From rehashing business models, securing necessary safety protocols, to creating robust digital presences, we hear from our student and alumni entrepreneurs on how they navigated the new norm and dealt with the challenges and conflicts while protecting their mental health.

It's been a tough time for everyone, but especially for early-stage start-ups who rely on economic certainty, available customers and ease of communication to drive their brilliant ideas forward. Social distancing, widespread lockdown, and global restrictions on travelling and movement made business growth challenging, and at times, near impossible. While innovators are known to be agile and persevering, the gravity of the situation challenged even the most resilient of entrepreneurs and forced founders to dig deep and make some difficult decision to maximise their chances of survival.  

This pre-recorded film includes testimonies and honest insights from two young innovators building businesses focussed on the betterment of society. 

Meet our speakers

Tara Chandra is co-founder of FLO. Born in San Francisco, she studied economics and music at Columbia University in New York City. After working on Wall Street, Tara ended up in the music industry in LA whilst freelance copying-writing for brands like Ray-Ban. Tara received her master's from LSE, where she met her FLO co-founder, had the idea for FLO in the loos and received the C200 Award for exceptional MBA students. Whilst working up the courage to launch the company, she served as Head of Sales and Partnerships for a restaurant industry app and then as a barista at Lion Coffee + Records. FLO launched in Autumn 2017 after a successful Kickstarter campaign and can now be found in retailers across the UK, US and EU, including Holland & Barrett, Planet Organic, Ocado, Whole Foods and Boots.

Yohan Iddawela is co-founder of Lanterne, an early-stage data science company that specialises in predicting foot-traffic and crowd-density. During the pandemic, they launched the free Crowdless app, which showed people how crowded supermarkets were so they could avoid queues and crowds, and practice social distancing. He is also a PhD candidate in Economic Geography at LSE.

How can I watch the film?

Visit the Festival Hub or watch via the YouTube playlist.

More about this event

This event is part of the 'Festival Shorts' series. Festival Shorts are 10-minute talks by LSE experts released during Festival week, available to watch via the LSE Festival Hub.  

The LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World is running from Monday 1 to Saturday 6 March 2021, with a series of events exploring the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis and how social science research can shape it.

LSE Generate (@LSEGenerate) supports students and alumni to build a socially responsible business, in the UK and beyond. 

Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #LSECOVID19