During my three years in Denmark, I invested in five local startups. All on the premise that we'd work towards becoming profitable, remaining in the country, and avoiding the VC timebomb. The one that has already fulfilled all the objectives is Workfeed, and now they're ready to take on the American market. It's a proud moment!
Workfeed makes employee scheduling software. That might sound pretty boring, but if you run or work at a restaurant (or store or anywhere else in the service industry!) still trying to do things with Excel spreadsheets or call sheets, you know this can be a huge pain and time suck. That's exactly the kind of drudgery that software was meant to solve, and Workfeed does an amazing job at this.
What I found interesting about employee scheduling software is how localized much of it is. You need integrations with payroll and other employee systems to make inroads, and many of those solutions are anchored in the particulars of local labor laws, customs, and industry standards. It's quite unlike the universality afforded Jason and I working on something like Basecamp.
That also means entering a new territory is much harder. Workfeed got started in Denmark, quickly became the top-rated system there, blazed past a bunch of stale competitors, and built a profitable, successful business primarily on the basis of this market alone. But Denmark is tiny. Less than 6 million people. So since day one, I've been pushing them to get ready for the biggest software market in the world: America.
Now the day has finally come! Workfeed is bringing their Danish design and sensibilities to the US service industry. They've done a bunch of homework already, created a handful of key integrations, but could really use some help perfecting their solution for America. And, as a proud Dane now living in America, and as an investor in the company, I'm hoping that I can help them get just that.
So. If you run, or knows someone who runs, a service business, whether that's a restaurant, a store, or whatever, which needs to schedule employee time for shifts in America, Workfeed is giving away three months of free access, if you're willing to tell them what you think of the system and where it might be improved.
That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me, and it's a way to help a Danish startup fulfill the hypothesis that it's possible to build awesome SaaS solutions without going down the venture rabbit hole. And who doesn't want to help with that!
Workfeed makes employee scheduling software. That might sound pretty boring, but if you run or work at a restaurant (or store or anywhere else in the service industry!) still trying to do things with Excel spreadsheets or call sheets, you know this can be a huge pain and time suck. That's exactly the kind of drudgery that software was meant to solve, and Workfeed does an amazing job at this.
What I found interesting about employee scheduling software is how localized much of it is. You need integrations with payroll and other employee systems to make inroads, and many of those solutions are anchored in the particulars of local labor laws, customs, and industry standards. It's quite unlike the universality afforded Jason and I working on something like Basecamp.
That also means entering a new territory is much harder. Workfeed got started in Denmark, quickly became the top-rated system there, blazed past a bunch of stale competitors, and built a profitable, successful business primarily on the basis of this market alone. But Denmark is tiny. Less than 6 million people. So since day one, I've been pushing them to get ready for the biggest software market in the world: America.
Now the day has finally come! Workfeed is bringing their Danish design and sensibilities to the US service industry. They've done a bunch of homework already, created a handful of key integrations, but could really use some help perfecting their solution for America. And, as a proud Dane now living in America, and as an investor in the company, I'm hoping that I can help them get just that.
So. If you run, or knows someone who runs, a service business, whether that's a restaurant, a store, or whatever, which needs to schedule employee time for shifts in America, Workfeed is giving away three months of free access, if you're willing to tell them what you think of the system and where it might be improved.
That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me, and it's a way to help a Danish startup fulfill the hypothesis that it's possible to build awesome SaaS solutions without going down the venture rabbit hole. And who doesn't want to help with that!