Blog 24: Jobble
The career platform for the on-demand and gig economy workforce
Company: Jobble provides an on-demand workforce management platform designed to connect businesses with a community of people looking for flexible work. The company's platform allows businesses to create jobs, select a workforce that matches expectations, and monitor the performance of jobbers using real-time and mobile-optimized technology, enabling businesses to find quality, trusted, and on-demand workers for part-time or full-time jobs.
HQ Location & Year Founded: Boston, 2014
Founder: Zack Smith founded Jobble in 2014, having previously been a sales and business development manager, as well as a collegiate entrepreneur. Zack studied entrepreneurship at both Northeastern and Suffolk University.
Funds Raised and VC Investors: $12 million from AXA Venture Partners, Boston Syndicates, E-merge, Half Court Ventures, Harlem Capital Partners, Social Starts, Vestigo Ventures, York IE
Where did the idea for Jobble originate?
I used to play basketball while at college at Northeastern. I realized, however, that I wasn’t going to play professionally and I needed something else to do. I started working events as a brand ambassador, helping to set up events, etc. For this, I was paid $15-20 an hour. These kinds of events always need more people and that got me thinking along with my co-founder Corey Bober and Kevin Suffredini, who leads web engineering. We got together and thought what could be a cool company was essentially a “student staffing agency” for adults. We looked at the concept and found that the old antiquated temporary staffing space is itching for innovation. There was a building movement toward the gig economy. We realized that we wanted to work on this problem. The company has since evolved from focusing on the event space to the hourly work gig economy. We work with minimally-trained gig workers. We provide lots of support tools within our easy-to-use platform.
What is the key problem that Jobble intends to solve?
The key problem is providing work and financial opportunities to the underrepresented workforce. We focus on minimally-trained hourly workers. We help by providing them with a lot of different ways to make money, but also help in saving money. They get a high level of support for now and in the future by offering valuable products that fintech can deliver.
How are you most differentiated as a service?
We have the largest network of gig workers in the country. We provide them with opportunities that actually have both long and short term commitments to suit different needs and preferences. We stay flexible rather as opposed to operating as an agency that only helps to find either temporary or full-time jobs. We provide ease of use, short time to hire, and real time hiring mentality. This is different than historical ways of doing temporary job placement. We are not stopping at jobs, but bringing a suite of financial products to our users. Jobble is simplifying products that should be simplified. There are a ton of financial products that they can engage with today that they don’t even realize. A key differentiator is we look at ourselves as the PEO (professional employer organization) for the gig worker. We support employers by administering benefits and payroll, mainly for W-2 workers and can also offer other fintech products, such as payments, insurance and banking. Workers don’t need to rely on one provider.
What are the company’s key accomplishments to date?
The Jobble platform has served 6 million workers, over 2000 businesses, and placed people in more than 5 million gig jobs. We are seeing 100% annual growth.
What lies ahead in the plans for Jobble?
We will continue to support the gig economy. The best opportunities are in local markets. We provide financial support and products that they can use by uncovering more opportunities. We aim to be at the center of the gig economy with a full-service fintech platform for gig workers.
Ron’s Take
The gig economy has exploded in the past decade to become integral to society across the globe. From delivery drives to warehouse workers to many other sectors with short-term hiring needs. The marketplace of gig work can provide flexible, increased hourly wages and many other benefits. However, it was never structured to provide the same level of services that a full-time W-2 worker can typically receive. Jobble is becoming an essential bridge for the burgeoning gig economy between employers and those they seek to hire. Through the Jobble platform, both employer and worker are able to quickly seek out the right individual jobs for each side’s needs, including competitive compensation. Add on top of that, the range of financial services that full-time company employees generally expect and the gig worker will finally be able to have the security and the flexibility that they seek.