Confirmed my 10 year old nephew thinks this idea sucks.

The point of Christmas is mass consumerism and instant gratification.

This product exists and is attached to every refrigerator. Every version of this product has already been engineered and exists for commercial purposes.

People who buy gifts for kids want to see the kids enjoy them. Giving money to their college fund (ie. essentially giving money to their parents), which the kid doesn't give two ****s about, is something nobody wants to do, maybe with the exception of grandparents.

where's the little door? where's the timer? where's the popcorn setting?

this dream is happening. (plz dont steal)

He basically wants an IQF machine but for home use.

The ability to cool a beer/make ice as fast as a microwave does the opposite

You guys think any of the on-demand job hiring apps have a shot? Basically stuff like you own a restaurant, you click that you have a shift available for a bus boy, and the applicants click a button and make themselves available. You accept one based on XYZ crtieria, they work for you and get paid right away from the app (jobble, wonolo etc...)

Lots of pain points on them, most notably the fact that if you don't have enough jobs listed the average person will uninstall the app pretty quick. You also have quality issues on both ends (unreliable employer or unreliable staff).

Anyway I have the opportunity to invest in one as an angel, and I'm quite hesitant because they have very similar struggles to dating apps. It's like a moneypit where you burn through your cash trying to get critical mass. Feels like all the execution lies in finding a way to growth hack your way to an acceptable critical mass, and without a big idea on how to do that it's destined to fail.

Uber commercial idea:

Bro #1: "Come on dude, I'm not that drunk. I don't want to pay $40 for an Uber, it's a long ride."

Bro #2: "Dude, a DUI costs $10k. No that's a long-ass Uber ride."

...(commence montage of two bros taking a kick-ass $10k Uber road trip)...

Rafiki,

That sounds like a liability nightmare. Who are the employees working for, the app or the business? Who covers the worker's comp., liability, etc.? Getting paid and the lag time in getting paid seems like it'll be a real problem for the app.

In the states something very similar already exists called Labor Ready. It seems like if an app was a viable addition to the business model they'd have already released one (maybe they have). Their business model is you just call up and say you need a laborer at x time for x # of hours and they send you a warm body with any special attire or accessories you request (boots, gloves, colored shirt, shovel or whatever).

Labor Ready handles the worker's comp, liability & payroll. They pay the temp the same day they work and then bill the business. They're a national company so it seems like if an app was viable they'd have one or easily roll one out to crush a startup that doesn't have their infrastructure.

Captain:

In USA you're paid right at the end of the shift via stripe. You work for the business, you're paid by the business and the app is paid their commission out of that end (industry standard is 20-30%). The issues in the industry haven't been around liability at all. It's been around having enough jobs available in a given market to keep users from uninstalling the app. Jobble and Wonolo have had their challenges because they tried to launch everywhere at once, in a ton of work verticals. But someone is going to get this model right, I'm just trying to decide who. On-demand work shouldn't be that big a gap from on-demand ride share for example. And on-demand ride share had plenty of doubters early on (and still does oddly).

Don't businesses have a problem w/ hiring on new employees even for a day? Isn't hiring a new employee for a day of work more effort and liability than it's worth?

No, in fact it's the business world that's seeding these things because they want it. It's cheaper for them to use this kind of work force (even with the commission), it's also easier because they plug on demand shifts that arise due to staffing issues. Stuff like setting up a concert for example, once you've unloaded a sound truck you've unloaded them all. Same for dish washing, bussing tables, you name it.

There are 4-5 pain points on this, and quality control on both the business side and the employee side does exist. But the right ratings system ultimately wins that battle. Like upwork.com really. You can go with the guy who has proven himself and chargers $20 per, or take a stab at the $12 guy. But people are for sure looking for that outsourced work via an app, and this is just another sector startups are in a race to fill.

How does a business hire an employee without having to put them on the payroll? If you put them on the payroll, even for a day you've got to do all the bookkeeping, taxes, liability, worker's comp., training, etc. no?

I'm not sure of the exact split of responsibilities. I know jobble makes the person input their social security number in the app (which has caused them some problems on the trust side of things). But that part of the problem all the startups have solved. I can certainly ask if you're curious. They've been running that end of things for well over a year now in the field with no issues.

Isn't a large part of the appeal in using employees from a temp agency the fact that the temp agency handles all the payroll & liability issues?

I can't tell if you're saying the app handles all of that or not? If they are, I contend It'll be a huge problem for them. If they're not, it's going to create a huge problem for the business that uses the app (and probably the employee as well).

If the app is handling those issues what makes them any different than a traditional temp agency other than the user interface? If there's a demand for that why haven't the entrenched temp agencies adopted it?

Building an app that connects 2 parties & uses a rating system is a solved problem so if there's demand why wouldn't the companies that specialize in providing the service have adopted this and cut their own labor costs?

I don't know... Upwork isn't a good comparison because you're comparing skilled labor to unskilled labor. The gigs you're talking about are usually jobs that pay cash. It's an uphill battle to penetrate employer and labor pools you've described. Small businesses aren't looking to pay a premium for grunts. Millennials cannot afford to take a cheap gig and they expect benefits, plus the undocumented workers will not trust or use your app.

It would be more promising if you did a spanish first mobile app with a bilingual sales/support team that bridged the gap between employers and labor.

Jobble and Wonolo aren't doing just grunt work. Btw a bartender up here needs Smart Serve certification and a skill set. The businesses clamouring for this are looking at it across a pretty wide range of fields. What's more, the problem businesses are having is actually finding the bodies to fill these jobs since as you've correctly pointed out, a lot of millennials don't want them. So it has indeed created an opportunity for the people who want the extra work, and the businesses who need it filled.

The series A rounds for these things have been pretty big and it looks like it's going to keep getting bigger. I guess we'll see if anyone cracks it.

Don't temp agencies already do this basically? Isn't this just 'temp agency in an app'?

EDIT: This could be ok. Temp agencies are probably the legal structure you want to copy. Temp agencies are real businesses.

No it's much closer to Uber where many Uber drivers would make themselves available to you, and you got to pick which Uber you wanted. Only for a lot of different job verticals.

That's what a temp agency is if you remove the vetting and automate it w/ an app. Why haven't temp agencies automated their business model already?

Why did my city JUST get an app for the taxi industry? No idea, I just know these things are starting to happen now and fast.

Btw I went and asked about any special insurance etc... they don't need any.

Saying they don't need any special insurance seems like a huge red flag. Saying you've no idea about why this hasn't been done before doesn't seem like the basis for a good investment.

Who is handling and paying the workers comp on these employees?

Who is withholding taxes?

Who is assuming liability for these workers if they're injured on the job?

Captain, these guys are REALLY far along with really big partners. Not talking about a bunch of startup nerds from 2p2 with an idea. But I can certainly get the answers to your 3 questions.

The pain points you're worried about were easily overcome by the existing players in the space. Where they've failed is they tried the whole "spray and pray" approach to a roll out and failed there. Their job pools are miserable in each city, and consequently users don't keep the app installed for long. The other big challenge is quality on both the user side and the employer side. The one that cracks this finds a good balance in the marketplace between user and employer accountability.

Anyway like I said I'll get the answers to those because it's certainly interesting. Btw I do appreciate the time and the questions.

Who are these guys targeting in terms of businesses & workers? Perhaps the quality challenge isn't surmountable because most quality employees have no problem finding or retaining work and good companies have no problem retaining employees?


Who wants to go to work temporarily for a company that doesn't take good care of their workers and doesn't retain a large enough labor pool? Not particularly great employees

What kind of company wants to hire fill in, untrained, workers? not particularly great companies.

I'm amazed that the pain points I described were easily overcome because they've been a huge point of contention between employers, employees & the government for a very long time. HR, training & compliance is a huge cost for all companies and I'm having a hard time believing that "inputing your SS #" comes anywhere close to meeting record keeping requirements, training, liability, worker's comp. and unemployment issues which are different in every state.

Is the following summary of their business plan at all fair?

We're going to allow anyone that wants to work for a day to get on our app, input their info & SS# and then go out to work for the day doing a job they haven't been trained for at a company they've never worked at."

They've said they don't need any special insurance but who's going to pay when one of these temp workers cuts off their hand?

Intrigued by this idea I was wondering why some of the big players in the temp agency space haven't implemented this and a couple seconds on Google says they are. This is on Labor Ready's site:


What are your guys offering that differentiates them from a nationwide player already established in the space? how far ahead, or behind, are they compared to Labor Ready?

My coworker just created this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXMS8DM