Tim Chen, CEO and co-founder of $500 million firm NerdWallet, says he’s “weathering the [coronavirus] storm” similar to different companies, however he remains to be optimistic. 

“There’s an actual silver lining right here,” Chen tells CNBC Make It. Chen believes there may be alternative for the subsequent technology of entrepreneurs.

“Now could be the perfect time ever to construct an organization,” Chen says. 

Chen would know: Through the 2008-2009 monetary disaster he was laid off at Christmas from his job at a hedge fund. Although he was devastated, he took the chance to turn out to be an entrepreneur, one thing he at all times dreamed of doing.

Chen, now 37, says he received the thought for NerdWallet a number of months into his unemployment when his sister, who was dwelling in Australia, emailed him a query about discovering a bank card with decrease international transaction charges.

When he could not simply discover the reply through Google, he determined to create his personal listing. That listing impressed the thought for NerdWallet. Chen spent $800 to cowl early start-up prices like area charges and software program.

Immediately, NerdWallet has greater than 10 million month-to-month guests and is valued at greater than half a billion {dollars}.

“So arguably the monetary disaster was completely the worst time ever to start out an organization, however I really discovered fairly the alternative,” Chen says.

Chen says he quickly found three the reason why a recession (and now a pandemic) is usually a good time to launch a enterprise.

Chen says now its the time to grab up high expertise.

“The price of nice expertise drops in recessions and it is really simpler to rent them,” Chen says.

And discovering higher expertise for cheaper charges permits entrepreneurs to create a greater product for much less cash, he says.

He additionally suggests trying internationally for expertise. “It may be formidable to get it arrange. However when you do and you determine recruiting, onboarding and operations, hiring internationally is far cheaper,” he says.

“If [NerdWallet] wasn’t already a distributed workforce, I might significantly contemplate [hiring internationally],” Chen says.

Chen says he has already seen advert charges decline drastically throughout Covid-19.

“So with advert charges dropping, its principally an opportunity to construct your model for much less whereas we’re in recession,” he says.

Chen advises start-ups to search for cheaper alternatives on information platforms resembling Twitch and keep away from the larger identify promoting platforms.

“It is simply tremendous laborious on platforms like Fb and Google as a result of they’re so environment friendly and all the massive corporations are so good at doing quantitative evaluation to determine the way to purchase and personal these adverts,” he says.

And if you do not have a price range for advertising but, natural advertising — getting clients to return to your enterprise naturally over time or by means of phrase of mouth quite than by means of paid hyperlinks — can also be a very good tactic throughout a recession Chen says.

In NerdWallet’s case, natural advertising was straightforward throughout the monetary disaster as a result of within the early days, the positioning targeted on serving to individuals do issues like determining the way to get a free checking account.

When Chen launched NerdWallet at first of 2009, he says there was just about nobody else was attempting to start out a private finance firm and present rivals had been too “hamstrung” as a result of they had been shedding workers.

In a recession, Chen says, “You do not have to love race in opposition to 10 well-funded rivals to go after a market. There’s only a lot much less competitors coming within the subsequent couple years.” 

He even believes now’s a “improbable” time to start out a journey firm of kinds amid journey restrictions and social distancing as a result of Covid-19 as a result of nobody else is considering it.