on-demand-staffing
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Yong Kim
Yong Kim is the co-founder and CEO of Wonolo, an on-demand staffing marketplace that connects businesses with more than one million frontline workers across the United States. Born in Seoul, he moved alone to a New Hampshire boarding school at 15, graduated as valedictorian, and went on to the University of Chicago and Harvard before a career in tech investment banking at Deutsche Bank. A stint at a Coca-Cola innovation accelerator exposed the broken state of hourly staffing and led him to launch Wonolo in 2014. The company has raised roughly $200 million, including a Sequoia-led round, and Kim has become a prominent voice for treating gig and hourly workers with dignity, flexibility, and fair pay.
Wonolo
Wonolo is an on-demand staffing marketplace whose name stands for 'Work Now Locally.' Founded in 2013 out of Coca-Cola's Founders program, it connects businesses that need workers for warehousing, delivery, merchandising, event staffing, and general labor with a pool of more than one million registered workers ('Wonoloers'). Employers post shifts that can be filled in minutes, and workers browse and accept nearby gigs through a mobile app with fast payouts. The company has raised over $200 million in venture funding and is used by thousands of companies across the United States.
illuno
illuno is a Plano, Texas technology company that runs an on-demand marketplace connecting businesses, schools, houses of worship and event organizers with fully certified, off-duty police officers. Working like a ride-share app for policing, it lets a business post an event and have local officers claim the shift within minutes, while illuno handles compliance, insurance, scheduling and payments. Backed by Mark Cuban Companies and co-developed with input from the Fraternal Order of Police, the platform reports a 99% fill rate and roughly 24-hour turnaround versus an industry norm of 3-5 days.
TrueCare24
TrueCare24 is a nationwide health and wellness platform that connects families and employers with vetted, on-demand healthcare providers - at home, on-site, or virtually. Founded in 2016 and backed by 500 Startups, its AI-driven marketplace handles scheduling, provider matching, replacements, payroll and taxes, offering senior home care, behavioral health counseling, on-site flu and COVID-19 vaccination, workplace testing, and telehealth across all 50 states, while cutting the typical cost of care from $25+ an hour to roughly $10-18.
Bo Lu
Bo Lu is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of Clipboard Health, a billion-dollar healthcare staffing marketplace connecting nurses, CNAs, and other healthcare professionals with facilities that need them. Before Clipboard Health, he co-founded FutureAdvisor, a Y Combinator-backed digital wealth management platform that Sequoia Capital invested in and BlackRock acquired for an estimated $150-200 million in 2015. He served as Managing Director at BlackRock before joining Clipboard Health, where he focuses on marketplace design, operational excellence, and building a culture of curiosity and speed. He was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer at Davos in 2015.
Instawork
Instawork is an AI-powered on-demand staffing platform that connects businesses with vetted hourly workers across hospitality, warehousing, food service, retail, and light industrial sectors. Operating in 400+ cities across the U.S. and Canada, the company uses over 2 billion data signals to match businesses with pre-vetted workers, achieving a 98% worker show rate and filling 90% of jobs within 24 hours — metrics that traditional staffing agencies rarely approach. Founded in 2015 and backed by Y Combinator, Benchmark, Greylock, and TCV, Instawork has raised $171M and serves 15,000+ businesses, with a network of 10M+ workers. The platform handles everything from a single catering shift to large-scale distribution center operations.