Virginia Business Daily | Tech entrepreneur creates COVID-19 fund to provide small business owners $3,000

Pete Snyder and his wife, Burson, were on a family vacation at Disneyworld when news hit of a shutdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Upon returning home to Virginia, they realized the world was collapsing around them. 

“We are at war,” said Snyder, a Virginia-based tech entrepreneur and angel investor. “America has a health crisis and an economic crisis. The economic crisis is brutalizing small businesses and they are the backbone of our country.” 

Instead of standing by and waiting for the storm to pass, Snyder and his wife called friends in the philanthropic community that they had cultivated.

“We are overwhelmed with the number of people who want to help,” Snyder told Virginia Business Daily. “They want to save jobs and provide hope in a time of illness, death and drastic economic stress due to public health restrictions.”

The Snyders chose to set up a 501(3)c called the Virginia 30-Day Fund, which endows small businesses with a forgivable loan in the amount of $3,000. Partners include Eagle Bank, the Kimsey Foundation and Startup Caucus. Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Va.) is on the fund’s advisory board.

“I knew that government funding would be complicated for owners of small businesses,” Snyder said in an interview. “Only 50 percent have about two weeks of cash reserves.”

The couple says they have raised $900,000 with new contributions arriving daily. Out of 1,970 applications, 140 small business owners have been funded.

“We can’t fund everyone,” he said. “Businesses that receive assistance can, at a later date, pay-it-forward by directing those dollars back to the fund, which will disburse to another small business owner in Virginia in need.”

The Virginia 30-Day Fund’s target market is entrepreneurs who have been in business in Virginia for more than a year, employ three to 30 workers and are residents of the state.

Shawn Moss, owner of three Shawn’s Smokehouse BBQ restaurants, for example, is a grant recipient.

He used the direct-deposited $3,000 to cover basic monthly expenses.

“We are holding up,” Moss told the Star Exponent. “Sales are down at least 50 percent, but we are still doing curbside pickup and delivery.”

The Snyders called it the 30-Day Fund for a reason.

“We should be out of business after 30 days,” Snyder said. “We’re here to solve an acute problem, which is getting people over the hump but it’s so bad and there’s so much uncertainty that we will continue to fund as many businesses as we can for probably 60, 90 or even 120 days.”

The work of sifting through written applications and video testimonies has been heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time, according to Snyder, who has seen people break down and cry when informed their application has been granted.

“It shows you how hard hit people are,” he said. “Business owners are proud. It’s their identity and their businesses are dying on the vine through no fault of their own. Their livelihood is at stake. This crisis is 10 times bigger and far worse than we ever thought.”