The devastating toll of the pandemic is all too clear on our families, our cities, our nation. But we are now beginning to see an underappreciated side of the pandemic: a coast-to-coast surge in American ingenuity, drive and determination.
Even as the pandemic damaged or even destroyed many businesses, it also provided new opportunities and fostered creativity in unexpected ways. For some, it meant a recalibration of life priorities. For others, it provided the gift of time and attention to start something new or follow through on long-deferred dreams. More new businesses were created in 2020 than any other year on record, and 2021 wasn’t far behind. The one-year survival rate of those new companies topped 80% in 2021 for the first time since 1999, according to the Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship.
We reached out to new business owners in every state of the country to hear their stories of creation, survival and success. The pandemic required these people to adapt their businesses to new economic realities, from making and branding their products to reaching customers. We’ve selected one new company to represent the innovation we found in each of the 50 US states, highlighting 12 to showcase the mixture of inspiration and perseverance needed to start a new enterprise in the midst of a pandemic.
Allysa Dittmar, deaf since birth, experienced herself the dehumanizing and terrifying challenge of communicating with masked health-care workers during an emergency. With two colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, she developed ClearMask, the first fully transparent surgical face mask approved by the Food and Drug Administration just in time for the coronavirus pandemic. The masks have also been adopted by court systems for hearings and depositions.
—James Gibney