Sure, the latest initiatives from the Teslas, Apples and Googles of the industry tend to dominate the tech news space — and with good reason. Still, the tech titans aren’t the only ones bringing innovation to the sector.
In an effort to highlight up-and-coming startups, Built In has launched The Future 5 across 11 major U.S. tech hubs. Each quarter, we will feature five tech startups, nonprofits or entrepreneurs in each of these hubs who just might be working on the next big thing. Read our round-up of Atlanta’s rising startups from last quarter here.
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Striking the perfect work-life balance is often easier said than done. For many, life may get in the way of actually getting to work. ImIn hopes to offer a solution for both employees seeking more flexibility and businesses working to retain their revenue. Earlier this month, the company launched with an initial focus on call center agents.
ImIn founder Lauren Wilson is well attuned to the call center industry having grown up while her parents operated businesses in the space. When she eventually began work at one of their companies, Wilson developed a close understanding of what other agents experienced, as well as the impact that frequent absenteeism had on the business’ revenue.
“In that industry, on average, there’s about 10 to 20 percent of the workforce that calls out every day, and you can only bill the end client when individuals are at work,” Wilson told Built In. “So that’s 10 to 20 percent of revenue that could be built on a daily basis that’s just not.”
One may initially expect this percentage to decrease in the age of remote work, however, other factors such as caring for children or recovering from illness still impact employees when they’re at home. As these patterns persisted, Wilson began formulating a solution that could offer employees much-needed flexibility while enabling employers to maximize their revenue.
“Now we’re in a ‘life revolves around work,’ [mentality] and we’re trying to shift that to work revolving around life.”
ImIn’s platform allows hourly employees to view available hours and apply for the specific times they’d like to work. As they build their own schedules, the solution has gamified features that can help them earn rewards. For instance, employers can offer rewards to employees that sign up for lower-demand hours, like nights and weekends. Employees can also build their status the more hours they work, and earn rewards once they achieve a certain level.
More platform capabilities include sending push notifications to employees, enabling employees to chat with managers, cancel upcoming shifts and more. Currently, ImIn serves one client with 600 users on the platform.
ImIn also recently received a growth investment of $1 million from Collab Capital that Wilson has put toward building out automation capabilities and growing her team. Currently six people strong, ImIn is working to serve a total addressable market of 500,000 call center agents.
Though the company currently focuses on modernizing the call center space, Wilson hopes to expand ImIn down the line to other hourly employees such as retail and fast food industries.
“We’re trying to change the workplace. Now we’re in a ‘life revolves around work,’ [mentality] and we’re trying to shift that to work revolving around life,” Wilson said.
