#StartupsVsCovid19: Product Leaders, Founders Pledge Consultation Time To Catalyse Donations

The Covid-19 pandemic situation in India has reached unprecedented severity with India 3,52,991 fresh Covid cases and 2,812 deaths on Sunday, April 25. The startup ecosystem has come together in different ways to aid Covid relief measures across the country to the extent that individual product leaders are now offering their expertise at no cost to companies volunteering and donating towards Covid relief. 

Several founders and product leaders have taken to the social media platform over the weekend to gather support for Covid relief measures and many have pledged consultation time in exchange for donations. 

For instance, Anshumani Ruddra, product manager for Google Pay, reached out urging businesses to donate over INR 50,000 to Covid relief efforts in exchange for a two-hour session on product building. Similarly, Himanshu Khanna, founder of digital agency Sparklin, has offered two hours of design and marketing consultation to anyone who donates over INR 5,000 towards verified Covid relief efforts.

These industry leaders are offering support for resume building, product design, UX design, career advice and product review among others. Some have also shared their own verified resources for donation links while many are urging donations to any initiative or philanthropic efforts to aid those impacted by the pandemic. 

Some of the Covid relief resources being supported include Hemkunt Foundation, Mission Oxygen, ACT Grants, Zomato Feeding India, Feeding From Far and Swasth. 

Mission Oxygen has been launched by a group of startup founders called Gurgaon Entrepreneurs with the goal of procuring oxygen concentrators. The group has collected over INR 5 Cr to source concentrators from China, with donations pouring in from the startup community and celebrities such as Taapsee Pannu. The initial goal was to raise INR 2.5 Cr for 500 concentrators. The other entrepreneurs who are leading the efforts through this community are Snehil Khanor of TrulyMadly, Mansha Kaur of Heart On My Sleeve, Hubhopper founder Gautam Raj Anand, Rahul Agarwal and Varun Agarwal of Designhill, Rahul Hari of Satvacart, Uday Anand of Mycrushfit,  Gautam Ghai of Sourcefuse, Cuttlfish founder Shikher Gupta, among others.

The campaign is looking to raise INR 5 Cr through crowdfunding platform Ketto and is still looking for individuals to contribute to the efforts.

Delhi-NCR based logistics startup Delhivery has taken a similar initiative to airlift medical essentials from global locations to India.

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