Success in the Time of COVID

The Phoenix Theatre Company was prepared for a standing ovation as they closed out their 100th season last June. Instead, the pandemic forced them to close their doors on March 15—coinciding with the last day of a festival, the first dress rehearsal for a new musical, and the middle of a musical review. 

“We told everybody who had purchased tickets, ‘We’ll be back in May, we just have to ride things out,’” says Michael Barnard, producing artistic director. “And then we began to realize what we were in for.”

After canceling the two remaining shows left in the season, it was time to do a bit of creative improvisation. The team pivoted to offering virtual experiences with Behind the Curtain, which included Barnard doing interviews, hosting a game show, and featuring vocalists and singers. 

“We offered it for free, just to keep people engaged,” says Barnard. “But Zoom wears thin when you’re trying to replicate any sense of live performance.”

It was time to improvise again, and discussions between Barnard and managing director Vincent VanVleet turned to creating an outdoor stage in September. Their good relationship with the neighboring United Methodist Church—which has a large, gated courtyard—was just the ticket. They came to an agreement that would help both entities and erected a stage in six weeks. 

With limited sets and union restrictions, the best programming option was music, so they put on shows including musical tributes to Dionne Warwick and Johnny Cash, and a two-person musical called “Murder for Two.” In addition to protocols such as socially-distanced seating for audiences, precautions for the performers meant masks and shields during rehearsals, and staying in a cast-only bubble. 

“It was quite the endeavor to do it,” says Barnard. “But you know, we were only one of 19 theaters across the country that were able to operate. At first, people were hesitant. Then it got to the point where we were actually selling out.” 

After a year of improvising, the Phoenix Theatre Company has happily returned to their original script: performing indoors with August shows including “Pump Boys” and “Dinettes,” as well as the opening of “Steel Magnolias.”

Sometimes, frustration is the mother of invention. “It might sound like a bit of a trite founding story, but my co-founders and I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing about the quality of our furniture, and how expensive it was relative to how long it would last,” says Nick Arambula, CEO of Neighbor, an outdoor furniture company based in Phoenix. Arambula and co-founders Chris Lee and Mike Fretto had an ideal skill set and entrepreneurial mindset to enter the outdoor furniture market, having played key roles in the Tuft & Needle mattress success story. They understood the economics of the direct-to-consumer furniture space and how to ship bulky furniture items to people’s front doors.

And when they evaluated the industry, they saw a gap between the low-end, big-box products versus the pricier, high-end collections. “We wanted to find of a happy spot in the middle—building products made with really high-quality materials that last a long time with very considered design, but at an attainable price point,” he says.

Launching a company in the midst of a pandemic was a bold business move, but the Neighbor team looked at it strategically. “Part of our interest was prompted by what was going on globally,” Arambula says. “Homes became gyms, schools, restaurants and daycare. And we knew from our own personal experiences at home that people were seeking refuge by going outside.” 

The team made a bold move in the fall by placing a significant number of purchase orders. Although Neighbor outsold their projections through the first four months of 2021, they were in better shape than furniture companies whose lead times were extending as long as six to eight months.

With the worst of the pandemic in the rearview mirror, Arambula is even more optimistic about their growth path. 

“We were fortunate having been at another company that scaled in a really rapid way like Tuft & Needle,” says Arambula. “Our goal is to introduce new products that fit a similar aesthetic, price point, and quality of what we’ve sold so far, and to keep growing the team in a local way.”

As boxer Mike Tyson famously noted, “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” For Vivili Hospitality Group founder Skyler Reeves, those words resonated throughout the pandemic. 

“I felt like I’d signed up to fight Tyson for 12 rounds,” he says. “But then someone told me, ‘It’s going to hurt. But I promise you, you’ll win the fight if you make it to the end.’ So that’s what I kept telling myself.” 

At the start of March 2020, Reeves’s Prescott restaurant business was thriving, operating the Barley Hound and Rosa’s Pizzeria and closing on longtime institution Taco Don’s. On the 15th, his family was scheduled to celebrate his daughter’s birthday at a concert, which unfortunately became one of the first events canceled in Arizona.

That same day, Reeves started talking with local government and health department officials and realized that he was going to have to regroup. He made some tough decisions, including closing one of the restaurants and laying off employees. 

“We switched to to-go only with Rosa’s because we thought pizza would do well,” he says. “The world didn’t implode, but I realized how hard it was going to be.” 

The round-two bell rang and Reeves negotiated with the city to allow outdoor dining on a deck in front of Rosa’s. He also shifted his mindset: This was going to be the biggest opportunity of his life. 

“I knew there would be deals coming up,” he says. “Places were going to close, people would retire or move, and no one was looking to expand. I was on the phone with a broker every other day.”