when he got a loan in May from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Getting the $45,000 wasn’t easy, Cristofaro said. The website crashed 30 times as he tried to fill out the application. Then, the first round of funding ran out; federal data show much of it was scooped up by large corporations. In the meantime, business disappeared, including a $69,000 job from a major client. “I’m about to tell my employees, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to stop working,’” said Cristofaro, 56, who has run Actionable Research Inc. in Aliso Viejo since 2002. “That PPP funding perfectly covered the crater caused by the coronavirus.”