On the busiest nights, a restaurant can not even afford to lose a dishwasher to get sick or not be there – or just blame themselves – and end up frustrating the rest of the staff and staff. restorers
This is a problem that Will Pacio was familiar with during his stay at Spice Kit, and that's why Dave Lu and he – who did not really have any experience other than the Chinese food delivery to high school, but wanted to enter the industry – began Pared. It essentially serves as an on-demand tool for food service workers, who can already work in several different jobs or in different restaurants and who are looking for a way of life over which they have a little more control. The company said it has raised a $ 10 million round of financing led by CRV, with the participation of existing investors Uncork Capital and True Ventures. Saar Gur, partner of CRV, joins the board of directors of the company.
"Even if I leave [to Craigslist] it will take four to six weeks for someone to come forward," said Wu. "You will hire them, train them, and then they will not show up for work. On the first day, even though I paid for overtime, I did not have enough employees to cover the shifts. [Pacio] It was a nightmare, and I just want to be able to tap an app to get that Safeway kid across the street who knows how to make sandwiches and make them for me. "
The application focuses primarily on back-of-the-house operations such as line cooks, preparatory cooks and dishwashers, although it can theoretically be used as a back-of-the-house operation. extend to any part of the restaurant experience. The restaurants go to the app and say that they are looking for what the app calls a "pro" in any role they need, and are able to book the # 39, employed immediately for the place they have in their calendar. It may be slightly better than the typical rental, but restaurants are already willing to pay extra hours to fill these gaps and make sure everything goes well, said Wu.
For employees, it's a pretty similar experience – they see shift work on the application, with a time slot, and they make themselves available for an hourly wage. The second benefit, Wu says, is that they can begin to make a name for themselves slowly as they are able to prove their skills and climb the ladder in any of these restaurants. The culinary community is small, he says, and it offers plenty of space to start building a reputation as an outstanding chef or to finally get a first punch in a kitchen after working at the back. of the House. . That too could be part of the lure of jumping on a service like Pared rather than just driving for Uber.
"On our platform, every change and ranking you get, every connection you get in the industry – and it's a very tight network – you build your own reputation or identity," Wu said. "We help them build, it's more a race up than a race to the bottom." They start as a preparation cook, and they start getting offers for them. Cooking positions.We could have videos to learn how to do this or that.They can work their way to build that reputation.It's a matter of reputation, it's a matter of people in whom you have confidence. "
And like Uber, this flexibility is one of the most critical selling points of the application. A line cook may want to spend some time in New York to learn the scene there, and with an app like Pared, they may have access to potential openings in restaurants in the area. While their experience – and their reputation – accumulates over time, Wu hopes that Pared will become a starting point for many careers, in addition to offering restaurateurs a more flexible lifestyle.
There are certainly larger platforms that do not just target the ecosystem of restaurants, but that seem to be a more global center for hourly workers. Shiftgig, who raised $ 20 million last year, is an interpretation of this idea. But offering a better organized and targeted experience – an experience for which some kind of ambitious chef might continue to gravitate because they someday hope to run their own kitchen – can help build that reputation for having a hand of Reliable work that any restaurant can use.