Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sergipe Startups

challenges and opportunities

Abstract

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the world, affecting all economic sectors and creating health problems in general. With this scenario, governments imposed distancing measures, interrupting various economic activities, creating vulnerability effects (Vargas, 2020). For startup companies, the situation was no different, many had projects suspended due to the pandemic, others cut costs and investments, freezing hiring and dismissing employees (Morélix et al., 2020). This article had the general objective of analyzing the impacts of the pandemic on Startups in the State of Sergipe. Specifically, it identified the factors linked to the pandemic that positively and negatively affected startups, and investigated the main structural failures of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Sergipe from the perspective of the actors. Methodologically, a research with a quantitative approach was structured, conducting a survey, using a questionnaire, applied to managers of startups of Sergipe. The results point to positive impacts of the pandemic, the emergence of new customers, revenue growth, demand for new products or services, use of new technologies, acceleration of the digital transformation process, increase in funds for some projects, such as those aimed at Health area. Among the negative impacts are the loss of customers, revenue, reduction of time dedicated to projects, suspension of partnerships. The main structural failures of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem of Sergipe are related to the lack of public policies that boost the activities of startups, few cases of internationalization, and lack of knowledge of entrepreneurs to attract investments.