Our latest investment — Hyr, where shift workers gain flexibility and freedom

In New York and Toronto there are over 600 million shifts scheduled each year in hospitality and retail. More than 6M of those shifts go unfilled because the businesses that need help can’t find workers that’re willing and available to do the work. This is where Hyr, a platform that instantly connects businesses with high quality shift workers, comes in.

I was fortunate to meet Erika and Josh while they were finishing up their program with Newark Venture Partners accelerator, NVP Labs. They had spent the previous year proving out two key assumptions about the market they were going after.

First, the Hyr team focused on a part of the gig economy that hadn’t yet had the spotlight shown on it. They found that not only are businesses struggling to fill empty shifts but workers in this industry, like most other sectors, were seeking more flexibility and freedom with the work they were doing.

Second, the team sought to create a sustainable, valuable product that not only filled the just-in-time need for work but also one that offered benefits to the worker and the businesses hiring them. This was unheard of in the gig economy but it was important to the team that people who choose to leverage Hyr to find work wouldn’t have to give up all of the benefits of being a full time employee. They created a form of benefits that are portable for a 1099 worker’s entire working life called UPoints.

It turns out that all of this added up to an exciting opportunity for businesses and workers alike. Since 2017 the team has on boarded over 10,000 workers and 200 businesses including a few of the largest hospitality chains in Canada like Carlsburg, SirCorp and Hero Certified Burgers. Every day these workers and businesses are matching up on available shifts that match their skills, availability and passions.

I couldn’t be more excited to announce that Flybridge has led Hyr’s seed round with participation from Newark Venture Partners and XFactor Ventures, led by Aubrie Pagano. The team had now raised a total of $2.4M and will use this capital to expand their geographic coverage (let us know if want us to come to your city) and the sectors that can benefit from Hyr’s unique worker marketplace. Erika, Josh and I share a deep passion for changing the way that people work. Information and office workers have had the chance, over the last 10 years, to benefit from more flexible work environments and more meaningful work and now the shift economy can tap into that same opportunity. I imagine a world, not too far off, where a simple tap of a button on your phone can take you to new places all over the world with a room from Airbnb, a car from Uber and a job from Hyr when you land.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to discuss how we can work together on this or follow the team at on Medium, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to keep up with where Hyr is going next.