In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, 37 Colorado tech companies have come together to share workplace best practices and take action to protect the most vulnerable members of the community.
A joint statement was organized by Bryan Leach, founder and CEO of Ibotta and co-signed by major local tech leaders like Brad Feld of Foundry Group, Sameer Dholakia of Twilio SendGrid, Rachel Carlson of Guild Education and many others.
"It's critical that the business leaders of Colorado speak with one voice about the steps professional service firms should take to protect the most vulnerable members of our local communities," Leach told Colorado Inno in an email. "Since we issued our statement, we've heard from many of our friends and partners, here in the Front Range and all across the U.S., that they have decided to follow our group's lead and pulled forward their decisions to work remotely or close their offices or public spaces - all in an effort to flatten the curve and help our medical systems sustain and manage the influx of critically ill patients."
Rajat Bhargava, CEO and co-founder of JumpCloud, said he was proud of the Colorado tech community's response to coronavirus.
"As global citizens, we have a duty to help with the virus’s containment," he said. "JumpCloud has initiated a mandatory work from home policy to ensure no concentration of employees in any given area. We are educating our employees about the virus by closely following the WHO and CDC guidelines in addition to our various state and local governmental educational programs."
JumpCloud is also banning business travel for an indefinite period of time.
At StackHawk, CEO Joni Klippert said the company is fortunate that its employees can work from home and remain productive and connected.
"At StackHawk, we knew it was critical to move forward with a mandatory work-from-home policy in consideration of our employees, their families and public health," she said. "This decision isn't just about any one of us, but our loved-ones and others that may be more susceptible to the COVID-19 virus and its effects."
Mark Frank, CEO at Denver's SonderMind, is hopeful other industries follow the tech communities' lead.
"SonderMind felt the need to join other fast-growing Colorado companies who are quickly taking measures to contain the spread of COVID-19," he said. "We consider this to be our social responsibility to our employees and community. It is our hope that this will encourage other private and public-sector organizations to follow suit."
Below are the best practices agreed upon by the companies:
- Strongly encourage the majority of workers to work from home as soon as possible, leaving behind the minimum possible in-office presence.
- Restrict work travel by employees, both domestically and internationally. Also strongly advise employees to be thoughtful about all personal travel, particularly where they would be congregating in larger groups.
- Moving all clients, visitors, and interviews to remote only meetings and not currently welcoming onsite visitors.
- Wherever possible, strongly encourage vendors, service providers and partner businesses to take similar precautions.
- Each consulting with our teams to find ways of supporting local healthcare workers by helping to purchase critical medical resources, such as additional tests and protective equipment, and supporting the work of local nonprofit organizations that are helping at-risk communities who will be severely impacted by this pandemic.
- Calling on government officials and other business leaders to restrict large group gatherings, including in the largest entertainment venues along the Front Range.
The signers of the document are:
Bryan Leach, Founder and CEO, Ibotta Brad Feld, Partner, Foundry Group David Brown, CEO, Techstars Sameer Dholakia, CEO, Twilio SendGrid Ben Wright, CEO, Velocity Global Jake Bolling, CEO, Skupos Bart Lorang, CEO, FullContact Conor Swanson, Co-Founder, Code-Talent John Levisay, Founder & CEO, Bluprint Matt Talbot, CEO, GoSpotCheck Joni Klippert, CEO, StackHawk Rajat Bhargava, CEO, JumpCloud Fred Kneip, CEO, CyberGRX Brent Handler, CEO, Inspirato Lee Mayer, CEO, Havenly Brett Jurgens, CEO, Notion Walter Knapp, CEO, Sovrn Brian Egan, CEO, Evolve Vacation Rental Chris Cabrera, Founder & CEO, Xactly Corporation David Levin, Co-Founder & CEO, Four Winds Interactive Matthew Glotzbach, CEO, Quizlet Nick Martin, CEO, The Pro’s Closet Seth Levine, Partner, Foundry Group Stewart McGrath, CEO, Section Matthew Klein, CEO, Backbone Carm Huntress, CEO, RxRevu Mike Gionfriddo, CTO, Pie Insurance Paul Berberian, CEO, Sphero Joshua Reeves, CEO, Gusto Chris Klein, CEO, Rachio Mark Frank, CEO, SonderMind Pete Holst, CEO, Oblong Rachel Carlson, CEO, Guild Education Andrew Fischer, CEO, Choozle Scott Johnson, President, CirrusMD Josh Dorsey, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank Amit Shah, VP Operations, Virta Health
