On-demand labour that's actually good
tldr; Canada is facing a skilled labour shortage. Airwork is solving this by connecting businesses with the top 5% of general and skilled labourers on a flexible basis. Companies can fill any shift within 2 hours, and workers can work on their own terms. Check us out at airwork.io!
Hey everyone, 👋
I’m Gary, the founder of Airwork. We’re a team of 5 building a marketplace to solve Canada’s labour shortage and give everyone the power to work on their own terms.
Problem: Canadian businesses are struggling with staffing
In Q4 of 2022, 36.9% of all Canadian businesses experienced difficulties hiring skilled labourers, led by construction (49.5%), manufacturing (47.4%), and food services (46.3%). We spoke to over 100 companies, and more than half have experienced one of these within the last 90 days:
👎 Candidate doesn’t show up to interview
👎 Candidate signs offer but doesn’t show up on the first day
👎 Employee quit without notice
👎 Employee consistently shows up late or leaves early
👎 Skilled labour positions go unfilled for months due to lack of applicants
🎉 Solution: Airwork 🎉
Airwork is an on-demand labour marketplace that lets managers book vetted workers online within minutes. We spent the last year building in private beta and are now launching in public beta! 💪 🚀 📈
Airwork’s vetting process involves a resume screen, attendance test, background check, and video interview. As a result, out of tens of thousands of applicants, only the top 5% are selected.
We’re live the Greater Toronto Area, just expanded to all of Southern Ontario, and plan to expand across Canada.
To date, Airworkers have filled skilled and general roles for:
1. Manufacturing plants
2. Warehouses and logistics companies
3. Construction companies
4. Events, conferences, and weddings
5. Commercial cleaning and facility services
6. Commercial printing
Workers can download Airwork on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and apply to become an Airworker. Airworkers can book shifts nearby and get paid within the same day.
Our business portal also enables managers to create shifts, manage rosters, trigger backfills, and track time sheets all in one place. We also automate administrative and compliance complexities, reducing the overhead of workforce management:
✅ WSIB insurance coverage
✅ RCMP-backed criminal record checks
✅ Payroll and time-tracking
✅ Automated backfilling
Do you need workers?
Are you in Southern Ontario? Sign up for a free account at airwork.io and try us out! If not, reach out to gary@airwork.io to join your city’s waitlist.
Do you know someone that might need workers?
Send a referral to gary@airwork.io. Once your referee books 10 shifts on Airwork, we’ll give you a $1,000 CAD referral bonus! 💸
Do you want to take control of your work schedule?
Download our app on the App Store or Play Store and get apply to become an Airworker today! 💪
Company Photo
How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)
4 months after graduating from the YC W22 batch in March 2022, we realized our business wasn’t going to take off, so we pivoted. Our team kept circling around the problem of Canada’s labour shortage. Every day we were seeing supply chain delays, emergency rooms backed up, and restaurants understaffed. Canada is one of the most educated OECD countries (56% of adults have post-secondary education), yet somehow within just 2022, worker satisfaction dropped 3%, commitment to work dropped 6%, and satisfaction with salary dropped 10%.We realized there’s a unique opportunity to build a marketplace that offers flexible work for workers and an instant workforce on demand for businesses. This marketplace would pay a premium to workers while saving recruiting costs for businesses. It would also allow workers to pick up shifts wherever they want, whenever they want, while allowing businesses to post shifts based on demand. We believe Airwork is building Canada’s future of work.