Our pledge for the community during COVID-19

In a world of social distancing, self quarantine, toilet paper hoarding, the thought of sharing spaces and organising an event or an off-site meeting may seem to be the last thing in our minds.

This pandemic has affected each one of us, not only physically but also mentally and financially. It forces us to think more about the way we live our lives, the decisions we make, and how we could affect the people around us.

Over 860.793 people have been infected by COVID-19 virus so far with 0,049% death rate globally. Although we can agree that social distancing is a must, to slow down the spreading, it’s a double-edged sword. Social distancing could affect some of us mentally in the long run with loneliness and depression. It has also increased the domestic violence rate (over 32% in only one week of lock-down in France). Financially, more than half of small business holds less than one month of cash buffer. Thus, this pandemic is not to be taken lightly.

What will the government do? What can we do?

Government around the world promise financial aid to their citizens, but in most cases, fail to agree on the ‘how’. While politicians are discussing how to help the citizens in their respective countries financially, citizens are burning their life savings and heading towards private bankruptcy.

Every sector is struggling with its specific demon; from grounded planes, overworked healthcare practitioners, and closed businesses. It may feel like 2008 all over again, but this time it feels like a wake-up call for most of us. From realising the value of day-to-day life, the global imbalance of the healthcare system, and the drop of CO2 emission. This pandemic forces us to keep our distance towards each other and closer to ourselves.

We are now in an era of intense generosity: we want individuals, families, small businesses, large corporations, life as we know it to survive, and there is no space in that for parsimony. No meaningful bean-counting will save more than it costs.
/ Zoe Williams /

Despite our backgrounds, we all can agree that, socially, we want every business sector to survive. We need all of us to emerge from this strongly and move towards a more sustainable, reawakening, and long-term mindset. As Zoe Williams mentioned; We are now in an era of intense generosity: we want individuals, families, small businesses, large corporations, life as we know it to survive, and there is no space in that for parsimony. No meaningful bean-counting will save more than it costs.

Although the pattern shows that the government would prioritise the big corporates; Complaining over this won’t help. So the question we, as an organisation, ask ourselves is: What can WE DO and how can WE HELP?

Moving forward…

Without the community, there’s no Venopi. Our mission is to enable and empower people, using the assets they already have, starting with space. We believe that when we are able to empower the people, we can create a stronger community; and with a better society, we lift up humanity.

Venopi is a bootstrapped company. With no outside funding and no eligibility for the government aid, this pandemic has hurt us financially. But we also believe that every one of us plays an essential role in the society, and during this hardship is when our integrity is tested.

Venopi pledges to waive the commission fee to all event suppliers for the whole year of 2020. We hope this will help your business to recover during this hard time, and we are committed to assist and provide the best support to our most valued customers.

Many businesses own space that can be used to host different activities such as birthday parties, meetings, workshops, sport events, business/social gathering activities, and they are all affected by the pandemic.

If you know any businesses who is struggling; please invite them to join Venopi so they can increase their revenue just by renting out their existing space.

Let’s help and support each other, together we can.