Looking to the past doesn't always work. For one, many current founders or CEOs were "still in high school" during the last economic crisis, according to Homebrew partner and co-founder Hunter Walk.

For another, even for those entrepreneurs who survived the last global downturn, the big takeaways might not apply to current circumstances. "The answers from those entrepreneurs in 2008 may or not be the right answers for companies in 2020. But the questions they asked themselves might be the things that are evergreen. And so asking some of those questions of yourself as a founder who might be going through this the first time -- I think that's where it gets valuable," Walk said on the Modern Retail Podcast.

Homebrew, the investment company Walk co-founded in 2013, has invested in companies ranging from the worlds of kids' clothing to aerospace technology and farming robots.

Another evergreen spot for him is in the qualities of the founders he invests in, "which have remained consistent and help us do our job during a time like this," Walk said.

"You ask yourself 'why is this founder working to solve this problem?' And if the answer is something that usually comes from a personal interest in the problem, a deep insight or connection, then when they hit a speed bump (or in this case a very large speed bump, from a global standpoint) they don't stop. They pause, maybe, and say 'OK, how do I have to rethink my business?' But they're not just doing this opportunistically. They're doing it because they couldn't imaging doing anything else."