How a startup that manages event volunteers jumpstarted COVID-19 helplines around the world

Being a volunteer at a festival or conference has become extremely popular over the years, but the COVID-19 crisis brought most of 2020 hottest events to a halt. Johanna-Mai Riismaa and Viktor Lillem?e, co-founders of volunteer management startup Zelos, found a way to pivot their business instead of waiting for the crisis to end.

Riismaa founded Zelos two years ago after a decade working in volunteering projects "I dedicated my time to make events possible by empowering volunteers to go the extra mile, which is what Zelos is all about," she states.

Organizations using Zelos employ volunteers for a variety of reasons, from checking in thousands of festival guests to gathering signatures for a political candidate. In early March the COVID-19 crisis decimated the events industry by forcing the closure of venues and the banning of all social gatherings, pushing Zelos to review its business model. Luckily, the team had signed up for a remote hackathon where they started working in a way to serve their community through their app.

"We decided to launch a helpline," she says "so for the next two days we spent the time coding and finding a way to connect Zelos with a helpline and a ticket system."

The solution was called COVID-Help, and ended up winning the top prize at the first ever #HackTheCrisis hackathon in Estonia. Senior citizens can ask for support via a phone call, while volunteers receive help requests directly in their smartphones. Operators can triage every request, and screen potential volunteers. COVID-Help Estonia recruited over 1,000 volunteers within a day of its launch, and took only two days to be implemented.

"This is a scalable model which can be used anywhere and complements perfectly the app features we have developed so far," says Riismaa.

After winning in Estonia, the Zelos team found a Latvian partner and launched COVIDHelp in Latvia, placing 5th in the local #HackTheCrisis edition. This was followed with participations in Salto EMERGEncy Crisis Growth camp and #TheGlobalHack, a worldwide remote competition where COVID-Help placed in the top 10 of solidarity and empowerment projects.

Riismaa is currently extending the number of customers using COVID-Help by adding Sweden, Philippines, Chile, and Azerbaijan citizen initiatives. Potential clients can learn more about COVIDHelp by sending an email to johanna@getzelos.com or visiting the Zelos website.

Currently the entire Zelos team is working from home, which has not led to a decrease in productivity.

"We make every minute count by tracking our tasks carefully," says Riismaa "just like we do for our clients and volunteers."

Three tips from Johanna-Mai Riismaa for business owners considering pivoting
Be flexible. You may have to deal with odd schedules due to people juggling their career and family commitments. "Care more about what's being done," she says "and remind everyone to update their calendars."
Make the most out of video calls. A video call says more than dozen of emails. "We have a 10 am meeting everyday, it helps to keep our company Slack clean and productive" says Riismaa.
Keep the eyes on the prize. Develop solutions you can still use when things go back to normal. "We are making sure COVID-Help is fully integrated with Zelos, our main app, so in the future it can become an add-on or even a feature." she states.

Zelos
GetZelos.com
Kopli 25-4,
Tallinn, Estonia

Press Contact
Ana Falcon
ana.falcon@getzelos.com
+372 5363 0874

Zelos is a company that manages volunteers for events and organizations. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Zelos has now switched its focus towards community empowerment by creating COVID-Help, a solution for volunteer helplines.

This release was published on openPR.