Startup Spotlight
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April Spotlight: Shift Auction
by Kylie Abrams | March 29th 2021
Right: Harris going “undercover” as a DoorDash delivery driver to experience first hand his competitor’s drivers pain points
Shift Auction is a SaaS platform that simplifies shift management for restaurants. It allows for seamless shift trading for in-house employees and shift auctioning for delivery drivers. The mobile app connects local restaurants with any available delivery driver, removing shark, tech-giant middle men like Grubhub and DoorDash. These middle men charge delivery fees, commission fees and service charges to the restaurant, taking more than a majority of the revenue that restaurant would have received. Delivery drivers aren’t saving with these giants either- they pay car insurance, gas and are often stiffed when it comes to gratuity or tip.
Shift Auction is different. Instead, Shift Auction works on a commission-free subscription payment model, saving restaurants 30% or more monthly. The app acts as a public auction for deliveries, allowing drivers to pick and choose which deliveries while also giving them more of the pie by not charging fees, rather than forcing drivers to use multiple apps to make ends meet. The app also includes gps features, photo confirmation to the customer and the business and a ratings feature for the drivers.
Shift Auction was founded by Bloomingtonian Nate Harris and his partner and cofounder Tori LaRocca. Harris is a former restaurant and bar manager turned entrepreneur after years of witnessing first hand the problems that quickly arise with managing shifts while working in the service industry. He also has a passion for web design with over 20 years of web design and coding experience. Shift Auction was then born out of Harris’ unique combination of experiences and passions in these industries.
Nate, Tori and Shift Auction have been heavily involved with the Velocities ecosystem for over a year. Harris is a mentee of Cy Megnin, the region’s Entrepreneur-In-Residence, and also receieved funding last fall from the Community Ideation Fund to fund Shift Auction’s initial prototype and prove the concept. Shift Auction also participated in the B-Start pre-accelerator and the Elevate Origins pre-accelerator which both help entrepreneurs figure out the early stage steps in developing a company.
Since initially developing the business model and MVP, Harris has been able to build a version 1 of his software and connect with 100 potential users to interview what they think about the product. In the coming months, Harris hopes to finish testing out this first version and bring on 300 users as well as begin interviewing for marketing and sales roles.
Shift Auction is currently seeking restaurant owners and managers to join their team of advisors. All inquires can be sent to Nate at nharris@shiftauction.com.
You can also watch Harris’ pitch at Pitch Velocities March here.
We thank Nate for being a part of our innovative ecosystem and wish him continued success!