires
"As with all businesses, 2020 has brought a plethora of challenges across our entire value chain. For most of these, we've managed to weather the storm through resilience, creativity and innovative solutions.
"However, the lingering impact I'm most worried about is the effect of remote working for both our team members and culture.
"This year, we've had 114 new starters, which represents a +80.5% growth. When any company is scaling this rapidly, there's a significant risk of the cultural DNA getting diluted or lost.
"With COVID and remote working, this is exacerbated even further. So as we (hopefully) emerge from the stresses of the pandemic, our big re-focus will be on people and culture in 2021. As soon as it's feasible and safe, we'll be investing in making up for lost time – encouraging quality collaboration between team members and socializing in real life!
"Going into 2021, we must remember that progress can be eroded, so we must re-energize discussions and actions on female-friendly workplaces and champion a more equitable division of labour at home.
"We were slated to raise further funds in March, but Q2 presented a very volatile investor sentiment, with many startups being forced to take down rounds. We needed to stay agile, changing our Series C fundraising plans and conserving cash.
"But like many businesses that needed to adapt and react, we're moving forward with renewed focus on profitability so we can weather any global volatility."
Markus Villig, chief exec of ride-hailing firm Bolt, isn't convinced remote work is forever
Taxify"In 2020, the way people moved changed dramatically ... We learned that even massive markets can change overnight — this taught us that the companies that are able to adjust will be the ones that survive, and we had to be one of those companies. We appreciated this early on and pivoted our product to help with what people needed at the time — access to food and groceries.
"Of course 2020 had an impact on a more human level, too. The switch to remote work has been well documented. I'm not sure that fully remote work is here to stay. Internal surveys we ran indicated the flexibility is appreciated but there's still power in discussions and relationship building that takes place in the office. As a result, we're opting for a hybrid approach where 20% of employees will have designated seats.
"We couldn't have survived 2020 as a company the way we did without being anything other than truly honest and grounded. We were in it together. Instead of firing people to save costs, we decided to do a temporary salary cut for the entire organisation. Fortunately, the result was that we didn't let anyone go. We kept the team informed with how things were going, even about the financial situation and logic behind decisions that were hard to make."
Anne Boden, CEO of Starling Bank, says there'll be less presenteeism in the future
"2020 has been a transformational year for Starling when we hit breakeven and became a serious lender, despite the impact of the coronavirus emergency. In fact the pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital.
"For us, this meant a huge increase in account numbers and in our deposit base and a steady increase in employee numbers (we've grown the staff by over 280 people since the start of the first lockdown in March). We raised a further £100 million in funding from our existing investors and gave free shares to all employees...
"We've learned new and better ways of working in 2020. I fully expect there will be long-term improvements to the world of work in banking and elsewhere once a new kind of normality resumes.
"This will involve more remote working and less presenteeism in the office. Done well, this has huge potential to boost productivity, give us all a better work life balance, protect the environment and boost the economies of local communities. It also gives us a great opportunity to boost regional economies, by encouraging remote working."
Oaknorth CEO Rishi Khosla say the lessons of COVID-19 could help 'generations to come'
OakNorth"Our priority has always been to support the Missing Middle — high-growth businesses who have the largest positive multiplier effect in the economy in terms of productivity, job creation and GDP growth.
"We have continued to support these businesses throughout this year as evidenced by the software licensing partnerships we've announced with banks, as well as the amount of lending we've done via OakNorth Bank in the UK. This will continue to be our priority throughout 2021 and beyond given the vital role these businesses will play in the economic recovery as the world emerges from COVID-19.
"One of my greatest lessons from the 2008 financial crisis was that some of the most challenging periods economically can also create some of the biggest opportunities. Some businesses will emerge from this crisis even stronger and more resilient than before, and just like after the 2008 crisis, we will see new businesses and innovations being born out of the ashes of the crisis.
"I want us to be able to look back on this and know that as a society, we came together to support one another, to help the vulnerable, and to protect businesses and those they employ. If we get that right, it will be a great learning not just for 2021, but for generations to come."
Nik Storonsky, boss of challenger banking app Revolut, says challenges like Covid-19 can't slow ambitious founders down
"From a customer perspective, we are focused on launching products and services to support customers in these challenging times...
"From a business perspective we've increasingly diversified our revenue streams. We remain focused on the goal of becoming profitable next year and, thanks in part to the way we adapted to the pandemic, we are making good progress.
"We'll continue to build on revenue-generating products and reduce unnecessary operational costs. We'll also be rolling out banking operations across Europe next year, and unveiling new lending services in those markets.
"Go back to the drawing board and ensure that you are building products that are relevant for the new normal, and adding real value for your customers.
"Reevaluate your culture in 2021 to ensure that you are adapting to the changing needs of your employees, and going the extra mile to support them. It's been a huge gain, and a lesson, to have pretty much our whole workforce move to working from home with no loss in productivity but massive gains in work/life balance.
"2021 will be another challenging year, but don't let that dilute your ambition or slow you down. Many of the greatest tech companies were born, and flourished, during a crisis."
'Become a camel, not a unicorn,' say Deployed cofounders Kayleigh Kuptz and Emma Rees
"Become a camel, not a unicorn.
"Tech startups thrive to become unicorns, with a growth-at-all-costs approach to scale the business and its value as fast as possible. This is exciting and possible in a strong and certain economy.
"However, events in 2020 — from the pandemic to global political unrest and the UK officially being in a recession, the capital pool for startups dried up. All have made it harder to fund a scale-fast approach. Instead of aspiring to become a mythical creature, we now aspire to become a worldly beast; the camel, a creature able to survive and thrive when the resource pool is dry, and traverse whatever uncertain landscape lies ahead.
"Put people first. Growing an early stage start-up in 2020 has taught us that our team comes first. Lines between working and living are blurred with everyone working from home and creating new routines and habits.
"Communication, touchpoints, virtual coffees and listening are key to creating a culture of integrity and compassion; we are all human and are all in the same boat."
The old ways of doing cybersecurity have 'gone out the window', says Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson
"Focus now is more important than ever. When your business is moving fast and the world is moving fast around you, you must be laser-focused on what's right in front of you.
"Personally, I'm focused on two key business challenges: maintaining a company culture of an ambitious, driven and dedicated workforce in a socially distanced world, and ensuring that we keep our eyes on innovating with, and ahead of, customer needs in a world that is constantly in flux.
"At several points throughout the pandemic I have taken a step back, paused and asked myself: 'Are we still delivering what the customer wants?' In many ways, this comes down to one key principle: Keep a short list and do it well.
"The theme of 2020 has been uncertainty. In a post-Covid world we will see an amalgam of uncertainty and opportunity, and the challenge will be to balance new opportunities with new risks....
"The old ways of doing security have gone out the window and the urgent problem for businesses to tackle in 2021 will be ensuring they have best in class technology to defend their organization."
Matt Cooper, CEO of Skillshare: '2020 has made me realize how much I've missed spending time at home.'
"On the company side of things, the pandemic has accelerated our business by 1-2 years. Both in terms of revenue and subscriptions, we're way ahead of where we thought we'd be during this time last year. Of course, being 'ahead of schedule' means that we're also playing catch up in some ways—we need to scale up our team sooner and build key infrastructure —but these are all great problems to have.
"On the personal side, 2020 has made me realize how much I've missed spending at home —working from my house each day has allowed me to experience this whole 'other world' that goes on between 7am and 7pm when I would normally be either commuting or at the office. It's been a tough year for everyone, but the silver lining is that I've been able to spend a little more time with my family.
"I'm amazed at how resilient people are. Think about everything that we've been confronted with this year: COVID, political chaos, racial injustice, hurricanes, wildfires, just to name a few. Of course, we're far from being out of the woods on any of these issues — but the strength and resiliency shown by so many people this year gives me hope that we are heading in the right direction.
"I remain concerned about the political divisions in this country and the spread of misinformation. When truth is defined by what news channel you watch or who you follow on Twitter, it strains our collective ability to have meaningful conversations with each other about how to make our world better.
"I don't have a grand solution on how to balance free press and free speech, but I do think that there needs to be more accountability for institutions and corporations to tell the objective truth, rather than the version that supports their agenda."
Charlie Delingpole, founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, is rethinking the future of work
"Prior to March, for decades people spoke about remote work and centripetal trends like megacities but by and large people were in the office every day and people gravitated toward hubs like London, New York and Singapore.
"Overnight endless coffee catch-ups, physical team meetings and conferences have been transferred to Zoom and people are leaving the big cities. Are we just as effective all working from home, and is this all going back to cafes and offices in April 2021?
"At ComplyAdvantage in 2020, we hired a lot of people outside our core offices of New York, London and Singapore and we've seen them highly valued members of our teams. Our traditional models of work have changed completely and it's difficult to say if this is a permanent or temporary change.
"The lessons we can learn depend on what we think the point is of face-to-face meetings. If our job is building trust or a relationship then in all likelihood we will revert to the status ante and back to coffee and conferences. If the job is to exchange information or update a project status, then this will potentially stay on Zoom.
"Either way many in-demand employees have become attached to working from home and companies will be at a competitive disadvantage if they are unable to offer the working environment and model that expensive and rare employees demand.
"Many potential clients are now no longer willing or able to meet physically at their dispersed kitchen tables, so potentially the non-technical workforce will also be forced into learning lessons that they would not necessarily like to learn."
Entrepreneur First's Matt Clifford says 2020 shows any good service can be delivered online
"One big conclusion from 2020 is that sometimes 'in person' is a superpower and sometimes virtual is. Pre-pandemic I probably did far too much in person by default, where virtual would have provided more reach, scale or efficiency.
"But this year has also demonstrated the (for now) un-substitutable power of physical presence for the most important relationships in our work and lives. In 2021 I'm looking forward to getting that back — but I'll also be more deliberate about what it's worth getting on a bus, train or plane for.
"The big lesson from 2020 is that any good or service that can be delivered over the internet serves a bigger, faster, more global market that we realized before.
"It's been a horrible, tragic year, but it's created a world with less friction for anything that touches software. That's good news for entrepreneurs and customers, and will drive the creation of new and important businesses in 2021."
CEO of AI chip producer Graphcore Nigel Toon will never take gatherings for granted again
"This year has affirmed my belief in the power of shared purpose when building a business. Our employees around the world have spent much of the year working from home; at kitchen tables and in spare rooms, from Bristol to Beijing — yet they have delivered our second-generation IPU products, launched a global partner program and held to our ambitious software release schedule.
"The drive and determination that makes that possible can only come from a belief that you're doing something important, and the knowledge that you're working with like-minded colleagues. So despite the separation, we've never felt more like a team.
"Having said that, I'm looking forward to a 2021 when we are all able to come together again in person, something that none of us – myself included – will ever take for granted again.
"It might be foolhardy to extract lessons from a situation that is ongoing, and where the consequences are yet to be fully felt and understood. However, what has been extremely impressive this year is how many businesses have dramatically re-configured the way they work to suit the changed circumstances.
"We obviously hope not to see a pandemic like this again, but that ingenuity and willingness to respond rapidly to a changing world will continue to be extremely valuable."
Alex Chesterman, chief exec of user car service Cazoo, says changes from Black Lives Matter were long overdue
"Covid has, of course, had a terrible impact on many businesses and livelihoods. In retail there has been an accelerated shift online during 2020 and this will continue as consumers have discovered new ways of transacting and prefer the convenience of the digital experience. Our priorities for 2021 haven't changed, but we are just moving at an even faster pace.
"Cazoo is certainly seeing an acceleration of those who are happy to purchase a car entirely online and that is likely to continue given that consumers love the experience. We have ambitious growth plans for 2021 as we continue our mission of turning Cazoo into a household name and delivering the best experience in terms of selection, value, quality and convenience for UK car buyers.
"Aside from COVID, this year has finally seen many employers taking long overdue steps, as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement, to ensure that they are doing everything possible to stamp out all forms of systemic racism and to create a level playing field.
"It is very important that this is not just a 2020 issue and that the changes organizations are making are long term and permanent."
COVID-19 has made Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, general partner at Balderton Capital and former Uber exec, reconsider his carbon footprint
Balderton Capital"This year has changed all of our behavior. I won't be flying as much in 2021 even if airports are running and countries open their borders. When you look back now, you just realize how much you could have done over Zoom, and how much time it would have saved.
"Honestly, I think the awareness of our own carbon footprint has grown too. Everyone is contributing to trying to solve that issue now. There's been a huge shift in businesses thinking all the time about how they can be more sustainable.
"We have a generation of folks starting companies now, and they're committed to saving the planet — it might be even more of a priority to them than their bottom line.
"We've felt it here in London, even in the reduction of basic noise pollution. I think there will be some very positive long-lasting effects to come out of this. It's too blatantly obvious what we have to do."
TS Anil, CEO of challenger bank Monzo, says 2020 has been filled with 'compassion and support'
"There's no denying this has been a tough year for everyone, but at Monzo we've had some amazing successes alongside this as well, and it's clear to me what our priorities in 2021 need to be.
"Two things really struck me about 2020 despite the incredibly difficult circumstances we all found ourselves in.
"First, there have been so many examples of compassion and support for each other during these times, and the importance of communities. We certainly felt that way at Monzo. As a digital-focused business, we were in a better position than many to adapt and help our colleagues through this big change. Our teams were able to transition to remote working smoothly. And then importantly, we've been able to continue serving our customers without disruption and give them the support they need.
"Second, even in this time of so much pain and disruption, there was still much to be grateful for. We've seen many examples of this in our personal lives, gaining a better understanding of what really matters and what we can do without...
"While I hope to get back to normal in 2021, I also hope we don't forget what we've learned this year. We must show the same level of compassion and understanding towards our friends, family and colleagues, as we continue to earn the trust and love from the customers we serve."
Via PakApNews