[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right, inviting you to put a human face on this Time story we were reading this morning, "Year of COVID fueled surge of startups," and the fact that there were more startups than before the pandemic. We are inviting you to call in and talk about the business that you've started during the pandemic. Our lines are full at 646-435-7280. More of you can get in after people finish up. Let's start with Dan in Flatbush. Hi, Dan. You're on WNYC.

Dann: Hey, good morning, Brian. Over the past year, I started a moving company called Dann With Van, NYC. That's Dann with two Ns. I worked as a mover for five years, just as an employee for a company. Then, when the pandemic hit last year, I didn't work for about two months, and got unemployment. Suddenly had close to $10,000 in my bank account, whereas before that I had maybe had $1,000 or $2,000 tops at any given time. I bought a van and I started doing it myself. I've been more financially secure doing that by far than anything I've ever done before in my life, and I'm going on 30.

Brian Lehrer: That is so cool. What was it like being a mover during the pandemic? I know in my building they suspended move-ins for a while in the early phases. Then, of course, there were all kinds of safety rules. What's it been like being a mover during the pandemic?

Dann: Like I said, I didn't do it for about two or three months at the beginning. Before I started doing it myself, I did eventually go back to work occasionally for my old job. I didn't feel safe. We were wearing masks, obviously. We were given latex gloves that within half an hour of working they would be torn up because you're lifting heavy stuff and getting in there. Didn't really feel safe. With the vaccine now I feel safe even with Delta. I'm optimistic.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, and good luck out there. Best of luck. Dann with Van. Dann with two Ns, I hear you. Shamel in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hello, Shamel.

Shamel: How are you doing today?

Brian Lehrer: Good. How about you? You started a business?

Shamel: I'm fine. Yes, over the pandemic, I decided to start a clothing line. It's called Right Brain Thinkers. Before the clothing line, I was working at a daycare with kids, and you really know how that could go with the kids and stuff. I felt like I had to get out of there to make my own way. In case anything did happen, I have my own income coming in. I don't have to depend on anybody feeding me at that point. I could feed myself. I already had a little fan base already so I just decided to go that route.

Brian Lehrer: Right Brain Thinkers. Remind me what's the right brain supposed to represent as opposed to the left brain?

Shamel: Right brain is more creativity and you're more intuitive. Left brain is more logic and your world is based on logic and you don't really have that creative side to you.

Brian Lehrer: What's an example of one of your pieces, if you want to describe some of the clothing you're making?

Shamel: I make everything right now. I'm making hats, socks, t-shirts, anything you can really think of. You go follow my Instagram. You can see all my stuff on my Instagram. My Instagram is the b.m.e_mel. All my clothing line is there. You can see everything. If y'all want to go take a look, go take a look. I have everything up there. I do music as well. I just took off everything. I do everything right now. I shoot videos, I do music, I do clothing line. I'm about to throw an event October 9th. A pop-up shop in Brooklyn, New York. I'm just doing everything entrepreneur right now trying to upstart my life.

Brian Lehrer: So cool, Shamel. Good luck out there. Right Brain Thinkers, for people who want to look it up and you heard his Instagram address. Great name for a company. Right Brain Thinkers clothing line. Good luck. Call us again, too. Let us know how it's going. Ashley in Asbury Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Ashley.

Ashley: Hi. I started a cafe called Steady Hand Cafe, filling the need of all of the folks who were stuck at home, not able to get to their local coffee shop. I was operations managing a cafe in Philadelphia when the pandemic hit and unfortunately, I was let go. I decided to move back home and was just not sure what to do next. I decided to start bottling lattes and opening up orders for people to deliver from home. Then, I personally deliver their lattes to them. I prepare them at home and then deliver them. At this point, business has grown so much that I am now delivering the entire New Jersey Shore as well as Philadelphia.

Brian Lehrer: Bottled lattes to go. Even after things opened up again, and people are going out, and from the people I know who've been spending time at the Jersey Shore this summer, it's almost like the pandemic never happened. The crowds are out there, people are going into places. Even now, people like this delivery option.

Ashley: I think it serves the work-from-home crowd. They can bulk-purchase what they need to get them through the week. We also have a lot of parents who have been teaching from home and not able to step away from the homeschooling to get their coffee. It's been really, really shockingly incredible.

Brian Lehrer: That's great, Ashley. Good luck out there. Thank you very much. Henry in Harlem. It's not Henri. It's Henry, right?

Henry: Thanks for making that distinction, Brian. I really appreciate it. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: You're not a hurricane or a tropical storm.

Henry: Shout out to my friends at Bike New York. My thoughts go to the team at Bike New York. I hope the weather treats them well.

Brian Lehrer: For the Five Boro bike tour on Sunday, I hope it doesn't get rained out. What you got?

Henry: Yes, exactly. I'm a lifelong New York City restaurateur, a longtime owner of Henry's on the Upper West Side, which I closed in 2018. I launched a company called Foodie Fondo, F-O-N-D-O, which is at foodiefondo.bike, and it's culinary bike tours. Safest place you can be in New York City is outdoors. I love the Alfresco lifestyle. I love biking, and I want to support all my friends in the food business.

Brian Lehrer: Cool. A culinary bike tour. Tell us more about it. Give us an example of where you go.

Henry: Our most recent tour was Uptown Funk, which was Harlem in the Bronx, and we went to Randalls Islands and we featured restaurants and bars owned by women and people of color. We started at Melba's, then we rolled up into the Bronx, the Beatstro, New York City's first hip-hop bistro. Went out to Soundview Park, back to Bronx Brewery through Randalls Island, and finished at Chaiwali Indian on Lenox Avenue on 124th. All our food sell out there. Phenomenal, great time, safe, entertaining.

Our next one is on Saturday, September 25th with my friends at Good Company Bike Club, a fabulous bike club founded by African Americans in Brooklyn to celebrate cycling, and they do an amazing job. Saturday, September 25th, we will do Good Company comes to Harlem. We'll start at Sally's Caribbean Restaurant in Bed-Stuy right up to Harlem, visit my friends at Teranga, African superfood by chef Pierre Thiam. Then, we'll roll up, see some sites around Harlem, have arugula by a brother at Lee Lee's, incredible bakery in Harlem on 118th Street. Then, we'll roll over and have a glass of wine at [unintelligible 00:09:06].

Brian Lehrer: That is all so cool. Plus, people can work up an appetite for all this as they pedal, unless they have an e-bike.

Henry: It's a calorie-neutral experience, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: That's very good. By the way, now that I know your Henry from Henry's, I will miss your restaurant. I've eaten at Henry's multiple times, including outdoor dining before it was a safety precaution, just because it was nice to eat outdoors at Henry's. You had that option. Good luck with Foodie Fondo. It sounds awesome.

Henry: Thanks so much.

Brian Lehrer: We go next to Sarah in the Bronx, as we're taking calls from people who started businesses during the pandemic. Hi, Sarah.

Sarah: Hi, Brian. Thanks so much for taking my call. I was a healthcare administrator for over 30 years, and I retired at the end of 2020. I started a business in online clothing. I design and create my own jackets in basic styles and then I add ethnic prints to them. There is the ethnic African print and then there is the just sophisticated jacket with an ethnic trim, of Latin-American fabric, of African fabric, of Aboriginal fabric. I have my clothing line online at www.seams S-E-A-M-S .nyc. My jackets are 100% cotton with touches of ethnic trims for the modern woman, mature woman. I converted a bedroom in my home during the pandemic so that I could create while I was isolated. Now, I am going out to pop-up shops and I sell my clothing online.

Brian Lehrer: From health administrator to seams.com. I got it right. Right? S-E-A-M-S.

Sarah: .nyc.

Brian Lehrer: I'm sorry. You say it, one more time.

Sarah: S-E-A-M-S dot N-Y-C.

Brian Lehrer: seams.nyc. Sarah, good luck out there. Sharon in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sharon.

Sharon: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What business did you start?

Sharon: To manage my nervous energy during the pandemic, I started making all-natural soap [laughs] in my kitchen.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Well, what makes all-natural soap? What ingredients are you avoiding?

Sharon: I'm avoiding all of the things that are drying and harmful to your skin. My soap only contains olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil, and sometimes I add a little essential oil for an aroma, lavender, but mostly those are the only ingredients in my soap.

Brian Lehrer: How can people get your soap?

Sharon: I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: How can people get your soap?

Sharon: I have a website, it's called HelloMsDixie. It's www.hello, miss, M-S, dixie, D-I-X-I-E. That's my grandmother's. If you want some old natural soap, just log on to HelloMsDixie, and pick up a few bars.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Sharon, in Queens, I guess, AKA, Ms. Dixie. Good luck out there. Here is Captain Johnny in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. What are you a captain of?

Captain Johnny: I'm a captain of a 28-foot sailboat. I'm based out of Brooklyn, New York.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. You started a business related to that?

Captain Johnny: Yes, I did. My business is called Solemn Seas. What we do is we offer sea scattering services for family members who have lost a loved one and have gone the cremation route where they chose to cremate the body and in turn looking for something dignified to do with the ashes. Some people decide to hold them or to keep them in urns at home, but people, I've learned, have been looking for innovative and nice ways of releasing these ashes of their loved ones.

Brian Lehrer: That's why Solemn Seas. Who's tending to take advantage of this business. Is there a certain kind of person who wants to do this?

Captain Johnny: People looking to take advantage of business are people who, again-- and I know that the program is touching on where it started and how it started, so last year I realized that there was an increase of people passing due to the pandemic. Like I said, there was this increase in cremations and people wanting to, again, do something dignified and nice for their family members who have passed. That generally is the group of people who I've received business from.

Brian Lehrer: Very nice. Captain Johnny in Brooklyn. His business Solemn Seas. Good luck out there. Thanks for calling in.

Captain Johnny: Can I just leave the website, if you don't mind?

Brian Lehrer: Of course, yes.

Captain Johnny: One sec. Sure. It's solemnseas.com and the telephone number is (800) 317-4829.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for your call. Ray in The Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Ray.

Ray: Hi, how are you doing?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What's your business?

Ray: Great. Well, the name of the business is called New York String Source. New York, all spelled out. It's an instrument rental company for violins, violas, cellos, and double bases where people can make reservations online for instruments to be dropped off at their house. We also do repairs, sales, appraisals, and we also have a community section on our website for people to find local ensembles and schools for their kids, or even adults, to take lessons, or private teachers that are local to them or that do the virtual lessons, granted the whole pandemic that's been going on.

Brian Lehrer: Does this reflect that as people were locked in more, that more people were taking up musical instruments and so they needed a rental service?

Ray: Yes, that's something we noticed is that as a lot of people were being sent home from work and having free time, a lot of adults professionals were finding time to pick up instruments for the first time. They also found a home delivery option to be pretty convenient as a lot of shops were closed due to only [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: You want to just say the name of it real quick, then we're out of time. Say the name of it.

Ray: Sure. It's newyorkstringsource.com. New York spelled out and then string source, S-O-U-

Brian Lehrer: newyorkstringsource.com. Thank you so much. Wow. What a diverse array of businesses people have been starting during the pandemic. Thank you for all those amazing calls and have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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