Maybe you need a helping hand for your move to a new home. Or someone to help you tackle a big yard project. Or a worker who can fill a months-long position at your small business. Finding someone reliable to help with jobs like these can be tough, especially on short notice. But now a Colorado startup is expanding to Dallas-Fort Worth with a simple app-based solution that can help you do it.
Founded in 2016, Laborjack offers an online platform it calls “the safest and fastest way to hire reliable workers,” with on-demand access to “pre-screened, top-notch workers” for a wide variety of tasks.
The company specializes in matching laborers—”usually college students”—for moving, staffing, and home services jobs.
Laborjack sees its solution as a win-win—giving gig workers a way to make a living off flexible projects, while helping customers find workers they can rely on with a few taps on their platform.
More than ‘muscle for hire’
“Laborjack isn’t just muscle for hire or some temp staffing agency. We’re the future model for the gig economy workforce,” Laborjack co-founder and CEO Blake Craig said in a statement. “Between the great resignation and the gig economy exploding in popularity, we’ve seen tremendous growth in Colorado by helping to create thousands of opportunities by connecting workers with flexible projects to make a living—and now we’re bringing this momentum to Texas.”
Completed around 5,000 gig jobs in Colorado
The startup says it put around 550 new hires—which it calls “Laborjacks”—to work in 2022, completing around 5,000 jobs across Colorado’s gig economy. The average worker earned up to $31 an hour through the platform, the company says.
“We attribute this success to our unique onboarding and vetting process for all ‘Laborjacks’ we hire,” said Cole Harger, VP of Laborjack Relations. “We employ onboarding specialists to review applications and ensure proper training to build a professional and friendly workforce ready to tackle all your manual labor needs.”
Expecting 1,100 applications in Dallas-Fort Worth, and eyeing a summer launch in Houston
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Laborjack says it expects to receive 1,100 applications and aims to provide the community with up to 300 jobs over the next 12 months. It plans to expand its services to Houston later this summer.
To help with its Texas expansion, Laborjack hired Kyle Beery as director of operations. Beery will work alongside Harger and Ben Dunn, the company’s chief marketing officer, to help build the management teams in both the DFW and Houston markets.
Each market will have two local market specialists who will work with on-site training and quality control teams to ensure operations run efficiently, the startup says.
Co-founders met at an entrepreneurship event
Co-founders Blake Craig and Josh Moser, the company’s chief product officer, met in 2016 at an entrepreneurship event called 3 Day Startup at the College of Business at Colorado State University, according to Laborjack’s website.
Craig got the idea for the company while attending Colorado State and needing to fill holes in his busy class schedule with work. Creating teams with his network of friends, he began completing manual labor jobs for people in the community who needed help. After meeting up with Moser, the co-founders made a business of it—one that now aims to make its mark in North Texas and beyond.
How it works
When customers go to the Laborjack website, they book a job by sharing details about the task on an online form. The job can be a same-day request, or even a last-minute one.
Laborjack then matches the customer with “background checked and vetted” workers who’ll arrive to complete the job.
When the job is performed to the customer’s specifications, checkout takes place through “a secure process on a smartphone.”
The Laborjack app is available at Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.
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