New Recruit self-service event staffing platform puts KC’s PopBookings in the big game

February 18, 2019  |  Austin Barnes

Erika Klotz and Scott Hansen, Recruit PopBookings

While the Kansas City Chiefs might have narrowly missed their shot at the 2019 Super Bowl, the city was well represented as a source for event staffing at the game, revealed Erika Klotz, noting the power of Recruit, a new product from KC-based PopBookings.

A client used the self-service platform to book 288 shifts for the event, the PopBookings co-founder told Startland ahead of Recruit’s national debut and official launch this week.

PopBookings By the Numbers

Founded: 2014
Founders: Erika Klotz and Scott Hanson
Number of employees: 20
Capital raised to date: Just under $5 million

Designed with the unique needs of startups in mind, Recruit is a marketplace tool that allows companies to book talent — using a format similar to service booking platforms such as Airbnb, said Klotz, CEO of PopBookings.

“We saw a market that was extremely fragmented and we wanted to start with the most painful problem,” she said of the development process for Recruit. “Helping [companies] streamline that process was a big step toward that.”

Recruit’s tailor-made setup helps smaller scale startups and legacy companies find and recruit talent without paying a monthly fee, Klotz noted.

“It’s completely self service. You can create a job, post it for free, and pay only when you book someone,” she said.

Recruit also offers companies a nationwide talent pool with expansion into Canada, she added.

Click here to explore using Recruit.

With the launch of Recruit, PopBookings will — for the first time since it was founded by Klotz and Scott Hanson — explore new territory, Klotz said.

“We’ve been kind of a one product company — more of a management tool like Quickbooks — where you can manage your event staffing efforts,” she said. “[Recruit] is really good for kind of a broader market need where event staffing really isn’t the core of your business, but it might be a need of of your business.”

Recruit has emerged at a time of increased momentum for PopBookings, Klotz said.

It has helped connect more than 200,000 users in 8,600 cities with $23 million worth of jobs since March 2016, she said.

Such metropolitan areas as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago continue to be top markets for Pop Bookings, but the event staffing space holds wide appeal as tourism grows nationwide, Klotz said.

“We feel very confident that any company, in any city, needing staff — they can find it!” she said.

startland-tip-jar

TIP JAR

Did you enjoy this post? Show your support by becoming a member or buying us a coffee.

Tagged , , ,
Featured Business
    Featured Founder

      2019 Startups to Watch

        stats here

        Related Posts on Startland News

        TJ Roberts, Kinship Cafe

        Why KCK’s ‘dopest, 7-fingered, adopted, biracial business owner’ is serving kinship, coffee at his new cafe

        By Tommy Felts | August 18, 2021

        When a new coffee shop in KCK’s Strawberry Hill neighborhood opens this fall, the space is expected to feature more than just specialty roasts — with financial literacy programming, community workouts and hip hop yoga sessions on the menu. “It’s never been about, ‘How can I make the most money the fastest?’” said TJ Roberts,…

        Nika Cotton makes a drink at Soulcentricitea, which she opened on Troost Ave. last July. Cotton applied for a grant from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, but did not receive any money. Photo by Zach Bauman/The Beacon

        Beacon analysis: Restaurant relief funds flowed to whiter, more affluent areas of Kansas City

        By Tommy Felts | August 18, 2021

        Editor’s note: The following story was originally published by The Kansas City Beacon, a nonprofit, public-service journalism newsroom serving Kansas and Missouri. Click here to read the original story or here to sign up for the free Kansas City Beacon email newsletter. Local businesses received a total of $53 million from the fund, but few of those dollars flowed…

        Kansas City; photo courtesy of Midwest + Startups

        New ranking: How KC can break into the Top 10 Midwest startup cities (and why it hasn’t yet)

        By Tommy Felts | August 18, 2021

        A freshly released ranking of Midwest startup hubs shows Kansas City maintaining its years-long position at No. 12, but warns — despite a few recent headline-grabbing wins — the metro faces the threat of stagnation without increased activity, startup reinvestment and government support. “You had to get more funding and big exits just to stay…

        Blakk men are more than what you see on the 9 o’clock news, says members-only social club

        By Tommy Felts | August 17, 2021

        Defining what it means to be a Black man is among the most important goals for a newly opened Midtown gentlemen’s club, Christina Williams explained, offering insight into what men of color are raised and called to be — but that society has often twisted into something unfair.  “It has nothing to do with color. It’s…