Eyeing a reopening. Nearly two months after the city issued its shelter-in-place order, San Francisco is now taking some steps toward reopening for business, though it’s not moving as quickly as some other parts of the state, which began easing some restrictions last Friday. Non-essential retailers including bookstores, florists, music stores and toy stores are opening for storefront pick-up beginning next Monday. [CNBC]
First to leave, last to return? While some of the above Bay Area businesses are planning to take cautious steps toward returning to traditional operations, tech companies are not expected to follow their lead any time soon. Facebook will reportedly give employees the option to work from home for the remainder of the year, though the social media giant is planning to open its offices on July 6 for employees who need to be there. Other tech companies, like Amazon and Slack, are eying fall re-openings. Given that tech employers were among the first to embrace work-from-home policies, it stands to reason they’ll be among the last to send their workers back to their desks. [Forbes]
Salesforce launches office-reopening software. As offices prepare to potentially reopen their doors, they will have a new tool at the ready: Salesforce last week launched Work.com, a suite of products to help companies navigate the process of reopening. The platform includes a shift management system and a contact-tracing tool. [Built In SF]
Some tech hiring bucks the trend. While the tech industry has, of course, not gone unscathed from the record unemployment rate due to the coronavirus, some major Bay Area employers, like Apple and Facebook, are continuing to hire, even if it’s at a slightly lower rate. According to data from Monster, the Bay Area actually saw a 17 percent increase in new job postings over last year in March. [CNET]
Dropbox turns a profit. The shift to remote work has turned the SF-based collaboration tool into a winner, as the company reported its first profitable quarter in the first fiscal quarter ending March 31. The company reported $455 million in revenue, an 18 percent increase year over year. The company has also seen a surge in usage of its HelloSign and HelloWorks products. [Built In SF]
Farmgirl Flowers still blossoming. This SF-based startup is thriving amid the pandemic after it quickly shifted gears to working with new wholesale partners located closer to the business. Though the company initially had to lay off the bulk of its workforce, its sales have now rebounded to beat pre-COVID-19 levels. Of course, Mother’s Day helped, but the company is hoping for the best. [ABC7]
The key to a perfect database. We recently spoke with a number of experts, including Alexander Sorokin, Airtable’s lead architect, about their approach to designing a database. One key tip he shared with us was to prioritize simplicity: “It’s very tempting to spin up a new database that’s perfect for your new use case, for that particular service, but the overhead of learning the ins and outs of your new database is high and the cost of maintaining it is high too. It’s OK to use a database that kind of works.” [Built In SF]
