Archive note: This essay was originally published in August 2020 and reflects the facts, roles, and impact figures available at that moment in the COVID-19 response.
Starting With a Question
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, like many others, I asked myself a singular question that drove my decisions for the next six months: “How can I help?”
Because of my background spanning chemical and biological warfare at the Pentagon, reality TV, giant fighting robots, a technology team for the Obama administration, and a supply-chain technology company, people around me were also asking: “How can you help?” I still remember the first text from Ryan Panchadsaram that led to conversations with Andy Slavitt and then Mark Cuban about supporting the country’s healthcare providers. It kicked off a remarkable journey for me and many others.
My response was to extend the same question to the frontline and ask what people needed. That resulted in the launch of Project N95 on March 21. We assembled the rapid-response organization with experts from across the country around one mission: getting personal protective equipment to the frontline, fast. Volunteers appeared at our virtual door from groups including U.S. Digital Response and what became the C19 Coalition, along with many others looking for a way to lend a hand. In less than a month, we had more than 100 volunteers working to bring help where it was needed.
The early days of the pandemic still make me shudder. Everything felt like it was on fire. I felt like a smokejumper diving into an engulfed forest armed only with a leaky bucket. We could barely see three hours ahead, let alone plan for three days, weeks, or months. But the volunteers kept moving through experience, intuition, and unequivocal passion. Our mission was pure, our values were clear, and individual units of work had direct meaning for frontline workers.
Delivering and Measuring Impact
About two months in, the team had been moving fast to vet suppliers and products and share that list with qualified healthcare providers and governments at every level. As a data-driven organization from day one, our biggest challenge became delivering and measuring impact. We could connect frontline organizations to vetted suppliers, but we had no way to confirm firsthand that PPE was actually delivered. It was impossible to know whether we were helping or hurting while the supplier list—and the requests for help—continued to grow.
A pointed example came when Get Us PPE, a partner almost from the beginning, told me it was having issues with a vetted supplier. That accelerated our discussions about measuring impact by closing the feedback loop all the way through delivery to frontline workers.
The challenge was doing this at rapid-response speed while the need for PPE was at its peak. We also recognized the difficulty of recruiting a world-class technology team for a nonprofit, or alternatively spinning out a for-profit company, raising capital, and recruiting the same talent at market rates.
Personal and Professional Sacrifice
It was clear that neither option would meet the immediate need. I made the personal decision to offer LVRG as a solution: an existing supply-chain management platform with engineers and support already in place. I was dedicating all of my time to Project N95 and was willing to lean in as far as my capacity allowed. I asked my investors for the grace to proceed and received extraordinary support. On May 1, during the heat of the pandemic, the LVRG team began “chasing the sun” to build the technology needed for a marketplace that launched on May 15.
By the time this essay was published, the marketplace had delivered 1,667,834 units of PPE to 190,980 frontline workers across every state and Puerto Rico. It was a massive collaborative effort by both Project N95 and the LVRG team. The numbers were impressive, but the moments with the greatest impact for me came on calls with frontline healthcare workers—hearing the trembling in their voices, the slight tone of desperation, and the relief that an organization existed to help them stay safe while serving their communities.
A Few Life Lessons and the Next Chapter
Looking back on those six months, I learned personal and professional lessons that changed me at a foundational level. Many amplified existing strengths and surfaced new ones. Others were humbling and exposed areas where I needed to keep improving. Everyone is on their own journey, and I remain grateful to those who supported my personal and professional development.
The biggest lesson and challenge was that, by personally sacrificing everything to achieve the mission and pulling in resources from my world, I found myself leading two rapidly growing organizations. Project N95’s mission from the beginning was to deliver the maximum impact to people asking for help during the pandemic. To keep unlocking and accelerating the organization’s ability to do that, I stepped down as executive director and as a director of the board.
I looked forward to seeing Project N95 continue to grow and drive toward its mission, and to supporting it in every way possible as it began its next chapter. My only ask of you, as a reader, remains: How can I help?