Meet Sumpli: Bringing employer-employee matchmaking to the 21st century
The story behind one of the most prominent HR tech startups started last fall. Slush-alumni Elias Nygren and digital designer Nikolas Holm bounced around ideas about a service that could help match software developers and designers with interesting projects. By joining forces with a Finnish restaurant pioneer Mehdi Younes, they soon realized that expanding the service to shift workers would multiply the addressable volume and respond to a need of digitalisation and transparency in the staff leasing industry. Elias hadn’t coded a mobile app in his life, but decided to give it a go. Coupled with some of COO Nikolas’ UX wizardry, the app that uberizes employer-employee matchmaking saw the light of day this March.
If you’re a bartender, a construction worker or a barista, you know the usual drill: you sign up on one of the staff leasing services, you present your experience, and you’re contacted between 9 to 5 over the phone when you’re matched with an offer. You usually know very little about the employer, apart from where you are supposed to be, at what time, and that you will be paid at the end of the month on a set payday. Often you’re also presented with a clause that restricts you to be employed by only one leasing company at a time. For the employer, the process is a similar black box: You don’t really know who you’re going to be working with until the shift starts.
”The only things that matter are that you’re accredited, show up on time and do a good job”
The idea behind Sumpli is to uberize the employer-employee matchmaking by introducing mutual transparency, flexibility and platform thinking. ”We want to make the platform easily accessible for all gig economy professionals across industries,” Sumpli’s CEO and CTO Elias says. ”We won’t pose any restrictions whatsoever regarding who else you work for and when. The only things that matter to us are that you’re suitably accredited for the job, that you show up on time, and that you do a good job. We want to lower the threshold for people who might want to do a gig here and there on top of their day jobs, who are at home with kids, or others who find signing up on bigger leasing companies impractical.”
Sumpli is a mobile-only service, where both employers and employees are asked to set up a profile with their name, picture, accreditations, and a short bio. Sumpli does the matchmaking, both sides see who their match is, and a shift is scheduled. So, a bit like Tinder, but without ghosting. After the shift both sides rank each other — good rankings are raised to the top of the lists, whereas low rankings are always personally addressed. ”So far, fingers crossed, we haven’t had any cases where either party would have given a low ranking. There’s really no incentive to not perform on the job or not to pay for the job done when appearing on a professional listing with your own name and picture,” Elias explains.
”The regulations are a jungle, but we want to play by the book”
As hardworking as they come, Finns are also honest. Staff leasing in the Nordics is a big market, mostly due to strict labor legislation and the fact that the guidelines are almost pedantically followed. According to Elias: ”We’re planning on expanding to other Nordic markets, but we first want to do everything right here in Finland. Just like any other staff leasing company, the employees are on our payroll and are properly insured. The regulations are a jungle, but we want to play by the book.” Talking about payroll, just last week Sumpli delivered the first instant salary in the world — meaning that employees don’t have to wait for the monthly payday. Same day salary payments are supported by Nordea, OP and S-pankki while as other banks still require few banking days. Instant salaries are available on any day and time including Sundays and holidays.
Sumpli raised their 550k€ seed round from Maki.vc, Wave Ventures and Business Finland. The team’s decision for choosing Maki.vc as an investor was heavily influenced by Maki’s experience with Wolt, a Helsinki-based food marketplace company. ”With Maki on board, our meetings are tough, there’s zero BS, and you really have to come prepared. The board meetings are crucial for us to stay focused on things that matter. In contrast, we’re given a lot of freedom and flexibility outside of the meetings to figure things out our own way. There’s no micromanaging whatsoever, which I really appreciate,” Elias says.
Ready to make history with Sumpli? Let’s work it out!
