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Why Philly was the first expansion for this restaurant staffing company

Boston-based Jobletics launches in Philly today. Will local restaurateurs dig it?

Yum. (Photo by Flickr user Pan Pacific, used under a Creative Commons license)

In 2017, no startup should really want to be called “the Uber of something.

But it’s still the quickest shorthand for explaining how some startups work, like Boston-based Jobletics: an on-demand platform for temp restaurant staffing which expanded to Philly today as its second market.

One major difference between the ridesharing giant, as Billy Penn is quick to point out, is that instead of the controversial usage of independent contractors, workers on Jobletics’ platform are W2 employees.

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Founder Rahul Sharma, who spent a year working with Yelp before starting the company in 2015, told Technical.ly the number of employees is in the four to five hundred range. The company has a general manager posted up at Benjamin’s Desk 1608 Walnut location.

“I’ve been there so many times,” Sharma said of why the company picked Philly. “There were some overlapping things between Philly and Boston, but also its such a buzzing scene in food-tech and restaurants.”

The company’s move follows a similar playbook than that of two other Boston-based companies in recent memory: Cambridge Innovation Center and Launch Academy: Both were established businesses in their respective markets before making a Philly move. In Launch Academy’s case, it was also their first expansion.

So how do restaurateurs feel about the company’s sales pitch? Billy Penn reporter Danya Henninger gathered mixed feedback: some love it, some are doubtful.

Mason Wartman, owner of Rosa’s Pizza who does his clerical work out of Benjamin’s Desk’s Washington Square location, isn’t immediately sold by the idea.

“I don’t think employees — good employees — are as interchangeable as this app suggests,” Wartman told Technical.ly in an email. “The new person isn’t trained for Rosa’s specific work and would require training, defeating the quick-turnaround appeal. I have another idea: find good employees and pay them well when they prove themselves.”

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