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

February 18, 2019  |  Austin Barnes

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.

[pullquote]

PopBookings By the Numbers

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

[/pullquote]

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.

Tagged , , ,
Featured Business
    Featured Founder
      [adinserter block="4"]

      2019 Startups to Watch

        stats here

        Related Posts on Startland News

        Meet the competition: AltCap Your Biz unveils finalists for pitch event, $60K in awards

        By Tommy Felts | September 23, 2025

        A popular fall pitch competition for emerging entrepreneurs is returning to Union Station in November with AltCap today announcing 10 finalists for $60,000 in cash prizes — ranging from Kansas City’s first mobile matcha cart to specialty wellness retailers and a dog toy innovator. “The AltCap Your Biz Pitch Competition is so much more than…

        This voter-approved investor backed Zhou B Arts, KD Academy and a new hotel at 18th and Vine; now it has a new home

        By Tommy Felts | September 23, 2025

        EDCKC absorbing initiative built to strengthen KC’s urban core after $60M in investments A move to transition the Central City Economic Development (CCED) program under the umbrella of a larger KCMO impact agency is expected to boost the urban core-focused initiative’s ability to uplift both the people and the places at the heart of Kansas…

        Hidden costs of grief: Chef’s murder illustrates economic toll of gun violence in KC

        By Tommy Felts | September 19, 2025

        Editor’s note: This story was originally published by The Beacon, a member of the KC Media Collective, which also includes Startland News, KCUR 89.3, American Public Square, Kansas City PBS/Flatland, and Missouri Business Alert. Click here to read the original story from The Beacon, an online news outlet focused on local, in-depth journalism in the public interest.…

        ‘The American dream is the Midwest’: LaunchKC powers next generation of startup job creators

        By Tommy Felts | September 19, 2025

        Editor’s note: The following is part of an ongoing feature series exploring impacts of initiatives within the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City through a paid partnership with EDCKC. [divide] Relocating to Kansas City after winning a LaunchKC grant — and the community and infrastructure support that comes with it — gives Russel Karim’s startup a…