What happened last week...

Mission: Every sideline. Everywhere.

“Everywhere” has a taken on a new meaning. 

Last week, the Go4Ellis team pivoted from connecting athletic trainers with per diem games, practices and tournaments to connecting an ARMY of medical professionals with healthcare systems, urgent cares and government health departments .

I won’t bore you with statistics on shifts lost, money lost, jobs lost, because everyone has that issue. Instead, here is an account of the 10 days at Go4Ellis leading up to our landmark announcement with NATA regarding a new phase of our partnership. Crisis provides opportunity for innovation and movements. We want to be a part of both. 

Before I go any further, a HUGE SHOUTOUT to the athletic trainers ALREADY on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. You have shown us what the profession is capable of. We want to amplify your effort and shine a spotlight on what you do.

Our message is simple. We have over 10,000 healthcare professionals on our platform who are ready to help. We also know that through our partners at NATA, there’s another 60,000 who also want to help.

So, we want to use our platform to make that happen.

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Monday March 16, 2020

We launched our daily 9:30 COVID-19 Pulse Meeting, which serves as a check-in and a chance for the team to engage with another human. All video is on, no hiding. 

10AM Call: NATA / GO4ELLIS  

If there was ever a reason to join this group, this is it. The leadership of Dave, Tory, and Meredith is inspiring. We explained our idea to the NATA team; Katie, Amy, Anita, and Tamesha. They were were quick to improve on our plan. We both believed that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to propel the athletic training profession into the national spotlight. NATA’s partnership with Go4Ellis gives this mission the needed technology to deliver a call to action which cannot be ignored. 

1PM Call: Phila Dept. of Health / GO4Ellis

Ellis and I got on a conference call with the COO and Clinical director for the city. As we have found throughout our conversations, Ellis needs to explain the skillset of an athletic trainer. This is both disappointing AND exciting as the “ah-ha!” moment always happens. We have since been in constant communication with the Phila Dept. of Health and are part of their back-up plan for COVID-19 testing sites. 

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Tuesday March 17, 2020

Chris, Director of Business Development, reorganized and planned out our sales strategy to switch from sport event operators to healthcare providers. His primary goal: find jobs for athletic trainers.

Ellis also broke the news to the team that some her friends were getting laid off. This was now real. We looked at our platform and saw that over 1500 shifts were cancelled. Totaling over 250K.  That is rent payments, mortgage payments, loan payments, car payments, and beer money.

Our company met at 5pm and finished our pivot. Jobs are the priority in this economy. 

In one week, we completely redirected the company’s core business to meet the projected demands of a world pandemic on the healthcare system. It’s like a tagline for a movie. 

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Wednesday March 18, 2020

Brian, Director of Marketing, was developing strategies, deploying assets, wrangling timelines, and writing blog posts for the NATA announcement. 

Our sales team made headway with their first health organization, RightTime Urgent Care in MD. As of today they have posted $120,000 in jobs on the platform. 

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Thursday March 19, 2020

1pm  Call:  NATA / GO4ELLIS

Tamesha, from NATA, and Brian, from Go4Ellis, finalized our launch plan for Friday. 

You can read the press release by clicking here. 

Friday March 20, 2020

Launch Day. 

Since we announced our movement with NATA we have had over 700 ATs join the platform. 

Why? Because that is what YOU do. 

So, it is now our turn. Our sales team is working practically 24/7 to find jobs for athletic trainers.

Things we learned in the past week.

City/State health departments are currently relying on the Medical Resource Corps (MRC). The MRC is a national network of local volunteer units who engage their local communities to strengthen public health, reduce vulnerability, build resilience and improve preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities. The MRC is primarily made up of retired medical professionals. 

Health systems, city governments, and urgent cares operate on thin margins and this virus outbreak is going to stress their workforce as people get sick and need to stay home. Rates might not be as initially high as they were with private sports organizations and educational institutions. As I said, we are focused on getting jobs on the platform. You have the freedom to work them or not.

Stats from the week:

We sent out 2371 emails to health departments, urgent cares, hospitals, and public health departments.

We have made 362 phone calls to health departments, urgent cares, hospitals, and public health departments.

We DMd over 400 governors, health departments, HR directors and CEOs through Instagram and Twitter.

Over 700 new AT were accounts created. 

We had our first healthcare/non-sport post; Righttime Medical Care, Urgent Care Center.

697 people downloaded our AT/COVID-19 Support one sheet. (You can download it here: ow.ly/kHq950yRucE) 

Going Forward

In the upcoming weeks, we will do our best to update you everyday with what we’ve been doing, what what we know, who we’ve spoken to, who is listening and, generally, what’s happening.

We are out here hustling. We got this. All of us. We got this. 

Andy

CEO Go4Ellis

Questions? Email us at contactus@go4ellis.com, or give us a call at 1-833-GO4-ATCS.