Meet SYRG CEO Rahkeem Morris

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Rahkeem Morris is the cofounder and CEO of SYRG, a service for employers to hire former workers for shifts and projects on-demand. Morris’ long-term vision for SYRG is to empower a flexible, liquid, universal workforce of hourly workers where any person can work for any place at any time. Morris took an unusual journey into entrepreneurship and has unique gig economy experience having dropped out of high school at 14 years old to help support his family, working 13 jobs over nine years. He then journeyed into academia and tech. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University, worked at GE and Google, and then went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School. Morris cofounded SYRG to help people like his mom, a single parent with a shifting nursing schedule, to more easily secure relevant short-term gigs.

Enjoy our pre-podcast written Q&A below. You can also listen to our BSU podcast discussion on any of your favorite audio platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and SoundCloud).

What was it like growing up in Albany, NY (pre-14)?

Growing up in Albany was as normal as I knew it. I grew up in the Arbor Hill neighborhood in Albany and I had a normal childhood there. I went to school during the week; after school play I played video games, kickball in the park.

You had a childhood cut short. How would you describe 14 year old Rahkeem Morris when you decided to leave school?

Initially, I was overwhelmed and then eventually ashamed. The reason that I dropped out of high school originated from a change in my mother’s work schedule. Long story short, she had to begin working a shift starting at 6a in morning, which gave me the new responsibility of taking my younger brother to daycare in the morning.

I always did extremely well in school up and until I dropped out. My school required a written late notice to be admitted to school. I didn’t have that, and so couldn’t be admitted to school until about lunch period in which it was easier to enter school under the radar, which meant I had hours to kill in the morning when I missed first period every day. So the days that I was late to school, I just went to the Albany Public Library. It was a place that was warm, and perhaps ironically, I began to read books while skipping school. Because I was late to school every day, I was eventually put on a state program called PINS, which is a program, that among other things, I was required to go to the Albany Country Probation Department, and sit down with a probation officer every week. This was frustrating for someone who was always a great student, winding up in a situation that made the school system think I was a criminal.

Of your countless jobs before heading to college, which had the most impact on you and why?

Taco Bell because by working at Crossgates Mall, I met a group of friends that are still my best friends today. There was a community of people who hung out at the mall, many of whom had their own life challenges, and bonded over a few shared experiences and video games at the arcade. And this group became my social circle and support group.

I also have really fond memories of working at Taco Bell. I was good at it. I was a diligent worker. It taught me a lot about being punctual, communicating effectively & teamwork and about process. I still remember the weights for the food items over 10 years later. Hard tacos were 2.9 ounces, soft tacos were 3.6 ounces, consisting of 1.5 oz of beef, half ounce of lettuce, a quarter ounce cheese, and the rest of the weight is shell. And you had to weigh that on a scale every time you handed food out.

What is it about your blue collar upbringing that you feel gives you an advantage to succeed in life?

First and foremost, I’m extremely resourceful. I’ve always had to figure out many of my problems alone and without many resources. If you have a problem, I will solve it.

And one thing with these manual labor jobs, yes, you’re doing these jobs and there’s a lot of physical labor involved, absolutely. However, doing these jobs by hand does not preclude one from using your mind and developing intellectually.

Secondly, I have an insane work ethic and can execute extremely fast. I worked these 12 hourly jobs, mostly minimum wage, for 10 years while finishing high school and graduating with honors from Cornell. There’s many reasons that my company SYRG may not work out, but it won’t be for the lack of effort.

Besides your mom, who’s been the biggest mentor in your life?

Firstly, I want to acknowledge the extreme circumstance that I was born. My mother got pregnant with me when she was 16 and I was born when she was 17. I’m the product of two teenage parents. And it’s only when I was older that I understood the enormity of the situation.

Generally, though, I can’t remember any role models while growing up, which point to a broader issue that could fill the time of another podcast. I’ve had to always dream of a vision on my own, staring out into an abyss of unknowns without anyone to provide me knowledgeable guidance, and I just made my way. And then some cases in which I ended up in up in either frightening circumstances, or embarrassing circumstances.

Though I’m glad to say I have several incredible mentors that help me make the company, SYRG, successful.

What drove you toward academia and how did you end up at Cornell?

It was a medley of fortuitous circumstances and experiences that led me back to academia.

On one hand, experiences like going to see my probation officer were traumatic. I still vividly remember thinking, how am I in the same waiting room as these people? I’m 15 or 16 years old, and I’m sitting down to some man and I have no idea what he’s done to be there.

On the other hand, when I began to go back to high school at 18, given the design of the special program I enrolled, I began to do extremely well. The program that I entered was called the Abrookin Night School program. The tests were easier than I remembered, and I did extremely well on them and it revived this confidence that I think I always had and that confidence snowballed from there.

The first time I heard about this program was through the friend group that I met at the mall. Through this program, if you pass the final exam, you get credit for the entire course. And so over the course of one year, I was to complete three years’ worth of high school.

So how did I end up at Cornell? We chatted about resourcefulness, and learning that at my first job. I applied to Cornell initially because it was the highest ranked school according to USNEWS, FWIW, and I received reduced tuition as a New York State resident. After applying, I wasn’t accepted immediately, but received a Guaranteed Transfer Admission, in which I had to complete a prescribed set of courses and achieve a certain GPA at another school. So I took courses at Hudson Valley Community College and then made the transfer. Eventually, I graduated Cornell with a GPA between 3.8 and 3.9 magna cum laude.

What was life like working at GE and Google, and how did that experience prepare you for business school and entrepreneurship?

So immediately starting GE, my salary was $55,000 and it seemed like a lot of money. I did the Financial Management Program at GE, and it was a great program that set me up for not only my job at Google, but also for understanding how to not run out of money at a startup. At the same time, while I worked at GE, I also had a second job at a law firm doing financial modeling. This time it wasn’t for making ends meet, it was for paying back my student loans.

When did you first come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve had the idea off and on for several years. The summer before first attending Harvard Business School, I took my first solo trip. I bought a Ten-ride ticket from Amtrak and traveled by train from San Francisco all the way to Boston. Along the way, I visited The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Outside the motel, there are these kiosks out front, and after pressing a button a video plays. In the video that played Martin Luther King, in which he had powerful words to say about the labor union. But given his words and my personal experience working all of these minimum wage jobs, I was certain that I was going to use technology to have a positive change and transformation in the way that people experience working shift jobs.

Why is SYRG focused on connecting people with former employers? Can you share any anecdotes or provide some data backing up this focus?

The short answer is that it’s the biggest opportunity that both employees and employers are overlooking today. And as job tenure continues to shorten and the nature of management changes, the way companies manage former workers is going to change as well.

To give an anecdote as you’ve asked: my first job at Taco Bell, I made $7 an hour, the next job I had was at Pizzeria Uno’s where I made $2.15 plus tips as a server, and job after job, 8 jobs and 8 years later, I worked at Kinko’s which is now called FedEx office, and I think I made $11 an hour. My wage across 8 years didn’t increase over the rate of inflation in that same time. And I’ve always been bothered by that. At the same time, each professional job that I’ve had, my salary has increased by at least 33% from job to job.

Now, shifting gears a bit, the American Dream is defined by ownership and autonomy: owning the sources of our income by making portable the skills we acquire and the autonomy to be self-directed in where we earn income from those skills that we’ve acquired.

The lack of asset-based jobs is the root cause for why I had no additional purchasing power even though I worked diligently for 8 years. So I’m on a mission to have every job be based on the assets that people own AND in doing so, my mission is to save the American Dream … to save the American Dream through ASSET-BASED JOBS. Today, most hourly workers, when you leave your employer, you leave everything behind — and people are bereft of the opportunity to gain wealth. That’s a gigantic missed opportunity for employers, for people, and the economy at large.

Now, more about SYRG, my company. When I left Google, I received a piece of paper that said, once a Googler always Googler. They have an alumni program for their former workers. And an essential element of our solution with SYRG, is our alumni program, and as far as I know it, it’s the first alumni program application for shift workers. When employees quit their jobs we record the positions that the employee performed and we issue certifications for them. We then put these employees on an employer-specific network. So if Walmart were an employer on SYRG they’d see all of their former workers, the positions and locations they’ve worked, and be able to keep in touch with them through the application.

So not only can employees return back to employers with SYRG to pick up ad-hoc shifts, and long-term assignments — when an employer is able to rehire former workers, they save on training, turnover, and onboarding costs. Now 5 years from now, let’s assume that someone has worked as a cashier, as a dishwasher, as a food preparer, why could those skills not be combined to open a restaurant?

To wrap all of this up and want to be very explicit: when people are able to own the assets that create income for them, over time that creates wealth. If all jobs are based on assets that people own, then we will save the American Dream.

Why is Boston a good city for SYRG to grow and thrive?

There’s the usual thing that you’ll hear and those are all true and sufficient enough reasons to attract people to Boston: resources such as universities, funding, and research.

One of the surprise benefits of Boston is that it’s the capital city. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to politicians and legislators about their policy proposal on the future of work, whether it is — things like health insurance, portable benefits, and lifetime training accounts. Policy is perhaps the most significant determinant of how people experience their jobs and interacting directly with these legislators helps to understand the drivers of big changes in employment, such as those such as California’s AB5.

If you weren’t building SYRG right now, what other startup idea would you be pursuing?

They say nothing is certain except for death and taxes. If we had to add any other two things to that list, I’d add work and education to that list. I’m interested in making a positive difference for as many people, and given my personal experiences, I’m interested most in work and education.

I’ve been learning about trends in higher education in my position as a trustee at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, which is a private, non-profit college that enrolls people from the Greater Boston area and works hard to place them into good jobs in growth industries. What makes BFIT unique is its role in linking good-paying technical jobs to the workforce landscape in that other schools are unable. If you’re a high-school student or adult looking for continuing education, I recommend taking a look.