Erika Mozes
Erika Mozes is Co-Founder and COO at Hyr, the labor marketplace that helps hourly workers get paid and earn benefits.
When Erica Brescia introduced me to you, she said you have unbelievable “hustle.” What does that word hustle mean to you?
To me, hustle means that every hour of every day, you’re not chasing your dream in some abstract sense, but rather you’re out there finding a way to make it happen. I’ve always had that mentality. I’m the child of immigrant parents. When you’re raised by two people who left everything to start over, they inspire you to do more. I vividly remember the day I received my undergraduate degree, my mom looked at me and said, “Great stepping stone degree — what’s next?”
Where did the idea for Hyr originate?
I started my career in politics. For the first eight years, I was political staff — starting as the person who walks behind the candidate to make sure they have fliers in hand as they walk from door to door. Eventually I worked my way up to a lobbying role, first for a pharmaceutical company, then for CocaCola and then for McDonalds. There, I saw a big gap in the labor market. On the one hand, McDonalds needed a better system to deal with the ever shallowing labor pool and legislative measures such as predictive scheduling. On the other hand, I had been an hourly worker in my teens and early 20s (my first job was at Wendy’s). I knew how hard it is.
One late Fall day, I was sitting on a restaurant patio. The server came up and apologized that they were understaffed and to expect some delay (they didn’t expect it to be busy so late in the season). I turned to my husband, who’s now my business partner, and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easy way for them to get the extra hands they need — now?” We sat there talking about the idea for a good hour. He was all in from that conversation. That weekend he put together an extensive PowerPoint deck for the business that would become Hyr. It took me another four months to quit my job. We put our condo in Toronto up for sale and moved to New York City to start the business.
What side of the marketplace did you focus on first?
We’re building a worker focused company. We knew that if we brought on exceptional talent on the labor side, the business side would stick with us once they tried us. And so everything we do centers around our Hyr Pros. We do a weekly thank you to our top five Pros of the week. We also created a system that allows them to earn benefits that would otherwise be unavailable to them as 1099 workers. Every time they work, they earn points that can be redeemed for paid vacation. By the end of this year, they’ll be able to redeem for various insurance products as well.
Toughest moment so far?
We’re trying to change the habits of an industry that’s pretty ingrained. It can be hard to get traditional retail and hospitality businesses to change their habits. But as soon as they do try Hyr, they come back, and come back a lot. We’re reducing their labor overhead and getting them extra hands when they need it.
Proudest moment so far?
One of our Hyr Pros messaged us over Christmas. Her name is Megan. She told us that she had wanted to get her daughter a particularly special Christmas present, but that it was more than she could afford. Megan picked up a bunch of shifts using Hyr, and not only was she able to buy her daughter that present, but the company she picked up those shifts at gave her a full time job starting in January.
What’s the future for the hourly worker?
There’s going to be a new classification of work, and we hope that we can be a participant in that conversation. We want to give back something to the worker. Even thinking about myself as an entrepreneur, I never thought I’d leave stable employment to start my own company. Now I can’t imagine going back. People want freedom and flexibility. 10 years from now it’s going to look different from the two models we have today. Ten years from now, you’ll land in a city, book your place with Airbnb, get there with a rideshare, and pick up a shift with Hyr to pay for it all. Welcome to skillsharing.
