Event staff and trade show hostesses are constantly being sought after. And many young people like to earn an extra dime. The start-up InStaff found an elegant solution for how both sides – employers and employees – can find each other quickly and easily: with an online marketplace, accompanied by personal support. The InStaff case shows how quickly a profitable market entry is possible if (or because) it is based on human values such as honesty, openness and transparency.

Demand and supply at InStaff

On the InStaff website customers (the employers) can register their needs when planning an exhibition booth or event. Hostesses, hosts and event staff can set up a profile and signal their availability to the employer. The former call an hourly wage depending on the experience in the said area and on the circumstances of the job. The wage must be above the legal minimum – fair pay is mandatory at InStaff.

Judging by the profiles, customers select among the interested time-workers and book them for the event or trade show. InStaff provides phone support from 8 am to 10 pm every day. During the temporary employment, the customers may instruct the hosting and event staff, but the labor contract exists between InStaff and the employees. The latter are in turn current employees at InStaff and may work 70 days per year at the most using the German tax card. InStaff takes care of all laborious labor law related issues with the tax administration. In addition, InStaff also analyzes the seriousness of customers.

Take-off with the second start-up

InStaff was founded in early 2014 by Pascal Klein and Max Kunz. They met on their first day of studying at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. After college, Pascal was involved with the start-up Honestly, a smart opinion poll software solution firm. Proceeds from his exit and coding experience he brought into the new company. After completing the industrial engineering degree Max has worked at KPMG, among others, where he learned a lot about people and markets.

Private equity and € 25,000 from the Axel Springer Plug & Play accelerator (in return for 5% in shares) allowed for the registration of a GmbH (a renowned German limited company) and full-time commitment of both entrepreneurs. The accelerator asked Pascal and Max to move to Berlin and provided office spaces. The founders currently have little time for the everyday adventure potential of the small on the shores of a river named Spree – the growth of their company is breathtakingly fast: from July to September, sales nearly quadrupled and the start-up covers its own costs after only 7 months of operation. Hardly any start-up reaches break-even that quickly.

Picture-perfect beginning

Using SEO and AdWords SEM InStaff directs potential customers looking for hostesses and event staff to their platform. Also content marketing plays a role: self-written articles on their own success story – a story that is glady published and read many times. The backlinks in turn increased the ranking in the organic Google search.

Success was exacerbated with focus on honesty and transparency: InStaff reveals that temporary workers receive 70% of the hourly rate paid by customers and 30% make the commission fee. Moreover, the ability to say no also helps in staying focussed: there are no discounts and no miniskirts or otherwise objectionable work assignments. And no discussions with regards to complicated special requests as these may entail new complications for which a start-up simply lacks the resources. The focus on key essentials is a success factor for InStaff – and founder Max also recommends this to other start-ups.

Close to the customer

In the early phase Pascal developed the platform alone and he takes care of online marketing until today. Max was mainly responsible for operations: he answered the customer helpline 16 hours a day, even on weekends. In doing to, he learned a lot about the customers’ needs. And he could detect recurring problems and systematically define processes on how to act in such situations.

Meanwhile, InStaff has two employees. One does interviews with job applicants (before their profiles get published) and one serves customers on the phone. As a holiday replacement, but also out of principle Max helps regularly on the phone support to stay close to the customers. He recommends this to all founders: customer support helps to identify problems early on and find solutions for them before they occur again.

No time for investment rounds

Instaff & Jobs GmbH is aiming for further growth, for which they would accept fresh capital from investors. However, surprisingly the processes of investors are not designed for start-ups and entrepreneurs with little time resources. Permanent pitching, the preparation and supervision of due diligence, the examination of term sheets – it is an arduous and time-eating process at a time when the founders rather should worry about their core operating business – also in the interest of investors. So it is no coincidence that Max told us InStaff would ready to give up more shares for less capital if the process would be faster and less expensive.

Disrupt – for the better

To disrupt means destroy, blow up, tear apart. In the start-up culture "Disrupt!" is a call for destroying existing traditional business models and to rolling over a market completely. What is meant is a creative destruction and, at best, an improvement for all stakeholders. At the moment, the temp labor market for trade shows and events has many players with complicated processes or even rogue staff providers. With the convincing power of transparency, functional aesthetics and honest service, and moreover, thanks to knowledge of human nature, with respect and on eye level with customers and temporary employees, InStaff got off to a remarkable start – and lives disruption at its best.

[December 2014, images © InStaff]