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4 Espresso Capital portfolio companies that are making a difference (and thriving) in the age of COVID-19
The global pandemic is creating challenges for businesses all over the world. In addition to having to adjust to the realities of working from home, many are seeing sharp declines in revenue and are being forced to make hard choices as a result. What's clear is that the longer the crisis drags on, the more difficult it will become for businesses to survive.
Yet some companies are actually thriving in the current environment. By providing critical services, they're helping their customers be more successful as they navigate the crisis, while also experiencing tremendous growth. In this post, we're profiling four such companies from Espresso's portfolio. Not only do they stand out for thriving in the face of COVID-19 thanks to their ability to quickly adapt to the current situation, but also because of the way in which their technology is helping their customers overcome some of the challenges that have resulted from the pandemic.
eSCRIBE helps restore local government
In times of crisis, we rely on the government to provide leadership and disseminate critical information. We want to know that everything is functioning and that our elected officials are working to ensure that things will be ok. Of course, for that to happen, those officials need to be able to meet, debate, and vote on key issues. Unfortunately, that has become impossible to do with the rise of COVID-19 since most local governments aren't set up for remote work. As a result, many local governments have found themselves canceling meetings, which inhibits their ability to work effectively.
Although you might think that holding virtual government meetings is as easy as signing up for a Zoom account, it's not that simple. That's because there are all kinds of procedural components to government meetings that you simply can't manage effectively with standard meeting software.
That's where eSCRIBE has been able to help. With offices in the United States and Canada, eSCRIBE is a leading provider of secure, cloud-based meeting management solutions for public sector boards, committees, and councils. Working in combination with Zoom, eSCRIBE provides the meeting management support necessary to actually conduct effective government meetings. That includes functionality such as enabling debates and voting that would otherwise be difficult to manage in a virtual meeting environment.
"At a time when government could have broken down, we're helping our customers restore local government and bring order to what could have been a very chaotic situation," says eSCRIBE CEO Rob Treumann. "Although the change from paper-based to digital meetings has been on local governments' minds for years, the current pandemic has really accelerated the curve."
Since the crisis, Treumann says that customers have been rapidly expanding their existing accounts to add new features and functionality, while many new local governments have also signed up. In fact, he says, new customers are so eager to embrace the technology that they're moving to fully remote meetings in as little as a week.
SocialChorus powers workforce communications
To be successful in business, you need to be able to reach all of your employees with relevant and timely information so that they can take the right actions. That's true every day, but especially during challenging times like these. For companies in manufacturing, retail, and hospitality, that are furloughing vast amounts of their workforce, staying in touch can be particularly difficult. Yet it's critical to keeping workers informed and eventually re-onboarding them when they come back to work.
To do so, you need to be able to reach employees no matter where they are. San Francisco-based SocialChorus is a communications platform designed to help companies connect with their employees, whether they're in the office, on the factory floor, working from home, or not working at all. It delivers messages wherever necessary to reach employees, including over Teams, Slack, and Salesforce, or simply via their smartphone.
"Being able to communicate quickly and clearly is essential in a crisis," says SocialChorus CEO Gary Nakamura. "With so much misinformation, companies and leaders need to be reliable and credible in sharing information and answering questions. You want to be the source of truth for your employees so that they know what to say and do."
Nakamura says that the rise of COVID-19 has really amplified use of the platform. In response, in March, the company fast tracked its new Analyze feature and made it available for free. The feature allows companies to get insights on the effectiveness of their communications about the pandemic.
"In many ways, it has taken this crisis for businesses to realize how important it is to be able to reach all of their workers in real time," explains Nakamura. "Doing so wasn't previously seen as strategic or critical, but this is just another example of how COVID-19 has resulted in a fundamental shift in how businesses will operate going forward.
In March, SocialChorus reached over 1 million active users for the first time and continues to see rapid adoption of its platform.
AdvisorStream helps investment advisors retain their clients
If you're an investment advisor in charge of overseeing people's personal finances, you're under a lot of pressure right now. Not only is there tremendous market volatility, you've also got the added strain of having to deal with highly anxious investors. Now more than ever, the key to doing so — and ultimately to retaining clients — is proactively engaging them with the right information. That's because investor communications are not only critical to soothing anxious clients, they're also one of the key factors that determine whether a client will stick around or take their business elsewhere.
Investors want their advisors to provide facts and credible content to keep them informed about what's going on in the markets. In fact, in March alone investors increased their consumption of such content by 47 percent. Yet at a time when so much content is locked behind paywalls, gaining access to information that was once ubiquitous is now much more challenging. Underscoring the point, today around just 8 percent of American and Canadians have access to one premium news subscription, while less than 1 percent have access to multiple premium news subscriptions. Unfortunately, the information that's available for free often isn't accurate or reliable.
AdvisorStream helps advisors solve this problem for their clients. The Toronto-based company has an automated marketing platform for financial advisors, allowing them to leverage the world's most credible financial news content to create greater engagement with their prospects and clients.
Since the start of the crisis, AdvisorStream has been running its COVID-19 relief plan, letting advisors use a basic version of their platform for free for three months to facilitate communication with their clients. In the weeks since, they've seen thousands of advisors sign up for free trials, 70 percent of which they believe will ultimately convert into paying customers.
"Poor communication is the second most common reason why investors leave their advisors," says AdvisorStream CEO Kevin Mulhern. "We're allowing advisors to communicate with their clients for free so that they can dramatically increase their retention levels throughout this crisis."
Inference Solutions comes to the rescue as FAQs surge
One of the many logistical hurdles organizations are facing as a result of COVID-19 is responding to a deluge of questions. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations, for example, are being bombarded with inquiries about the virus and testing. At the same time, government agencies are being asked about shutdowns and travel restrictions, while all kinds of businesses are fielding questions from customers and employees alike.
Of course, fielding all of those questions can be daunting if you're trying to do so manually. Recognizing this challenge, Inference Solutions, a global provider of Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) for sales and service organizations, saw an opportunity to help.
The company, whose AI-powered IVAs were designed to automate this type of support, is offering a free team of virtual agents to help companies keep their customers and employees informed during COVID-19.
Through June 30, Inference is waiving its standard licensing fees for service providers, businesses, healthcare organizations, and government agencies for up to five voice-based virtual agents. Those agents can be utilized to answer frequently asked questions using speech recognition, text-to-speech, and natural language understanding (NLU). FAQ On-Demand IVAs can be deployed in as little as two days, allowing organizations to disseminate critical information fast and efficiently.
"A lot of organizations have been dealing with a massive influx of questions since the crisis began, and they aren't necessarily well equipped to respond to them all at scale," says Inference CEO Callan Schebella. "We saw an opportunity to help make a difference by alleviating some of the stress businesses are facing."
To learn more about about how some of our other portfolio companies are making a difference in the fight against COVID-19, read this story about how Spartan Bioscience is developing a rapid mobile test for the virus.
4 questions you should ask before raising venture debt
As FAQs surge with COVID-19, Inference Solutions comes to the rescue
Sharing the upside: How Q4 Inc. found a unique way to give back


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UniSA, an overview
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Dr Julie Collins
Research Associate/Collections Manager School of Art, Architecture and Design
City West Campus (K2-21)
tel +61 8 830 29235
fax +61 8 830 20211
email Julie.Collins@unisa.edu.au
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Dr Julie Collins is Research Associate and Collections Manager at the Architecture Museum, which is located at the City West Campus in the Kaurna Building within the School of Art, Architecture and Design.
The Architecture Museum is a research facility for the acquisition and preservation of South Australian architectural records. Its invaluable research collection of architectural design documentation, drawings, photographs, artefacts and ephemera currently comprises over 200,000 items. The Architecture Museum promotes intellectual enquiry the state's built environment history, supporting research undertaken by internal and external researchers.
Dr Collins researches various aspects of architectural history. Recent projects... Read more
School of Art, Architecture and Design
Setting the pace in its field with professional artists, designers and theorists driving ever-evolving teaching and research.
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Dr Collins researches various aspects of architectural history. Recent projects include a history of the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition building of 1887, work on the influence of climate on the colonial architecture of Adelaide, the history of psychiatric asylum landscapes, and early tuberculosis sanatoria in Australia. Past projects include a study on the South Australian Home Builders' Club 1945-1965, the Small Homes Service of South Australia and the modern postwar house, the emergence of tall buildings in Adelaide 1912-1939, women in the architectural profession 1910-1960, and analysis of the cultural significance of architectural records. Julie is also a researcher for the 'Architects of South Australia' database which documents the lives and works of a selection of the state's architects from colonial times to the present day.
Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand,Australian Historical Association,Historical Society of South Australia,Australian Garden History Society,Australian Society of Archivists (S.A. Branch)
Doctor of Philosophy Arts, Architecture and Design University of South Australia
Bachelor of Architecture University of South Australia
Built Environment and Design
Art Theory and Criticism
Adelaide's Jubilee International Exhibition 1887-1888
In collaboration with the Professional Historians Association (SA), History SA and Crossing Press, Sydney, the Architecture Museum produced a book about the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition and Building. Christine Garnaut, Bridget Jolly (PHA (SA)) and Julie Collins are the co-editors. With over thirty people are involved as authors, the book includes chapters and cameo pieces on the building, the event and its legacy. It was published in 2016 and launched in conjunction with an exhibition in the Kerry Packer Civic Gallery at the University of South Australia.
Garnaut, C, Collins, J and Jolly, B, (eds) 2016 Adelaide's Jubilee International Exhibition 1887-1888,... Read more
Excludes commercial-in-confidence projects.
Research since 2008 is shown below. To see earlier years visit ORCID or ResearcherID or
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
Collins, J, Avey, S & Lekkas, P 2016, 'Lost landscapes of healing: the decline of therapeutic mental health landscapes', Landscape Research, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 664-677.
Collins, J 2015, 'Climate discourse and the architectural style debates surrounding Adelaide's nineteenth century public buildings', History Australia, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 188-208.
Collins, J 2012, South Australian architecture, The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Cambridge University Press.
Garnaut, C, Collins, J & Jolly, B 2016, Adelaide's Jubilee International Exhibition 1887-1888: the event, the building, the legacy, Crossing Press, Sydney, Australia.
Collins, JA & Garnaut, CM 2013, 'Not for ourselves alone' : the South Australian Home Builders' Club, 1945-1965, Architecture Museum, Australia.
Lustri, SL & Collins, JA 2010, A history of the Architects Board of South Australia, 1939-2009, Architects Board of South Australia, South Australia.
Collins, J 2016, 'An architectural ornament: the Adelaide Jubilee International exhibition building', in C Garnaut, J Collins and B Jolly (eds), Adelaide's Jubilee International Exhibition 1887-1888, Crossing Press, Australia, ch.5, pp. 67-81.
Collins, J 2019, 'The houses that Jack built: architect Jack McConnell's modern residences, 1939-1945', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, vol. 47, pp. 91-112.
Collins, J 2015, 'Climate Discourse and the Architectural Style Debates on Adelaide's Nineteenth-Century Public Buildings', History Australia, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 188-208.
Lustri, S & Collins, J 2015, 'Registration and the Profession of Architecture', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), no. 46, pp. 22-23.
Collins, J 2014, 'Adelaide's early skyline', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), vol. 44, pp. 22-23.
Collins, JA 2014, 'The 1944 Nucleus House', Official Journal of the Australian Institute of Architects, vol. 41, no. 18, pp. 18-19.
Collins, J 2013, ''Nature's Sanatorium' : the open-air treatment of tuberculosis at Nunyara, Belair, South Australia', Australian Garden History, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 9-12.
Collins, J 2013, 'South Australia's early women architects', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA).
Collins, J 2013, 'Victoria and Albert: Adelaide's two towers', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), vol. 38, pp. 26-27.
Collins, JA 2013, 'Homes for the 'Man in the Street'', Place, vol. 39, pp. 10.
Collins, J 2012, 'A 'powerful, creative history' : the reticence of women architects to donate their professional records to archival repositories', Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 181-190.
Collins, J 2012, 'Life in the open air: place as a therapeutic and preventative instrument in Australia's early open-air tuberculosis sanatoria', Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 208-231.
Collins, JA 2012, 'Architects abroad', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), April 2012, pp. 1-7.
Collins, JA 2012, 'Bound for South Australia: architectural adaptation in a 'Mediterranean' climate', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), vol. 2012, March, pp. 10-11.
Collins, JA & Lekkas, P 2011, 'Fit for purpose: Australia's national fitness campaign', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 195, no. 11/12, pp. 714-716.
Open access 1 1
Collins, JA 2011, 'A gothic skyscraper for North Terrace', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), November, pp. 10-10.
Collins, JA 2011, 'Built for speed: early modern buildings for the motor car', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), December, p. 9.
Garnaut, CM & Collins, JA 2011, 'Engraving the past: architectural prints from the Chamberlin collection', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), September, pp. 9.
Collins, J, Lustri, S, Bird, L & Garnaut, C 2010, 'Civic spaces for children: playground design in twentieth century South Australia', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, vol. 38, pp. 73-92.
Collins, JA 2010, 'Let the Sun Shine in', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), pp. 8-9.
Collins, JA 2010, 'Modern Houses: Adelaide's 1950s Architect Designed Residences', Place: Official Publication of the Australian Institute of Architects (SA), November, pp. 9.
Collins, J 2009, 'Small children dictate home plan': uncovering the influence of childrearing ideals on the design of the modern post-war house', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 197-214.
Garnaut, CM, Collins, J, Bird, LM & Anderson, E 2016, 'Cherished sites of remembrance: Soldiers' memorial gardens', in C Bosman & A Dedekorkut-Howes (eds), UHPH 2016 Icons: The Making, Meaning and Undoing of Urban Icons and Iconic Cities: 13th Australasian Urban History Planning History Conference, Australasian Urban History/Planning History Group and Griffith University, pp. 139-152.
McGinley, T, Collins, J, Schwarz, Q & Muehlbauer, M 2016, 'Suburban mutations: towards the multi-dimensional appropriation of science in architecture', in J Zuo, L Daniel & V Soebarto (eds), 50th International Conference of the Architectural Science Association, The Architectural Science Association, pp. 427-436.
Non Traditional Outputs
Collins, JA 2010, Suburban Dreams: House and Home in Adelaide 1945-1965, 2010-06-15, Migration Museum, Adelaide.
Collins, JA 2010, Suburban Dreams: House and Home in Adelaide 1945-1965, Migration Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, 15 June-31 December 2010.
Collins, J 2009, Living Traces, Traces: drawing / environment / sustainability, Traces: drawing / environment / sustainability, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Adelaide, 6 August-3 September 2009.
Current research & highlights
Garnaut, C, Collins, J and Jolly, B, (eds) 2016 Adelaide's Jubilee International Exhibition 1887-1888, Crossing Press, Darlinghurst.
Architecture Board of South Australia AUSTRALIA
RMIT University AUSTRALIA
University of South Australia AUSTRALIA
Engagement/recognition
Australian Garden History Society
Australian Historical Association
Australian Society of Archivists, SA Branch
Historical Society of South Australia
Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand
Research degree supervision
Supervisions from 2010 shown
Thesis title
Acres of Adelaide: everyday people, processes and patterns in a settler-colonial urban plan 1836-1881  Completed
Planning for open space in postwar South Australia: open space benefits and local open space systems at Elizabeth, Noarlunga and Golden Grove Completed
Australian Students
Links & legal
Connect with UniSA
UniSA respects the Kaurna, Boandik and Barngarla peoples' spiritual relationship with their country.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


President Obama's inaugural committee raised far more than its fund-raising goal, taking in well over $53 million, much of it from 458 elite donors who kicked in $50,000 apiece.
Overall, the committee reports it has received at least $48 million in donations from about 217,000 individuals, most of whom gave small amounts, plus more than $5 million in television fees and other revenues.
The committee set a budget of roughly $45 million for the gala events last week, meaning there could be a surplus of at least $8 million in donations from individuals. The White House press office and the Obama inaugural committee, a nonprofit corporation, did not respond to calls from the Globe requesting information about the disposition of a potential surplus. The committee, which is not required to report its expenditures, effectively shut down late last week.
The Clinton inaugural committees generated surpluses in 1993 and 1997, though the amounts were never disclosed publicly. However, last month in releasing a list of its donors, the William J. Clinton Foundation, which oversees the presidential library and philanthropic projects, reported receiving between $1 million and $5 million from his inaugural committee.
Through last week, the Obama committee had posted the names of more than 7,400 contributors who gave $200 or more, totaling $41.4 million. Before departing as committee spokesman last Friday, Brent Colburn said that besides those larger-dollar donors, "just under 210,000 donors gave less than $200, with an average contribution of about $30." That would translate into another $6.3 million in smaller-dollar contributions.
By law, the committee must file a report by April 20 with the Federal Election Commission listing contributors of $200 or more. Colburn said it hasn't been determined if it would include the names of those who gave less than $200.
Roughly half the total - $22.9 million - was in $50,000 donations, the limit set by the Obama committee, which also barred donations from corporations, political action committees, lobbyists, and labor unions.
But the array of contributors reflects the diversity of support for Obama, whose campaign shattered fund-raising records using an extensive Internet network. Donors ranged from law firms, special interests, and regulated industries that deal with government to celebrities, philanthropists, activists, and ordinary people who identified themselves in ways that reflect the times.
Under the "employer" category, a Charlotte, N.C., woman who donated $250, wrote: "None - had to take early retirement." A Laurel Springs, N.J., woman, who also gave $250, described herself as "Unemployed mom of 36 Yr old Downs adult." A $200 donor from Palo Alto, Calif., described her employer as "Self - but Little or no Work."
Entertainment industry figures contributed several million dollars, including a total of $275,000 from Steven Spielberg and four others from Dreamworks companies, and $50,000 each from directors Ron Howard and George Lucas, actors Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sharon Stone, and singer-record producer Sean Combs.
Other major sources of contributions are employees of Google (21 donors, $166,000), Microsoft (17 donors, $157,000), Oracle (seven donors, $57,000), Yahoo (five donors, $65,050), and $50,000 apiece from global financier George Soros and four of his family members.
Dozens of individuals from financial services, private equity, and hedge fund companies also contributed the maximum, and seven officials from Citibank, which has received federal bailout funds, gave a combined $139,475.
Four Native American tribes also gave $50,000 apiece.
A review by the Globe also identified executives and employees of about 45 firms that do significant contract work for the federal government and who donated a combined $646,000 to the inaugural committee. Most of the companies are in the Washington area, many are minority-owned, and they provide technical or support services to military and civilian agencies.
Earl W. Stafford, founder and CEO of Unitech of Centreville, Va., a provider of training and simulation exercises to the armed forces and other agencies, not only donated $50,000 to the inaugural committee but spent about $1 million from his charitable foundation to pay for hotel rooms and other amenities so that 300 disadvantaged supporters of Obama could attend the inauguration.
"My donation to the Inaugural Committee had absolutely nothing to do with business," said Stafford, whose company was purchased by giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. in the past month for an undisclosed sum. "This was an opportunity to show my support for this historic moment in America, as well as the benefit to receive tickets for several of the Inaugural events, including seats to the swearing-in ceremony, the inaugural parade, and some of the inaugural balls."
Don Smith, founder and head of Hard Light Consulting Group in Washington, which does government contract work, said he gave $50,000 because "I wanted my family and friends to be there with me and be a part of history." Officials in the Obama campaign, he said, "don't know me as Hard Light, they know me as Don Smith." He said he and his children knocked on doors and made phone calls for Obama during the campaign.
Except for a ban on money from foreign nationals, there are no statutory limits on the amounts or source of contributions for inaugural ceremonies.
Four years ago, the second Bush inaugural committee raised $42.3 million from about 15,000 donors, ranging from individuals who gave $1 to corporations that gave up to $250,000, the cap set by the Bush committee.


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