Founder Stories
My Startup Chose Not To Exploit Gig Economy Workers—Here’s Why
By making our employees W-2 workers with full benefits, we’ve helped them succeed and benefited our business
I’m well familiar with the initial lure of the gig economy. Five years ago this week, on September 14th 2015, my cofounder Jessica Beck and I launched our company, Hello Alfred. As entrepreneurs developing a service-based idea, everyone we spoke with championed the idea of “flexible” 1099 labor. Instead, we made a purposeful decision to buck the trend from the beginning, choosing instead to make every employee at Hello Alfred a W-2 worker with full benefits despite higher cost, complexity, and commitment, because of what that meant to our team and customers.
The sad reality of this moment is that all of us, from junior employees to executives, live with the hanging threat of job insecurity on the horizon.
We believe service is an art and the people who perform it are experts in their field, and truly, that’s made all the difference for us as we’ve pioneered a new industry built on trusting others to help in our homes. The growth, customer satisfaction…
