The Achieve Podcast - Michael Mawn (Standby Jobs)

Welcome to another episode of the Achieve Podcast, a show where we highlight leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs who are building meaningful businesses, shaping their industries, and having an impact. I'm Taylor Baker Baker, your host, and today we're excited to learn from Mike Mon, the founder and CEO of Standby, and you can find them at standbyjobs.com. Now, Mike, you're solving a pretty real problem that a lot of restaurants and businesses have. But how did you get into the space, and who's your target audience?

Yeah, thanks Taylor Baker Baker. Excited to be here. Appreciate you having me on. Um, yeah, so Standby Jobs, to give you a little bit of a background, we're, we're an all-in-one team management platform for restaurants and businesses in the food service industry. What led me there, actually, I had a, a previous venture for, for about 7 years called Posted. Um, it was a gig work app for college campuses, and so we I was running that. I started it in college and then ran it through college and post-grad. And we, we found most jobs were in the hospitality and events side of things. And so as I looked to grow that, decided to focus fully on the, the hospitality side of things, which led us more so into the food and beverage specifically. And right around that time, a couple of years ago when I was discovering this, there were some pretty sweeping law changes to employee classification guidelines for 1099s becoming W-2s and this, that, and the other. And so decided just to launch a new platform that's W-2 compliant and insured workers on demand for food and beverage. So that kind of led from this posted gig work app for college campuses to Standby, where we're at today, really bridging that gap between this ever-growing gig workforce that's going to be over 50% of our U.S. workforce. By next year and letting businesses tap into that with W-2 compliance, so.

I love that. Now for you guys at this stage, what is actually driving growth for you?

Yeah, so we started with our staffing options for restaurants and that basically looks like, you know, a restaurant saying, hey, we need an extra line cook for either a call-out, somebody on their team had to call out and they need to fill that shift in, or they see that they're gonna be a little understaffed on a busy weekend and they need to find somebody else there. Some restaurants utilize us for full-time employees as well. We do everything from call-out coverage to full-time employees, but that staffing is really what was driving growth for us. What we did find recently is that, you know, we had this great technology to manage our workforce and to do scheduling, timesheet automation, payroll, everything like that. And there were some restaurants who didn't need extra staff. They had their full team, but they wanted a better way to manage their team. So we actually opened up our software as a subscription to other restaurants to manage their internal team. And so that's been pretty big for us as well. We launched that just a month ago. Wow. Last month. Yeah. So basically now restaurants can use our platform to take care of their scheduling, timesheet automation, payroll, everything in one place while having call-out coverage, with being able to press a button and have a standby worker come in and fill whether it's a call-out or a busy weekend or an event, anything like that.

That's awesome. Now, how big of an area do you guys cover?

Right now we're just in, uh, Denver area as well as Montana and Bozeman, Montana.

Okay. And now looking back for you personally, what turning points, positive or negative, have molded the way you think about running the organization?

Ooh, yes, actually I like that. And real quick, let me mention as well, our, so our software as a service is available anywhere, the team management subscriptions, but our staffing components just Denver and Bozeman.

Okay.

Clarify that. And so sorry, your next question was, can you repeat that again?

And so yeah, looking back at it for you personally, what turning points, positive or negative, have molded the way you think about running the organization?

Yeah, that's a great question. For me, really, I think, I think a key part to having success in any startup, any business, is knowing when to pivot and not pivoting every, every chance you possibly could to take in every bit of feedback. But you need to take in all that feedback and know when is the right time to pivot. And for us, it was that W-2 compliance. It's still a gray area, you know, gig work, 1099 workers. It's, it's really interesting space to follow because it's changing every day. It is a gray area. And we could have still classified a lot of workers as 1099 legally. But despite that, we knew things were going to be changing. And we said, let's just go ahead and look forward to where we think this is going and just do it right now. And so that was that W-2 compliance component that really changed the way I thought about the business. Our team decided to pivot at a good time and make the tech changes we needed to, operations changes we needed to, and that really changed a lot.

That makes sense, and that's smart. That's good foresight to look at that and just pivot beforehand, right?

Because I think, you know, two things happen with any business, especially startups, is people hear, oh, that's a great idea, have you thought about doing this, have you thought about doing that, and And those are— we love that. That's amazing feedback. But sometimes you can try to cater to every piece of feedback you get and it can be a little too much. And then the other side of it could be, you know, I find myself as a founder, head down in the trenches, just working, working, working. And I need to take a step back sometimes and see the bigger picture and know, wait, we, we might need to pivot here. And so being able to kind of find a balance between those two things is key. I think just really surrounding yourself with a team that can help you do that is big as well.

So true, so true. Now, as you try to grow and expand, what are the bottlenecks and obstacles that keep showing up and getting in the way?

Yeah, bottlenecks as we expand. For us on the staffing front, you know, as every time we move into a new market, a new city, uh, or sorry, state rather, there's a bunch of hoops we have to jump through to be able to employ our staff and workforce in that state, um, you know, getting new workers' comp insurance, getting, um, you know, withholding accounts with the state, everything set up like that. And I think that's— we are working in a two-sided market, um, especially on our staffing service. The software as a service team management subscriptions is less of a two-sided market, but the staffing is. And we need both the workers and the restaurants to show up. And so it's kind of a chicken or the egg thing, right? Because the restaurants come in and they say, we love to post shifts on your platform, if there's enough workers to accept them. But then the workers are like, we don't want to sign up until there's enough shifts for us. So it's kind of knowing how to fine-tune those dials and turn both up at the same time so you can move into a new market and have those two sides of our market meet at the same level. And that's something we've learned over the last year or so working in these couple markets. But that's always a bottleneck, knowing how to turn those up and when to do so.

That makes sense. Now, when it comes to your messaging, your outreach, your marketing systems, what's been working well and where do you feel the biggest gaps and frustrations?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think, you know, our— it depends on what your target market is, right? For us, we're working with restaurant owners and they're unique in the sense of they're not really online. They're not very active on LinkedIn. So if we were selling to say warehouses or B2B in some other industry, maybe LinkedIn would be way more efficient. And I've seen that work for a lot. LinkedIn's amazing. I mean, shoot, that's how we got connected. But for us, with our demographic we're working with, they aren't, they aren't really on, on LinkedIn very much. So we said, okay, if we can't use that, how do we, you know, what does get through to them? And honestly, it's been a lot of in-person. In-person does it. It's, it's It's dropping in, actually getting through to the decision maker, which for us is like owner operators, GMs of restaurants in person. They can put a face to the name. That goes a long way for our industry, for food and beverage. And then from there, it's a lot of kind of land and expand. Every restaurant owner tends to own multiple restaurants. They— there's, you know, only so many owners. It's a lot of small restaurant groups in a city. Um, so word travels fast, and when, when one restaurant loves it, they tend to recommend to others. So for us, we just focus on the in-person, uh, and then leverage referrals from there.

That makes sense. That's good that you're growing that fast from referrals, because that says a lot about your business. It's a good—

definitely, definitely. Thank you.

That's awesome. Now, when it comes to AI and automation, because there's so much talk and buzz around it, where have you guys found ways to utilize it? And where do you see opportunity still on the table?

Absolutely. There, I think we're at the point where you've got to be using it somehow, right? If you're not using it, someone else is. And for me, I found just exponentially more efficient using it. For me, you know, we were integrating some AI agents into our software that will automate the human component on our end, whether that's, you know, being able to intake a resume and tell us the summary through our app instead of somebody having to go through and read all of those things like that. We're building in some agents to the platform. My day-to-day, what I use mostly is just for meeting summaries, for research automation analysis. It's a lot of market research that I just use a GPT for. You know, it's basic things, but that's, that's kind of what really is a differentiator for me, like night and day when I'm able to use ChatGPT to help research the market, generate leads and prospect lists. I also use it for some code and help me work through analysis on not like necessarily just the hard code, but also the workflows, the logic, just helping me think through that at a faster rate is a big difference maker. And then just little things like having meeting summary software. We use, uh, Granola and it's amazing. So, um, yeah, things like that.

Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you're, you're correct. If you're not using it, you're falling behind in so many ways. And so definitely, and there's an element where it can't replace certain things with a human element aspect. Um, yeah, but it can definitely help them maximize their efficiency.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's interesting too, cuz I, I, you can tell, I think when people are using it to say write an email or something. There's the dreaded GPT- is my thing right away. And I've actually, you know, when I read some, I think you gotta find a balance. Use it to be efficient, but at some point you do have to have a human touch to it. And some people are, some people aren't. But for example, we get resumes obviously from a bunch of our workforces. They apply to be a worker with Standby. And sometimes I'm, you know, I'm really happy when I see a typo because I'm like, oh, this person actually, you know, made their resume themselves. But Yeah, I think it really comes down to how well are you prompting it. Everybody has access to ChatGPT, everybody has access to Gemini and these different LLMs. But the difference maker between somebody who's being really efficient with it and somebody who's not as much is how well are you prompting it. You've got to, you got to test it. You got to figure out its biases. You know, I get if I'm using, for example, ChatGPT, it will give me positive feedback. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And then I say, well, I wasn't actually thinking it was such a great idea, but maybe I'm wrong. And if it's like, you're right, actually it's not a good idea, then you're like, okay, it's just agreeing with me. But if it doubles down and says, no, this actually is why it is a good idea, then I can be confident in that answer. So I think it's kind of like having a new employer, having an intern. You have to be— you have to monitor it, you have to coach it, and I think, you know, there's some bias in these LLMs as well. So I think that's a big, big thing.

Very true. Very true. Now, when you think about the next stages of the business, what are you most excited about? And what do you feel like you need to fix or build to get to the next peak?

Yeah, I love that question. I'm really excited about launching our subscriptions for restaurants to use our software to manage their internal teams and to then have call-out coverage. That's something nobody else is doing. And for us, we've already covered the hardest part of that, the callout coverage. And now we've opened up this software as a service. It's been received very well by restaurants so far. That's what I'm really looking forward to. You know, we're dialing in what features are really necessary to compete with others in that front. That's, I think, you know, the big focus right now is it's fully built out. We just need to top up on features that can establish that moat a bit more. But our internal team management software is what I'm very excited for.

That's awesome. Now, when you look back at your own journey, the wins, the mistakes, what lessons stand out to you and what do you wish you understood sooner? Mm.

Yeah, that's a great, great, great question. So much, so many things. I think if I'm going to boil it down to a couple, it would be one, obviously the team's crucial. The team is really crucial. And everybody tells you that. I heard it a million times. I even knew it. But, but now I really know it. And I think at the beginning, right away, you got to know what your end goals with the business are. Is this a lifestyle business that you're trying to bootstrap? Is this a business you're trying to go really fast? You know, how much of a team do you actually need? Keep it lean, but make sure you have a good one. And that determines, you know, how you go about the fundraising. Do you bootstrap it, which I've done? Do you raise funds, which I've done? I've done both, you know, in different adventures. And knowing that can help you make decisions on your team early on so that you can maximize your time with them and move fast. I think that was really big for me. I saw an exponential increase in our productivity with a good team. And the second is, especially for anybody who is in a tech business, is just, uh, it can be easy, at least for me, to focus on dev, dev, dev. Put out more features, put out more features, put out more features. And at some point you have to get up out of the trenches and go sell it. And knowing when to sell, knowing when you have your MVP, that's crucial. You don't need everything. You don't need everything at once. And so I made that mistake before of trying to put too many features in before just getting out and selling it. I think both of those things, you can navigate it better with mentors. I'm huge into having good mentors. I have a lot of mentors in every area of my life and professional career, but people who have been there and done that know way more than me. Love to surround myself with them.

I love that. Now, last question. If you had to pick one constraint to focus in and solve over the next 90 days, what would it be?

Constraint on our business or constraint in the market in general?

Your business. But you can answer both if you want. Hmm.

Constraint in our business. I would say we really need to focus in on dialing in our messaging and shortening the sales process. That's the focus right now. Tech's in a good place. We're in a great place, but we need to shorten that sales cycle. So that's the focus in the next 90 days.

That makes sense. And so speed that up. Now, again, I appreciate you, Mike, coming on and sharing your wisdom, your story. Any final thoughts for our listeners, for other entrepreneurs and leaders on a similar journey?

Yeah, no, just thank you for having me. I think my main thought is there's a lot of talk about AI and how all the good— there's always— everyone always says all the good ideas are taken, right? And they're absolutely not. So if anybody is on the verge of thinking about going for it, or even somebody who doesn't have an idea, but they're discouraged thinking that because of AI, there are less ideas to be had, don't be discouraged with it. We've seen big revolutions in tech and in operations in the past, and it creates a whole new slew of problems to be solved. So I think it's a good time for entrepreneurship. I think it's a better time than ever. You can use those tools to get your idea out there faster. So yeah, I think that would, that'd be what I say.

Uh, that's awesome, Mike. Thank you again. And for those who, again, who want to learn more and reach out, standbyjobs.com. Is there anywhere else you want to send them?

That's it. And, uh, we have a small but mighty team. We say there's a 50% chance you get through to somebody named Michael because we have several Michaels on our team. So we look forward to hearing from you.

Oh, that's awesome. And again, thank you. And thank you to today's sponsors of today's episode, Achieve Fractional, which provides fractional executive leadership for growing businesses. And so if you enjoyed today's episode, share it with an entrepreneur, with somebody who's interested in the restaurant business, a co-founder, a member of yours, a family member, reach out to Mike and the team. They'll get you set up and walk you through the opportunities that are, that are waiting. Like, he can solve so many problems. Just looking at what you're doing, I have some friends on my own I'll be reaching out to about this because you can solve a lot. So thank you, Mike.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Thank you, and we'll see you all in the next episode of the Achieve Podcast.