Serving Workers in the Gig Economy

Appendix A. Company Profiles

BlueCrew

https://www.bluecrewjobs.com

Palo Alto, CA

Founded: 2015

Job discovery and scheduling

Tagline: Find work that fits you. Build a flexible career with BlueCrew.

Michele Casertano likes to use the phrase “staffing as a platform” to describe his company BlueCrew. The startup provides workers to companies on a temporary basis, similar to staffing agencies. But compared to traditional staffing agencies, BlueCrew uses a more data- and technology-driven approach. For example, every BlueCrew worker has an online profile, complete with job history, that employers can view. Workers are also dispatched to jobs automatically, based on BlueCrew’s proprietary algorithms. As Casertano, who cofounded BlueCrew and serves as its CEO, explains, “We’re a technology platform with a staffing marketplace.”

BlueCrew aims to reduce the inefficiencies of traditional staffing while increasing protections for independent workers by giving them workers’ compensation insurance and a pathway to health benefits. “Before BlueCrew, if you wanted to work, to temp and do purely on-demand work, you went to a staffing agency,” says Casertano. “And eventually they would call you on the phone if a job was there. But most of the time they disappear.” BlueCrew has expedited this process so that jobs can be filled in as little as one minute. When workers’ profiles match with available jobs, they receive alerts on their phones along with details about the assignment’s duration, location, ...