Keep learning and start doing. Knowledge is nothing without action.

As saddening as it is, with the human and economic loss, the corona virus pandemic is nonetheless an opportunity for startups. An opportunity in the form of the gift of time or to rethink and refine their value proposition to be better suited for newer needs that have arisen due to the situation.  One of the most cherished qualities of an entrepreneur is to find opportunities in any situation and always be on the lookout for them. If not find, then turn market shifts into opportunities. With time on their hand and invaluable resources, this is a golden chance for startups to utilize their precious time in enhancing and polishing their skill set.

Free digital tools for entrepreneurs and startups to manage teams remotely

We present to you a list of some of the most incredible free learning resources for startups that are out there.

1.Founder Institute:

This is the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator with chapter across more than 185 cities. They have developed a structured 4-month core program that has been proven to help pre-seed entrepreneurs get to traction and funding. It was created using Silicon Valley’s best practices and input from hundreds of successful technology entrepreneurs from across the globe. The program has also been dynamically improved and updated based on the real performance of their alumni.

Each week in the program, founders attend a 3+ hour “Feedback Session” to pitch the mentors and receive training, evaluation and feedback. After each session, the founders then build their businesses for the rest of the week through a series of practical and challenging business-building sprints, office hours and group meetings.

2.Philanthropy University:

This is an online learning platform that focuses on the needs of social impact organizations. More than a learning platform, it is a community of change-makers brought together by their common cause. Although, they only offer a handful of courses they do cover a broad spectrum, from project management to advocacy to storytelling. Entrepreneurs can also look into their capacity building course or stakeholder engagement strategy. Philanthropy University is also exclusively offering two courses on COVID-19.

Effective E-commerce strategies by Startups during COVID-19

3. Coursera:

Millions of people use Coursera because of the many niche classes offered and the content which is developed by world leading institutions. You can access more than 2,000 courses and Specializations developed by 140+ of the best colleges and universities in the world and advance your career by mastering subjects from Python programming and data science to photography and music. You can find entrepreneurship focused courses here too. Coursera for Business offers exclusive courses curated for businesses, employers and employees.  And world-class training and development programs developed by top universities and companies

4.MIT Open Courseware:

This provides actual courses taught at MIT and offered for free on the site for viewing and reading at your discretion. The school put together an entrepreneurship page that lists available courses that are beneficial to new business owners. Courses include “Early State Capital”, “The Software Business”, and a lot more.

5.EdX:

This is a massive open online course provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. Over 500 courses are available on this site, with many different business topics to choose from. EdX is a trusted platform for education and learning, founded by Harvard and MIT.

Check out the Smart Class platform to learn courses that can help your business grow

6. “How to start a startup”:

This is a collection of video lectures that were initially given at Stanford but Sam Altman decided to scale this series up, albeit gradually, for startups. And that too completely free.  Videos that take you from “before your startup” to “How to manage”. It is a great series of videos by various experts and industries and in just a few lectures they have caught the essence of it for a startup.

7. SCRIBD:

This is offering free access to its library of over 1 million e-books, audio books, magazines, and much more for the next 30 days (no commitment or credit card information required) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion

An entrepreneur is a learner because to launch a new venture you must take in a massive amount of new information. Not only should you acquire the information, but you must also put it into practice constantly, aggressively, and passionately.