With 35% receiving PPP Loans, here's how the pandemic impacted the 2021 ForbesUnder30 list:
risons are Covid-19 hotbeds. As the deadly disease began ripping through vulnerable, incarcerated populations last March, 29-year-old Clementine Jacoby took action. “T he first thing we did is go to the states that were on our platform and said, ‘It looks like this is going to be pretty bad.
What can we do to help?’” Jacoby’s company Recidiviz aggregates and standardizes fragmented data across prisons, probation and parole. The overwhelming response was that they needed to decarcerate and they needed to decarcerate fast. Already counting five states like Pennsylvania and Michigan as clients, few companies were better poised to make that happen. Rooted in historical data, the company launched a free, public tool that modeled spread and recommended actions across all 50 states. States that took them up on the offer decarcerated at 3.6 times the normal rate. Their greatest success: North Dakota, which used Recidiviz to identify those eligible for early release, track their release’s impact on public safety and reduce its prison population by 25% in just one month.Her company is not the only one experiencing major change amidst the global pandemic. In fact, 35% of this year’s list that were recipients of Payment Protection Program Loans, a stimulus measure introduced in the CARES Act meant to provide relief to small businesses. Others report applying for the loan but not receiving one as the funds ran out quickly . But those fortunate enough to be approved for a loan report that it helped them ride out and avoid layoffs during the uncertain early months as customers reduced spending and clients canceled contracts. “As a small company with a short runway at the time, we made the decision to apply for and accept the loan,” explains one Forbes Under 30, who cofounded a fitness technology company. “This was prior to raising additional capital and truly understanding whether or not the pandemic would help our business in the long run.”