What does your company do?

Shifterr founder and CEO Tracey Hobbs: Shifterr connects hospitality employers to job seekers looking to fill shifts. We’re currently focused on connecting restaurants to front of house employees — your servers, bartenders, barbacks, runners and bussers, cashiers, hosts, and reservationists. We vet, onboard, and train those folks to ensure they’re ready to work.

A question we love to ask every founder: why New York?

TH: It’s home and where my heart is. I know NYC in and out, and it’s where I’ve worked in hospitality for many years. New York is huge in the hospitality space, but it was severely impacted by COVID-19 and the shutdowns. The city is still experiencing higher unemployment rates than the rest of the country; I wanted to do something great for my city, and now I can. Plus, if you can get New Yorkers to use and support your product, know you’ve got something good!

The idea for Shifterr started around D&I ratings for businesses, right? Did the pandemic change your business plan?

TH: The pandemic is responsible for how the concept has evolved. Originally, I did interviews with owners and managers of hospitality venues to gauge their interest in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion  (DEI) and how likely they would be to use a product that helped them achieve that. Through the interviews, we kept hearing the same thing: “DEI is great and we would love to support, but we can’t afford to pay for any extra products right now.”

So I dug deeper and asked why they couldn't afford it. That’s when I was hit with the reality that many places could not find workers and, therefore, couldn’t sustain their normal operating hours and volume. That’s when the lightbulb went off.

Obviously, the hospitality industry was among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Did those impacts create labor shifts you think will outlast the pandemic? How is Shifterr supporting post-pandemic hospitality workers?

TH: I think the labor crisis in hospitality will transcend the pandemic because it was always there. As a former manager in hospitality pre-pandemic, it was always challenging to find and retain talent. The pandemic brought the uncertainty of the industry to light and accelerated those challenges. Shifterr works to alleviate some of those for both the employer and the worker. A big question on the minds of many who are contemplating whether to stay or leave hospitality is: What if my workplace closes down? If that happens, they would be able to go on Shifterr and pick up a shift somewhere else.

What’s one idea or piece of advice you’re most excited to implement from your time in the inaugural NYC Recovery Challenge cohort?

TH: I am really looking forward to running the Shifterr program ahead of our summer launch.

What’s one top growth goal you hope to achieve by the end of 2022?

TH: Our goal is to fill 6,000 shifts by the beginning of January.

Okay, three rapid-fire questions.  First: where do you get your favorite pizza slice?

TH: Surf City in Coney Island! It’s right across from the Cyclone at Luna Park. Amazing food.

What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting (remember in-person meetings)?

TH: Before the pandemic, I used to work in Hudson Yards, and my favorite place to take meetings was at Hudson Yards Grill. Cool ambiance and delicious salads.

What’s your favorite remote work or productivity hack?

TH: Taking meetings as phone calls while on the treadmill. Remote work made it (too) easy for me to work straight through the day without eating or getting up to walk around. It is important that I still find time to take care of myself because there would be no Shifterr without me! Often as founders, it’s easy to put your all into your startup and forget about the most important factor: your health.