Why We're Backing WOLF: Investing in the Future of Staffing

When you think of tech-enabled talent marketplaces, the Fiverrs and the Upworks of the world come to mind. High profile tech companies and frankly anyone with either the resources or the patience to evaluate tons of inbound applications—or go through the process of seeking out tech talent themselves—flock to these sites for everyone from web designers to scrappy college software developers. Upwork and Fiverr are huge publicly traded companies, yet they only comprise about 2% of the $200B temporary staffing market. So who makes up the other 98%? 

Enter temporary staffing firms. Staffing companies have a roster of candidates and a corresponding list of clients who routinely reach out in need of temporary workers. And they’re prolific, with 25,000+ firms across the U.S. servicing countless verticals. Contingent staffing for the hospitality, healthcare, and light industrial industries collectively make up over $50 billion in market opportunity.

Everyone from bartenders, to nurses, to warehouse workers are sourced and placed by these staffing companies. Over 3 in 10 members of the American workforce are engaged in some form of contingent work. 

Yet for an industry where speed is critical (with staffing companies in a perpetual race to fill spots faster, and with better candidates than their competitors), their “tech” stack is shockingly manual. Every staffing firm uses some version of an applicant tracking system (or ATS) to store their candidate profiles and loyal clients. Yet to actually fill shifts or job opportunities, they spend hours of time on the phone receiving orders from clients, reviewing spreadsheets of worker availability, calling and texting workers about opportunities and confirming their attendance. The software currently used is not optimized for the routine tasks of temporary staffing, from matching candidates, to scheduling, to OT considerations, and more.The current software stack was designed for direct hires (permanent placement). As a result, jobs and shifts are often left unfilled for days at a time, leaving candidates and clients alike, frustrated. 

We’re ecstatic to be backing WOLF. Founded by Ash Barot, WOLF enables temporary staffing companies and entrepreneurs to launch branded staffing platforms in a few simple steps. Staffing companies can easily import their workforce and clients to manage all operations through a master console, handling everything from credentialing, billing, marketing and even payroll processing natively on one platform. Not to mention, clients get their own portal and workers get their own mobile iOS or Android app. 

But the edge gained by using WOLF isn’t purely operational—WOLF allows staffing firms to become far smarter at what they do, as they’re constantly learning about each candidate’s preferences and aptitudes to perform different jobs, gleaning what makes someone good and even great at a given job. And with this knowledge comes the ability to fill shifts in hours, not days, revolutionizing the pace and quality of temporary staffing for all stakeholders. 

We’ve been blown away by what the team has built out so far with WOLF. It’s no surprise given Ash’s background. He previously founded an on-demand staffing marketplace –helping over 6,000 people get jobs – before selling it to a larger firm. He is a domain expert in talent marketplaces, having worked with top temporary staffing companies in the area of digital transformation to upgrade their tooling. Since launch, WOLF has deployed across more than 30 staffing firms, upgrading their core software stack and deploying seamless marketplace functionality, and we’re excited to support them as they launch the next 1,000+. 

Longterm, we believe WOLF is going to transform the face of temporary staffing. As soon as a single firm adopts WOLF in a given region, their competitors have little choice but to adopt it too, because no one can compete with the speed of their AI-powered platform.

In 2022, the team closed on $1.5M from Amplify and a lead investor we are lucky to work with: Silverton Partners. 

If you found this valuable, consider giving this a share, and passing it along to anyone looking to launch a talent marketplace, with staffing industry insights, or who you think may find this relevant. 

Amplify is a first check fund based in LA backing only the earliest and strongest tech teams. You can get in touch with us here. Want these updates delivered to your inbox? Join our newsletter!