Fintech for the Future of Work with Craig J. Lewis, CEO & Founder of Gig Wage

Miguel Armaza sits down with Craig J. Lewis, Founder and CEO of Gig Wage, a company building modern payment tools for the future of work. Gig Wage’s innovative vision aims to modernize an antiquated industry by designing a service that meets the needs of on-demand workforces.

Craig’s career started very differently than most fintech founders. After graduating from Morehead State University with a full basketball scholarship, he moved to Europe to become a professional basketball player. After playing for a number of years, Craig returned to the US and joined the Silicon Valley offices of payments giant Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ: ADP). His Silicon Valley experience opened his eyes to the possibilities of technology and entrepreneurship and after a couple of roles in the payments and tech scene, he started to notice that gig economy workers were becoming an important segment of the US economy but no payroll company was properly serving them. He decided to do something about it.

In 2014 Craig moved back home to Dallas, Texas where he decided to launch Gig Wage with the goal of fixing payroll for the future of work. Craig and team set out to build a B2B solution that would allow clients to pay, manage and support independent contractors.

Challenges and Opportunities

Craig loves Texas, but founding a fintech startup in Dallas comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. Craig explained to us he is building a venture-backed business in a private equity-type of environment, which means he’s often had to educate Dallas investors on the benefits and structure of early-stage investing. Moreover, he recognizes that as an African American founder he has also faced some unique tests to get over the significant funding gap of VC dollars invested in minorities. In a country where less than 1% of venture capital investment goes into the African American community, he is determined to buck this trend. Not only is Craig interested in his own success, but he is passionate about mentoring and inspiring future black entrepreneurs.

Craig understands the tech ecosystem and the modern wave of entrepreneurship are one of the greatest wealth creation tools in history and if a community doesn’t have access to it, then the wealth gap is widened even further. But he is not intimidated by these challenges. In fact, it’s clear that this reality fuels his drive and determination. In his own words, “When you sign up to the challenge, you step up to the challenge”. As a result, Gig Wage has become a more resilient company with an early focus on attractive unit economics and Craig has also learned and gotten better at attracting the right investors.

Importance of Talent

From day one, Gig Wage has been a remotely distributed company. Craig doesn’t consider himself a micromanager so he’s built a culture of autonomy and entrepreneurship, where everyone is paid fairly but is expected to take charge of their own role. Gig Wage is also a lean company that swings above their weight, with the understanding that nothing scales like code. Craig aims to continue growing this culture and wants to build a billion-dollar company with less than 100 people.

Gig Wage’s setup sounds almost tailored-made for the COVID crisis. When everyone went remote, they didn’t miss a beat. When startups were told to tighten their belts and cut costs, Gig Wage was already there. Having limited exposure to clients in the small business sector, the pandemic has been a net positive for the company and has accelerated their growth.

Just go for it!

When it comes to founder advice, Craig recognizes there is no single right way to be an entrepreneur. He believes it is good to start as early as possible, but every path is unique and ultimately everyone has to be captain of their own ship. He argues entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult, challenging, and most rewarding things you could do and you should just go for it!