Which Startups Qualify For Emergency Federal Assistance? It May Depend on Their Investors
Baffled by the restrictions and sensing a race against the clock until they run out of cash or the program does, small businesses are scrambling to apply for government-backed loans to keep their companies afloat.
The requirements are especially confusing for venture-backed companies, many of which could be excluded from help under the original working of the $2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last week in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
MiraDx Creates COVID-19 Tests for Nursing Homes, Cops, Firefighters & Healthcare Workers
When Dr. Joanne Weidhaas lost their family's orange Tabby cat named Pumpkin, to a "weird coronavirus" three years ago, the RNA biologist threw herself into a month-long study of it. She wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened.
So once this novel coronavirus pandemic hit, Weidhaas realized she was strangely well-equipped for research and testing.
"This (new coronavirus) comes along and, I mean, we've done all the research on it, and I sit down with the head of my lab (and) we just said 'we can actually really do that,'" Weidhaas said. "We have all the equipment, we have the expertise, we're a high-complexity molecular diagnostics lab, which is exactly poised to look at this."
Here are the latest headlines regarding how the novel coronavirus is impacting the Los Angeles startup and tech communities. Sign up for our newsletter and follow dot.LA on Twitter for the latest updates.
Today:
- Amazon Warehouse Worker in L.A. Tests Positive, As Company Struggles with Covid-19
- USC Shows (and Ranks) L.A. Neighborhoods With COVID-19 Cases
- Gov. Newsom to small businesses: "Let's get ahead of the queue"
- L.A. County records 78 deaths, cases top 4,000
- Patrick Soon-Shiong wants to buy shuttered hospital, convert to COVID-19 command center
- Disney announces furloughs amid pandemic, but employees keep healthcare