Born with the support of Founders Fund, one of the most reputable funds, with an eye on Latino employees.
Mike Shebat came to Miami for script demands. He worked at Uber, in one of the most fun and creative jobs he could imagine. His team came up with possible uses for the app, with a special emphasis on Uber Eats, its food delivery service.
After this period of experimentation, he decided to leave Uber but not the city. Miami became his home: “It is a vibrant and international city and a great place to start a business. It welcomes you very well. Companies, and people in general, lend themselves to trying new concepts. The entrepreneur is supported.” With this breeding ground, he decided to launch Traba: a platform that connects industrial workers with jobs with available shifts.
The name, Traba, is a clear reference to the Spanish terms ‘work’ and ’employment’ that serves as a declaration of intent. “We have made a fully functional application in Spanish. In Florida there are a large number of distribution centers, food processing centers, warehouses. Therefore, it allows us to test and scale a model that we want to implement throughout the country,” he says to explain that with your startup you want to reinvent how the employees of these warehouses, often temporary, are going to be able to have continuity, benefits, clear shifts, etc.
The future of work is flexible
Shebat believes that the future of work will be flexible for both parties, both for employees and employers, and that it will adapt to different moments in life. “They can study at night or have to take care of their children during the day. Work does not have to prevent having a life, but to accommodate it,” he says.
The founder mentions the selection process itself as a point to improve: “The same employee can have different skills and perform two jobs. He can also acquire knowledge and train. The future of work will have much more transparency. Right now everything goes through an interview process and a subsequent commitment without knowing very well how the work is going to be done. ” In Traba you will pay in advance for the shift and, more importantly, you will be able to see what opinion other employees have who did the same job before.
Shebat believes that companies will also benefit from this new era: “They will have fewer fixed costs, they will better adapt to seasonal needs … And actually, interviews are not the best way to meet someone, they are long, but they don’t reflect how hard someone works or if they are punctual. ”
In recent weeks, Miami has passed one of its most important tests. In December the wave of technological employment began. It was kept during the spring. Normally, with the arrival of summer, many of its inhabitants decide to flee from the tropical climate. It has not been so. Not only has it been celebrated that the number of jobs continues to grow and the pandemic is left behind, but there are several companies that have decided to take the step and open in Miami.
Francis Suárez, mayor of the city and protagonist of his promotion, emphasizes that he wants to make Miami the capital of the capital. A clear allusion to its ability to attract investment. On Wednesday, he welcomed Traba through a Cafecito Talk, a cozy conversation in his office that is broadcast on YouTube.
The power of Spanish
Traba arrives in Miami with the promise of hiring a good number of employees in engineering, design, sales, operations and marketing to be able to fine-tune and perfect its platform. They want to be prepared for what he calls America’s return to work.
In the plan, they are not only supporting these qualified employees, but also those at a lower level who will use the application to make their shifts faster, clearer and more remunerative when joining work. “At Traba we do not take anything away from the employee. The costs fall on the employer,” he stresses.
In Florida, where Spanish is spoken as much or more than English, many of Traba’s users, employees and employers, spend their working lives jumping between the two languages. There are also many who only speak Spanish. It is within the plans to be especially inclusive and include content and special attention to the fastest growing language in the United States.
Traba was born with an investment of 3.5 million dollars as seed capital. It has important supporters, such as Founders Fund, the fund led by Keith Rabois, one of the initial promoters of Miami Tech, and General Catalyst; as well as prestigious private investors such as Erik Torenberg and Julian Weisser, founders of On Deck, a training program that seeks to create the digital workforce of the future. As well as Austen Allred, from Lambda School, or two recent entrepreneurs who have moved to Miami, Matteo Franceschetti and Jack Altman.
