Summer Crenshaw

Cincinnati, Ohio-based hiring startup Tilr has arrived in Dallas.

Dallas is among the 12 new cities it’s expanding to, offering hire on-demand workers via an artificial intelligence-powered plaform that matches prospective workers based on their skills.

“Dallas is the perfect market to grow our platform and deliver workers the ability to gain new job opportunities in a way that eliminates bias, and gets people working in jobs that fits their unique skill set,” co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Summer Crenshaw told Dallas Innovates via email. “We are also excited to showcase how employers can hire differently. By focusing on skills rather than job title or resume, employers will gain access to a much broader talent pool, which is imperative in a tight labor market.”

“Dallas proved to be one of the most in-demand markets by Tilr’s current portfolio of clients.”

Summer Crenshaw

The company has been around since 2015 and touts more than 80 years of total talent management experience on its team. According to Crunchbase, it’s raised a total of $5 million from three funding rounds.

Previously, Tilr operated in three Ohio cities, Indianapolis, and northern Kentucky. The other cities in the expansion are Charlotte, Denver, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Nashville, New Orleans, Orlando, Seattle, and Tucson.

What made Dallas attractive?

“Tilr employs a robust matrix that helps us determine the markets we enter, including job demand, unemployment, wages amongst other factors including the adoption of new technology,” Crenshaw told Dallas Innovates. “In addition, Dallas proved to be one of the most in-demand markets by Tilr’s current portfolio of clients.”

She said that in addition to customer service, warehouse, and logistics, Tilr also will initially focus on the hospitality and retail industries in the Dallas area.

“Since Tilr was created to match a workers skill set to job requirements, Tilr can quickly expand into additional industries to serve a wide range of occupations,” Crenshaw said.

TILR MATCHES WORKERS TO JOBS BY THEIR SKILLS

Here’s how it works.

Before a worker selects a shift, they sign up through the company’s app and rank their competency in certain skills on a scale of 1 to 5.

Businesses pay 25 percent above the worker’s hourly rate to hire them.

Then, after being interviewed by a Tilr employee, the prospective worker can view and sign up for selected shifts. The workers and the businesses then rate the experience once the shift is completed — giving Tilr’s algorithm more data to work with for the future.

Businesses pay 25 percent above the worker’s hourly rate to hire them. In other words, a company would pay Tilr $12.50 an hour if it pays the contractor $10 an hour.