Gigtr Inc.
The Gig Economy currently accounts for 30% of the workforce and is expected to continue growing. The biggest factor disadvantaging the gig worker in our opinion is the lack of information about the earnings opportunities as well as the ownership of personal performance data.
We've built a platform that records the performance and aggregates a worker's profile across all gig platforms where she has worked, so that she can improve her leverage in seeking her next employment opportunity. The same crowd-sourcing technology is being used to inform the workers of rates across other platforms, so that she knows other lucrative options.
Our platform guides and enables gig workers to be truly mobile in the Gig Economy by arming them with data about their own performance as well as opportunities in their marketplace.
The Gig Economy is 68M people strong and growing. Its ecosystem spans hundreds of platforms in each geographic zone and new ones entering the market monthly as the consumer needs change. Meanwhile, all this economic development only adds confusion to the worker's dilemma and which jobs to pursue and which ones can earn a stable income.
Gig Platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, take advantage of this information asymmetry and underpay the workers, who are reluctant to switch because of lack of knowledge of better options. To keep them put, they also lock them up into bonus agreements, which prevent workers from being mobile. Lastly, they gig platforms own the worker's performance profile, making it non transferable to another platform. So if one were to switch, she'd have to start from scratch.
In sum the gig workers are not the ones reaping the benefits of the gig economy because they are not the ones owning the data. We're here to solve that.
Every day we go out and talk to gig workers in our neighborhoods: ride share drivers at gas stations, delivery drivers in neighborhood restaurants, dog walkers in local parks... They're all telling us the same story: they'd love to find out how they can make a better living but they feel scared to leave behind what they have already.
Our solution will clear up the road for them to make a better living by green lighting the jobs that pay more and allowing them to use their current work history as a negotiation leverage for the next job.
We'd like to break down the solution into 2 components:
1. The Rate Aggregator: computes hourly rates across gig platforms by hour of day, day of the week and region, so that gig workers can find, assess and compare opportunities on an even playing field.
2. The Profile Aggregator: records and aggregates performance data across all gig platforms where the worker participates, thus creating a unified profile for them which she can use to negotiate a better rate with a new platform via sign-on bonus or guaranteed rate.
- Increase opportunities for people - especially those traditionally left behind and most marginalized – to access digital and 21st century skills, meet employer demands, and access the jobs of today and tomorrow
- Pilot
Our solution is a unique approach to combine the data in the Gig Economy by using clever mobile technology to collect and process data automatically to compute hourly rates and store worker info.
We believe that the gig workers don't earn their full potential because they lack the data they need to make their best decisions and also lack the ownership of their data, which they could present to earn their full potential with a new employer.
- Rural Residents
- Urban Residents
- Very Poor
- Low-Income
- Middle-Income
- United States
- United States
We're currently serving around 1,000 users and planning to reach 10,000 by the end of this year and 1,000,000 in 5 years from now
Our goals are to create a platform that encompasses all available gig opportunities as well as a social network, much like LInkedIn for gig work.
By next year, we're only seeking to grow our user base and develop the rest of the features.
By 5 years from now, we're planning to be fully operational in all markets and span all gig platforms.
The barriers that currently exist is lack of data about earnings opportunities as well as users on the platform. Solving the second will also solve the first problem.
More users will provide more data through our automatic crowd sourcing technology.
- My solution is already being implemented in one or more of ServiceNow’s primary markets
- I am planning to expand my solution to one or more of ServiceNow’s primary markets
We're currently collecting data and assisting gig workers in the California market find new and better jobs in the Gig Economy.
We're planning to have national coverage by the end of the year
- For-Profit
3 people: myself, CTO and a designer
Our business model is to generate revenue from gig platforms by supplying qualified applicants through our gig worker social network, which contains workers' prior work and performance history
We seek more funding as well as the backing of other industry leaders who are working on improving the livelihood of the under-served community
- Business model
- Technology
- Distribution
- Funding & revenue model